theguardian--2020-07-30--Barack Obama: John Lewis fought for our highest ideals | Barack Obama

Representative John Lewis , a legendary civil rights leader and member of Congress , died of cancer on 17 July .
In a eulogy at his memorial on Thursday , Barack Obama spoke about Lewis ’ s legacy , especially the importance of continuing his fight to protect voting rights .
This is an abridged version of his remarks .
James wrote to the believers : “ Consider it pure joy , my brothers and sisters , whenever you face trials of many kinds , because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance .
Let perseverance finish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mature and complete , lacking nothing.
” It is a great honor to be back in Ebenezer Baptist church , in the pulpit of its greatest pastor , Dr Martin Luther King Jr , to pay my respects to perhaps his finest disciple – an American whose faith was tested again and again to produce a man of pure joy and unbreakable perseverance – John Robert Lewis .
I ’ ve come here today because I , like so many Americans , owe a great debt to John Lewis and his forceful vision @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a constant work in progress .
We were born with instructions : to form a more perfect union .
Explicit in those words is the idea that we are imperfect ; that what gives each new generation purpose is to take up the unfinished work of the last and carry it further than anyone might have thought possible .
John Lewis – the first of the Freedom Riders , head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee , youngest speaker at the March on Washington , leader of the march from Selma to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people of this state and this district for 33 years , mentor to young people , including me at the time , until his final day on this Earth – he not only embraced that responsibility , but he made it his life ’ s work .
Which isn ’ t bad for a boy from Troy .
John was born into modest means – that means he was poor – in the heart of the Jim Crow south to parents who picked somebody else ’ s cotton .
Apparently , he didn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on days when he was supposed to help his brothers and sisters with their labor , he ’ d hide under the porch and make a break for the school bus when it showed up .
His mother , Willie Mae Lewis , nurtured that curiosity in this shy , serious child .
“ Once you learn something , ” she told her son , “ once you get something inside your head , no one can take it away from you.
” As a boy , John listened through the door after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ complained about the Klan .
One Sunday as a teenager , he heard Dr King preach on the radio .
As a college student in Tennessee , he signed up for Jim Lawson ’ s workshops on the tactic of nonviolent civil disobedience .
John Lewis was getting something inside his head , an idea he couldn ’ t shake that took hold of him – that nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience were the means to change laws , but also change hearts , and change minds , and change nations , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ organize the Nashville campaign in 1960 .
He and other young men and women sat at a segregated lunch counter , well-dressed , straight-backed , refusing to let a milkshake poured on their heads , or a cigarette extinguished on their backs , or a foot aimed at their ribs , refused to let that dent their dignity and their sense of purpose .
And after a few months , the Nashville campaign achieved the first successful desegregation of public facilities in any major city in the south .
John got a taste @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , third … well , several times .
But he also got a taste of victory .
And it consumed him with righteous purpose .
And he took the battle deeper into the south .
That same year , just weeks after the supreme court ruled that segregation of interstate bus facilities was unconstitutional , John and Bernard Lafayette bought two tickets , climbed aboard a Greyhound , sat up front , and refused to move .
This was months before the first official Freedom Rides .
He was doing a test .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ what they were up to .
And at every stop , through the night , apparently the angry driver stormed out of the bus and into the bus station .
And John and Bernard had no idea what he might come back with or who he might come back with .
Nobody was there to protect them .
There were no camera crews to record events .
You know , sometimes , we read about this and kind of take it for granted .
Or at least we act as if it was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people Malia ’ s age , younger than my oldest daughter , on their own , to challenge an entire infrastructure of oppression .
John was only 20 years old .
But he pushed all 20 of those years to the center of the table , betting everything , all of it , that his example could challenge centuries of convention , and generations of brutal violence , and countless daily indignities suffered by African Americans .
Like John the Baptist preparing the way , like those Old Testament prophets speaking truth to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ – he kept on getting onboard buses and sitting at lunch counters , got his mugshot taken again and again , marched again and again on a mission to change America .
Spoke to a quarter million people at the March on Washington when he was just 23 .
Helped organize the Freedom Summer in Mississippi when he was just 24 .
At the ripe old age of 25 , John was asked to lead the march from Selma to Montgomery .
He was warned that Governor Wallace had ordered troopers to use @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and others led them across that bridge anyway .
And we ’ ve all seen the film and the footage and the photographs , and President Clinton mentioned the trench coat , the knapsack , the book to read , the apple to eat , the toothbrush – apparently jails weren ’ t big on such creature comforts .
And you look at those pictures and John looks so young and he ’ s small in stature .
Looking every bit that shy , serious child that his mother had raised and yet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ God ’ s put perseverance in him .
And we know what happened to the marchers that day .
Their bones were cracked by billy clubs , their eyes and lungs choked with teargas .
As they knelt to pray , which made their heads even easier targets , and John was struck in the skull .
And he thought he was going to die , surrounded by the sight of young Americans gagging , and bleeding , and trampled , victims in their own country of state-sponsored violence .
And the thing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the troopers thought that they had won the battle .
You can imagine the conversations they had afterwards .
You can imagine them saying : “ Yeah , we showed them.
” They figured they ’ d turned the protesters back over the bridge ; that they ’ d kept , that they ’ d preserved a system that denied the basic humanity of their fellow citizens .
Except this time , there were some cameras there .
This time , the world saw what happened , bore witness to Black Americans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be treated like other Americans .
Who were not asking for special treatment , just the equal treatment promised to them a century before , and almost another century before that .
When John woke up , and checked himself out of the hospital , he would make sure the world saw a movement that was , in the words of Scripture , “ hard pressed on every side , but not crushed ; perplexed but not in despair ; persecuted , but not abandoned ; struck down , but not destroyed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a battered prophet , bandages around his head , and he said more marchers will come now .
And the people came .
And the troopers parted .
And the marchers reached Montgomery .
And their words reached the White House – and Lyndon Johnson , son of the south , said “ We shall overcome ” , and the Voting Rights Act was signed into law .
The life of John Lewis was , in so many ways , exceptional .
It vindicated the faith in our founding , redeemed that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; that idea that any of us ordinary people without rank or wealth or title or fame can somehow point out the imperfections of this nation , and come together , and challenge the status quo , and decide that it is in our power to remake this country that we love until it more closely aligns with our highest ideals .
What a radical ideal .
What a revolutionary notion .
This idea that any of us , ordinary people , a young kid from Troy can stand up to the powers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t right , this isn ’ t true , this isn ’ t just .
We can do better .
On the battlefield of justice , Americans like John , Americans like the Reverends Lowery and CT Vivian , two other patriots that we lost this year , liberated all of us that many Americans came to take for granted .
America was built by people like them .
America was built by John Lewises .
He as much as anyone in our history brought this country a little bit closer to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when we do finish that long journey toward freedom ; when we do form a more perfect union – whether it ’ s years from now , or decades , or even if it takes another two centuries – John Lewis will be a founding father of that fuller , fairer , better America .
And yet , as exceptional as John was , here ’ s the thing : John never believed that what he did was more than any citizen of this country can do .
I mentioned in the statement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about John was just how gentle and humble he was .
And despite this storied , remarkable career , he treated everyone with kindness and respect because it was innate to him – this idea that any of us can do what he did if we are willing to persevere .
He believed that in all of us , there exists the capacity for great courage , that in all of us there is a longing to do what ’ s right , that in all of us there is a willingness to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to them their God-given rights to dignity and respect .
So many of us lose that sense .
It ’ s taught out of us .
We start feeling as if , in fact , that we can ’ t afford to extend kindness or decency to other people .
That we ’ re better off if we are above other people and looking down on them , and so often that ’ s encouraged in our culture .
But John always saw the best in us .
And he never gave up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he saw the best in us .
He believed in us even when we didn ’ t believe in ourselves .
As a congressman , he didn ’ t rest ; he kept getting himself arrested .
As an old man , he didn ’ t sit out any fight ; he sat in , all night long , on the floor of the United States Capitol .
I know his staff was stressed .
But the testing of his faith produced perseverance .
He knew that the march is not yet over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ won , that we have not yet reached that blessed destination where we are judged by the content of our character .
He knew from his own life that progress is fragile ; that we have to be vigilant against the darker currents of this country ’ s history , of our own history , with their whirlpools of violence and hatred and despair that can always rise again .
Bull Connor may be gone .
But today we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But we can witness our federal government sending agents to use teargas and batons against peaceful demonstrators .
We may no longer have to guess the number of jellybeans in a jar in order to cast a ballot .
But even as we sit here , there are those in power are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting – by closing polling locations , and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws , and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision , even undermining the postal service in the run-up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be dependent on mailed-in ballots so people don ’ t get sick .
Now , I know this is a celebration of John ’ s life .
There are some who might say we shouldn ’ t dwell on such things .
But that ’ s why I ’ m talking about it .
John Lewis devoted his time on this Earth fighting the very attacks on democracy and what ’ s best in America that we are seeing circulate right now .
He knew that every single one of us has a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of this democracy depends on how we use it ; that democracy isn ’ t automatic , it has to be nurtured , it has to be tended to , we have to work at it , it ’ s hard .
And so he knew it depends on whether we summon a measure , just a measure , of John ’ s moral courage to question what ’ s right and what ’ s wrong and call things as they are .
He said that as long as he had breath in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he could to preserve this democracy .
That as long as we have breath in our bodies , we have to continue his cause .
If we want our children to grow up in a democracy – not just with elections , but a true democracy , a representative democracy , a big-hearted , tolerant , vibrant , inclusive America of perpetual self-creation – then we are going to have to be more like John .
We don ’ t have to do all the things he had to do because he did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ got to do something .
As the Lord instructed Paul : “ Do not be afraid , go on speaking ; do not be silent , for I am with you , and no one will attack you to harm you , for I have many in this city who are my people.
” Just everybody ’ s just got to come out and vote .
We ’ ve got all those people in the city but we can ’ t do nothing .
Like John , we have got to keep getting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that nonviolent protest is patriotic : a way to raise public awareness , put a spotlight on injustice , and make the powers that be uncomfortable .
Like John , we don ’ t have to choose between protest and politics .
It is not an either-or situation , it is a both-and situation .
We have to engage in protests where that is effective but we also have to translate our passion and our causes into laws and institutional practices .
That ’ s why John ran for Congress thirty-four years ago @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to fight even harder for the most powerful tool we have , which is the right to vote .
The Voting Rights Act is one of the crowning achievements of our democracy .
It ’ s why John crossed that bridge .
It ’ s why he spilled his blood .
And by the way , it was the result of Democratic and Republican efforts .
President Bush , who spoke here earlier , and his father both signed its renewal when they were in office .
President Clinton didn ’ t have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he arrived so instead he made a law that made it easier for people to register to vote .
But once the supreme court weakened the Voting Rights Act , some state legislatures unleashed a flood of laws designed specifically to make voting harder , especially , by the way , state legislatures where there is a lot of minority turnout and population growth .
That ’ s not necessarily a mystery or an accident .
It was an attack on what John fought for .
It was an attack on our democratic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as such .
If politicians want to honor John , and I ’ m so grateful for the legacy of work of all the congressional leaders who are here , but there ’ s a better way than a statement calling him a hero .
You want to honor John ?
Let ’ s honor him by revitalizing the law that he was willing to die for .
And by the way , naming it the John Lewis Voting Rights Act , that is a fine tribute .
But John wouldn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to get back to where we already were .
Once we pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act , we should keep marching to make it even better .
By making sure every American is automatically registered to vote , including former inmates who ’ ve earned their second chance .
By adding polling places , and expanding early voting , and making election day a national holiday , so if you are someone who is working in a factory , or you are a single mom who has got to go to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time off , you can still cast your ballot .
By guaranteeing that every American citizen has equal representation in our government , including the American citizens who live in Washington DC and in Puerto Rico .
They are Americans .
By ending some of the partisan gerrymandering– so that all voters have the power to choose their politicians , not the other way around .
And if all this takes eliminating the filibuster – another Jim Crow relic – in order to secure the God-given rights of every American , then that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And yet , even if we do all this – even if every bogus voter suppression law was struck off the books today – we have got to be honest with ourselves that too many of us choose not to exercise the franchise ; that too many of our citizens believe their vote won ’ t make a difference , or they buy into the cynicism that , by the way , is the central strategy of voter suppression – to make you discouraged , to stop believing in your own power .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to remember what John said : “ If you don ’ t do everything you can to change things , then they will remain the same .
You only pass this way once .
You have to give it all you have.
” As long as young people are protesting in the streets , hoping real change takes hold , I ’ m hopeful but we can not casually abandon them at the ballot box .
Not when few elections have been as urgent , on so many levels , as this one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an errand to run if we have some time .
We have to treat it as the most important action we can take on behalf of democracy .
Like John , we have to give it all we have .
I was proud that John Lewis was a friend of mine .
I met him when I was in law school .
He came to speak and I went up and I said : “ Mr Lewis , you are one of my heroes .
What inspired me more than anything as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Reverend Lawson and Bob Moses and Diane Nash and others did.
” And he got that kind of – “ aw shucks , thank you very much ” .
The next time I saw him , I had been elected to the United States Senate .
And I told him , “ John , I am here because of you.
” On inauguration day in 2009 , he was one of the first people that I greeted and hugged on that stand .
I told him , “ This is your day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kind and gentle man .
And he believed in us – even when we don ’ t believe in ourselves .
It ’ s fitting that the last time John and I shared a public forum was on Zoom .
I am pretty sure that neither he nor I set up the Zoom call because we didn ’ t know how to work it .
It was a virtual town hall with a gathering of young activists who had been helping to lead this summer ’ s demonstrations in the wake of George @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I spoke to John privately , and he could not have been prouder to see this new generation of activists standing up for freedom and equality ; a new generation that was intent on voting and protecting the right to vote ; in some cases , a new generation running for political office .
I told him , all those young people , John – of every race and every religion , from every background and gender and sexual orientation – John , those are your children .
They learned from your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t always know it .
They had understood , through him , what American citizenship requires , even if they had only heard about his courage through the history books .
“ By the thousands , faceless , anonymous , relentless young people , black and white…have taken our whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in the formulation of the constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
” Dr King said that in the 1960s .
And it came true again this summer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in big cities and rural towns , in men and women , young and old , straight Americans and LGBTQ Americans , Blacks who long for equal treatment and whites who can no longer accept freedom for themselves while witnessing the subjugation of their fellow Americans .
We see it in everybody doing the hard work of overcoming complacency , of overcoming our own fears and our own prejudices , our own hatreds .
You see it in people trying to be better , truer versions of ourselves .
And that ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ That ’ s where real courage comes from .
Not from turning on each other , but by turning towards one another .
Not by sowing hatred and division , but by spreading love and truth .
Not by avoiding our responsibilities to create a better America and a better world , but by embracing those responsibilities with joy and perseverance and discovering that in our beloved community , we do not walk alone .
What a gift John Lewis was .
We are all so lucky to have had him walk with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us the way .
God bless you all .
God bless America .
God bless this gentle soul who pulled it closer to its promise .

Representative John Lewis, a legendary civil rights leader and member of Congress, died of cancer on 17 July. In a eulogy at his memorial on Thursday, Barack Obama spoke about Lewis’s legacy, especially the importance of continuing his fight to protect voting rights. This is an abridged version of his remarks.
James wrote to the believers: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”
It is a great honor to be back in Ebenezer Baptist church, in the pulpit of its greatest pastor, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, to pay my respects to perhaps his finest disciple – an American whose faith was tested again and again to produce a man of pure joy and unbreakable perseverance – John Robert Lewis.
I’ve come here today because I, like so many Americans, owe a great debt to John Lewis and his forceful vision of freedom.
Now, this country is a constant work in progress. We were born with instructions: to form a more perfect union. Explicit in those words is the idea that we are imperfect; that what gives each new generation purpose is to take up the unfinished work of the last and carry it further than anyone might have thought possible.
John Lewis arrives to speak to the crowd at the Edmund Pettus Bridge crossing reenactment marking the 55th anniversary of Selma’s Bloody Sunday on 1 March 2020 in Selma, Alabama. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
John Lewis – the first of the Freedom Riders, head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, youngest speaker at the March on Washington, leader of the march from Selma to Montgomery, member of Congress representing the people of this state and this district for 33 years, mentor to young people, including me at the time, until his final day on this Earth – he not only embraced that responsibility, but he made it his life’s work.
Which isn’t bad for a boy from Troy. John was born into modest means – that means he was poor – in the heart of the Jim Crow south to parents who picked somebody else’s cotton. Apparently, he didn’t take to farm work – on days when he was supposed to help his brothers and sisters with their labor, he’d hide under the porch and make a break for the school bus when it showed up. His mother, Willie Mae Lewis, nurtured that curiosity in this shy, serious child. “Once you learn something,” she told her son, “once you get something inside your head, no one can take it away from you.”
As a boy, John listened through the door after bedtime as his father’s friends complained about the Klan. One Sunday as a teenager, he heard Dr King preach on the radio. As a college student in Tennessee, he signed up for Jim Lawson’s workshops on the tactic of nonviolent civil disobedience. John Lewis was getting something inside his head, an idea he couldn’t shake that took hold of him – that nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience were the means to change laws, but also change hearts, and change minds, and change nations, and change the world.
So he helped organize the Nashville campaign in 1960. He and other young men and women sat at a segregated lunch counter, well-dressed, straight-backed, refusing to let a milkshake poured on their heads, or a cigarette extinguished on their backs, or a foot aimed at their ribs, refused to let that dent their dignity and their sense of purpose. And after a few months, the Nashville campaign achieved the first successful desegregation of public facilities in any major city in the south.
John got a taste of jail for the first, second, third … well, several times. But he also got a taste of victory. And it consumed him with righteous purpose. And he took the battle deeper into the south.
John was only 20 years old. But he pushed all 20 of those years to the center of the table, betting everything that his example could challenge centuries of convention
That same year, just weeks after the supreme court ruled that segregation of interstate bus facilities was unconstitutional, John and Bernard Lafayette bought two tickets, climbed aboard a Greyhound, sat up front, and refused to move. This was months before the first official Freedom Rides. He was doing a test. The trip was unsanctioned. Few knew what they were up to. And at every stop, through the night, apparently the angry driver stormed out of the bus and into the bus station. And John and Bernard had no idea what he might come back with or who he might come back with. Nobody was there to protect them. There were no camera crews to record events. You know, sometimes, we read about this and kind of take it for granted. Or at least we act as if it was inevitable. Imagine the courage of two people Malia’s age, younger than my oldest daughter, on their own, to challenge an entire infrastructure of oppression.
John was only 20 years old. But he pushed all 20 of those years to the center of the table, betting everything, all of it, that his example could challenge centuries of convention, and generations of brutal violence, and countless daily indignities suffered by African Americans.
Like John the Baptist preparing the way, like those Old Testament prophets speaking truth to kings, John Lewis did not hesitate – he kept on getting onboard buses and sitting at lunch counters, got his mugshot taken again and again, marched again and again on a mission to change America.
A news conference in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1961. In the foreground is John Lewis. Others, left to right: James Farmer, the Rev Ralph Abernathy and the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Photograph: RWT/AP
Spoke to a quarter million people at the March on Washington when he was just 23.
Helped organize the Freedom Summer in Mississippi when he was just 24.
At the ripe old age of 25, John was asked to lead the march from Selma to Montgomery. He was warned that Governor Wallace had ordered troopers to use violence. But he and Hosea Williams and others led them across that bridge anyway. And we’ve all seen the film and the footage and the photographs, and President Clinton mentioned the trench coat, the knapsack, the book to read, the apple to eat, the toothbrush – apparently jails weren’t big on such creature comforts. And you look at those pictures and John looks so young and he’s small in stature. Looking every bit that shy, serious child that his mother had raised and yet, he is full of purpose. God’s put perseverance in him.
And we know what happened to the marchers that day. Their bones were cracked by billy clubs, their eyes and lungs choked with teargas. As they knelt to pray, which made their heads even easier targets, and John was struck in the skull. And he thought he was going to die, surrounded by the sight of young Americans gagging, and bleeding, and trampled, victims in their own country of state-sponsored violence.
And the thing is, I imagine initially that day, the troopers thought that they had won the battle. You can imagine the conversations they had afterwards. You can imagine them saying: “Yeah, we showed them.” They figured they’d turned the protesters back over the bridge; that they’d kept, that they’d preserved a system that denied the basic humanity of their fellow citizens. Except this time, there were some cameras there. This time, the world saw what happened, bore witness to Black Americans who were asking for nothing more than to be treated like other Americans. Who were not asking for special treatment, just the equal treatment promised to them a century before, and almost another century before that.
When John woke up, and checked himself out of the hospital, he would make sure the world saw a movement that was, in the words of Scripture, “hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed”. They returned to Brown chapel, a battered prophet, bandages around his head, and he said more marchers will come now. And the people came. And the troopers parted. And the marchers reached Montgomery. And their words reached the White House – and Lyndon Johnson, son of the south, said “We shall overcome”, and the Voting Rights Act was signed into law.
The life of John Lewis was, in so many ways, exceptional. It vindicated the faith in our founding, redeemed that faith; that most American of ideas; that idea that any of us ordinary people without rank or wealth or title or fame can somehow point out the imperfections of this nation, and come together, and challenge the status quo, and decide that it is in our power to remake this country that we love until it more closely aligns with our highest ideals. What a radical ideal. What a revolutionary notion. This idea that any of us, ordinary people, a young kid from Troy can stand up to the powers and principalities and say no this isn’t right, this isn’t true, this isn’t just. We can do better. On the battlefield of justice, Americans like John, Americans like the Reverends Lowery and CT Vivian, two other patriots that we lost this year, liberated all of us that many Americans came to take for granted.
America was built by people like them. America was built by John Lewises. He as much as anyone in our history brought this country a little bit closer to our highest ideals. And someday, when we do finish that long journey toward freedom; when we do form a more perfect union – whether it’s years from now, or decades, or even if it takes another two centuries – John Lewis will be a founding father of that fuller, fairer, better America.
He believed that in all of us, there exists the capacity for great courage, that in all of us there is a longing to do what’s right
And yet, as exceptional as John was, here’s the thing: John never believed that what he did was more than any citizen of this country can do. I mentioned in the statement the day John passed, the thing about John was just how gentle and humble he was. And despite this storied, remarkable career, he treated everyone with kindness and respect because it was innate to him – this idea that any of us can do what he did if we are willing to persevere.
He believed that in all of us, there exists the capacity for great courage, that in all of us there is a longing to do what’s right, that in all of us there is a willingness to love all people, and to extend to them their God-given rights to dignity and respect. So many of us lose that sense. It’s taught out of us. We start feeling as if, in fact, that we can’t afford to extend kindness or decency to other people. That we’re better off if we are above other people and looking down on them, and so often that’s encouraged in our culture. But John always saw the best in us. And he never gave up, and never stopped speaking out because he saw the best in us. He believed in us even when we didn’t believe in ourselves. As a congressman, he didn’t rest; he kept getting himself arrested. As an old man, he didn’t sit out any fight; he sat in, all night long, on the floor of the United States Capitol. I know his staff was stressed.
John Lewis and other members of Congress staging a sit-in on the floor of the House of Representatives in 2016, demanding that the Republican-led body vote on gun-control legislation following the Orlando nightclub massacre. Photograph: Handout/AFP/Getty Images
But the testing of his faith produced perseverance. He knew that the march is not yet over, that the race is not yet won, that we have not yet reached that blessed destination where we are judged by the content of our character. He knew from his own life that progress is fragile; that we have to be vigilant against the darker currents of this country’s history, of our own history, with their whirlpools of violence and hatred and despair that can always rise again.
Bull Connor may be gone. But today we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans. George Wallace may be gone. But we can witness our federal government sending agents to use teargas and batons against peaceful demonstrators. We may no longer have to guess the number of jellybeans in a jar in order to cast a ballot. But even as we sit here, there are those in power are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting – by closing polling locations, and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws, and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision, even undermining the postal service in the run-up to an election that is going to be dependent on mailed-in ballots so people don’t get sick.
Now, I know this is a celebration of John’s life. There are some who might say we shouldn’t dwell on such things. But that’s why I’m talking about it. John Lewis devoted his time on this Earth fighting the very attacks on democracy and what’s best in America that we are seeing circulate right now.
He knew that every single one of us has a God-given power. And that the fate of this democracy depends on how we use it; that democracy isn’t automatic, it has to be nurtured, it has to be tended to, we have to work at it, it’s hard. And so he knew it depends on whether we summon a measure, just a measure, of John’s moral courage to question what’s right and what’s wrong and call things as they are. He said that as long as he had breath in his body, he would do everything he could to preserve this democracy. That as long as we have breath in our bodies, we have to continue his cause. If we want our children to grow up in a democracy – not just with elections, but a true democracy, a representative democracy, a big-hearted, tolerant, vibrant, inclusive America of perpetual self-creation – then we are going to have to be more like John. We don’t have to do all the things he had to do because he did them for us. But we have got to do something. As the Lord instructed Paul: “Do not be afraid, go on speaking; do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” Just everybody’s just got to come out and vote. We’ve got all those people in the city but we can’t do nothing.
Kelli McLester poses in front of a poster outside of the South View Cemetery where John Lewis is being buried in a private ceremony on Thursday in Atlanta, Georgia. Photograph: Jessica McGowan/Getty Images
Like John, we have got to keep getting into that good trouble. He knew that nonviolent protest is patriotic: a way to raise public awareness, put a spotlight on injustice, and make the powers that be uncomfortable.
Like John, we don’t have to choose between protest and politics. It is not an either-or situation, it is a both-and situation. We have to engage in protests where that is effective but we also have to translate our passion and our causes into laws and institutional practices. That’s why John ran for Congress thirty-four years ago.
Like John, we have got to fight even harder for the most powerful tool we have, which is the right to vote. The Voting Rights Act is one of the crowning achievements of our democracy. It’s why John crossed that bridge. It’s why he spilled his blood. And by the way, it was the result of Democratic and Republican efforts. President Bush, who spoke here earlier, and his father both signed its renewal when they were in office. President Clinton didn’t have to because it was the law when he arrived so instead he made a law that made it easier for people to register to vote.
But once the supreme court weakened the Voting Rights Act, some state legislatures unleashed a flood of laws designed specifically to make voting harder, especially, by the way, state legislatures where there is a lot of minority turnout and population growth. That’s not necessarily a mystery or an accident. It was an attack on what John fought for. It was an attack on our democratic freedoms. And we should treat it as such.
You want to honor John? Let’s honor him by revitalizing the law that he was willing to die for
If politicians want to honor John, and I’m so grateful for the legacy of work of all the congressional leaders who are here, but there’s a better way than a statement calling him a hero. You want to honor John? Let’s honor him by revitalizing the law that he was willing to die for. And by the way, naming it the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, that is a fine tribute. But John wouldn’t want us to stop there, trying to get back to where we already were. Once we pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, we should keep marching to make it even better.
By making sure every American is automatically registered to vote, including former inmates who’ve earned their second chance.
By adding polling places, and expanding early voting, and making election day a national holiday, so if you are someone who is working in a factory, or you are a single mom who has got to go to her job and doesn’t get time off, you can still cast your ballot.
By guaranteeing that every American citizen has equal representation in our government, including the American citizens who live in Washington DC and in Puerto Rico. They are Americans.
By ending some of the partisan gerrymandering– so that all voters have the power to choose their politicians, not the other way around.
And if all this takes eliminating the filibuster – another Jim Crow relic – in order to secure the God-given rights of every American, then that’s what we should do.
And yet, even if we do all this – even if every bogus voter suppression law was struck off the books today – we have got to be honest with ourselves that too many of us choose not to exercise the franchise; that too many of our citizens believe their vote won’t make a difference, or they buy into the cynicism that, by the way, is the central strategy of voter suppression – to make you discouraged, to stop believing in your own power.
So we are also going to have to remember what John said: “If you don’t do everything you can to change things, then they will remain the same. You only pass this way once. You have to give it all you have.” As long as young people are protesting in the streets, hoping real change takes hold, I’m hopeful but we cannot casually abandon them at the ballot box. Not when few elections have been as urgent, on so many levels, as this one. We cannot treat voting as an errand to run if we have some time. We have to treat it as the most important action we can take on behalf of democracy.
Like John, we have to give it all we have.
I was proud that John Lewis was a friend of mine. I met him when I was in law school. He came to speak and I went up and I said: “Mr Lewis, you are one of my heroes. What inspired me more than anything as a young man was to see what you and Reverend Lawson and Bob Moses and Diane Nash and others did.” And he got that kind of – “aw shucks, thank you very much”.
That’s where real courage comes from. Not from turning on each other, but by turning towards one another
The next time I saw him, I had been elected to the United States Senate. And I told him, “John, I am here because of you.” On inauguration day in 2009, he was one of the first people that I greeted and hugged on that stand. I told him, “This is your day too.”
He was a good and kind and gentle man. And he believed in us – even when we don’t believe in ourselves. It’s fitting that the last time John and I shared a public forum was on Zoom. I am pretty sure that neither he nor I set up the Zoom call because we didn’t know how to work it. It was a virtual town hall with a gathering of young activists who had been helping to lead this summer’s demonstrations in the wake of George Floyd’s death. And afterwards, I spoke to John privately, and he could not have been prouder to see this new generation of activists standing up for freedom and equality; a new generation that was intent on voting and protecting the right to vote; in some cases, a new generation running for political office.
Barack Obama, center, walks as he holds hands with Amelia Boynton Robinson and John Lewis as they walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, for the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, in 2015. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AP
I told him, all those young people, John – of every race and every religion, from every background and gender and sexual orientation – John, those are your children. They learned from your example, even if they didn’t always know it. They had understood, through him, what American citizenship requires, even if they had only heard about his courage through the history books.
“By the thousands, faceless, anonymous, relentless young people, black and white…have taken our whole nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in the formulation of the constitution and the Declaration of Independence.”
Dr King said that in the 1960s. And it came true again this summer.
We see it outside our windows, in big cities and rural towns, in men and women, young and old, straight Americans and LGBTQ Americans, Blacks who long for equal treatment and whites who can no longer accept freedom for themselves while witnessing the subjugation of their fellow Americans. We see it in everybody doing the hard work of overcoming complacency, of overcoming our own fears and our own prejudices, our own hatreds. You see it in people trying to be better, truer versions of ourselves.
And that’s what John Lewis teaches us. That’s where real courage comes from. Not from turning on each other, but by turning towards one another. Not by sowing hatred and division, but by spreading love and truth. Not by avoiding our responsibilities to create a better America and a better world, but by embracing those responsibilities with joy and perseverance and discovering that in our beloved community, we do not walk alone.
What a gift John Lewis was. We are all so lucky to have had him walk with us for a while, and show us the way.
God bless you all. God bless America. God bless this gentle soul who pulled it closer to its promise.


theguardian--2020-07-29--'The hotspot of a hotspot of a hotspot': coronavirus takes heavy toll in south Texas

Seventy-two death notices sprawled across an entire page of the Monitor newspaper in Hidalgo county recently .
The small-print entries , stacked in five tidy columns , didn ’ t mention Covid-19 .
But 27 residents of the south Texas community had died from the virus that day , 22 the day before , and 35 the day before that .
“ I ’ ve never seen that ever in my life , ” recalled John M Kreidler , a local funeral director , whose family has run Kreidler Funeral Home in McAllen for over a century .
That was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worsened since .
The coronavirus pandemic haunts almost everything in this part of the Rio Grande valley , where more than 92 % of the almost 900,000 strong population identifies as Hispanic or Latino .
Hand-sanitizing machines and big bins with masks and gloves surround shoppers at the regional grocery store .
Outside of Nomad Shrine Club , a rundown event space turned drive-thru pop-up , residents join a long line of people in cars in search of a Covid-19 test with rapid results .
Even Tex Mex , a gentlemen ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patrons : “ Clothed Again.
” “ The Rio Grande Valley has become the hotspot of a hotspot of a hotspot , ” said Ivan Melendez , Hidalgo county ’ s health authority and a practicing clinician .
“ We ’ re at the epicenter of the coronavirus in the United States.
” Melendez recalled recently encountering a critically ill patient with an alarmingly low pulse .
He tried to warn someone , but nurses informed him that a different doctor had already decided not to intervene because they “ didn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ survive ” .
In the United States , where the prevailing mantra for physicians is “ do no harm ” , that kind of ruthless calculation strikes deep , especially when so many of the lives at stake are medically vulnerable and easily exploited .
In Hidalgo county – “ a poor , fat , diabetic population ” , Melendez said bluntly – nearly one in three people under age 65 lack health insurance .
Thirty per cent live in poverty , and a 2020 WalletHub report found that three local cities hold @ @ @ @ @ @ @ metropolitan area in the nation .
Type 2 diabetes and obesity are among the pre-existing conditions listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as risk factors for “ severe illness ” related to Covid-19 .
Meanwhile , concern over exorbitant hospital bills deters some who don ’ t have insurance from seeking medical care .
These and other socioeconomic factors have caused the virus ’ s greatest tragedies to disproportionately affect minorities in the US , with Latinos hospitalized at more than four times the rate of their white counterparts .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ border , and an estimated 102,000 unauthorized immigrants who may be afraid to seek care exist within its margins .
Large families serve as an ideal vector for the virus , as do those who still flock to beaches and flea markets on weekends .
Already , 467 members of the community have died from Covid-19 , according to the county , most of them since Texas reopened in May .
But the state government has actively thwarted efforts to go back into lockdown , prioritizing economic vitality even as the death toll @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to his job inside a Walmart supercenter in McAllen , but he – and countless other employees – still have to work .
“ I don ’ t have a choice , ” he told the Guardian , laughing tensely .
Last week , Hidalgo county judge Richard F Cortez ordered residents to stay home and encouraged non-essential businesses to limit their services .
But a spokesperson for the Texas governor , Greg Abbott , quickly undermined Cortez ’ s authority , saying it was “ simply a recommendation ” .
The dizzying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ larger politicization of the pandemic nationwide during an election year , where just suggesting wearing a face mask has become a partisan dog whistle .
Some people in Hidalgo county remain convinced that the current health crisis is made up or overblown , despite the fact that by now , everyone is at most a few degrees of separation from someone who has suffered or died because of Covid-19 , Melendez said .
More than 15,000 people have tested positive in the county , and last week , hospitals teemed with over a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In a matter of weeks , Melendez has put his sixth-grade teacher on life support , opened up a body bag to play a son ’ s farewell video for a patient who had already died , and stumbled upon a gravely ill nurse he ’ d known for 30 years , whom he didn ’ t even recognize at first glance .
Harrowing personal moments abound , as do thorny gray areas .
“ There ’ s a moral , ethical dilemma at every place that we turn , ” he said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cope , so other wings have morphed into Covid units – even when they aren ’ t equipped to do so .
One healthcare worker at DHR Health in Edinburg , who spoke on the condition of anonymity , described patients in hallways , two people to a room and “ everything askew at all times ” in a rehabilitation facility that has been converted amid the health emergency .
The building isn ’ t made to provide so much life-sustaining oxygen , they said , and one time , it simply shut @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a healthcare professional feels very powerless , ” they said .
“ We ’ re just trying to help do what we can with the horrible resources we ’ ve been given.
” The explosion of cases gets bigger by the day as new infections number in the hundreds , if not the thousands .
Although Texas ’ s reopening plan banked on a symbiotic relationship between testing and contact tracing to curtail the virus ’ s spread , Hidalgo county ’ s contact investigations have been rendered ineffective , Melendez explained .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ and too many positive test results .
But anxious locals seek out diagnoses anyway .
At Nomad Shrine Club , where results take minutes instead of days , members of the public arrive as early as 2 or 3am just to nab one of 300 daily tickets available for a test .
A few blocks down the road , another , competing tent operation fielded so much demand that it rented out a larger parking lot .
Both testing services charge fees , either $ 75 or $ 125 .
Neither takes insurance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re feeling down , said Genesis Gonzalez , a medical assistant who works at the tent .
“ Next thing you know , they come back positive.
” As Gonzalez baked under the Texas sun , she wore short-sleeved scrubs and a mask , her hair tied back neatly .
She and her colleagues have access to more comprehensive protective gear , she said , but some of them get dizzy or faint if they wear it in 101-degree weather .
At yet another testing site , Daniela Garza reaches through car windows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to swab for tests , but she simultaneously prescribes nebulizers , antibiotics , inhalers or Z-Paks because some patients don ’ t have primary care physicians , or can ’ t get in-person appointments right now .
Around 40-50 % of the tests from the drive-thru come back positive , Garza said .
Sometimes , she sees people who just lost family members or loved ones .
“ I tell ’ em , you know , ‘ I have no idea what your loss feels like , and I ’ m so incredibly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Garza said .
“ But I ’ m proud of them for coming themselves to get tested so that they won ’ t go out and expose other people .
That ’ s really hard to do.
” At Kreidler ’ s funeral home , corpses wrapped in sheets , then double-bagged and wrapped again lie across tables in the preparation room because there ’ s no space left in the cooler .
The crematory is fully booked up to 10 days in advance .
Kreidler and his staff , including his wife @ @ @ @ @ @ @ night without much sleep or regular meals .
They ’ re constantly in a rush , and every time a body leaves , it just means another spot has opened up .
“ We ’ re wanting the pandemic to go away , ” said the weary funeral director , who ’ s fed up with how the crisis has been manipulated as a “ political football ” .
“ We need to get this stopped – and stopped now .
”

Alexandra Villarreal in Hidalgo county, Texas

Seventy-two death notices sprawled across an entire page of the Monitor newspaper in Hidalgo county recently.
The small-print entries, stacked in five tidy columns, didn’t mention Covid-19. But 27 residents of the south Texas community had died from the virus that day, 22 the day before, and 35 the day before that.
“I’ve never seen that ever in my life,” recalled John M Kreidler, a local funeral director, whose family has run Kreidler Funeral Home in McAllen for over a century.
That was earlier this month, but things have worsened since. The coronavirus pandemic haunts almost everything in this part of the Rio Grande valley, where more than 92% of the almost 900,000 strong population identifies as Hispanic or Latino.
Hand-sanitizing machines and big bins with masks and gloves surround shoppers at the regional grocery store. Outside of Nomad Shrine Club, a rundown event space turned drive-thru pop-up, residents join a long line of people in cars in search of a Covid-19 test with rapid results. Even Tex Mex, a gentlemen’s club, has a somber message for patrons: “Clothed Again.”
“The Rio Grande Valley has become the hotspot of a hotspot of a hotspot,” said Ivan Melendez, Hidalgo county’s health authority and a practicing clinician. “We’re at the epicenter of the coronavirus in the United States.”
Melendez recalled recently encountering a critically ill patient with an alarmingly low pulse. He tried to warn someone, but nurses informed him that a different doctor had already decided not to intervene because they “didn’t expect for [the patient] to survive”.
In the United States, where the prevailing mantra for physicians is “do no harm”, that kind of ruthless calculation strikes deep, especially when so many of the lives at stake are medically vulnerable and easily exploited.
Ivan Melendez, left, the Hidalgo county health commissioner and a practising doctor, with a patient. ‘We’re the epicenter of the coronavirus in the United States.’ Photograph: Supplied by Ivan Melendez
In Hidalgo county – “a poor, fat, diabetic population”, Melendez said bluntly – nearly one in three people under age 65 lack health insurance. Thirty per cent live in poverty, and a 2020 WalletHub report found that three local cities hold the distinction as the “fattest” metropolitan area in the nation.
Type 2 diabetes and obesity are among the pre-existing conditions listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as risk factors for “severe illness” related to Covid-19. Meanwhile, concern over exorbitant hospital bills deters some who don’t have insurance from seeking medical care. These and other socioeconomic factors have caused the virus’s greatest tragedies to disproportionately affect minorities in the US, with Latinos hospitalized at more than four times the rate of their white counterparts.
Hidalgo county also sits along the US-Mexico border, and an estimated 102,000 unauthorized immigrants who may be afraid to seek care exist within its margins. Large families serve as an ideal vector for the virus, as do those who still flock to beaches and flea markets on weekends.
Already, 467 members of the community have died from Covid-19, according to the county, most of them since Texas reopened in May. But the state government has actively thwarted efforts to go back into lockdown, prioritizing economic vitality even as the death toll soars.
Leonardo Tremari worries about going to his job inside a Walmart supercenter in McAllen, but he – and countless other employees – still have to work. “I don’t have a choice,” he told the Guardian, laughing tensely.
Last week, Hidalgo county judge Richard F Cortez ordered residents to stay home and encouraged non-essential businesses to limit their services. But a spokesperson for the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, quickly undermined Cortez’s authority, saying it was “simply a recommendation”. The dizzying policy ping-pong is an extension of a larger politicization of the pandemic nationwide during an election year, where just suggesting wearing a face mask has become a partisan dog whistle.
Some people in Hidalgo county remain convinced that the current health crisis is made up or overblown, despite the fact that by now, everyone is at most a few degrees of separation from someone who has suffered or died because of Covid-19, Melendez said. More than 15,000 people have tested positive in the county, and last week, hospitals teemed with over a thousand patients stricken by the virus.
Nurses treat a patient at Doctors hospital at Renaissance in Edinburg earlier this month. Photograph: Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
In a matter of weeks, Melendez has put his sixth-grade teacher on life support, opened up a body bag to play a son’s farewell video for a patient who had already died, and stumbled upon a gravely ill nurse he’d known for 30 years, whom he didn’t even recognize at first glance. Harrowing personal moments abound, as do thorny gray areas.
“There’s a moral, ethical dilemma at every place that we turn,” he said.
Hospital emergency departments are struggling to cope, so other wings have morphed into Covid units – even when they aren’t equipped to do so. One healthcare worker at DHR Health in Edinburg, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described patients in hallways, two people to a room and “everything askew at all times” in a rehabilitation facility that has been converted amid the health emergency. The building isn’t made to provide so much life-sustaining oxygen, they said, and one time, it simply shut off.
There’s a moral, ethical dilemma at every place that we turn Ivan Melendez
“Everybody here who is a healthcare professional feels very powerless,” they said. “We’re just trying to help do what we can with the horrible resources we’ve been given.”
The explosion of cases gets bigger by the day as new infections number in the hundreds, if not the thousands. Although Texas’s reopening plan banked on a symbiotic relationship between testing and contact tracing to curtail the virus’s spread, Hidalgo county’s contact investigations have been rendered ineffective, Melendez explained. There are too few contact tracers, and too many positive test results.
But anxious locals seek out diagnoses anyway. At Nomad Shrine Club, where results take minutes instead of days, members of the public arrive as early as 2 or 3am just to nab one of 300 daily tickets available for a test. A few blocks down the road, another, competing tent operation fielded so much demand that it rented out a larger parking lot.
Both testing services charge fees, either $75 or $125. Neither takes insurance.
Genesis Gonzalez, a medical assistant who works at the Covid-19 tent. Photograph: Alexandra Villarreal
Most patients just say they’re feeling down, said Genesis Gonzalez, a medical assistant who works at the tent. “Next thing you know, they come back positive.”
As Gonzalez baked under the Texas sun, she wore short-sleeved scrubs and a mask, her hair tied back neatly. She and her colleagues have access to more comprehensive protective gear, she said, but some of them get dizzy or faint if they wear it in 101-degree weather.
At yet another testing site, Daniela Garza reaches through car windows with her stethoscope. Her job is to swab for tests, but she simultaneously prescribes nebulizers, antibiotics, inhalers or Z-Paks because some patients don’t have primary care physicians, or can’t get in-person appointments right now. Around 40-50% of the tests from the drive-thru come back positive, Garza said. Sometimes, she sees people who just lost family members or loved ones.
“I tell ’em, you know, ‘I have no idea what your loss feels like, and I’m so incredibly sorry for that loss,’” Garza said. “But I’m proud of them for coming themselves to get tested so that they won’t go out and expose other people. That’s really hard to do.”
At Kreidler’s funeral home, corpses wrapped in sheets, then double-bagged and wrapped again lie across tables in the preparation room because there’s no space left in the cooler. The crematory is fully booked up to 10 days in advance.
Kreidler and his staff, including his wife and son, sometimes work into the night without much sleep or regular meals. They’re constantly in a rush, and every time a body leaves, it just means another spot has opened up.
“We’re wanting the pandemic to go away,” said the weary funeral director, who’s fed up with how the crisis has been manipulated as a “political football”.
“We need to get this stopped – and stopped now.”


theguardian--2020-07-30--Obama attacks police brutality and voter suppression in powerful eulogy for John Lewis – video

During the funeral of congressman John Lewis , former US president Barack Obama delivered a powerful eulogy in which he @ @ @ @ @ icon , saying Lewis 'will be a founding father of a fuller , fairer , @ @ @ @ @ his speech , Obama also received standing ovations for his indirect criticism of the Trump @ @ @ @ @ federal agents to peaceful demonstrations in Portland , and his condemnation of voter suppression tactics @ @ @ @ @ hails John Lewis as founding father of ‘ fuller , better ’ US in eulogy

During the funeral of congressman John Lewis, former US president Barack Obama delivered a powerful eulogy in which he praised the late civil rights icon, saying Lewis 'will be a founding father of a fuller, fairer, better America'.
In his speech, Obama also received standing ovations for his indirect criticism of the Trump administration's decision to send federal agents to peaceful demonstrations in Portland, and his condemnation of voter suppression tactics in the US


theguardian--2020-07-30--'John Lewis worked on the side of the angels', says Nancy Pelosi – video

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi held back tears as she delivered an emotional remembrance of civil rights icon John @ @ @ @ @ Atlanta .
Pelosi , who worked with Lewis for more than 30 years , said @ @ @ @ @ he worked on the side of the angels , and now he is with them @ @ @ @ @ US civil rights hero and Democratic congressman , dies at 80

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi held back tears as she delivered an emotional remembrance of civil rights icon John Lewis at his funeral in Atlanta. Pelosi, who worked with Lewis for more than 30 years, said: 'We always knew he worked on the side of the angels, and now he is with them'


theguardian--2020-07-30--'Too much power': key moments as tech CEOs face historic US hearing – video

Top US tech bosses are told that they are censoring political speech , spreading fake news and ‘ killing ’ @ @ @ @ @ economy in a combative and historic congressional hearing .
Jeff Bezos of Amazon , Tim @ @ @ @ @ Zuckerberg of Facebook and Sundar Pichai of Google ’ s parent company , Alphabet , @ @ @ @ @ house judiciary ’ s antitrust subcommittee and faced intense questioning on everything from market dominance @ @ @ @ @ contracts and political censorship

Top US tech bosses are told that they are censoring political speech, spreading fake news and ‘killing’ the engines of the US economy in a combative and historic congressional hearing.
Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Sundar Pichai of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, appeared before members of the house judiciary’s antitrust subcommittee and faced intense questioning on everything from market dominance and data surveillance to military contracts and political censorship


theguardian--2020-07-31--Portland sees peaceful night of protests following withdrawal of federal troops

The withdrawal of federal agents from frontline policing of demonstrations in downtown Portland significantly reduced tensions in the city overnight .
Protesters in support of Black Lives Matter once again rallied near the federal courthouse that became a flashpoint , and the scene of nightly battles amid the swirl of tear gas , after Donald Trump dispatched agents to end what he called anarchy in the city after weeks of demonstrations .
But in the absence of the federal officers , Thursday night ’ s protest passed off without major incident or intervention by the police .
On Wednesday , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , agreed with the White House that the state police would take over responsibility for guarding the courthouse after weeks of escalating protests .
She said that “ Trump ’ s troops ” were behaving like an occupying army in Portland and provoking unrest with heavy-handed tactics .
In contrast , the state troopers did not intervene even when the scale of the protest on Thursday night passed the point , as demonstrators shook the fence around the courthouse , at which in early demonstrations the federal agents generally fired tear gas , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the absence of confrontation , and with the state police remaining largely unseen inside the courthouse , tensions quickly eased .
Without the federal forces to draw attention , protest organisers kept the focus on Black Lives Matters and reform of the Portland police .
Some in the crowd worked to avoid trouble by stopping demonstrators from lighting fires and shooting fireworks at the courthouse as they had done on previous nights .
Dan Thomas , an African American man , stood in the street shouting at people not to cause a confrontation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the federal building is not Black Lives Matter .
Leave it alone .
You ’ re playing into Trump ’ s hands , ” he said .
One woman shouted : “ Stupid ass white people only here for their own reasons ” .
Despite the concerns of many in the crowd that the Trump administration would not fulfil the agreement to pull back the federal officers , none were seen on the streets .
Trump tweeted that the agents would remain in Portland until Brown brings the protests led by “ anarchists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ If she can ’ t do it , the Federal Government will do it for her .
We will not be leaving until there is safety !
” Trump wrote .
Brown and Portland ’ s mayor , Ted Wheeler , said the state and city police forces would seek to deescalate protests rather than confront demonstrators .
Wheeler , said that the city ’ s police , state troopers and county sheriff ’ s office had agreed not to use tear gas except where there was a threat to life or of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are using CS gas broadly , indiscriminately and nightly , ” he said .
“ That is why it is escalating the behaviour we ’ re seeing on the streets rather than deescalating it , and that ’ s why this must come to an end.
” Wheeler apologised for the Portland police using tear gas in late May and June to break up Black Lives Matter protests .
“ It should never have happened , ” he said .
Earlier in the day , Portland police cleared the two parks in front @ @ @ @ @ @ @ served as a staging ground for the protests .
Officers then sealed the parks off and marked them as closed .
But that appeared strangely provocative and difficult to enforce .
When a few protesters tore down the yellow police tape , and began chanting : “ Whose park ?
Our park ?
” , the Portland city officers quietly left the park and were not seen again for the rest of the evening .

The withdrawal of federal agents from frontline policing of demonstrations in downtown Portland significantly reduced tensions in the city overnight.
Protesters in support of Black Lives Matter once again rallied near the federal courthouse that became a flashpoint, and the scene of nightly battles amid the swirl of teargas, after Donald Trump dispatched agents to end what he called anarchy in the city after weeks of demonstrations.
But in the absence of the federal officers, Thursday night’s protest passed off without major incident or intervention by the police.
On Wednesday, Oregon’s governor, Kate Brown, agreed with the White House that the state police would take over responsibility for guarding the courthouse after weeks of escalating protests. She said that “Trump’s troops” were behaving like an occupying army in Portland and provoking unrest with heavy-handed tactics.
In contrast, the state troopers did not intervene even when the scale of the protest on Thursday night passed the point, as demonstrators shook the fence around the courthouse, at which in early demonstrations the federal agents generally fired teargas, stun grenades and baton rounds.
People attend a protest against racial inequality and police violence in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday. Photograph: Caitlin Ochs/Reuters
In the absence of confrontation, and with the state police remaining largely unseen inside the courthouse, tensions quickly eased. Without the federal forces to draw attention, protest organisers kept the focus on Black Lives Matters and reform of the Portland police.
Some in the crowd worked to avoid trouble by stopping demonstrators from lighting fires and shooting fireworks at the courthouse as they had done on previous nights.
Dan Thomas, an African American man, stood in the street shouting at people not to cause a confrontation with the state police.
“Attacking the federal building is not Black Lives Matter. Leave it alone. You’re playing into Trump’s hands,” he said.
One woman shouted: “Stupid ass white people only here for their own reasons.”
Despite the concerns of many in the crowd that the Trump administration would not fulfil the agreement to pull back the federal officers, none were seen on the streets.
Trump tweeted that the agents would remain in Portland until Brown brings the protests led by “anarchists and agitators” under control.
“If she can’t do it, the Federal Government will do it for her. We will not be leaving until there is safety!” Trump wrote.
02:21 'A beehive of terrorists': Donald Trump threatens to deploy national guard in Portland – video
Brown and Portland’s mayor, Ted Wheeler, said the state and city police forces would seek to de-escalate protests rather than confront demonstrators.
Wheeler, said that the city’s police, state troopers and county sheriff’s office had agreed not to use teargas except where there was a threat to life or of serious injury.
“The federal officers are using CS gas broadly, indiscriminately and nightly,” he said. “That is why it is escalating the behaviour we’re seeing on the streets rather than de-escalating it, and that’s why this must come to an end.”
Wheeler apologised for the Portland police using teargas in late May and June to break up Black Lives Matter protests.
“It should never have happened,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Portland police cleared the two parks in front of the courthouse and county jail that served as a staging ground for the protests. Officers then sealed the parks off and marked them as closed. But that appeared strangely provocative and difficult to enforce.
When a few protesters tore down the yellow police tape, and began chanting: “Whose park? Our park?”, the Portland city officers quietly left the park and were not seen again for the rest of the evening.


theguardian--2020-07-31--Revealed: super-rich donate to Cuomo as he rejects tax hikes for billionaires

New York governor Andrew Cuomo has stood firm against intensifying pressure to avert massive budget cuts by raising taxes on the many billionaires who live in his state .
As that campaign to tax billionaires received a recent boost from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York ’ s Democratic state legislative leaders , Cuomo has insisted that he fears that the tax initiative will prompt the super-rich to leave the state .
On Wednesday , he doubled down , warning that if the state tried to balance its budget through billionaire tax hikes “ you ’ d have no billionaires @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Cuomo is protecting a group of his most important financial boosters .
More than a third of New York ’ s billionaires have funneled cash to Cumo ’ s political machine , according to a Too Much Information review of campaign finance data and the Forbes billionaire list .
New York disclosure records show that 43 of New York ’ s 118 billionaire families have donated money to Cuomo ’ s campaigns and the state Democratic party committee he controls .
In all , those billionaires and their family members have delivered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s political apparatus since his first gubernatorial campaign .
That includes large donations from billionaires in the last few weeks as Cuomo has fought to stop tax hikes on billionaires .
Eleven of Cuomo ’ s billionaire donors have delivered $ 100,000 or more to his campaign and the New York State Democratic party ’ s housekeeping fund .
They include hedge fund titans James Simons ( $ 3.6m ) , Stanley Druckenmiller ( $ 1m ) and Daniel Loeb ( $ 114,000 ) ; real estate moguls Alexander Rovt ( $ 321,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) and investor Ronald Perelman ( $ 197,000 ) .
Ross , Simons and Simons ’ wife delivered a total of $ 115,000 to Cuomo this month .
With Cuomo blocking billionaire tax hikes , his 43 billionaire donors have increased their net worth by $ 22bn during the pandemic , according to Forbes data compiled by Americans for Tax Fairness , which pushes for higher taxes on the wealthy .
In all , New York ’ s 118 billionaires have seen their net worth increase by $ 77bn since coronavirus hit the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just three months are more than five times the size of the state ’ s entire projected budget shortfall of $ 14bn .
Cuomo ’ s office asserted that millions of dollars of campaign donations from billionaires had no bearing on the governor ’ s decision to oppose Democratic legislation to raise taxes on billionaires , calling the idea “ stupid and insulting.
” “ As the governor has routinely said , anyone who can be influenced by a dollar doesn ’ t deserve to be in this business , ” said Cuomo @ @ @ @ @ @ @ currently has the most progressive and second highest millionaires tax in the nation , and we ’ ve been very clear about the challenges facing us in an era where high earners have already moved away from the city and the state in the face of this pandemic , and the federal government is supporting legislation that would change the law and allow them to pay taxes where they telecommute from – not the state or city where their company is located.
” New York Democratic lawmakers have been floating proposals to address @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the wealthy .
One initiative would raise capital gains tax rates on those with more than $ 1bn of assets , raising more than $ 5.5bn of new public revenue from billionaires each year .
New York City alone is home to more billionaires than any other metropolitan area on the planet .
Cuomo , however , has steadfastly opposed such tax hikes on the wealthy throughout his political career .
He has previously championed a plan to eliminate New York ’ s bank tax and he reduced the state ’ s corporate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more than 50 years .
He also cut tax rates on purchasers of luxury yachts and private jets – and now he has worked to stymie his party ’ s billionaire tax plan .
Instead , Cuomo has pushed for big spending cuts .
In April , the legislature approved a plan to let Cumo ’ s budget director make $ 10bn of spending cuts .
That plan also approved Cuomo ’ s push to cut $ 2.5bn from Medicaid , flatline education spending and impose tougher eligibility requirements on some long-term public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said that if his state does not secure financial aid from Washington , New Yorkers may see increased mass transit fares and toll levies because “ the money needs to come from somewhere.
” Local governments could also see big cuts .
Earlier this month , Cuomo declared that he will block tax increases on billionaires in New York out of a fear that the wealthy will flee the state – a concern he reiterated on Wednesday .
It is an argument he has been making for years to justify opposition to tax @ @ @ @ @ @ @ elite and there is little basis for it .
A Stanford University researchers ’ 2016 study of IRS data found that so-called tax flight among the wealthy is negligible .

Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York has stood firm against intensifying pressure to avert massive budget cuts by raising taxes on the many billionaires who live in his state.
As that campaign to tax billionaires received a recent boost from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York’s Democratic state legislative leaders, Cuomo has insisted that he fears that the tax initiative will prompt the super-rich to leave the state. On Wednesday, he doubled down, warning that if the state tried to balance its budget through billionaire tax hikes “you’d have no billionaires left”.
But in defending billionaires, Cuomo is protecting a group of his most important financial boosters. More than a third of New York’s billionaires have funneled cash to Cuomo’s political machine, according to a Too Much Information review of campaign finance data and the Forbes billionaire list.
New York disclosure records show that 43 of New York’s 118 billionaire families have donated money to Cuomo’s campaigns and the state Democratic party committee he controls. In all, those billionaires and their family members have delivered more than $8m to Cuomo’s political apparatus since his first gubernatorial campaign. That includes large donations from billionaires in the last few weeks as Cuomo has fought to stop tax hikes on billionaires.
Eleven of Cuomo’s billionaire donors have delivered $100,000 or more to his campaign and the New York State Democratic party’s housekeeping fund. They include hedge fund titans James Simons ($3.6m), Stanley Druckenmiller ($1m) and Daniel Loeb ($114,000); real estate moguls Alexander Rovt ($321,000) and Stephen Ross ($80,000) and investor Ronald Perelman ($197,000). Ross, Simons and Simons’ wife delivered a total of $115,000 to Cuomo this month.
With Cuomo blocking billionaire tax hikes, his 43 billionaire donors have increased their net worth by $22bn during the pandemic, according to Forbes data compiled by Americans for Tax Fairness, which pushes for higher taxes on the wealthy.
In all, New York’s 118 billionaires have seen their net worth increase by $77bn since coronavirus hit the United States. Those billionaire gains in just three months are more than five times the size of the state’s entire projected budget shortfall of $14bn.
Cuomo’s office asserted that millions of dollars of campaign donations from billionaires had no bearing on the governor’s decision to oppose Democratic legislation to raise taxes on billionaires, calling the idea “stupid and insulting”.
New York’s 118 billionaires have seen their net worth increase by $77bn since coronavirus hit the United States
“As the governor has routinely said, anyone who can be influenced by a dollar doesn’t deserve to be in this business,” said Cuomo’s spokesman, Rich Azzopardi. “New York currently has the most progressive and second highest millionaires tax in the nation, and we’ve been very clear about the challenges facing us in an era where high earners have already moved away from the city and the state in the face of this pandemic, and the federal government is supporting legislation that would change the law and allow them to pay taxes where they telecommute from – not the state or city where their company is located.”
New York Democratic lawmakers have been floating proposals to address the budget crisis with tax increases on the wealthy. One initiative would raise capital gains tax rates on those with more than $1bn of assets, raising more than $5.5bn of new public revenue from billionaires each year. New York City alone is home to more billionaires than any other metropolitan area on the planet.
Cuomo, however, has steadfastly opposed such tax hikes on the wealthy throughout his political career. He has previously championed a plan to eliminate New York’s bank tax and he reduced the state’s corporate tax rates to its lowest level in more than 50 years. He also cut tax rates on purchasers of luxury yachts and private jets – and now he has worked to stymie his party’s billionaire tax plan.
Instead, Cuomo has pushed for big spending cuts. In April, the legislature approved a plan to let Cuomo’s budget director make $10bn of spending cuts. That plan also approved Cuomo’s push to cut $2.5bn from Medicaid, flatline education spending and impose tougher eligibility requirements on some long-term public benefits.
On Monday, the governor said that if his state does not secure financial aid from Washington, New Yorkers may see increased mass transit fares and toll levies because “the money needs to come from somewhere.” Local governments could also see big cuts.
Earlier this month, Cuomo declared that he will block tax increases on billionaires in New York out of a fear that the wealthy will flee the state – a concern he reiterated on Wednesday. It is an argument he has been making for years to justify opposition to tax increases on his state’s financial elite and there is little basis for it.
A Stanford University researchers’ 2016 study of IRS data found that so-called tax flight among the wealthy is negligible.