Today marks the commemoration of Juneteenth. This is a major holiday for the African American community, and it is celebrated as a state holiday in 47 of the 50 states. President Trump, who apparently had never heard of Juneteenth until just a few days ago, tweeted, “I did something good. I made Juneteenth very famous. It’s actually an important event, an important time. But nobody had ever heard of it.”
Meanwhile, President Trump’s first post-COVID-19 campaign rally is scheduled to take place in Tulsa, Oklahoma tomorrow. The mayor of Tulsa already has declared a state of emergency and instituted a curfew for today and tomorrow, saying that “stragglers would be arrested.” This was after reports that protesters also would descend on the city. Meanwhile, the White House said that it has no concerns that the 20,000 people expected to pack into the rally venue might be at increased risk of contracting the coronavirus.
California utility PG&E, which stands for Pacific Gas & Electric, has agreed to plead guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter and one felony count of unlawfully starting a fire. You heard that right. The utility giant has admitted in court that its faulty and outdated equipment was the cause of a horrific 2018 blaze that destroyed the town of Paradise, California and much of the surrounding area. Besides the dead, 19,000 buildings burned to the ground. The utility will pay a $3.5 million fine, the maximum allowed by law, and a $28.5 billion settlement to the victims, their families, and Butte County, California. Brian and John speak with Nathalie Hrizi, an educator, a political activist, and the editor of Breaking the Chains, a women’s magazine, at www.patreon.com/ BreakChainsMag.Brian
It’s Friday! So it’s time for the week’s worst and most misleading headlines. Brian and John speak with Steve Patt, an independent journalist whose critiques of the mainstream media have been a feature of his site Left I on the News and on twitter @leftiblog, and Sputnik producer Nicole Roussell.
Friday is Loud & Clear’s weekly hour-long segment The Week in Review, about the week in politics, policy, and international affairs. Today they focus on the commemoration of and meaning of Juneteenth, what Juneteenth means for the ongoing protest movement today, the tens of millions who have become suddenly unemployed in the last few months, the labor strikes going on today, and more. Brian and John speak with Sputnik News analysts and producers Walter Smolarek and Nicole Roussell.
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