Joan McCarter of Daily Kos reports:
[Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin] says that where the more than $500 billion of taxpayer money authorized by Congress has been spent is "proprietary" and "confidential" information. In other words, the Chamber of Commerce and all the individual businesses like the Ritz-Carlton are unhappy that they had to answer questions about why they got billions when thousands of real small businesses got little or nothing. But he wants more of that secret money to go out now.
A lot of Confederate statues are coming down and its good to see it is black people taking them down. Also coming down are are statues to colonizers and slavers. Native Americans took down a statue of Christopher Columbus. Even other countries are joining the fun. Bristol, England took down a town benefactor who made his stash in the slave trade. Belgium took down statues of King Leopold II, for whose actions in Congo the term “crimes against humanity” was coined.
Alas, several Republicans don’t like the disappearance of Confederate heroes of racism. That prompted author Mikel Jollett to tweet:
Dear Republicans,
You can't call yourselves "the party of Lincoln" AND wave the Confederate flag.
Love,
History
A QUICK HISTORY LESSON FOR CONSERVATIVES CONFUSED BY THIS IDEA:
Lincoln was the President of the United States.
Racist people in the South wanted slavery more than they wanted the US to be a country.
Their symbol was the confederate flag.
They got their asses kicked.
Still Laurie One tweeted this photo.
As all this protesting is going on I’ve been staying home and working in my garage (which is proceeding nicely – I hope to get a lot done before the weather gets hot on Tuesday). At times I feel I’m not doing enough for the cause. My garage ceiling is not that important.
Aysha Qamar of Kos suggests other things one can do outside of protesting. You can educate yourself. Qamar lists several books, such as The Karma of Brown Folk by Vijay Prashad and Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements by Charlele Carruthers. There are movies, TV shoes, and videos, such as Dear White People. There are podcasts, such as Code Switch on NPR. The post contains lots more suggestions in each category.
You can fund racial justice organizations, such as Black Lives Matter and Unicorn Riot. You can follow The Movement for Black Lives and see what actions they have scheduled. You can join or fund organizations that protect and promote voting.
And you can continue to show up for difficult conversations on race.
Carolyn Copeland of Kos Prism says black people thank you for your statements of support. How about some sustainable action?
Solidarity and public statements of support can still be impactful, but if allies really want to make a difference, organizers say they should do more to mobilize friends and family to vote racist politicians out of office in November, familiarize themselves of the demands of Black Lives Matter activists, and reach out to the Black community to ask what they can do to help.
From Bill in Portland Maine’s Cheers and Jeers collection of late night commentary.
To the people still saying “but if you take down the statues, how will people learn their history?” Read a book, motherf*****. The bubonic plague was a major event in history, but we don’t go around putting statues of rats.Bill also lists actions this week taken to sweep away the Confederacy:
– The Daily Show
What a time this is to be alive. Two weeks ago we were on Instagram teaching each other how to make no-knead focaccia, and now we're dismantling systemic racism. I think that's progress.
– Jimmy Kimmel
* Nancy Pelosi called for the removal of Confederate statues from the Capitol.
* Confederate statues pulled down in Richmond, VA and Jacksonville, FL.
* Senate Armed Services Committee voted to require renaming military bases named for Confederate generals.
* NASCAR banned the Confederate flag. US Marine Corps and US Navy did too.
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