June 2020 ~ BACK TO BACK LATEST NEWS

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

LATEST POLITICS NEWS

Sens. Mitt, Romney, R-Utah, Lindsey Graham, R-S.C, Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Christopher Coons, D-Del., Tim Kaine, D-Va., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., are cosponsoring the proposal.

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The NBA will paint "Black Lives Matter" on all three courts it will use when it resumes the 2019-20 season at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, according to ESPN's Zach Lowe and Ramona Shelburne ...

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ESPN's Chris Peters released his 2020 NHL mock draft on Monday, and left wing Alexis Lafreniere and center Quinton Byfield are one-two on the list. Peters calls Lafreniere, widely considered the favorite to land No...

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The Seattle Storm announced head coach Dan Hughes will miss the 2020 WNBA season, which is set to tip off next month in Bradenton, Florida, amid the COVID-19 pandemic...

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Orlando Magic guard Markelle Fultz said the NBA 's long layoff amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the unique circumstances of the late July restart to the season in Orlando—with ...

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Major League Baseball officially announced new rules and protocols for its 2020 season, which is slated to begin on July 23 and run for 60 games per team following a four-month delay because of the COVID-19 pandemic...

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The NFL Players Associated distributed a memo to player agents instructing them to speak with their clients about the potential health effects of COVID-19, according to ESPN's Dan Graziano ...

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By BY J. DAVID GOODMAN from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2NHHmMI

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By BY JONATHAN WOLFE AND LARA TAKENAGA from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3dLG6CS

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By BY SHAWN HUBLER AND THOMAS FULLER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3ePoVl6

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By BY SANDRA E. GARCIA from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/2YKijir

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By BY TAYLOR LORENZ from NYT Style https://ift.tt/2AfhMLX

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By BY TYLER KEPNER from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/2ZAaF9F

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By BY PAUL KRUGMAN from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/3g2BARY

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By BY MARY ZIEGLER from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/38dyfNl

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By BY DAVID E. SANGER, RONEN BERGMAN AND FARNAZ FASSIHI from NYT World https://ift.tt/3ietGa1

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By BY FLORENCE FABRICANT from NYT Food https://ift.tt/2ZemB0g

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A single farm in Windsor-Essex, Ont., has been linked to 175 new cases of COVID-19 in the province, reigniting concerns about the rapid spread of the virus among temporary foreign workers.

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Former Liverpool defender in stable condition
Derby confirm player was victim of ‘unprovoked attack’

The former Liverpool defender Andre Wisdom is in hospital after being stabbed and robbed during a street attack.

Related: Groundbreaking report reveals racial bias in English football commentary

Continue reading...

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A bombshell report by CNN late Monday claims President Donald Trump is so unprepared and abusive on phone calls with foreign leaders that he poses a national security threat.

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Four people have been shot in Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone in 10 days, prompting officials to look at dismantling it

A 16-year-old is dead and a 14-year-old is in critical condition in the latest of a series of shootings inside Seattle’s self-proclaimed police-free zone, known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (Chop).

Initially home to hundreds of peaceful protesters, in the last 10 days, four other people were shot in the area, including a 19-year-old man who was killed. The violence has left some officials seriously questioning the safety of the encampment and looking to take steps to dismantle it.

Continue reading...

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Monday, June 29, 2020

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A Facebook post falsely claimed the CDC admitted adding influenza and pneumonia deaths to its COVID-19 death count.

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China lashed out at Canada on Saturday over criticism about Chinese prosecution of two Canadians, saying the matter is based on evidence and urging Ottawa to cease "megaphone diplomacy." Chinese prosecutors this month charged Canadians Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Michael Spavor, a businessman, for suspected espionage. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on Beijing to cease the "arbitrary detention," and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also called for their release.

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As a young student, Hind Makki recalls, she would call out others at the Islamic school she attended when some casually used an Arabic word meaning “slaves” to refer to Black people. “Maybe 85% of the time, the response that I would get from people ... is, ‘Oh, we don’t mean you, we mean the Americans,’” Makki said during a virtual panel discussion on race, one of many organized in the wake of George Floyd's death. “That’s a whole other situation about anti-Blackness, particularly against African Americans,” said Makki, who identifies as a Black Arab Muslim.

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Health officials urged anyone who visited the establishment between June 12 and June 20 to self-quarantine for 14 days.

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U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney cited his comments calling Black clerk Kiry Gray "street-smart" in stepping down as chief district judge. He will remain on the bench.

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That means the state's lone clinic is set to continue operating through at least 2021.

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By Christian K. Anderson, The ConversationWhen I toured the South Carolina Governor’s Mansion in 2019, I noticed the multi-volume papers of John C. Calhoun on display. It struck me as remarkable that Calhoun’s ideas would be featured so prominently given his vigorous defense of slavery and his role in laying the groundwork for the Civil War.But the reality is Calhoun’s legacy until now has been quite prominent in American society—and not just in the South.His statue stands between the two chambers of the House and Senate in the South Carolina Statehouse. However, a separate statue in Charleston has been removed from the town square following nationwide protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd during an encounter with police. The statue had stood for 124 years just a block from Mother Emanuel Church, site of the horrific shooting massacre in 2015 of nine Black worshipers by an avowed white supremacist. The church is also located on Calhoun Street.Despite his historic prominence, Calhoun’s days as a revered icon in the public sphere are gradually coming to an end. CALHOUN IS ALL AROUND USNumerous cities and counties, streets and roads, schools and other public places are named for Calhoun, a slaveholder who served as secretary of state, secretary of war, a U.S. senator, and two terms as vice president.For instance, the Calhoun State Office Building sits in the capitol complex in Columbia, South Carolina’s state capital city.There are counties named for him in his home state, as well as Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and elsewhere in the South. There is even a Calhoun County in Michigan named for him.Major streets in Columbia and Charleston, still bear his name.Despite his prominence elsewhere, Calhoun is about to become less prominent on the landscape of American higher education.The board of trustees at Clemson University, a public university, announced on June 12 that its Honors College would no longer be named after Calhoun.South Carolina’s “Heritage Act” prevents renaming of buildings without legislative approval, but the honors college is an organizational unit, not a building.This is a particularly significant development given that Clemson University sits on what was once Calhoun’s plantation, which his daughter and her husband, Thomas Clemson, inherited.While public memorials of Calhoun appear to be on the decline, what I find more significant—and more troublesome—is the way that Calhoun’s ideology has been ingrained in the American culture and psyche, thanks in large part to the way his ideas were embraced in U.S. institutions of higher learning long after his death.I make this observation as a historian and author of a chapter for the forthcoming book Persistence Through Peril: Episodes of College Life and Academic Endurance in the Civil War South.Calhoun, who was born in 1782 and died a decade before the Civil War began, in 1850, was not only a slaveholder and an ardent defender of slavery, but a chief architect of the political system that allowed slavery to persist.More enduring than the effects of his political career—which included the annexation of Texas to expand the number of slaveholding states—are the repercussions of his political ideology.As a political theorist, Calhoun is best known for two ideas: “concurrent majority” and “nullification.” A concurrent majority is the notion that a minority of the electorate—namely, one with money and property—can veto a political majority.This idea is related to his belief in nullification theory, which is the idea that a state can void federal laws. Nullification made the idea of South Carolina seceding from the nation—and the creation of the Confederacy—a political possibility and then a reality.Calhoun laid out his arguments for these ideas in his treatise “A Disquisition on Government.”While some Americans defended slavery as a “necessary evil” Calhoun viewed slavery as “a positive good.”He held paternalistic views of Black people as well as other non-whites, declaring: “We make a great mistake when we suppose that all people are capable of self-government.” THE CALHOUN CURRICULUMCalhoun’s political doctrines were taught explicitly in college classrooms for decades after his death. There are still remnants in the curriculum.His own views on nullification theory, states’ rights and secession were formed when he studied at Yale University where the college’s president, Timothy Dwight, introduced to him the idea that New England could leave the young nation and become a separate country. Yale named a residential college in his honor in 1931. It renamed it in 2017 after the intense pressure from students and alumni that followed the Charleston massacre at the Mother Emanuel Church.In the chapter that I am writing for Persistence through Peril, I am explaining how Calhoun’s ideologies permeated Southern institutions of higher education. His views were taught at the Military Academy of South Carolina, before, during and after the Civil War. When those cadets studied the U.S. Constitution, their professors and texts emphasized Calhoun’s interpretation of it.John Peyre Thomas, a Citadel graduate and Confederate Army colonel who served as professor, superintendent and later trustee at The Citadel, heaped praise upon Calhoun, having served as editor for The Carolina Tribute to Calhoun in 1857.In a speech given at Clemson University on June 22, 1897, Thomas declared, “It is conceded that Calhoun’s standard in the science of government is so lofty as in some respects to be unattainable in our day and generation.” THE ROAD AHEADDecades of teaching a particular doctrine do not fade easily or quickly. The United States is now witnessing another racial awakening with protests for social justice. Symbols of racism and white supremacy are being removed from higher education.On June 17, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees reversed its 16-year moratorium on renaming buildings, put in place after the statue known as “Silent Sam” was torn down in 2018.The University System of Georgia, which includes the University of Georgia, also moved in June 2020 to review the names of its buildings. This would include the University of Georgia’s Grady School of Journalism, which is named after Henry Grady, an avowed white supremacist.After Calhoun’s death in 1850, his colleague in the Senate, Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, remarked about him: “He is not dead. There may be no vitality in his body, but there is in his doctrines.” He was prophetic in his words.Calhoun’s ideologies fueled the Civil War, gave comfort to those who believed in the “Lost Cause” (that is, to show the Civil War in the best light possible from the Confederate point of view) and perpetuated the teaching of racist and white supremacist attitudes.Because the ideas he espoused have flourished, I believe that dismantling his legacy will take much more than just removing statues of his likeness or renaming buildings, streets and other public places named in his honor.Christian K. Anderson is an associate professor at the University of South CarolinaRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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U.S. President Donald Trump retweeted on Sunday a video showing one of his supporters in Florida shouting "white power" at protesters of his administration, drawing rebukes from allies and adversaries as protests continue a month after George Floyd's death.

The retweeted video, which was later deleted from the president's feed, showed Trump protesters and supporters at a retirement community in Florida he visited last year shouting profanities at each other.

After a protester called a Trump supporter a racist, the man responded by raising his fist and shouting, "white power" -- a slogan used by white supremacists.

In the tweet, Trump wrote: "Thank you to the great people of The Villages. The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall. Corrupt Joe is shot. See you soon!!!"

U.S. Senator Tim Scott, the Senate's only Black Republican, appearing on CBS's Face The Nation Sunday, called it "inappropriate."

SENATOR SCOTT: "There's just- there's nothing much to be said... We should stand up and say that's not right. And I'm saying the exact same thing now. That's not right. But that's not the entire conversation and that's not the entire clip. That was a terrible display that I saw in that video. The whole thing was terrible."

A White House spokesman said the president is a "big fan" of The Villages. The spokesman said he did not hear the one statement made on the video.

The controversy comes on the heels of Trump's hostile response to protests against racial injustice engulfing the United States following the death of Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died after a white police officer knelt on his neck.

Vice President Mike Pence, also appearing on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday, refused repeated opportunities to say the phrase "Black Lives Matter" and said the movement has a political "agenda of the radical left." He instead said this:

PENCE: "I really believe that all lives matter and that's where the heart of the American people lies."

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And what the United States can do about it.

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In 2001, voters decided two to one in a ballot measure to keep the flag as is, many arguing it was a nod to their ancestors who fought for Mississippi in the Civil War.

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Kieran Trippier made a shock £20million switch to Atletico in the summer of 2019 after Daniel Levy and Mauricio Pochettino failed to reassure him of his future at Tottenham.

from Headlines | Mail Online https://ift.tt/31tSK6T

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Nicola Sturgeon should examine introducing quarantine for English visitors to Scotland if the number of coronavirus cases south of the Border rises, one of her most trusted advisers has said. Prof Devi Sridhar, who has played a key role in helping Ms Sturgeon formulate her Covid-19 strategy, said Scotland was trying to eliminate the virus but England's strategy was to "reopen as soon as possible" despite having up to 6,000 new daily cases. She predicted Scotland could eliminate coronavirus by the end of the summer if the decline in new cases continues. There were no more deaths reported in Scotland on Sunday, for the third day running.

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Steve Bruce jokingly claimed Kevin De Bruyne is going to sign for Newcastle after he hijacked the Belgian's post-match interview on Sunday following City's 2-0 win at St James' Park.

from Headlines | Mail Online https://ift.tt/31qErjm

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US president heads to Virginia a day after saying he’d stay in Washington DC to ‘make sure law and order is enforced’ amid ongoing anti-racism protests * Coronavirus in the US – follow live updatesDonald Trump visited one of his own private golf courses in Virginia on Saturday as America continued to see fallout from a rapid surge in coronavirus cases. The trip came a day after the US president said he would stay in Washington DC to “make sure law and order is enforced” amid ongoing anti-racism protests.The president has been frequently criticized for the scale of his golfing habit while in office. CNN – which tallies his golfing activities – said the visit to the Trump National course in Loudon county, just outside Washington DC, was the 271st of his presidency – putting him at an average of golfing once every 4.6 days since he’s been in office. His predecessor, Barack Obama, golfed 333 rounds over the two terms of his presidency, according to NBC.The visit comes as the number of confirmed new coronavirus cases per day in the US hit an all-time high of 40,000, according to figures released by Johns Hopkins on Friday. Many states are now seeing spikes in the virus with Texas, Florida and Arizona especially badly hit after they reopened their economies – a policy they are now pausing or reversing.Trump has been roundly criticized for a failure to lead during the coronavirus that has seen America become by far the worst hit country in the world. Critics in particular point to his failure to wear a mask, holding campaign rallies in coronavirus hot spots and touting baseless conspiracy theories about cures, such as using bleach.On Friday night Trump tweeted that he was cancelling a weekend trip to his Bedminster, New Jersey golf course because of the protests which have rocked the capital, including taking down statues of confederate figures.“I was going to go to Bedminster, New Jersey, this weekend, but wanted to stay in Washington, D.C. to make sure LAW & ORDER is enforced. The arsonists, anarchists, looters, and agitators have been largely stopped,” he tweeted.Trump’s latest visit to the golf course put him in the way of some opposition. According to a White House pool media report: “A small group of protesters at the entrance to the club held signs that included, ‘Trump Makes Me Sick’ and ‘Dump Trump’. A woman walking a small white dog nearby also gave the motorcade a middle finger salute.”It is not yet known if Trump actually played a round of golf. But a photographer captured the president wearing a white polo shirt and a red cap, which is among his common golfing attire.

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Mixing brilliance with buffoonery, flair with farce, American Dustin Johnson eventually staggered over the finish line to claim the Travelers Championship on Sunday night.

from Headlines | Mail Online https://ift.tt/2BMcDvi

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Major League Soccer announced Sunday 18 players and six staff members have tested positive for the coronavirus. The league has conducted a total of 668 tests of players dating back to early June...

from Bleacher Report - Front Page https://ift.tt/2YEe4ov

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Let the Anthony Edwards Los Angeles Lakers photoshops begin. Klutch Sports Group announced it signed the former Bulldogs star, who's expected to be one of the first players off the board in the 2020 NBA draft...

from Bleacher Report - Front Page https://ift.tt/2BaR3AN

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Dustin Johnson collected his 21st career PGA Tour title Sunday in the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut. Johnson went three under in the fourth round to finish at 19 under, one shot better than Kevin Streelman...

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Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg reportedly wanted to remove an incendiary post by then-candidate Donald Trump as far back as 2015, but was convinced instead to change Facebook’s rules to allow such posts in the name of political discourse.

from MarketWatch.com - Top Stories https://ift.tt/2YHak5J

Sunday, June 28, 2020

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'The union will provide you no shelter': Several active and retired San Jose police officers are accused of participating in a closed Facebook page, full of racist posts.

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Chelsea are growing confident they will wrap up a £45million deal to sign West Ham star Declan Rice this summer.

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That means the state's lone clinic is set to continue operating through at least 2021.

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Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer must sacrifice Jesse Lingard and Alexis Sanchez to afford £110m-rated Borussia Dortmund sensation Jadon Sancho, according to reports.

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It is already happening in certain areas.

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Jude Bellingham's father, Mark, convinced the Birmingham midfielder to join Borussia Dortmund instead of Manchester United in the summer,

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For a long time, few people in the small Belgian town of Halle paid much attention to the monuments. It depicts a naked Congolese boy offering a bowl of fruit in gratitude to Lt. Gen. Baron Alphonse Jacques de Dixmude, a Belgian soldier accused of atrocities in Africa. Protests sweeping the world that followed the death of George Floyd, a Black man killed last month by Minneapolis police, are focusing attention on Europe’s colonial past and racism of the present.

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EXCLUSIVE: Saudi Arabia have appeared to offer a way out of the piracy dispute that had put serious doubts over their £300m takeover of New-castle.

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Severe cases of COVID-19 may be linked to brain complications, according to the first nationwide survey of the neurological complications.

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Manchester City face the prospect of huge upheaval in 2021, with Pep Guardiola still unwilling to commit his future to the Etihad. The Citizens are waiting for a decision on their European ban.

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In midst of a campaign interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, Jill Biden's presence is a constant as her husband contemplates his big decision.

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The Dutchman has been lifting the lid on the 'rock-n-roll' lifestyle that ruined his career at Real Madrid in his new autobiography. But there was one occasion years later at Inter Milan when partying helped him.

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The cards claim the DOJ has cleared individuals from wearing protective face coverings to stem the spread of COVID-19

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Legislation to make the District of Columbia a state is poised to pass the House on Friday, a major advance from the last time the measure came before Congress 27 years ago and 40 percent of Democrats joined with all but one Republican to defeat D.C. statehood. After decades of benign neglect, the movement to make D.C. the 51st state has gained new life with Black Lives Matter and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s heightened profile. President Trump’s efforts to use federal force to dominate streets around the White House exposed the subservient status of a city that must answer to Congress for how it spends money while its 706,000 residents are without full voting representation in the House or Senate. Republicans appear unmoved by pleas for equality. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton took to the Senate floor to denounce the Democrats’ move in a racially tinged speech depicting D.C. as an elitist conclave of the “deep state” and Mayor Bowser as someone who could not be trusted to keep the city and its statues safe. “Yes, Wyoming is smaller than Washington by population,” he tweeted, “but it has three times as many workers in mining, logging, and construction, and 10 times as many workers in manufacturing. In other words, Wyoming is a well-rounded working-class state."Opinion: I Fixed Tom Cotton’s Op-EdThe bill to rename D.C. “Washington, Douglass Commonwealth” is going nowhere in Mitch McConnell’s Senate. But if the Democrats win the White House and flip the Senate, statehood becomes imaginable, since statehood requires only a vote of Congress. “Trump says Republicans would have to be stupid to support D.C. statehood and that’s what the battle is about these days, maybe that’s what it’s always been about,” says Michael Brown, D.C.’s non-voting “shadow senator.” Actually, Trump said Republicans would have to be “very, very stupid” to support statehood for D.C. because it would add two Democratic senators, which McConnell would never let happen. “But it’s about more than McConnell,” Brown told the Daily Beast. “We can’t get one Republican (in the Senate), and there are still six (Senate) Democrats who are not on the bill.” In the modern Senate, 60 votes are needed to overcome a filibuster and proceed to a vote on legislation of any significance. The exception is judges, where Republicans exercised what is known as the “nuclear option” to confirm two Supreme Court judges and 200 lower court lifetime judges with a simple majority. Democratic leader Harry Reid opened this dangerous door by striking the filibuster for Executive Branch confirmations that McConnell was blocking. Several Democrats who ran for president, including Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Pete Buttigieg, favor doing away with the filibuster if Democrats win the Senate. Otherwise, they argue, McConnell (or his successor, should he happen to lose his own race) will obstruct everything Democrats try to do. The District of Columbia has a population of 706,000, more than Wyoming and Vermont, and D.C. residents pay more in total federal income tax than 22 states. It has long been a sore point that fighting in every war and contributing blood and treasure is not enough to gain more than a symbolic vote in Congress. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who has served almost 30 years, has a vote in committee but not on the House floor, and if her committee vote breaks a tie, it doesn’t count. Even that small measure of democratic largesse was taken away by Republicans when they gained control of the House in 1994 and again in 2010. Democrats restored Norton’s limited right to vote when they won the House in 2006 and 2018, and since then Norton has been on a roll when it comes to statehood. She has 226 co-sponsors for the bill, including the No. 2 Democrat in the House, Steny Hoyer from Maryland, who opposed statehood until now. Speaking before the Rules committee Wednesday, Norton explained how the legislation before her colleagues was personal to her own history. “My great-grandfather, Richard Holmes, who escaped as a slave from a Virginia plantation, made it as far as D.C., a walk to freedom but not to equal citizenship,” she said. “For three generations my family has been denied the rights other Americans take for granted.” Opponents of statehood argue that the Founding Fathers didn’t want the District to be a state, but our vaunted forebears also didn’t want women to vote, or Black people to vote, so that argument seems lame. “Whether you’re a textualist or an originalist, I don’t believe the Founding Fathers had any more reason to deny representation to people who pay federal taxes, serve in war and do everything a citizen should—than they would have wanted my neighbor down the hall to have a closet full of AK-47s,” says Ellen Goldstein, who served until recently as a neighborhood advisory commissioner for the Sheridan-Kalorama neighborhood, home to the Obamas, the Kushners, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. “You can unearth the minds of the Founding Fathers to justify anything,” Goldstein told the Daily Beast. “As somebody who has lived here for 50 years, I believe the only reason we’re not a state is because of race.” Race has a lot to do with it, says Brown, a former political consultant whose unpaid position’s main perk is identifying as a senator. The Constitution grants Congress jurisdiction over the District in “all cases whatsoever,” which allowed some committee chairmen of the House and Senate Committees on the District of Columbia to run the city like a plantation. In his recent book Class of 1974, John Lawrence recounts how John McMillan, a South Carolina Democrat and a segregationist, sent a truckload of watermelons to the office of appointed Mayor Walter Washington to let him know how little he thought of the budget Washington submitted in 1967 for the committee’s review. The District couldn’t even elect its own mayor until after Home Rule passed Congress in 1973. For a long time, D.C. pridefully called itself “Chocolate City,” acknowledging its majority Black population. No state has ever come into the union with a majority minority population, says Brown. In 1993, the last time Congress voted on statehood, the city was 56 percent Black, a factor in the outcome despite President Bill Clinton’s advocacy for statehood. During his final weeks in office, Bill Clinton had the newly authorized D.C. license plate with the slogan “taxation without representation” affixed to the presidential limousine. His successor, President George W. Bush, had the plate removed. It wasn’t until after President Obama won re-election in 2012 that he ordered the controversial plate installed on all presidential vehicles. In 2011, the District’s Black population fell below 50 percent for the first time in over 50 years. According to 2017 Census Bureau data, the African-American population is 47.1 percent. Unlike the Clinton-era vote, when Democrats were divided on the political merits of D.C. statehood, a newly awakened Democratic leadership is rallying around the cry for equal rights. “It’s beyond statehood,” says Goldstein, citing congressional meddling in District policies on marijuana legalization, gun regulation, and funding for abortion. “If we decide to do it, they take it away. They take our money and tell us how to spend it.” Goldstein doubts the House vote will change anything, but in her thinking, modern America cannot continue to deny D.C. is a state any more than Macy’s Department store in the movie classic Miracle on 34th Street could deny Kris Kringle was Santa when bags of letters addressed to him were delivered by the Post Office. Using the same reasoning, Goldstein notes that when she shops online on Amazon and scrolls down, D.C. is a state: “If the Post Office thinks you’re Santa, you’re Santa. And if Amazon thinks we’re a state, then by golly, we’re a state.”Until a miracle happens on Capitol Hill, that will have to do. Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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