George Perry Floyd Jr. was laid to rest on Tuesday in Houston, Texas, buried next to his mother. In death, he gave rise to international protests, and his last words — “I can’t breathe” — have become a rallying cry. He was 46. Floyd's last words were the same as Eric Garner's in New York City. He was murdered by police, as were Tamir Rice and so many others. Why has this death generated such a reaction, and why now?
A Monday Washington Post headline read: "US economy officially went into a recession in February, ending record 128-month expansion." So, how do we square the pronouncement of a recession with statements from people like US President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the latter of whom, reported the Financial Times, on Monday "suggested the US economy was already on the mend, on the back of a report showing the US economy created 2.5 million jobs in May — close to one-tenth of the 21 million positions shed since the coronavirus pandemic began"?
In Charlotte Dennett's new piece in Counter Punch, entitled "Saudi Arms Sales, the Ghost of a Reporter, and America’s Oil War in Yemen," she writes, "The brutal killing of George Floyd by police, followed by the president’s calls for military intervention against protestors, are causing words like 'dictatorship,' 'authoritarianism' and even 'fascism' to become part of the national discourse. But the president has been dismantling constitutional safeguards for a long time, and the racism he and his administration have broadcast across the nation extends around the world, too.” What does this mean?
GUESTS:
Dr. Colin Campbell - TV news reporter for more than 20 years. As a senior Washington, DC correspondent since 2008, he has been a reporter-at-large covering two presidencies, Congress and the State Department.
Dr. Dania Francis - Assistant professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Charlotte Dennett - Investigative journalist. Her latest book is "The Crash of Flight 3804: A Lost Spy, a Daughter’s Quest, and the Deadly Politics of the Great Game for Oil."
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