The US’s top military official, General Mark A. Milley, issued a startling apology for appearing alongside President Donald Trump in Washington DC for the controversial church-front photo-op. In a prerecorded video commencement address to National Defense University, he said, “I should not have been there… My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it.” Gen. Milley’s remarks put him at odds with Trump and echo those of Defense Secretary Mark Esper who a few days after the disastrous photo-op also said he regretted participating. According to AP, “Esper and Milley let it be known through their spokesmen that they were open to a ‘bipartisan discussion’ of whether the 10 Army bases named for Confederate Army officers should be renamed as a gesture aimed at dissociating the military from the racist legacy of the Civil War.” However Trump has balked at the gesture tweeting on Wednesday, “My Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations.” Washington Post columnist Joe Davidson wrote a piece on this matter titled, “We’re still honoring those who fought against the U.S.A. Why, President Trump?” In related news, NASCAR has announced it will ban all displays of the confederate flag at its events and properties. 

Meanwhile there are investigations underway over the Washington DC violent clearing of peaceful protesters that was ordered by President Trump and Attorney General William Barr for the photo-op. The National Guard is reportedly investigating and in the next few days the US Army is expected to issue a report to explain why military medical helicopters were used to threaten and disrupt protesters. According to the New York Times, “Officials expect the pilots who flew the helicopters will receive some type of punishment.” More than 1,250 former staffers with the Department of Justice have signed onto a letter denouncing the DC actions and demanding the DOJ Inspector General immediately launch a probe. The signatories wrote, “None of us would ever have considered directing or engaging in such actions to be consistent with our oaths to support and defend the Constitution.”

Seattle, Washington, the site of large and militant protests against racist police brutality, has seen the formation of an autonomous protester-run zone. When Seattle police abandoned a precinct in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, activists quickly moved into the area and declared it a police-free zone. The neighborhood is considered the center of Seattle arts and culture and has also been subjected to severe gentrification. Now the area spanning several city blocks is holding poetr...

FEATURING MELINA ABDULLAH – The demand for cities to “defund” their police stations is not a new one. It is only new to those who are finally taking seriously a core demand of the Black Lives Matter movement. While many are asking and debating what it means to “defund the police,” one need look no further than the work that activists have been doing for years. In Los Angeles, where the liberal democratic mayor Eric Garcetti finally capitulated to a modest decrease in the LAPD’s outsize budget, Black Lives Matter’s LA chapter has laid extensive groundwork for a campaign that they called A People’s Budget LA. 

A day after the historic budget cut, Dr. Melina Abdullah, a prominent member of Black Lives Matter LA spoke to The Intercept about it.

For more information visit PeoplesBudgetLA.com.

Melina Abdullah, Professor and Chair of the Department of Pan African Studies at California State University of Los Angeles, active with the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter.

FEATURING ANNE KIM – Newsweek magazine recently published a cover story by Sam Hill entitled, “OK, Millennial: Boomers Are the Greatest Generation in History,” that claimed, “Millennials seem to think their challenges are greater than those any other generation has faced. Not really.” Hill wrote, “The Great Recession? Nothing compared with the Great Depression …The wealth gap? Today it’s actually pretty close to historical averages…Student loans? Student loan debt is $1.6 trillion. Over the next 30 years, boomers will pass down $68 trillion as part of the “Great Wealth Transfer.” That should cover it for many borrowers…” 

The article’s snide tone dismissed the concerns of American youth who are speaking out about the injustices they face in a world that has increasingly abandoned them to falling wages and economic insecurity, gun violence, climate change, and more. 

Now a new book lays out in great detail just how deep the crisis facing American youth is.

Anne Kim, Director of Domestic and Social Policy at the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., and a contributing editor to Washington Monthly. She is the author of Abandoned: America’s Lost Youth and the Crisis of Disconnection.

**This segment was originally broadcast on June 10, 2020.

Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd testified on Wednesday morning to the House Judiciary Committee on the issue of police accountability. The testimony was held a day after the high-profile victim of a Minneapolis police killing was laid to rest. On the same day the Minneapolis Police Department announced that it would be withdrawing from negotiations with the police union. Police Chief Medaria Arradondo gave a news conference explaining his decision.

Presidential candidate Joe Biden addressed Floyd’s funeral on Tuesday in a 5 minute video taped speech complete with moving soundtrack. Biden, who as Senator invited a police union to help him write a bill on criminal justice has moved somewhat to the left on the issue of police accountability but still maintains an opposition to the new rallying cry of “Defund the Police.” Meanwhile the Republican Party has been caught off guard with the rapidly evolving position of the American population on police violence. As President Donald Trump has focused on spreading lies and conspiracy theories about the victims of police brutality and those protesting it, and cast himself as the “law and order” president, some GOP lawmakers are scrambling to distance themselves from this tone-deaf rhetoric. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has asked Senator Tim Scott – the only black Republican Senator – to lead the party’s response to the current political landscape. However, Senator Tom Cotton, who has openly called for the deployment of the US military to squash American protests, has introduced a bill opposing the defunding of police departments. 

In another sign of the times we live in, the long-running pro-police reality TV show called Cops, was canceled. Launched in 1989, Cops for more than 3 decades reinforced the notions that police always acted in the best interest of the public and that black and brown victims were deserving of arrests. On the day that the show was scheduled to premiere its 33rd season The Paramount network, which had taken over the show from Fox announced it would not air. In a similar move, HBO Max has announced it will temporarily stop streaming the film Gone With The Wind. In a statement HBO said, “These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible.”

 In another sign of the changing times, the

FEATURING ALICIA BELL – One of the many disturbing hallmarks of police brutality aimed at protests against police brutality, are the attacks on journalists. Police in cities across the country appear to be refusing to distinguish between protesters and clearly identifiable journalists covering the protests. 

On the one hand this represents a chilling violation of press freedom. On the other hand, journalists are now more sympathetic than before to the victims of police violence and the demands of Black Lives Matter.

Alicia Bell, News Voices Organizing Manager with Free Press.

FEATURING PAOLO GIORDANO – The coronavirus pandemic is far from over in spite of lockdowns and quarantines easing in many cities and nations. It is arguable if the world will ever go back to “normal,” or if we have to invent a new normal in order to survive the virus. 

In one of the global epicenters of the disease – Italy – a physicist and novelist published the first book about Covid-19, exploring the crisis through the lens of science and society. His book, which was first published in essay form, was shared millions of times online and is thought to have changed the debate around the coronavirus. 

Paolo Giordano is the author of the critically acclaimed Like Family and The Human Body, as well as the international bestseller The Solitude of Prime Numbers, which has been translated into more than forty languages. He has a PhD in particle physics and his latest book is called How Contagion Works: Science, Awareness, and Community in Times of Global Crisis – The Essay that Helped Change the Covid-19 Debate.

George Floyd’s funeral on Tuesday was at the center of attention just over two weeks after he was killed at the hands of Minneapolis police. Floyd will be lain to rest next to his mother, who he called out for as one of his last words while being pinned down on the neck by officer Derek Chauvin for nearly 9 minutes. Leading up to the funeral memorial services were held in Minneapolis, Raeford, North Carolina, and Houston, Texas, which Floyd’s family has ties with. In Houston on Monday, one of Floyd’s brothers addressed a crowd remarking on George’s death. Officer Chauvin appeared in court this week and faces a $1.25 million bail. He remains in a maximum-security prison in Oak Park, Minneapolis. 

A new poll by the Washington Post and Schar School finds that there has been a sea change in American attitudes about policing: “More than 2 in 3 Americans (69 percent) say the killing of Floyd represents a broader problem within law enforcement, compared with fewer than 1 in 3 (29 percent) who say the Minneapolis killing is an isolated incident.” Six years ago when the protests in Ferguson, Missouri sparked a similar but smaller national uprising, the number of Americans who saw problems with policing was only 43%. The poll also found that 61% of Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump’s handling of the protests. 

Wanda Cooper-Jones, the mother of a black man killed in Georgia by a retired cop and two accomplices published a video op-ed in the New York Times on Tuesday entitled, “How Was My Son Ahmaud Arbery’s Murder Not a Hate Crime?”

As protests continue across the US against racist policing, several incidents of vigilantes, possibly inspired by President Trump or Fox News, have shown up to protests armed, or using their vehicles as weapons. A man affiliated with the KKK admitted to deliberating driving his truck into a crowd of protesters in Richmond, Virginia. The driver of a minivan struck several protesters in Indianapolis, and in Seattle, a gun-toting man drove into a protest, shot one man, and walked into a crowd wielding his gun.  The Guardian newspaper has compiled a lengthy list of incidents where “Protesters [were] confronted by armed men – including members of the so-called ‘boogaloo movement’ – in different parts of America.” Last week Fox News host Tucker Carlson and his invited guest called for “vigilante justice” against protesters. On Monday night, Carlson’s commentary was so rife with lies, racist tropes, pro-police propaganda, and violent rhetoric that critics slammed it as “...

FEATURING ROSA CLEMENTE – Within just two weeks of mass protests against racist police brutality, the once-radical demand to “Defund the Police,” has become a rallying cry receiving mainstream attention. News media and politicians are now asking, ‘what does it actually mean to defund police departments?’ as a serious question. 

The Minneapolis City Council has already announced its majority decision to disband its city’s notorious police department – a remarkable step. The city of Los Angeles became one of the first to cut its police budget – albeit by a modest sliver. 

But there is a debate over the idea of reforming police versus radically changing them. For those millions of Americans newly activated and accepting of the idea that Black Lives Matter, answering the question of reform versus transformation while interest is high, is a critical issue.

Rosa Clemente is the Executive Director of the Black-Latinx Organizing Project, a producer and an independent journalist based in Albany, NY. She is also a news correspondent for Rising Up With Sonali.

FEATURING EITAN HERSH – These days everyone with a Facebook account is a political pundit. We constantly read the latest polls, consume the sage ruminations of experts in our newspapers, and offer up defiant opinions on every issue. Scouring our Twitter newsfeeds or watching Sunday cable news shows is considered part of the civic duty of an informed electorate living in a democracy. But, my next guest calls the obsession with news consumption simply “political hobbyism” and warns that unless more Americans move beyond reading the news and complaining about politics toward grassroots political activism, our democracy is doomed.

Eitan Hersh, Associate Professor of Political Science at Tufts University. His research focuses on civic participation, US elections, and voting rights. His earlier book Hacking the Electorate focused on the use of campaign microtargeting in the Obama years. His new book is called Politics is For Power: How to Move Beyond Political Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real Change.

**This interview was originally broadcast on March 11, 2020.

Democratic members of Congress on Monday unveiled sweeping new legislation to reform police practices at the federal level, responding to mass, sustained protests around the nation against racist police brutality. Announcing the ‘Justice in Policing Act of 2020,’ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi explained what it would do. Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer has pledged to introduce a Senate version of the bill, sponsored by Sens. Cory Booker and Kamala D. Harris. It remains to be seen if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will allow any discussion on the bill let alone a vote. 

Protests continued in cities across the US and even the world over the weekend attracting huge numbers of people on the streets demanding a change in American policing. Los Angeles witnessed its largest march since the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, with an estimated 20,000 people on the streets of Hollywood on Sunday. Although police presence was minimal at that protest, the Los Angeles Police Department, which has killed more people than any other department nationwide, has come under fire for violently responding to earlier protests. After Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, together with the ACLU sued LAPD over the issue, the city announced it would not criminally prosecute any protesters arrested. In Seattle, Washington, an armed man drove into a crowd of protesters, shot one person, and walked among people gathered brandishing his gun. He was arrested by Seattle police shortly after. Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant has demanded that Mayor Jenny Durkan resign over her city’s police response to the protests. And in Minneapolis, where George Floyd’s killing sparked this latest chapter of protests, a veto-proof majority of city council members pledged to disband the Minneapolis Police Department. Mayor Jacob Frey has expressed his opposition to the measure and was booed by protesters while attending a rally against police brutality.

In Washington DC, where the liberal mayor Muriel Bowser ordered the words “Black Lives Matter” to be painted across two blocks in front of the White House, protesters are also disappointed. The DC Chapter of Black Lives Matter denounced the gesture called it a, “performative distraction” from the mayor’s “inaction” and efforts to counter BLMDC’s “demands to decrease the police budget and invest in community.” On Saturday activists added their own message to the street art: Black Lives Matter = Defund the Police. Meanwhile President Donald Trump has announced that he will be