Bye Bye

#BREAKING Statue of former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo has been removed from the Municipal Services Building less than a week after Mayor @JimFKenney said he is expediting its removal. @CBSPhilly #RizzoStatue pic.twitter.com/wspkA8iSph

— Joshua Crompton (@PhillyNewsGuy) June 3, 2020

The Rizzo statue is philly's confederate monument. A shitty mayor who ran on racism, governed with an explicit policy of police brutality, and was also just a shitty mayor in every other way. Its prominent location was a big fuck you to black people. The local racists, wannabe white flighters who never managed to follow their families out of the city, loved it. Mayor promised to get rid of it a couple of years ago but never quite got around to it. Probably wishing he had, as doing it at this moment is not going to sit well with those racists.

Morning Thread

Hey now! The overnight news was bad, but not horrifying. Progress!

Fanner of the Flame

Can't even muster a sassy clap.

Pelosi also commented on the situation that occurred outside the White House Monday evening. “Some people came out and beat them so they could clear the area so the President could come out and go forward. What is that?” she said. “That has no place, and it’s time for us to do away with that, ‘a time to heal,’ the Book of Ecclesiastes.” Pelosi said she hopes moving forward Trump “would follow the lead of so many other presidents before him to be a healer in chief and not a fanner of the flame.”

Ah, well, nevertheless.

Lies and the Lying Liars

Just completely full of shit.

Philadelphia officials are struggling to produce evidence to back up their claims that protests Monday on Interstate 676 had turned hostile before officers unleashed tear gas on demonstrators cornered on the highway.

A peaceful protest over the killing of George Floyd and other Black people at the hands of law enforcement began around 3 p.m. at city police headquarters. Organized by the Philadelphia chapter of the political group “Party for Socialism and Liberation,” it moved through Chinatown to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Around 5 p.m., some of the estimated 3,000 to 5,000 protesters poured down embankment onto I-676, halting traffic in both directions.

The demonstration ended a few minutes later with Philadelphia police using tear gas canisters and pepper spray to disperse the crowd, according to videos that spread quickly online.

Afternoon Thread

TGIF.

The Sentient Helicopters Have Motives

New York Times reporters know what the helicopters want.

Change in Abstract pic.twitter.com/DaKsGgo8Ww

— Editing TheGrayLady (@nyt_diff) June 2, 2020

It's a twitter bot that shows how posted NYT articles have been edited as they change.

Maggie's Bestie

Poor Hope. Bet Trump's raging at her today.

After Mr. Trump’s aides spent much of Monday expressing outrage over the burning of a place of worship, Hope Hicks, a presidential adviser, eventually hatched a plan with others at the White House to have the president walk over to the building, according to an official familiar with the events.

Solved It

Pelosi asked about Trump’s Bible photo op last night. She goes and grabs her own bible and is now reading from it. pic.twitter.com/F64v4JFBH6

— Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) June 2, 2020

The Art Of The Hissy Fit

Repeating myself, but while I don't think the press should or always does take its cues solely from politicians pretending to be angry about things, and I do think if for no other reason than habit they're more receptive to this from Republicans, it is also true that if Obummer tear gassed a church and kick out its priests so he could get a really dumb photo, there would be 300 screeching Republicans running to every camera and reporter they could find.

"What if Obama?" sure, but the Celestial Hall Monitors need a little prodding.

Vote

These are Dem mayors in states with Dem governors and every national politician or prominent celebrity who tells people to vote, implicitly suggesting what's going on is the problem of people not voting, that if only they'd go out and vote for "the good guys" we wouldn't be having these problems, gets scratched off my Christmas card list.

Thread

Your Moment of Zen

great photo op. nailed it pic.twitter.com/X7uedAcxHb

— Brendan Karet 🚮 (@bad_takes) June 1, 2020

My President Is About To Speak

Can't wait for his new sober tone!

Battlespace

DOD's Esper during WH call with governors: "I think the sooner that you mass and dominate the battlespace, the quicker this dissipates and we can get back to the right normal."

— Missy Ryan (@missy_ryan) June 1, 2020

They don't consider black people to be citizens and they mostly don't consider "democrats" or anyone democrat-adjacent to be them either.

Afternoon Thread

It is, apparently, the afternoon.

Many Layers of Power

I don't want this to sound like some Hallmark card bullshit YOU BE THE CHANGE, but one problem with hierarchical systems generally is that it does give everyone the excuse to fault the leadership of the boss, and the boss's boss, and the boss's boss boss, and the Big Boss. All valid, of course, but while the Big Boss might be able to attempt to establish company-wide policy, and the little bosses might be responsible for implementing it, you don't have to be all that high up in the hierarchy to have some power to change some things. Maybe ask why *you* aren't hiring any minorities, for example, instead of asking why your company doesn't have a better diversity hiring plan.

Rot's everywhere in the system, maybe even with YOU (and me).

Solved It

Biden said "there are a lot of different things that can change" about police training. One example he said was if cops rushed by unarmed person, they could "shoot them in the leg instead of the heart is a very different thing."

— Bo Erickson CBS (@BoKnowsNews) June 1, 2020

I'm pretty sure this is a typo and it should be "an armed" not "unarmed" but still.

Nobody Home

Reached out to half-dozen Hill aides —

Tl;dr: Nobody thinks Congress will move anything at all in response to mass protests across major cities

House is out in June. Senate may confirm more judges. “No chance,” one says of a legislative response

— Jeffrey Stein (@JStein_WaPo) June 1, 2020

Me: Is there anything at all you think Congress will consider in response to these widespread protests?

Senate aide: “😂”

— Jeffrey Stein (@JStein_WaPo) June 1, 2020

I admit I don't know precisely what they should be doing, but 2020 is going to be the year of the absent Congress. Among other things.

Governors And Mayors

The contribution of Donald Trump to all of this is nontrivial, but if Democratic (the "good guys") governors and mayors are unwilling or unable to exert seemingly any control over the police forces who supposedly work for us and them...

Shit Is Fucked Up And Bullshit

What the hell is this about.

Authorities have identified a truck driver who was arrested after he drove through a crowd protesting on I-35W in Minneapolis as Bogdan Vechirko.

Vechirko has been booked in the Hennepin County Jail.