This is not America. This is America.
Suzanne Enzerink kicks off this week's jam-packed newsletter with a piece critiquing what she calls Islamophobia and Orientalist narratives consistently equating protests in America to Middle Eastern war zones:
"In this deflective discourse, the war is never at home. Minneapolis, the site of Floyd’s murder, resembles Baghdad for these critics. Los Angeles resembles Beirut, Seattle has turned into Aleppo and Manhattan looks an awful lot like Fallujah...Those taking part in the uprisings assume the role of terrorists occupying cities.
These assertions are Islamophobic and Orientalist in their equation of the Middle East with perpetual violence and unrest. They also ignore that the US has had a hand in conflicts in the region with the objective of creating a global security system, a sometimes thinly-veiled excuse to exert power in a region abundant in natural resources."
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The Inside Line from Scott Lucas
What You Need to Know Now
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- Republicans Distance Themselves from Trump: GOP Senators have long protected and enabled Donald Trump, but now they are thinking about their tactics amid damage to their position ahead of November's election. The Senators are pursuing a bill for limited police reform, navigating between Trump and House Democrats. Now they have to decide a response to Trump's attacks on Supreme Court Justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts, a George W. Bush appointee.
- The Court's Protection of Rights: The Supreme Court preserves both the notion of checks and balances and the idea of civil rights in three vital decisions.The Court safeguarded protections for gay and transgender workers under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It blocked the Trump Administration's attempt to punish "sanctuary cities" who host undocumented immigrants. Then it risked Trump's wrath by preventing the Administration stripping rights --- and thus threatening deportation --- from 700,000 young "Dreamer" immigrants.
- State and Local Action on Black Lives Matter: Donald Trump may grab headlines with his Twitter feed, but it is State and local governments who are in the lead over the Black Lives Matter rallies. State and local authorities are reforming police forces and shifting funds to social programs. In symbolic but important moves, Southern states are removing Confederate statues and monuments. And quick action has been taken over the police officer who killed Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, Georgia.
- Trump, China, and Another Illegal Election Intervention: Donald Trump's former National Security Advisor John Bolton helped Trump avoid conviction by declining to testify in the impeachment hearings and trial. But now Bolton's promotion of his book may keep Trump from a second term. Among the revelations: Trump's admiration for Chinese President Xi Jinping led to enthusiastic support of a crackdown on more than 1 million Uighur Muslims --- and Trump's quest for a second term brought a request to Xi, following the Russia and Ukraine scandals, for another foreign intervention a Presidential election.
- Trump's War on the Environment: But even without a second term, Trump is able to inflict more damage on the environment. He has lifted restrictions on hunting in Alaska, permitting the shooting of animals and their young in their dens, and weakened the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act.
- Don't Forget Coronavirus. The US death toll is now almost 120,000, with cases rising in 24 states. But Donald Trump is persisting with a June 20 rally in Oklahoma, despite the warnings of medical experts of a "perfect storm" for infection, and Vice President Mike Pence is in denial.
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Rebels Without A Cause
Earlier this month, the Cork hurling and football teams banned the flying of the Confederate flag in support of their team. Grand, as they say. But, why would you fly the Confederate flag in Ireland to begin with? Liam has the backstory in his latest piece:
"There is a residual cultural investment in displaying this symbol while denying its racial connotations. That investment may be singular in the controversy it causes, but it is also reflective of a broader Irish interest in the culture of the American South."
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New Podcast Episode: Black Lives Matter in the UK
Over in the UK, the Black Lives Matter movement is challenging racist narratives of history and shedding light on systemic injustices. In our latest podcast episode, Dr. Michell Chresfield joined Liam and Scott to talk about the events in the US and the way they are inspiring protests in the United Kingdom and across Europe.
Listen Here >> and don't forget to Subscribe Here >>
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Christian Nationalism and Counter-Terrorism
A must-read piece by S. Jonathon O’Donnell looks at how Trump's rhetoric fuses Christian nationalism with counter-terrorism:
"Trump uses a narrative about battling spiritual evil to justify the repressive mechanisms of state violence. Framing the protests as products not of ongoing racial injustice, but outside agent provocateurs and/or diabolic principalities, Trump and his supporters render them enemies in a cosmic war for national security and survival."
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The "Sun Belt" Takeover of US Foreign Policy
Thomas Furse takes a look at how a "Sun Belt" approach has pushed aside traditional norms driving US foreign policy:
"From the 1950s the Sun Belt, from California through Texas to South Carolina and Florida, re-centered American political culture away from the urbane liberal internationalism of the East Coast. The fastest-growing area of the country was resolutely anti-Communist, sceptical of UN initiatives, and suspicious that civil rights might go too far and social liberalism would upend the social order of nuclear families and individual self-reliance."
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Check out UCD Clinton Institute's most recent promotional video.
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Thank you for reading and please send us your comments and feedback.
Until Next Time.
America Unfiltered Team.
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