Free Republic

The Minneapolis City Council has unanimously approved paying six social media influencers to spread city-approved messaging and updates throughout the upcoming murder trial of former officer Derek Chauvin, who has been charged in George Floyd's death. On Friday, the council approved $1,181,500 for communication with the community during the trial, CBS Minnesota reports.

The weakness and stupidity of America’s right has allowed false narratives to cement in the minds of the public. It’s killing our freedoms. It’s killing our jobs. It’s killing our families.Did you know that you can see The Great Wall of China from outer space? Is that not absolutely incredible? I heard this cool little fact from a friend some time ago and began telling everyone I knew about this cool trivia nugget.What really blew me away was how almost everyone I told had already heard this and agreed with me that it is a very cool fact. A man-made...

It's time to face a hard truth about the Supreme Court fight that begins this week. There is no secret trick to stopping President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans from jamming through Judge Amy Coney Barrett as a replacement for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. There is no last-minute magic parliamentary maneuver that Minority Leader Chuck Schumer can use to stop the process. The rules allow him to slow it down a little, but that's it. And there's no argument that's going to be persuasive enough to shame Senate Republicans to look within themselves and do the right thing. No, the...

Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney on Thursday joined Republican and Democratic legislators in criticizing President Donald Trump's comment about whether he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the Nov. 3 presidential election. Trump told reporters on Wednesday that he would “have to see what happens" when asked about whether he’d commit to a peaceful transfer of power. Thursday morning, Cheney responded to the comment in a tweet: "The peaceful transfer of power is enshrined in our Constitution and fundamental to the survival of our Republic. America’s leaders swear an oath to the Constitution. We will uphold...

THE NARRATIVE President Donald Trump is aggressively working to undercut public confidence in the November general election by stoking baseless concerns about voter fraud as he continues to struggle through one of the lowest points of his presidency. The familiar yet startling attacks on a pillar of democracy come amid a resurgence of the coronavirus under Trump’s watch that forced Vice President Mike Pence to cancel upcoming campaign stops in Florida and Arizona and pushed several Trump-allied Republican governors to scale back reopening efforts. THE BIG QUESTIONS Is the president’s focus on (nonexistent) voter fraud already de-legitimizing the election? Trump...

It's another one of those Trump Era realities best described as unsurprising but nevertheless shocking. Three serious research efforts have put numerical weight - yes, data-driven evidence - behind what many suspected all along: Americans who relied on Fox News, or similar right-wing sources, were duped as the coronavirus began its deadly spread. Dangerously duped. The studies "paint a picture of a media ecosystem that amplifies misinformation, entertains conspiracy theories and discourages audiences from taking concrete steps to protect themselves and others," wrote my Washington Post colleague Christopher Ingraham in an analysis last week. Here's the reality, now backed by...

Paris (AFP) -- French cosmetics giant L'Oreal announced Saturday it was removing words like "whitening" from its products, against the backdrop of global anti-racism protests. "The L'Oreal Group has decided to remove the words white/whitening, fair/fairness, light/lightening from all its skin evening products," the company said in a statement. Several companies -- including L'Oreal -- have been criticised recently for skin-lightening products after the global rise of the Black Lives Matter movement following the police killing in the US of African-American George Floyd last month.

Oakland's school board voted unanimously Wednesday evening to abolish the school district police force by January, adopting the "George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland Schools Police Department." Citing the disproportionate arrests of Black students by Oakland's school police, as well as the district's "obligation to promote the healthy development of each one of its students" and the many alternative ways to handle discipline inside schools, the board directed the superintendent to take steps required to eliminate the department. From the 2015-2016 school year through 2019-2020, Black students have accounted for 73 percent of arrests in city schools but just...

Twelve years ago, officials in Vallejo, Calif., reluctantly took a step that activists are now urging in cities across the country: They defunded their police department. Unable to pay its bills after the 2008 financial crisis, Vallejo filed for bankruptcy and cut its police force nearly in half - to fewer than 80 officers, from a pre-recession high of more than 150. At the time, the working-class city of 122,000 north of San Francisco struggled with high rates of violent crime and simmering mistrust of its police department. It didn't seem like things could get much worse. And then they...

France's human rights ombudsman said Monday that authorities needed to take measures to halt racial discrimination that has become a "systemic element" of French society, calling for an "ambitious" public policy response. "People with foreign origins, or perceived as having them, are disadvantaged in terms of access to jobs or housing," according to a new report from the government's Défenseur des Droits (Rights Defender) agency led by Jacques Toubon, a former justice minister. "They are more exposed to joblessness, poverty, poor housing, police ID checks, poor health and educational inequality," it said. The report came as France has seen a...

ATLANTA - A public viewing for Rayshard Brooks, the Black man shot in the back by an Atlanta police officer outside a Wendy’s restaurant, is planned for Monday at the city’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, with a private funeral to follow the next day. Brooks, 27, was the latest in a long line of unarmed African Americans whose fatal encounters with law enforcement have been documented on video. His funeral, which the family’s lawyer said would be paid for by filmmaker Tyler Perry, will also be streamed on the church’s website.

WASHINGTON -- It was June 2015, and Democrats felt the nation’s political and cultural winds blowing their way. The Supreme Court ruled in President Barack Obama’s favor on landmark gay marriage and health care cases. The White House was awash in rainbow light, a symbol of a liberal cultural takeover that seemed unstoppable. The following year, Donald Trump was elected president, propelled by a revolt of voters who weren’t on board. As he barrels toward the November election, Trump is again positioning himself as the spokesperson for voters resisting a new wave of cultural change, ready to ride any backlash...

The European Parliament voted Friday to declare that "Black Lives Matter" and to denounce racism and white supremacism in all its forms. The resolution has no legal consequences but sends a signal of support to anti-racism protesters, and it follows a UN call for a probe into police brutality and "systemic racism." And, one day before President Donald Trump is to hold a rally in Tulsa, a city that saw one of the worst racist massacres in US history, the lawmakers condemned American police brutality. Point number one of the text of the resolution takes up the slogan US campaigners...

WASHINGTON - The temporary fences that separated protesters from the White House have come down. But its occupant, President Donald Trump, appears to be more isolated than ever. Recent opinion surveys, including a poll from Reuters/Ipsos this week, continue to show Trump trailing Democratic challenger Joe Biden significantly with just over four months until the Nov. 3 election. But more revealingly, they show a president increasingly disconnected from the American electorate whose views have changed rapidly following the May 25 death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, while in Minneapolis police custody. The lightning-quick shift in public opinion has...

LOWNDES COUNTY, Ala. -- The area known as Alabama's Black Belt has been hit hard by the coronavirus. The mostly rural region, which includes more than a dozen counties and is famous for pivotal Civil Rights-era events like the march from Selma and the Montgomery bus boycott, has some of the highest infection rates in the state. It also has high unemployment, low income levels - several counties have poverty rates north of 30 percent, according to a 2019 University of Alabama analysis - and limited access to grocery stores, sewage service and health care. Some hard-hit areas, like Lowndes...

WASHINGTON -- Following weeks of national protests since the death of George Floyd, President Donald Trump has signed an executive order he said would encourage better police practices. But he made no mention of the roiling national debate over racism spawned by police killings of black people. Trump met privately with the families of several black Americans killed in interactions with police before his Rose Garden signing ceremony and said he grieved for the lives lost and families devastated. But he quickly shifted his tone and devoted most of his public remarks to a need to respect and support “the...

TULSA, Okla. - When President Donald Trump takes the stage at his first rally in three months on Saturday night, the scene in Tulsa, Oklahoma, will be familiar: A large venue filled with ardent supporters wearing “Keep America Great” hats and T-shirts. But outside the 19,199-seat arena is a country reshaped by the coronavirus pandemic, an economic collapse and a wave of protests over police brutality and racial injustice, a trio of crises that have dented his support just months before the Nov. 3 election. Trump’s campaign advisers believe the rally is a way to rejuvenate his base and display...

DETROIT -- African Americans are disproportionately likely to say a family member or close friend has died of COVID-19 or respiratory illness since March, according to a series of surveys conducted since April that lays bare how black Americans have borne the brunt of the pandemic. Eleven percent of African Americans say they were close with someone who has died from the coronavirus, compared with 5% of Americans overall and 4% of white Americans. The findings are based on data from three COVID Impact surveys conducted between April and June by NORC at the University of Chicago for the Data...

In the past, U.S. corporations have largely remained silent as protests erupted over killings of African-Americans by police officers. That changed with the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which has set off a flurry of corporate statements of solidarity with the black community – along with pledges of more than $1.7 billion to advance racial justice and equity. The unprecedented outpouring of support, however, has stirred up criticism along with praise. Many social justice advocates, corporate diversity experts and investors say companies also need to focus on equity in their own ranks, especially by hiring and promoting...

A writer for a “Law & Order” spin-off and the play-by-play broadcaster for the NBA’s Sacramento Kings found themselves out of jobs after making social media posts this week that their bosses found incendiary or insensitive, highlighting a surge in such firings across many lines of work. Firings over social media statements have become a common occurrence, but the tense environment of nationwide protests have made Twitter, Instagram and Facebook especially dangerous for those who want to remain employed. Craig Gore, who has worked on the shows “S.W.A.T.” and “Chicago P.D.,” was fired Tuesday from the forthcoming “Law & Order:...