Too Much to Comment On
Four Years Ago Today #SayTheirNames | #TC72
Welcome to Third Cultured, a Queer Reading of the American Empire through crisis-after-crisis — written by yours truly, Kyle Borland.
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Kyle (@kgborland)
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“It’s now something where the Mitt Romneys of the world can join in, and that was something unimaginable back in 2014. That is the result of six years of hard work by people who are in the movement and have put forward so many discussions that really changed people’s hearts and minds.”
– Justin Hansford, who was an activist in Ferguson, Mo. after the shooting of 18-year old Michael Brown and is now the executive director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University.
American Empire & Other Wars
8,500 – The number of active-duty Airmen who applied to transfer to the Space Force. Up to 6,000 of them will ultimately join the new branch. Funnily enough, Netflix’s new show of the same name beat the Pentagon to the trademark punch.
#BlackLivesMatter: Check out the concessions major US cities and states have made so far! #DefundThePolice | Breonna Taylor’s incident report was released, and it’s blank. | General Milley apologized for participating in Trump’s fascist photo-op, showcasing the amount of pushback he must have received within the Pentagon. | Democratic calls grow louder for former VP Joe Biden to pick a Black woman as his running mate, with leading contenders being Senator Kamala Harris (CA); Representative Val Demings (FL); Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Democratic nominee for GA governor; and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta. | The GOP was caught flat-footed on policing and are rushing to cobble together a response to the change in public opinion and the Democrat’s massive House bill, and they can’t wait on Trump’s fickle decision-making. Along those lines, the GOP-led Senate Armed Services Committee voted against Trump to adopt Senator Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) amendment to change bases named Confederates. | Jefferson Davis is the latest Richmond statue to eat dirt. | Protesters in Seattle set up a Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in a multi-block area of the city, including the SPD’s East Precinct. Trump called them “domestic terrorists.” | No links to Antifa can be found for the 51 individuals facing federal charges in connection with the George Floyd / #DefundThePolice protests. | L.L. McKinney started #PublishingPaidMe to expose the disparity in publishing pay advances between white and nonwhite authors, even when authors of color had won awards or written bestsellers. | IBM will no sell facial recognition technology or perform further research, and Amazon agreed to halt for one year. | NASCAR banned the Confederate flag from its events and properties. | ABC picked its first Black Bachelor for the hit network franchise. | Disney, Papa Johns, T-Mobile, and Vari canceled their current and future ad buys on Tucker Carlson Tonight after pressured by Popular Information. | CrossFit’s founder and CEO resigned after racist comments mocking Floyd’s death. Gone With The Wind was temporarily pulled from HBO Max for its racist depictions of Black people and romanticizing of actual history. | The TV show “Cops” was canceled after 32 years. (Graphic: Statista)
Brazil is sliding back toward military dictatorship as Bolsonaro looks to deploy the military to respond to COVID (and cement his grip on power). In an effort to check his authoritarian moves, Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered the government’s COVID data site to be restored and be kept publicly accessible.
Chinese fighter jets entered Taiwan’s air space and the island issued verbal warnings and "active responses" to push them away. In the South China Sea, the Philippines is spending $26 million to fortify some of its disputed islands.
Greece and Italy signed an agreement demarcating the exclusive economic zone for each nation in the Ionian Sea, flouting Turkey’s deal with Libya from 2019.
Hezb-e Walayat-e Islami, or the Party of Islamic Guardianship, is breakaway sect of the Taliban based in Iran that fiercely opposes any peace plan with the US. The Taliban is experiencing a power vacuum following the death of its supreme leader and several senior figures from COVID-19, with the son of Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban’s founder, taking control.
India and China simmered their tensions in Ladakh, but Nepal stirred the pot.
Iran sentenced Mahmoud Mousavi-Majd to death for providing the information to US and Israeli intel services on Commander Qassem Soleimani’s whereabouts that led to his assassination on January 3.
Japan requested to take lead of the G7’s response to China’s moves in Hong Kong.
Libya’s government and Turkey rejected a call for a ceasefire to capitalize on their military momentum against Haftar’s rebels. They will not pause until seizing the coastal city of Sirte and the Jufra airbase.
Malaysia detained nearly 270 Rohingya refugees stuck at sea fleeing Myanmar.
Romania defined Russia’s “violation of the rules of international law” as one of its main security concerns for destabilizing the region. The first time Romania has officially designated Russia a threat since World War II.
Russia would like China to join nuclear arms discussions but does not believe it should be required for Moscow and DC to meet obligations to the world. If Beijing joined, Putin wants London and Paris to be required, too.
The CHIPS for America Act was introduced this week to incentivize domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research initiatives over the next 5 to 10 years to keep up with Taiwan, Korea, China, and other rivals.
The Naval Institute argued Xi Jinping is China’s Teddy Roosevelt because of the parallels between their focuses of naval primacy and great power diplomacy. I think this comparison is apt, particularly given both of the men’s anti-corruption/anti-trust stints, but the other comparison made are off. Holmes says Deng Xiaoping serves as China’s George Washington. This is incorrect. Deng is closer to Abraham Lincoln and their Washington would be none other than Mao Zedong – with the important note that Mao may have given us a glimpse of America should Washington have stuck around for more than eight years.
Trump authorized sanctions against the ICC for its investigation into US troops.
Two formations of Russian fighter jets were intercepted in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone.
Yemen’s War was a testing ground for new missile technologies from Iran via the Houthis, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the US, and even North Korea. Between March 2015 and April 2020, the Arab coalition has reported over 162 intercepts of Houthi ballistic missiles, the largest use of ballistic missile defense of any conflict in history.
Zoom is in hot water after it deleted a paid US-based account for holding a commemoration of the 31st anniversary of the June 4 Tiananmen Square Massacre, highlighting the companies connections to the CCP.
“Is that what a black man’s life is worth? Twenty dollars?”
— Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd, on Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committe
COVID-19 Updates (as of 8pm, 6/9/2020)
Total Confirmed: 7,238,723; Total Deaths: 411,177; Total Recovered: 3,370,369
US Cases: 2,045,549; US Deaths: 114,148; Recovered: 788,862; Tested: 21,048,183
3 – The US will fund three experiemental COVID vaccines trials this summer.
6.9% – The Dow declined 6.9 percent as the second surge begins.
14 states and Puerto Rico recorded their highest average of new cases ever this week, following Memorial Day holiday and reopenings.
200,000 – The estimated number of American COVID deaths in September.
AMC will reopen “almost all” theaters in July.
Canada and the US are likely to extend their border closure through July.
COVID vs 100 years of deadly events. (TL;DR – Mama Rona is a beast.)
France announced €15 billion ($17 billion) to support Airbus, Air France, and its greater aerospace industry in order to prevent a future China and US duopoly.
Germany to extend travel ban for all non-European countries through August 31.
The EU accused China of orchestrating COVID disinformation campaigns.
Vietnam may be the COVID success story as the nation of 96 million has recorded zero deaths and expects the economy to grow by 5 percent in 2020.
One Last Thing
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