Evelyn Reynolds

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    Resistance to Trump 2.0 is getting more confrontational | Dana R Fisher

    In Trump’s first term, activists focused on lobbying and voting. Now tactics are shifting to nonviolent civil disobedienceOn 24 January, Alex Pretti was killed by federal agents while he was helping another civilian in Minneapolis who had been knocked to the ground – just weeks after an ICE agent killed Renee Good. In response to this second killing of a Minnesotan, demonstrations spread across the United States to protest the Trump administration and its ultra-violent immigration enforcement tactics.Minneapolis has been in a state of sustained protest. Its general strike on 23 January mobilized tens of thousands of Minnesotans to participate in an economic blackout and march in the streets. Solidarity protests, strikes and marches also took place across the country, including the Free America Walkout, which involved more than 900 local actions across all 50 states on the anniversary of Donald Trump’s second inauguration. Continue reading… More

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    ‘We’re fighting for the soul of the country’: how Minnesota residents came together to face ICE

    Networks created after police killed George Floyd were reactivated to challenge Trump’s mass deportation policyCory never expected he’d spend hours each day driving around after immigration agents, videotaping their moves. The south Minneapolis resident is “not the type of person to do this”, he said.The dangers of what he’s doing, even after the killings of two observers, largely stay out of his mind when he’s watching Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents – even when he’s gotten hit with pepper spray. In quieter moments, it occurs to him that agents likely know where he lives. Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old whom agents killed while he was filming them, “100% could have been me”, Cory said. Continue reading… More

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    How the left can win back the internet – and rise again | Robert Topinka

    In the final part of this series, we look at how infighting has ripped the left apart online while the right has flourished – and how some progressives are turning the tideRobert Topinka is a reader in digital media and rhetoric at Birkbeck, University of LondonPart one: How liberals lost the internetPart two: How the right won the internetThere is politics before the internet, and politics after the internet. Liberals are floundering, the right are flourishing, and what of the left? Well, it’s in a dire state. This is despite the fact that the key political problems of the last decade – rising inequality and a cost of living crisis – are problems leftists claim they can solve. The trouble is, reactionaries and rightwingers steal their thunder online, quickly spreading messaging that blames scapegoats for structural problems. One reason for this is that platforms originally built to connect us with friends and followers now funnel us content designed to provoke emotional engagement.Back when Twitter was still the “town square” and Facebook a humble “social network”, progressives had an advantage: from the Arab spring to Occupy Wall Street, voices excluded from mainstream media and politics could leverage online social networks and turn them into real-life ones, which at their most potent became street-level protests that toppled regimes and held capitalism to account. It seemed as though the scattered masses would become a networked collective empowered to rise up against the powerful.Robert Topinka is a reader in digital media and rhetoric at Birkbeck, University of London Continue reading… More

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    Trump news at a glance: president orders homeland security to avoid protests in Democratic-led cities

    Kristi Noem’s department told to ‘under no circumstances’ get involved with protests in cities led by Democrats unless they ask for help – key US politics stories from 31 January at a glanceDonald Trump has instructed the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, not to intervene in protests occurring in cities led by Democrats unless local authorities ask for federal help amid mounting criticism of his administration’s immigration crackdown.On his social media site, Trump posted that “under no circumstances are we going to participate in various poorly run Democrat Cities with regard to their Protests and/or Riots unless, and until, they ask us for help”. Continue reading… More

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    Chicago mayor orders police to investigate alleged illegal ICE activity in city

    Brandon Johnson gives police ‘clear procedure’ to follow if they witness or get reports of agents involved in illegal activityChicago’s mayor Brandon Johnson has ordered Chicago police to investigate and document alleged illegal activity by federal immigration (ICE) agents in the city, a move that will escalate tensions over jurisdiction between local and federal authorities.The executive order, titled ICE on Notice, gives Chicago police “clear procedure” to follow if they witness or receive reports of ICE agents involved in illegal activity and refer evidence of potential violations to city prosecutors. Continue reading… More

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    Democrats accuse DoJ of not releasing millions of Epstein files despite legal requirement

    Justice department on Friday released 3m pages and lawmakers accuse it of not releasing roughly 50% of recordsSurvivors, lawmakers and watchdog groups accused Donald Trump’s justice department of withholding records it is legally required to release following the disclosure of millions of files from the investigation into the disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.The justice department on Friday released 3m pages of documents from its investigation into the millionaire financier’s sexual abuse of young girls and his interactions with wealthy and powerful figures, including Trump and former president Bill Clinton. The release was an effort to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and, according to US deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, includes more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, all subject to “extensive redactions”. Continue reading… More

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    Epstein lawyers discussed possibility of cooperation with prosecutors days before his death, files reveal

    Less than two weeks before convicted abuser was found dead, lawyers met with Manhattan federal prosecutorsLess than two weeks before Jeffrey Epstein’s death in jail, his lawyers and Manhattan federal prosecutors met and discussed his potential cooperation, several documents within a cache of newly released investigative files state.“On July 29, 2019, FBI and [prosecutors] met with Epstein’s attorneys, who, in very general terms, discussed the possibility of a resolution of the case, and the possibility of the defendant’s cooperation,” an FBI document titled “Epstein Investigation Summary & Timeline” stated. Continue reading… More

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    Gregory Bovino reportedly mocked US Minnesota attorney’s Jewish faith

    Bovino, recently demoted, used the term ‘chosen people’ in sarcastic way as attorney Daniel Rosen observed ShabbatRecently demoted border patrol official Gregory Bovino reportedly made mocking and sarcastic remarks about the Jewish faith of Minnesota’s US attorney, Daniel Rosen, during a phone call with prosecutors in the state earlier in January.According to the New York Times, Bovino mocked Rosen for observing Shabbat, a weekly day of rest that begins at sunset on Friday and ends at sunset on Saturday – and used the term “chosen people” in a sarcastic way during a phone call with the lawyers on 12 January. Continue reading… More