The Background Edition Two 2/15/19
Edition Two is here! Yes, it's a few days later than I had hoped, but I was down with the flu, and sleeping for approximately 20 hours a day. I was keeping my eye out for news worth considering with the four hours I was awake. There will be a new edition at the beginning of next week, and look for new pieces to be coming out related to the controversy over Rep. Ilhan Omar's AIPAC comments and the new book announced by Terry McAuliffe.
Texts Show Protective Relationship Between Portland Cops and Patriot Prayer
Portland Mercury - Texts show a mighty cozy relationship with the Patriot Prayer group, a far right organization that’s repeatedly brought the likes of The Proud Boys, Identity Europa and the defunct Traditional Workers Party to violent gatherings in Portland.
Proud Boy Allegedly Murders Brother With A Sword Thinking He’s Killing A Lizard
Huffington Post - Driven by right wing conspiracy theories, a 26 year old in Seattle, murders his brother to death with a sword due to the belief that his brother is a lizard. He considered himself a Proud Boy and subscribed to the Qanon set of conspiracies. Let's hope people like Buckey start getting the help they need instead of being swindled by the likes of Gavin McInnes.
6 Cops Kill Rapper Willie Bo While He Slept in His Car
Complex - The headline says it all. Hard not to take it in connection with the rest of this weeks news.
Exclusive: Thousands of Black Votes in Georgia Disappeared and No One Can Explain It
The Root - Georgia’s 2018 midterm election is becoming more and more suspect as time passes, and it was extremely suspect from the moment polls opened. Michael Harriet of The Root outlines a significantly suspect pattern emerging in the vote totals and patterns for the race for Lt. Governor.
Trump’s DHS Guts Task Forces Protecting Elections From Foreign Meddling
Daily Beast - True, this is Trump adjacent, and The Background is supposed to be a Trump free zone, but I'm calling this one as allowable. The effects are so wide ranging, it's much more than Trump news. DHS guts the task force charged with protecting US elections from foreign meddling.
When the FBI shoots someone, including a bystander or hostage, it investigates itself
NBC News - It's one thing to say that you trust your law enforcement agencies, it's another to completely ignore the fact that The FBI has a lengthy, disturbing record of violating citizens civil rights and that this practice does not inspire any confidence in anyone familiar with that history.
Nikolas Cruz left 180 rounds of ammunition — with swastikas — at Parkland school, sources say
Sun Sentinel - A story from March 2018, a reminder. This part of the story of the attack on Marjory Stoneman Douglas has been forgotten.
My son survived one mass shooting. He didn’t survive the second.
The Washington Post - The currently reality of gun violence in the United States. We now have people who have survived a mass shooting, only to be killed in another one, others who have survived two.
Plummeting insect numbers 'threaten collapse of nature'
The Guardian - This whole ecological collapse scenario is really looking extremely bleak.