The Critical Hour

US DHS Reportedly Created 'Intelligence Reports' on Journalists Covering Portland Protests

On this edition of The Critical Hour, co-hosts Dr. Wilmer Leon and Garland Nixon speak with author Caleb Maupin about the recent report by the Washington Post which said that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) compiled "intelligence reports" about journalists who have been covering the protests in Portland, Oregon.
Sputnik

"Over the past week, the department's Office of Intelligence and Analysis has disseminated three Open Source Intelligence Reports to federal law enforcement agencies and others, summarizing tweets written by two journalists — a reporter for the New York Times and the editor in chief of the blog Lawfare — and noting they had published leaked, unclassified documents about DHS operations in Portland," the Washington Post reported Thursday. "The intelligence reports, obtained by The Washington Post, include written descriptions and images of the tweets and the number of times they had been liked or retweeted by others." What do we make of this?

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump tweeted, “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote?" What are we to make of this?

"The White House is willing to cut a deal with Democrats that leaves out Senate Republican legislation aimed at protecting employers, hospitals and schools from coronavirus-related lawsuits, according to two people with knowledge of internal White House planning," the Washington Post reported Friday. "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) controls the Senate floor and could shoot down any deal that leaves out what he has said is a necessary component of any stimulus package." All of this wrangling occurs while the $600 weekly unemployment bonus is set to expire at midnight on Friday unless Congress votes to extend it. What can we expect next?

Trump on Thursday "drew immediate rebukes from across the political spectrum after proposing to delay the November 3 election and claiming without evidence that widespread mail balloting would be a 'catastrophic disaster' leading to fraudulent results," the Washington Post reported Friday. What comes next?

"Economic output fell at its fastest pace on record last spring as the coronavirus pandemic forced businesses across the United States to close their doors and kept millions of Americans shut in their homes for weeks," the New York Times reported Thursday. "Gross domestic product — the broadest measure of goods and services produced — fell 9.5 percent in the second quarter of the year, the Commerce Department said Thursday." How will this affect the US going forward?

Guests:

Caleb Maupin - Journalist and political analyst

Dr. Emmit Riley - Assistant professor and director of Africana studies at DePauw University

Niko House, Political Activist, Independent Journalist, Podcaster

Jim Kavanaugh, Writer at thepolemicist.net and CounterPunch and the author of "Over the Rainbow: Paths of Resistance after George Floyd" 

Dr. Colin Campbell - Washington, DC, senior news correspondent

Dr. Maragret Kimberley - Editor and senior columnist at Black Agenda Report and author of "Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents"

Dr. Dania Francis - Assistant professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

Dr. Linwood Tauheed - Associate professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City

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