| Trump says fear of 'low income housing' will bring 'the suburban housewife' to his side Posted: 12 Aug 2020 11:53 AM PDT  The president has attacked Joe Biden by trying to appeal to a community that no longer exists.
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| Critics say Portland protests have been co-opted by 'white spectacle,' but Black activists say they're staying focused on Black lives Posted: 12 Aug 2020 11:09 AM PDT  The president of the Portland NAACP called the demonstrations "white spectacle." Portland activists say the reality of the movement is more nuanced.
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| North Korea nuclear reactor site threatened by recent flooding, U.S. think-tank says Posted: 12 Aug 2020 07:58 PM PDT  Satellite imagery suggests recent flooding in North Korea may have damaged pump houses connected to the country's main nuclear facility, a U.S.-based think-tank said on Thursday. Analysts at 38 North, a website that monitors North Korea, said commercial satellite imagery from August 6-11 showed how vulnerable the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center's nuclear reactor cooling systems are to extreme weather events. The Korean peninsula has been hammered by one of the longest rainy spells in recent history, with floods and landslides causing damage and deaths in both North and South Korea.
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| South Dakota Governor to get $400,000 security wall around residence Posted: 12 Aug 2020 03:21 PM PDT  South Dakota officials said Wednesday they plan to build a security fence budgeted for $400,000 around the official governor's residence to protect Gov. Kristi Noem.
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| Army missile defense battle command system takes out cruise missile threats in major test Posted: 13 Aug 2020 06:29 PM PDT  The Army's Integrated Battle Command System took out two cruise missiles in a test. With one more major live fire event to go in a limited user test, service officials are finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel for the troubled effort.
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| Georgia governor to drop lawsuit over Atlanta mask mandate Posted: 13 Aug 2020 11:45 AM PDT  Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday said he's dropping a lawsuit against the city of Atlanta in a dispute over the city's requirement to wear masks in public and other restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic. Kemp had sued Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and the City Council to block them from implementing restrictions at the local level, even as case counts and hospitalizations in the state soared. The Republican governor argued that local governments can't impose measures that are more or less restrictive than those in his statewide executive orders, which have strongly urged people to wear masks but not required them.
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| New Jersey's Atilis Gym, which reopened against COVID-19 emergency orders, loses business license Posted: 12 Aug 2020 04:46 PM PDT  The 5-1 vote by the Bellmawr Borough Council came nine days after the owners of Atilis Gym kicked in a plywood barrier installed by authorities.
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| Georgia shop that said it would charge only white people $20 booking fee apologizes Posted: 13 Aug 2020 08:57 AM PDT  Black people and customers of color were exempt from the refundable fee.
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| 'Antifa' website cited in conservative media attack on Biden is linked to — wait for it — Russia Posted: 12 Aug 2020 05:47 PM PDT  One America News chief White House correspondent Chanel Rion used a Russian-linked site to take a shot at the Democratic ticket.
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| Drake Bell has denied allegations of abuse made by his ex-girlfriend on TikTok Posted: 13 Aug 2020 05:33 AM PDT  In her first video, Lingafelt said that Bell verbally abused her when they lived together and that he turned violent, allegations which he denies.
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| Oregon State Police leaving Portland over lack of prosecutions Posted: 13 Aug 2020 06:09 PM PDT |
| Air Force's New Search-and Rescue Helicopter Gets 1st Aerial Refueling Posted: 12 Aug 2020 07:22 AM PDT  The Air Force's newest combat search-and-rescue helicopter, the HH-60W Jolly Green II, hit another milestone.
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| AOC responds to apparent Democratic party convention speech snub: 'Eternity is in it' Posted: 13 Aug 2020 05:03 AM PDT  Firebrand lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has hit back at an alleged snub by the Democratic party after being given just 60 seconds to deliver a speech a next week's convention.AOC responded on Twitter by posting the poem 'I have only just a minute', written by the late Dr Benjamin E. Mays, an American Baptist minister and civil rights leader.
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| US labels Confucius Institute a Chinese 'foreign mission' Posted: 13 Aug 2020 02:45 PM PDT  The Chinese government educational programmes are "advancing Beijing's global propaganda", the US says.
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| A beloved lesbian baker in Detroit got a homophobic cake order. Here's why she made it anyway. Posted: 13 Aug 2020 08:01 AM PDT  April Anderson, a Detroit pastry chef with national cred, was taken aback by a recent cake order that came into her Good Cakes and Bakes bakery.
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| Customers attack Chili’s hostess over socially distant seating, Louisiana police say Posted: 13 Aug 2020 11:21 AM PDT  "I just cannot believe that this happened to me," the teen said.
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| U.S. says Iran briefly seizes oil tanker near Strait of Hormuz Posted: 13 Aug 2020 06:44 AM PDT  The Iranian navy held the vessel for some five hours before releasing it Wednesday, said a U.S. military official.
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| Celebrate the VP nominee, not Biden's decision to pick a woman. It's the least he can do. Posted: 13 Aug 2020 02:00 PM PDT  Our country has endured high opportunity costs for keeping white men in power for so long while ignoring the political contributions women could make.
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| Protesters in Minneapolis say they won't clear barricades around the George Floyd Memorial until the city leaders meet their 24 demands Posted: 12 Aug 2020 08:50 PM PDT  Some of the demands include recalling Hennepin County Attorney, Mike Freeman, and ending qualified immunity.
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| Turkey's president warns attack against Turkish ships will pay 'high price' Posted: 13 Aug 2020 02:55 PM PDT  President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that any attack on a Turkish ship exploring for oil and gas in disputed Mediterranean waters would incur a "high price" and suggested Turkey had already acted on that warning.
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| How To Make Mrs. Fields Famous Cookies, Plus 28 More Copycat Dessert Recipes Posted: 13 Aug 2020 09:23 AM PDT |
| Trump and his aides reportedly think they have Democrats in a 'real pickle' with the COVID-19 aid stalemate Posted: 12 Aug 2020 04:44 AM PDT  The Democratic-led House passed a huge COVID-19 aid package in May, the Republican-led Senate began discussing its more modest alternative in July, but after talks between congressional Democrats and the White House negotiating team broke down last Friday, it may well be September before any relief package reaches President Trump's desk. "In fact, we are told it could be weeks before any serious talks resume barring any significant events like Wall Street sell-offs or a run of truly dismal economic data," Ben White reports at Politico."The impasse leaves millions of jobless people without a $600-per-week pandemic bonus jobless benefit that has helped families stay afloat, leaves state and local governments seeking fiscal relief high and dry, and holds back a more than $100 billion school aid package," The Associated Press reports. "Money for other priorities, including the election, may come too late, if at all."House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are all in Washington, though rank-and-file members of Congress have returned to their districts and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, the other key member of Trump's negotiating team, "left Washington this week for an unspecified amount of time," The Washington Post reports.Talks are on hold for now because "Meadows is out for the week but mostly because the administration feels confident they have the upper hand politically," thanks to Trump's less-than-advertised executive orders, Politico's White reports. "One official said the White House feels it has Democrats in a 'real pickle.'" Pelosi and Schumer, meanwhile, "have adopted hardball negotiating tactics as they survey a tactical landscape that favors them," AP reports. "They have given some ground on the overall price tag, but say it's up to Republicans to acknowledge the scope of the crisis." Senate Republicans are sharply divided on whether more relief is even necessary.Schumer, Pelosi, and Mnuchin negotiated four huge COVID-19 relief packages in short order earlier in the pandemic, before Meadows took over as Trump's chief of staff, and Democrats largely blame his participation — and his pushing Trump to sidestep Congress with executive orders — for derailing the talks. "What the president doesn't understand is that Meadows knows how to do one thing — be a Freedom Caucus member," one senior administration official told the Post. "He isn't some consensus-builder or a dealmaker."More stories from theweek.com 5 funny cartoons about the promise and peril of Kamala Harris for vice president QAnon is suddenly everywhere — whether people realize it or not Hurricane season gets its 10th named storm months earlier than average
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| Taiwan says discussing purchase of U.S. mines, cruise missiles Posted: 12 Aug 2020 10:00 AM PDT  Taiwan is in discussions with the United States on acquiring underwater sea mines to deter amphibious landings as well as cruise missiles for coastal defense, Taiwan's de facto ambassador to United States said on Wednesday. Speaking to the Washington's Hudson Institute think tank, Hsiao Bi-khim said Taiwan was facing "an existential survival issue," given China's territorial and sovereignty claims over the island and needed to expand its asymmetric capabilities. Hsiao said Taipei was currently working with the United States on acquiring a number of hardware capabilities, including cruise missiles that would work in conjunction with Taiwan's indigenous Hsiung Feng missile system to provide better coastal defense.
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| Israel strikes Hamas positions in Gaza over fire balloons Posted: 11 Aug 2020 10:45 PM PDT  The Israeli military said Wednesday it carried out overnight strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip after incendiary balloons were launched across the border from the Palestinian enclave. Jets, attack helicopters and tanks struck a number of Hamas targets including "underground infrastructure and observation posts," a statement said. Fire services in southern Israel said the balloons caused 60 fires on Tuesday alone but reported no casualties.
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| A Florida homeless man found luxury. He moved into a stadium luxury suite, police say Posted: 13 Aug 2020 12:13 PM PDT  A homeless man somehow got into Al Lang Stadium and lived in a luxury suite for nearly two weeks, police said.
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| Florida sheriff funds $35,000-a-month luxury office with 'the money we take from the bad guys' Posted: 13 Aug 2020 12:24 PM PDT  Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and more than a dozen of his top staff will work in the premium space while their main office is renovated.
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| Fox Host makes ominous prediction about Joe Biden then immediately tries to walk it back Posted: 13 Aug 2020 10:41 AM PDT  Fox News host Jeanine Pirro suggested Wednesday night that "something" was going to happen to presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden that would keep him from appearing on the ballot come November.Her comment during an appearance on "The Five" as she was answering a question about a recent poll from right-wing outlet Rasmussen that claimed more than half of its respondents didn't believe Mr Biden would survive his first term in office.
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| Father-and-son doctors died of the coronavirus within weeks of each other in Florida hospitals Posted: 12 Aug 2020 09:13 AM PDT  Dr. Jorge A. Vallejo and Dr. Carlos Vallejo were both hospitalized with the coronavirus on Father's Day, the Miami Herald reported.
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| Mexico launches corruption investigation into former president Posted: 12 Aug 2020 09:33 AM PDT  Prosecutors in Mexico have opened an investigation into former president Enrique Peña Nieto, who is accused of taking bribes in one of Latin America's largest-ever corruption scandals. Emilio Lozoya, the former head of the state energy firm Pemex, accused Mr Peña Nieto on Tuesday of ordering him to funnel more than $4m (£2.5m) in bribes from Brazil's construction giant Odebrecht into the 2012 presidential election campaign. In a second allegation, Mr Lozoya said that once in power Mr Peña Nieto used a similar amount to bribe lawmakers to ensure the passage of a crucial energy reform bill through parliament. Mr Lozoya, who led Pemex from 2012 to 2016 and was a close aide to Mr Peña Nieto, has been charged with money laundering, bribery and racketeering in two cases. He has denied wrongdoing, as has Mr Peña Nieto. His offer of evidence allegedly involving Mr Peña Nieto is part of a negotiation to secure a plea bargain, according to reports. Mr Lozoya's allegations are part of the highest-profile corruption case since 1983, when another former Pemex chief was jailed for corruption. If Mr Peña Nieto were indicted, he would be the first president to face corruption charges in Mexico's modern history. Last year, a witness testifying at a US trial of Mexico's drug cartel kingpin Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán said Mr Peña Nieto had accepted a $100m (£77m) bribe from the mobster. The ex-president also made no comments on that allegation, but he has previously rejected allegations of corruption. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Mexico's President, on Wednesday said Mr Peña Nieto should have to testify and called on Mr Lozoya to come forward with evidence to back his accusations. The case likely comes as a welcome distraction for Mr Obrador, whose country is suffering from one of the world's worst outbreaks of the coronavirus. He claimed on Wednesday that the coronavirus pandemic is losing force in Mexico, even as 6,686 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 926 additional fatalities were reported the night before. With 53,929 total deaths, Mexico has the third highest coronavirus death toll in the world.
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| US says Iran briefly seizes oil tanker near Strait of Hormuz Posted: 12 Aug 2020 08:27 PM PDT  The Iranian navy boarded and briefly seized a Liberian-flagged oil tanker near the strategic Strait of Hormuz amid heightened tensions between Tehran and the U.S., the American military said Thursday. The U.S. military's Central Command published a black-and-white video showing what appeared to be special forces fast-roping down from a helicopter onto the MT Wila, whose last position appeared to be off the eastern coast of the United Arab Emirates near the city of Khorfakkan. The Iranian navy held the vessel for some five hours before releasing it Wednesday, said a U.S. military official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet made public.
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| ‘Enormous Price to Pay’: Pompeo Says He Warned Russian Foreign Minister against Bounties on U.S. Troops Posted: 13 Aug 2020 06:48 AM PDT  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that he warned Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov against placing bounties on the heads of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, assuring him there would be "an enormous price to pay.""If the Russians are offering money to kill Americans, or for that matter other Westerns as well, there will be an enormous price to pay. That's what I shared with foreign minister Lavrov," Pompeo said during an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty."I know our military has talked to their senior leaders as well. We won't brook that, we won't tolerate," Pompeo continued.Reports broke in June that U.S. intelligence found that at least one American soldier, as well as a number of Afghan civilians, died as a result of alleged secret bounty payments that Russia offered Taliban militants to target U.S. troops in Afghanistan.Intelligence about the alleged bounty offerings by Russia was reportedly included in the president's daily written intelligence briefing in February, but the White House claims Trump was not verbally briefed on the matter until the New York Times's June 26 report on the issue. The Times reported that some bounties as high as $100,000 were paid for each U.S. or allied troop killed.The Washington Post said in a similar report that several American service-members died as a result of monetary rewards that a Russian military intelligence unit offered to terrorist militants to target U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan.Pompeo's warning to the Russian foreign minister reportedly came during a July 13 phone call that was officially held to discuss a separate topic, the possibility of meeting between the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.The secretary of state expressed Washington's intense opposition to the bounty program but did not speak about the specific intelligence indicating that Russia paid Taliban fighters and other Afghanistan militants to kill U.S. service members.Last month, President Trump said he has never discussed the intelligence with Russian President Vladimir Putin despite several phone calls between the two heads of state since the intelligence was made known. Trump has said he was not briefed on the intelligence because there was not a consensus about its reliability within the intelligence community.Meanwhile, the U.S. has been entrenched in negotiations with the Taliban and the Afghan government over a peace agreement that involves the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region.
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| Officials ignored warnings about Trump wall threat to endangered species Posted: 13 Aug 2020 02:00 AM PDT  Emails reveal experts at San Bernardino national wildlife refuge repeatedly sounded the alarm over grave threat to rare speciesStark warnings by federal scientists and wildlife experts about the grave threat posed by Donald Trump's border wall to rare and endangered species were repeatedly ignored by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to documents seen by the Guardian.A cache of emails obtained using the Freedom of Information Act (Foia) by environmental groups reveal multiple efforts over several months by experts at the San Bernardino national wildlife refuge in south-eastern Arizona, to save rare desert springs and crystalline streams which provide the only US habitat for the endangered endemic Río Yaqui fish.Even before Trump's water-guzzling concrete barrier, the border region's water reserves were depleted due to prolonged drought linked to the climate crisis. The expansion of water-intensive cash crops and urban growth have also drained aquifers in the arid region, leaving several endangered and threatened species wholly reliant on the freshwater ponds found in the refuge.In an email sent last October, the long-serving refuge manager, Bill Radke, warned colleagues at the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that the threat of groundwater depletion was a "dire emergency".It was around the same time that DHS contractors began pumping massive quantities of water from the aquifer relied upon by the refuge to mix concrete for construction of a 20-mile stretch of Trump's 30ft-high border wall.A few weeks later in early December, Radke described the water usage for the border wall as "the current greatest threat to endangered species in the south-west region" – referring to the states of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma.According to the emails, refuge staff began monitoring the impact and felt forced to take "life support actions", allowing three ponds to dry up in an effort to save some of the fish. "We are monitoring pond levels. We are developing/implementing contingency plans to protect at least a subset of the endangered fish population that once thrived on the refuge. We are hoping for the best, but are planning for the worst," wrote Radke.The documents suggest as much as 700,000 gallons of groundwater was being extracted per day to construct the barrier, and DHS officials ignored direct requests from the FWS to avoid drilling wells in a five-mile buffer around the refuge. "Instead contractors made plans to drill even closer to the refuge, drilling their second new well 480 feet east of [the refuge]," Radke wrote.> The DHS was warned that wall construction would drain artesian pools and kill wildlife … The DHS knew it and did it anyway> > Laiken JordahlThe multibillion-dollar border wall project has avoided proper environmental, scientific and cost oversight as the government suspended 28 federal laws relating to clean air and water, endangered species, public lands and the rights of Native Americans, in order to expedite construction despite multiple legal challenges."The DHS was warned that wall construction would drain artesian pools and kill wildlife, including endangered species. The DHS knew it and did it anyway. None of this would be legal if the environmental laws were still in place," said Laiken Jordahl, the borderlands campaigner at the not-for-profit Center for Biological Diversity which obtained the emails."These documents make it very clear: the survival or extinction of these endangered desert fish is entirely in this administration's hands."An FWS spokeswoman said larger pumps were now required to maintain pond levels and appropriate pond outflows due to a drop in pressure in the aquifer. "The border wall construction contractor has purchased and is currently installing the needed higher capacity pumps," she said.But, pumping water is only a temporary solution and the pumps are already too late for at least three ponds. A document obtained by Defenders of Wildlife, suggests water extraction was still having a detrimental impact to the refuge as late as May 2020.The endangered and protected species under threat from the lowered water levels include the Yaqui catfish, beautiful shiner, Yaqui chub, Yaqui topminnow, Chiricahua leopard frog and Mexican garter snake.The DHS insists that it continues to operate under the spirit of the National Environmental Policy Act (Nepa), considered the cornerstone of environmental protection in the US, and takes into account public and expert comments.A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesman told High Country News that "DHS and CBP have and continue to coordinate weekly, and more frequently on an as needed basis, to answer questions concerning new border wall construction projects and to address environmental concerns from the US Fish and Wildlife Service."
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| Huge fire north of Los Angeles prompts evacuations Posted: 12 Aug 2020 08:38 PM PDT  A fast-moving brush fire north of Los Angeles prompted mandatory evacuation orders for some 500 homes on Wednesday as firefighters battled the flames that had burned 10,000 acres by early evening, authorities said. Rapidly-spreading flames had scorched some 10,000 acres (4,050 hectares) within a little more than three hours, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. "Multiple agencies are battling a brush fire near the Lake Hughes area in the Angeles National Forest," the department said in a tweet.
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| Commissioner says local Democrats won’t stop him from tweeting about hydroxychloroquine Posted: 13 Aug 2020 02:35 PM PDT  Even as a local Democratic Party official threatens to call for his removal from public office, Miami Beach Commissioner Ricky Arriola said he will not delete his Twitter account or stop sharing articles promoting the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19.
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| What Do All of Your Favorite Summer Beverages Have in Common? Posted: 13 Aug 2020 07:00 AM PDT |
| Opinion: Sign of the times: A bishop bashes Biden and Catholics object (or yawn) Posted: 13 Aug 2020 11:59 AM PDT  The reaction to a slam on Biden by Bishop Thomas J. Tobin is evidence America's Catholic voters no longer take their cues from the hierarchy.
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| Argentina, Mexico to produce AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine Posted: 12 Aug 2020 06:16 PM PDT  Argentina and Mexico will produce the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for most of Latin America, Argentine President Alberto Fernandez said on Wednesday after a meeting with company executives involved in the project. An agreement signed between British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the biotechnology company mAbxience of the INSUD Group includes transfer of technology to initially produce 150 million doses of the vaccine to supply all of Latin America with the exception of Brazil, the Argentine government said.
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| A grapefruit-scented perfume ingredient that's toxic to ticks and mosquitoes is the first new insect repellent to be approved in a decade Posted: 13 Aug 2020 12:08 PM PDT  Nootkatone is naturally found in grapefruit rinds and certain cedar trees. The chemical shows promise as a defense against ticks and mosquitoes.
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| Decades-old photo of Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell and a Confederate flag lives on and on Posted: 13 Aug 2020 10:34 AM PDT  McConnell said he thinks the photograph was taken during his first term in the Senate at a Sons of Confederate Veterans meeting in Louisville.
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| Conservation groups condemn Trump administration plan to ease showerhead rules Posted: 13 Aug 2020 03:35 AM PDT  The Trump administration wants to change a 28-year-old energy law to allow showerheads to let more water flow.
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| Teens and young adults who vape are 5 to 7 times more likely to get coronavirus, a new study found Posted: 12 Aug 2020 04:46 PM PDT  Health experts had warned that vaping could leave lungs susceptible to severe COVID-19 infections. Now they have the data to show it.
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| He used social media to pimp a 14-year-old in Miami airport hotels, cops say. He’s 17 Posted: 13 Aug 2020 02:45 PM PDT  A 14-year-old runaway told cops she got sold for sex at hotels across the street from Miami International Airport up to five times a day, according to a police report. The first statutory rapist called himself "Slime," the girl said. He paid in Percocet.
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| NRA lawsuits come amid changing face of American gun owners Posted: 13 Aug 2020 01:17 PM PDT |
| After the civil rights era, white Americans failed to support systemic change to end racism. Will they now? Posted: 13 Aug 2020 05:10 AM PDT  The first wave of the Black Lives Matter movement, which crested after the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, had the support of less than half of white Americans.Given that Americans tend to have a very narrow definition of racism, many at that time were likely confused by the juxtaposition of Black-led protests, implying that racism was persistent, alongside the presence of a Black family in the White House. Barack Obama's presidency was seen as evidence that racism was in decline. The current, second wave of the movement feels different, in part because the past months of protests have been multiracial. The media and scholars have noted that whites' sensibilities have become more attuned to issues of anti-Black police violence and discrimination. After the first wave of the movement in 2014, there was little systemic change in response to demands by Black Lives Matter activists. Does the fact that whites are participating in the current protests in greater numbers mean that the outcome of these protests will be different? Will whites go beyond participating in marches and actually support fundamental policy changes to fight anti-Black violence and discrimination?As a scholar of political science and African American studies, I believe there are lessons from the civil rights movement 60 years ago that can help answer those questions. Principles didn't turn into policyThe challenges that Black Americans face today do not precisely mimic those of the 1960s, but the history is still relevant. During the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century, there was a concerted effort among Black freedom fighters to show white Americans the kinds of racial terrorism the average Black American lived under. Through the power of television, whites were able to see with their own eyes how respectable, nonviolent Black youth were treated by police as they sought to push the U.S. to live up to its creed of liberty and equality for all of its citizens.Monumental legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed, purportedly guaranteeing protection from racial discrimination in many public spaces and equal opportunity to register to vote and cast a ballot. Additionally, whites were increasingly likely to report attitudes that many would now view as nonracist over the following several decades. For example, white Americans were more willing to have a nonwhite neighbor. They were less likely to support ideas of biological racism or the idea that whites should always have access to better jobs over Blacks.But these changed values and attitudes among whites never fully translated into support for government policies that would bring racial equality to fruition for Blacks. White Americans remained uncommitted to integrating public schools, which has been shown to drastically reduce the so-called racial achievement gap. Whites never gave more than a modicum of support for affirmative action policies aimed to level the playing field for jobs and higher education.This phenomenon – the distance between what people say they value and what they are willing to do to live up to their ideals – is so common that social scientists have given it a name: the principle-policy gap.White Americans' direct witness of police brutality led to a shift in racial attitudes and the passage of significant legislation. But even these combined changes did not radically change the face of racial inequality in American society. Going backwardBy the 1970s and 1980s, political leaders would capitalize on whites' sentiments that efforts for racial equality had gone too far.That created an environment that allowed the retrenchment of civil rights-era gains. The Republican Party's so-called "Southern Strategy," which aimed to turn white Southern Democrats into Republican voters, was successful in consolidating the support of white Southerners through the use of racial dog whistles. And the War on Drugs would serve to disproportionately target and police already segregated Black communities.By the 1990s, racial disparities in incarceration rates had skyrocketed, schools began to resegregate, and federal and state policies that created residential segregation and the existing racial wealth gap were never adequately addressed. From understanding to action?Scholars have made efforts to reveal the intricate and structural nature of racism in the U.S. Their analyses range from showing how racial disparities across various domains of American life are intricately connected rather than coincidental; to highlighting the ways in which race-neutral policies like the GI Bill helped to set the stage for today's racial wealth gap; to explaining that America's racial hierarchy is a caste system. But my research shows that white Americans, including white millennials, have largely become accustomed to thinking about racism in terms of overt racial prejudice, discrimination and bigotry. They don't see the deeper, more intractable problems that scholars – and Black activists – have laid out. [Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.]Consequently, it has taken a filmed incident of incendiary racism to awaken whites to the problems clearly identified by Black activists, just as it did for previous generations.My research also shows that individuals' understanding of the problem influences their willingness to support various policies. A big issue that our society faces, then, is that white Americans' understanding of racism is too superficial to prompt them to support policies that have the potential to lead to greater justice for Black Americans. Attitudes and policies don't matchSome have suggested that this second wave of the Black Lives Matter movement is the largest social movement in American history. These protests have led local representatives to publicly proclaim that Black Lives Matter; policymakers, government officials and corporations to decry and remove Confederate symbols and racist images; and congressional as well as local attempts to address police accountability.But, as after the civil rights era, the principle-policy gap seems to be reappearing. Attitudes among whites are changing, but the policies that people are willing to support do not necessarily address the more complex issue of structural racism. For example, polling reveals that people support both these protests and also the way that police are handling them, despite evidence of ongoing brutality. The polling also shows that the majority of Americans believe that police are more likely to use deadly force against Black Americans than against whites. But only one-quarter of those polled are willing to support efforts to reduce funding to police – a policy aimed to redistribute funds to support community equity. More whites are willing to acknowledge white racial privilege, but only about one in eight support reparations to Blacks.Americans may choose to dig deeper this time around. Some state legislators, for example, are attempting to leverage this moment to create more systemic changes beyond policing – in schools, judicial systems and health matters. But ultimately, Americans will have to overcome two intertwined challenges. First, they will have to learn to detect forms of racism that don't lend themselves to a mobile-phone filming. And they will have to recognize that dismantling centuries of oppression takes more than acknowledgment, understanding and well-meaning sentiment. It takes sacrifice and action.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.Read more: * African Americans have long defied white supremacy and celebrated Black culture in public spaces * How the failures of the 1919 Versailles Peace Treaty set the stage for today's anti-racist uprisingsCandis Watts Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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| Ghislaine Maxwell fails to obtain delay in unsealing documents Posted: 12 Aug 2020 03:02 PM PDT  A U.S. judge on Wednesday rejected Ghislaine Maxwell's request for a three-week delay in the unsealing of additional documents related to her dealings with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. Lawyers for the British socialite, who faces criminal charges she aided Epstein's sexual abuses, had on Monday said "critical new information" had surfaced that could affect Maxwell's ability to obtain a fair trial, justifying the delay. Lawyers for Maxwell did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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| "Too many stories" of deaths, assault and harassment at Fort Hood Posted: 13 Aug 2020 06:38 AM PDT  At least nine service members have been found dead at Fort Hood, and in more than half of those cases, foul play has not been ruled out.
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| In dramatic shift, half of Americans fear difficulties voting in November election, poll says Posted: 13 Aug 2020 02:31 PM PDT  It's a dramatic spike in fears about voting from the 2018 midterm election, when only 15% of voters said they anticipated difficulties.
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