I call this composition: Flowers, City, and Slave Owner
I call this composition: Flowers, City, and Slave Owner capecodphoto/gettyimages.com

First It Was Thomas Jefferson: Now it is George Washington. His statue was toppled on the night of June 18 by protesters in Portland, Oregon. It was bound to happen soon or later. George Washington's entire wealth had slavery as its foundation. Free black labor, stolen from Africa, made him rich and powerful. For reasons that are very American, we have been told to ignore this fact and instead see Washington only as a national hero, as the first US president, as the snobby face on a dollar bill, as the boy who couldn't tell a lie. But what about all of those black women and men who lived and died as his property? Is that really just history? The name of a descendant of black slaves, George Floyd, was spray-painted on Washington's pedestal?

George Washington Is Trending On: Twitter.

The State of Washington: "Know your local Black history: George Washington also was the name of the leading Black pioneer and businessman who was the founder of Centralia and established a strong Black community there." Meaning, let's name the state after this other Washington. As we did for King County, we can do for the state.

Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG): Wants its tear gas and chokeholds back. And back now. The job of policing is nothing but empty if cops can't inflict pain on citizens.

The First Prisoner in Washington to Die of COVID-19: Is, of course, black. Blacks are behind bars, blacks are on parole, blacks are getting shot, blacks are dying of coronavirus. The dead inmate, Victor Bueno, entered the US's vast prison system on Sept. 28, 2017, for "a protection order violation in Kitsap County." He had three months left to pay his debt to society.

Today is the Day Apparently Made Famous by None Other than Donald Trump: Juneteenth, which is "the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States." But history is never as neat and tidy as that.


As we all well know, Trump only learned about Juneteenth, which is not recognized by the US government, because he planned to hold his first pandemic-era MAGA rally on that day. MAGA, of course, is a white supremacist movement. And Tulsa, Oklahoma, the city hosting the MAGA event, is mostly known for a "race riot" instigated by a white mob in the summer of 1921. Black businesses and homes were burned to the ground. Black lives were lost. Smoke blackened the sky. When Trump realized his white supremacist rally was set to happen in this city and on this day, Juneteenth, he got all grumpy and moved the event to Saturday.

Dick Cheney’s Doctor Says: Stay away from Tulsa's white-race rally, and he accuses Trump of criminal endangerment.

Information About Juneteenth Events Can Be Found: Here.

Trump Not Only Believes He Discovered Juneteenth for America: But that people wear face masks to express their disapproval of him. It is, in short, not about life but his political career. Oddly enough, I can understand his reasoning. I can see how he might see things this way. My meaning: We can think of the genomic structure of COVID-19 as being best suited for a specific political environment. By evolution, this virus chanced upon a sequence of molecules that made it wildly successful in societies run by leaders like Trump, and not so successful in societies run by leaders like Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand's prime minister. COVID-19 was made for Trump, made for Republicans. Those who wear face masks are pressing for a political reality that's vastly different from Trump's. The president wants citizens to live with the virus (do not wear face masks, go to the rally, shop at malls) because it simply could not thrive without him.

The Governor of California: Has ordered people to wear "face masks in most indoor— and some outdoor—public settings." They actually work. Indeed, reopening large sections of the economy would be feasible if face masks were made mandatory in the US. One would think Republicans, men and women who see themselves as business-minded, could easily recognize the economic advantage of face masks. But they just cant. Why? I think the right's irrational hatred of face masks can be found in how this virus is coded. COVID-19 lucked upon a genetic sequence that encourages the right's outrage for any kind of political policy that can check the spread of the virus.

The Governor of Florida: Blames Hispanic workers for the spike in virus infections. “Some of these guys go to work in a school bus, and they are all just packed there like sardines, going across Palm Beach County or some of these other places, and there’s all these opportunities to have transmission,” the governor said during a press conference in Tallahassee. In short, his decision to reopen the economy in the middle of a pandemic has nothing to with the coronavirus rise.

Meanwhile:

Ian Holms: Is dead. Many remember him for his role in the Lord of the Rings. But I will always remember him as the android Ash in Alien.

Ash.jpg
Alien