White evangelicals are trying to rewrite their racist past as nationwide Black Lives Matter protests gain support and reshape policies.
The Mississippi Baptist Convention has pushed for that state to remove Confederate symbols from that state flag, and white evangelicals are being called to support demonstrations against police brutality and racism -- without confronting their movement's historic bigotry, according to Washington Monthly's Nancy LeTourneau.
"[Federalist managing editor Joshua] Lawson is right to suggest that there were white Christian leaders in the abolitionist movement, such as John G. Fee," LeTourneau wrote. "But one of the founders of Christian nationalism as we know it today was Robert Lewis Dabney, an anti-abolitionist, who argued that opposing slavery was 'tantamount to rejecting Christianity.' He is perhaps best known for developing a pro-slavery theology that fused religion with a racialized form of nationalism."
While Black Christians -- including Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Fred Shuttlesworth, Hosea Williams, James Lawson and John Lewis -- were civil rights leaders, their white counterparts often slowed progress or opposed racial justice outright.
"The truth is that, while King lived, the best he got from white evangelicals Christians was distance, and the worst was outright condemnation," LeTourneau wrote. "The Civil Rights Movement of the 60s wasn’t seen as something to be embraced in the spirit of brother/sisterly love, but as a threat to the established order."
LeTourneau applauded white evangelicals opening their eyes anew to systemic racism, but she said they must take an honest look at history before working toward the future.
"White evangelicals who are willing to open their minds and hearts to the struggle for equality in this country are to be commended," she wrote. "But a big part of that process is learning from history and not making the same mistakes as those who came before us."
A Texas deputy is on administrative leave after a post he made on Facebook calling for a "lynch mob" received backlash for its racial implications, KSAT reports.
"The deputy who made this post has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation by BCSO Internal Affairs," Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said in a statement. "I have made my stance clear, that I will not tolerate any employee who makes insensitive, racist remarks/posts, or those which promote violence and criminal activity. I have every intention of handling this case as swiftly and severely as possible."
The deputy commented that a lynch mob should be used as punishment for people committing petty crimes. The comment reportedly remained in the post for weeks before a resident reported it to sheriff's office.
"It was extremely concerning," said Eliza Reyes, who reported the post. "I saw someone post something about a man stealing mail, and then I was going through the comments, I just go through comments... And then I saw a comment and it just said, you need to lynch this man or something."
”First of all, nobody should be saying that. And then for him to be, you know, protect like someone who’s supposed to protect us and look out for the community was really scary and disgusting, really uncalled for,” Reyes said.
Just two weeks earlier, another Bexar County deputy was put on administrative leave due a troubling Facebook post where he said people involved in looting should be shot.
For a second time since the start of the pandemic, Abbott bans elective surgeries to preserve bed space for coronavirus patients. But this time the hold on the nonessential procedures is only in effect for Bexar, Dallas, Harris, and Travis counties.
Gov. Greg Abbott announced Thursday morning he is once again putting a stop to elective surgeries to preserve bed space for coronavirus patients — but this time the prohibition only applies to Bexar, Dallas, Harris and Travis counties, four areas where the number of patients hospitalized with virus is quickly progressing.
Just Tuesday, Abbott stressed that hospital capacity in Texas was “abundant.”
Statewide, the number of hospitalizations has reached record highs for a full two weeks, soaring to 4,739 on Thursday morning and tripling since Memorial Day.
In hard-hit regions, some hospitals have begun moving coronavirus patients from crowded ICUs to other facilities and local leaders have warned that hospitals could get overwhelmed if the number of infections keeps climbing. In the greater Houston area, the Texas Medical Center warns that the intensive care units are 30 beds away from filling up to their normal capacity. Hospitals and care facilities will then employ their surge plans.
Some counties could be added to the list if hospitalizations surge in other areas of Texas.
Abbott had previously directed hospitals paused elective procedures, as the outbreak started in March. By late April he lifted the ban on nonessential surgeries and procedures, as long as 15% of beds were reserved for coronavirus patients.
An independent watchdog has revealed that the IRS sent stimulus checks to over 1 million dead people because the agency initially believed it did not have the authority to withhold them, POLITICO reports.
When the agency decided to reverse that decision, it attempted to the block the payments to deceased recipients, even asking relatives to return the payments that went through. The agency hasn't said why it reversed course. As of April 30, almost 1.1 million payments totaling $1.4 billion had been paid out.
"Though they represented a tiny share of the more than 160 million payments made, they received outsized attention, with critics calling them evidence of government mismanagement. In mid-April, President Trump said publicly he wanted that money returned," POLITICO reports.
"Government veterans have said it is all-but-inevitable the dead would get paid when the IRS is under pressure to distribute payments as quickly as possible, even as the coronavirus was killing tens of thousands of people," the report continued. "Some outside experts had questioned whether the legislation approved by Congress gave the executive branch the power to stop the payments."
New York Times columnist Charles Blow authored a reality-check about President Donald Trump's decision to pretend like the coronavirus is gone.
In his Thursday column, Blow noted that things must be bad if the European Union is banning Americans from coming into their countries because they will likely spread COVID-19.
“Looks like by April, you know, in theory, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away," Trump said in February. As the U.S. enters a hot summer, the virus has grown to reach new records.
"Trump has consistently been resistant to testing, falsely claiming that an increase in testing is somehow linked to an increase in cases. But in fact, the more you test, the more you are able to control the virus by identifying, isolating and treating the infected, thereby reducing the spread of the virus. Testing is how you reduce your cases. It is also how you save lives," Blow wrote.
Still, Trump has convinced himself that if he can reduce the number of tests in the country then numbers will decrease. In fact, it will make things worse, with people being forced into hospitals if they can't get tested.
"What Trump is truly saying here is, let people get sick without proper surveillance," Blow explained. "He is saying, let them suffer out of sight. He is saying, some will die, but so what. He is saying vulnerable Americans are collateral damage in his image-making and re-election bid."
If there was to be a testing slowdown, more would get the virus, spread the virus and more would die. Taking medical advice from Trump isn't exactly the best idea, anyway. It was just months ago that he suggested people inject disinfectant into their bodies to fight the virus or somehow insert a disinfecting light source in their body to kill the virus. Cases of poisoning then increased around the U.S.
Then the president decided he was a pharmacist and was prescribing hydroxychloroquine without it being researched or sending it through clinical trials. The drug was ultimately found to have no effect and those who took it were discovered to develop an irregular heart rhythm, putting them in greater danger while fighting COVID-19.
Trump then lied about the stockpile of ventilators, claiming former President Barack Obama hadn't left any ventilators. In fact, 16,660 ventilators were available for use when Trump took office and when states started begging for help in March. Thus far, Trump has only distributed 10,760 of the ventilators, and states have had to figure out their own solutions.
Blow said that this doesn't even begin to explain away Trump being seemingly too afraid of using the Defense Production Act to quickly garner the necessary supplies while creating jobs at the same time.
"Trump then pressured states to reopen economically even before those states met the administration’s own guidelines for reopening. Now, many of the states that quickly reopened, no doubt in part to please the president, are the same ones in which cases are rising and more people than necessary are dying," wrote Blow. "Trump has even mocked the wearing of masks, which experts say is a proven way to reduce virus transmission."
The president held his first mask-free rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma last weekend, giving eight staffers the coronavirus. Dozens of Secret Service agents have been pulled out of rotation from work because of their exposure. Oklahoma experienced the largest number of COVID-19 cases in the two days leading up to the rally. Tuesday he held another mask-option event with screaming fans in Arizona, which is one of the worst places in the country suffering from the virus.
"It seems that in every possible way, Trump has willfully and arrogantly put more Americans at risk of getting sick and dying, and the results have been inevitable: More Americans got sick and died," wrote Blow. "There is no way to remove Trump’s culpability in this. If your feeble effort saves two lives when an earnest, robust, science-driven effort would have saved four, are you not responsible for the two deaths?"
It all made Blow wonder why Trump isn't being labeled a killer of American citizens from his "negligence, ignorance and incompetence?"
President Donald Trump on Thursday had a Twitter tantrum against Fox News after it aired a segment in which one commentator attacked his widely criticized photo op at the St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C.
"A Fox News commentator just ripped me with lies, with nobody defending," the president complained. "They talked about the 'friendly' protesters (they set the Church on fire the day before. They were anything but friendly), and how I stood and held the Bible upside down -- it wasn’t upside down."
In reality, the vandals who set fire to St. John's Church did so the night before Trump's now-infamous photo op there, whereas the protesters who were forcibly removed from the area during the photo op were entirely peaceful.
Although there have been allegations that Trump held the Bible upside down, most photographs taken of the president during his stunt do show him holding it right side up.
An 18-year-old Black woman says she was deliberately set on fire in Wisconsin by racist white men wearing Hawaiian shirts.
Althea Bernstein, who works as an emergency medical technician while studying to be a paramedic and firefighter, suffered second- and third-degree burns in the attack while stopped at a light about 1 a.m. Wednesday in downtown Madison, reported Madison 365.
“I was listening to some music at a stoplight and then all of a sudden I heard someone yell the N-word really loud,” Bernstein told the website. “I turned my head to look and somebody’s throwing lighter fluid on me, and then they threw a lighter at me, and my neck caught on fire and I tried to put it out, but I brushed it up onto my face. I got it out and then I just blasted through the red light."
She described the assailants as white, "classic Wisconsin frat boys," and said two were wearing all black while the other two were wearing jeans and floral shirts, and she said their gait suggested they were intoxicated.
Her description suggests the possible involvement of anti-government "boogaloo bois," a loosely organized online movement whose adherents are preparing for a second civil war over race and whose members have worn Hawaiian shirts and carried weapons to Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
Bernstein drove to her brother's house, and then drove herself to a nearby hospital for treatment.
“I’ve had patients in shock and I know what shock is based on the textbook,” Bernstein said. “It’s so incapacitating, you don’t even realize what’s going on. My brain still got me home and my brain still got me to call my mom. I just remember my face was bleeding.”
Bernstein said she was advised not to call police right away because she had been given powerful pain medication while medics treated burns on her face and neck, which she said will eventually require plastic surgery.
She called police later in the day but says she was told officers were unable to take a statement because they were preparing for the evening's protests, and the department confirmed to Madison 365 that Bernstein had called.
Hours before Bernstein was attacked, a 28-year-old Black man was beaten and robbed by a small group of people near the protest zone in downtown Madison after someone threw a bicycle at his car as he pulled through a gap in the barrier, which he said made it appear he'd hit someone.
"There does not exist a planet where I would intentionally do something like that," said the man, who asked to use only his first name, Mike.
He got out of his car to confront a group gathering around his vehicle, and several demonstrators began punching him as he lay on the ground in a protective ball, and someone stole his wallet and phone before he was able to escape.
In recent months, even as our attention has been focused on the coronavirus outbreak, there have been a slew of scientific breakthroughs in treating diseases that cause blindness.
Researchers at U.S.-based Editas Medicine and Ireland-based Allergan have administered CRISPR for the first time to a person with a genetic disease. This landmark treatment uses the CRISPR approach to a specific mutation in a gene linked to childhood blindness. The mutation affects the functioning of the light-sensing compartment of the eye, called the retina, and leads to loss of the light-sensing cells.
I am an ophthalmology and visual sciences researcher, and am particularly interested in these advances because my laboratory is focusing on designing new and improved gene therapy approaches to treat inherited forms of blindness.
The eye as a testing ground for CRISPR
Gene therapy involves inserting the correct copy of a gene into cells that have a mistake in the genetic sequence of that gene, recovering the normal function of the protein in the cell. The eye is an ideal organ for testing new therapeutic approaches, including CRISPR. That is because the eye is the most exposed part of our brain and thus is easily accessible.
The second reason is that retinal tissue in the eye is shielded from the body’s defense mechanism, which would otherwise consider the injected material used in gene therapy as foreign and mount a defensive attack response. Such a response would destroy the benefits associated with the treatment.
This form of Leber congenital amaurosis is caused by mutations in a gene that codes for a protein called RPE65. The protein participates in chemical reactions that are needed to detect light. The mutations lessen or eliminate the function of RPE65, which leads to our inability to detect light – blindness.
The treatment method developed simultaneously by groups at University of Pennsylvania and at University College London and Moorefields Eye Hospital involved inserting a healthy copy of the mutated gene directly into the space between the retina and the retinal pigmented epithelium, the tissue located behind the retina where the chemical reactions takes place. This gene helped the retinal pigmented epithelium cell produce the missing protein that is dysfunctional in patients.
Although the treated eyes showed vision improvement, as measured by the patient’s ability to navigate an obstacle course at differing light levels, it is not a permanent fix. This is due to the lack of technologies that can fix the mutated genetic code in the DNA of the cells of the patient.
A new technology to erase the mutation
Lately, scientists have been developing a powerful new tool that is shifting biology and genetic engineering into the next phase. This breakthrough geneediting technology, which is called CRISPR, enables researchers to directly edit the genetic code of cells in the eye and correct the mutation causing the disease.
Children suffering from the disease Leber congenital amaurosis Type 10 endure progressive vision loss beginning as early as one year old. This specific form of Leber congenital amaurosis is caused by a change to the DNA that affects the ability of the gene – called CEP290 – to make the complete protein. The loss of the CEP290 protein affects the survival and function of our light-sensing cells, called photoreceptors.
One treatment strategy is to deliver the full form of the CEP290 gene using a virus as the delivery vehicle. But the CEP290 gene is too big to be cargo for viruses. So another approach was needed. One strategy was to fix the mutation by using CRISPR.
The scientists at Editas Medicine first showed safety and proof of the concept of the CRISPR strategy in cells extracted from patient skin biopsy and in nonhuman primate animals.
These studies led to the formulation of the first ever in human CRISPR gene therapeutic clinical trial. This Phase 1 and Phase 2 trial will eventually assess the safety and efficacy of the CRISPR therapy in 18 Leber congenital amaurosis Type 10 patients. The patients receive a dose of the therapy while under anesthesia when the retina surgeon uses a scope, needle and syringe to inject the CRISPR enzyme and nucleic acids into the back of the eye near the photoreceptors.
To make sure that the experiment is working and safe for the patients, the clinical trial has recruited people with late-stage disease and no hope of recovering their vision. The doctors are also injecting the CRISPR editing tools into only one eye.
A new CEP290 gene therapy strategy
An ongoing project in my laboratory focuses on designing a gene therapy approach for the same gene CEP290. Contrary to the CRISPR approach, which can target only a specific mutation at one time, my team is developing an approach that would work for all CEP290 mutations in Leber congenital amaurosis Type 10.
Gene therapy that involves CRISPR promises a permanent fix and a significantly reduced recovery period. A downside of the CRISPR approach is the possibility of an off-target effect in which another region of the cell’s DNA is edited, which could cause undesirable side effects, such as cancer. However, new and improved strategies have made such likelihood very low.
Although the CRISPR study is for a specific mutation in CEP290, I believe the use of CRISPR technology in the body to be exciting and a giant leap. I know this treatment is in an early phase, but it shows clear promise. In my mind, as well as the minds of many other scientists, CRISPR-mediated therapeutic innovation absolutely holds immense promise.
An infrared image of a man and a dog. German and Swiss researchers have shown that they can endow living mice with this type of vision.
In another study just reported in the journal Science, German and Swiss scientists have developed a revolutionary technology, which enables mice and human retinas to detect infrared radiation. This ability could be useful for patients suffering from loss of photoreceptors and sight.
The researchers demonstrated this approach, inspired by the ability of snakes and bats to see heat, by endowing mice and postmortem human retinas with a protein that becomes active in response to heat. Infrared light is light emitted by warm objects that is beyond the visible spectrum.
The heat warms a specially engineered gold particle that the researchers introduced into the retina. This particle binds to the protein and helps it convert the heat signal into electrical signals that are then sent to the brain.
In the future, more research is needed to tweak the ability of the infrared sensitive proteins to different wave lengths of light that will also enhance the remaining vision.
This approach is still being tested in animals and in retinal tissue in the lab. But all approaches suggest that it might be possible to either restore, enhance or provide patients with forms of vision used by other species.
On Thursday, The Daily Beast reported that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is refusing to turn over documents and video footage relating to a pair of fatal deputy shootings currently under investigation by independent watchdogs.
"Two institutions which were set up to oversee investigations of deputies’ use of force — the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission and its investigative arm, the Office of Inspector General — told the Los Angeles Times they have asked for the evidence but, so far, it hasn’t been forthcoming," said the report.
The cases under investigation include the death of 18-year-old Andres Guardado, who was fatally shot by an L.A. County deputy in Gardena last Thursday, and Terron Boone, the brother of one of the men recently found hanging from a tree, who died after a shootout with undercover officers. Shellondra Thomas, who was driving the SUV in which the Boone shootout occurred, was injured in the incident and is currently suing the county.
Woody Allen's new romantic comedy "Rifkin’s Festival", is to open Spain's San Sebastian film festival in September, which will also be its international premiere, organizers said Thursday.
Shot last summer in and around the northern seaside resort itself, the story centers on an American couple who come to its international film festival and are swept up by the fantasy of cinema and the charm and beauty of Spain.
Characteristic romantic entanglements ensure when she has an affair with a brilliant French film director and he falls in love with a beautiful Spaniard who lives in the Basque city.
The film, which features Austrian actor Christoph Waltz and US actress Gina Gershon, is the latest project in the 83-year-old American director's cinematic love affair with major European cities.
Produced by Mediapro, it also features French actor Louis Garrel and Spanish actors Elena Anaya and Sergi Lopez.
Despite the uncertainty generated by the coronavirus pandemic, the film festival -- the biggest such event in the Spanish-speaking world -- is set to go ahead as planned, running from September 18-25.
It will be the second time that a Woody Allen film has opened the festival after his "Melinda and Melinda" did the honors in 2004 when the festival gave him a lifetime achievement award.
The screening will be a significant moment for Allen who's seen his career stalled as a result of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment, which revived decades-old allegations he sexually abused his adopted seven-year-old daughter in the early 1990s.
He has consistently denied the claims which were first leveled by his then-partner Mia Farrow and was cleared of the charges following two separate investigations.
But the sexual harassment firestorm has fueled a growing backlash against him and last year his most recent romantic comedy "A Rainy Day in New York" ended up being released in various European and Latin American countries rather than in the US.
President Donald Trump is forcing through his plan to headline a fireworks show at Mount Rushmore despite concerns from experts who know the national park and its 93-year old monument very well. Those concerns include the coronavirus pandemic, threat of setting off wildfires, water contamination from fireworks chemicals, and limited access to and from the park.
“I think it’s insane to explode fireworks over flammable material and ponderosa pine vegetation,” Bill Gabbert, a former National Park Service fire management officer, told The Washington Post. Gabbert oversaw Mount Rushmore and six other national parks for three years.
Trump will get his way, fulfilling his years-long dream. 7500 tickets are being distributed by the state's tourism department.
The president and his re-election campaign team will fly to South Dakota and Montana for a four-day "high-dollar" fundraising trip, followed by Trump's July 3 fireworks show. Tickets to the fundraising events cost between $250 and $100,000. Trump is also headlining a July 4 "Salute to America" in D.C., where he will speak on "heritage." The event will feature military flyovers and demonstrations.
Other Mount Rushmore experts are also concerned.
“It’s a bad idea based on the wildland fire risk, the impact to the water quality of the memorial, the fact that is going to occur during a pandemic without social distancing guidelines and the emergency evacuation issues,” says Cheryl Schreier, superintendent at Mount Rushmore National Park between 2010 and 2019.
Schreier says there are “public health and safety risks, not only to the visitors but to employees.”
"Fireworks shows," the Post notes, "had been held at the memorial between 1998 and 2009, until U.S. Geological Survey scientists determined the activities left high levels of a toxic chemical called perchlorate in drinking water used by the 3 million people who visit the memorial annually."
Trump in January, discussing his desire to have the fireworks at the historic monument honoring four of the nation's greatest presidents, ignored all the risks.
The former superintendent at Mount Rushmore National Park is warning that President Donald Trump's plan to hold a fireworks celebration there on July 4th could end in disaster.
In an interview with the Washington Post, former park superintendent Cheryl Schreier said that holding a big fireworks celebration at the park this year poses "public health and safety risks" thanks to the twin dangers of potential forest fires and the novel coronavirus.
"It’s a bad idea based on the wildland fire risk, the impact to the water quality of the memorial, the fact that is going to occur during a pandemic without social distancing guidelines and the emergency evacuation issues," she explained.
Bill Gabbert, a former National Park Service fire management officer, similarly tells the Post that dry conditions in the forests surrounding the Mount Rushmore monument make it particularly susceptible to wild fires.
"Internally in our discussions I recommended that people not shoot fireworks over flammable vegetation," said Gabbert, who also claims that he recorded 17 different fires that were ignited by fireworks in just a two-year period. "I think it’s insane to explode fireworks over flammable material and ponderosa pine vegetation."
Speaking on MSNBC this Thursday, former White House Director of Communications Anthony Scaramucci talked about President Trump's racist rhetoric, and whether or not he uses that rhetoric to appeal directly to his white base.
According to Scaramucci, Trump's usage of terms like "kung-flu" as a way to describe what he sees as the Chinese origins of the coronavirus, amongst others, is just him "experimenting."
"He is searching for what he thinks is the Rubik's Cube answer to getting him reelected, and that is more white turnout in November," Scaramucci said. "And so, he's decided he's going to make this a race-baiting race war, he's going to do everything he can to defy the people ... and he's hoping he can get his base to turn out in terms of voter participation at a higher percentage than last time."
"By August, he'll have a much more refined, much more negative, much more racist pitch," he added.
