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THIS IS WHAT RACISM LOOKS LIKE

Trump to Turn Voice of America Into American Pravda as New CEO Fires Agency Heads, Installs President’s Allies

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“Being Breitbartized”

President Donald Trump’s handpicked appointee to head the U.S. agency that oversees the venerable Voice of America and related non-partisan government-backed news agencies around the world has just fired his agency chiefs, and is replacing them and members of their boards of directors with allies of the President of the United States, the Associated Press reports.

Michael Pack, the brand new CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, reportedly hasn’t shown up for work since being confirmed by the Senate on June 4, but managed to fire the heads of Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, the Office of Cuban Broadcasting, and the Middle East Broadcasting Network. The heads of Voice of America resigned Monday in protest of Pack’s appointment.

Pack is a conservative filmmaker who The New York Times calls “a close ally of conservative activists and Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon.” Bannon, who supports white nationalism, is the former editor in chief of Breitbart, which he once bragged was the home of the alt-right. In 2018 Bannon told a far-right French group: “Let them call you racists. Let them call you xenophobes. Let them call you nativists. Wear it as a badge of honor.”

“VOA is a rotten fish from top to bottom,” Bannon claimed in 2018, as NPR reports. He alleged it was “totally controlled by the deep-state apparatus.”

NPR adds that Pack on Wednesday “dissolved advisory boards over each of the networks and placed his own aides above them. He gave no reason for his actions other than his authority to do so.”

President Trump pushed through Pack after being furious that Voice of America was not repeating the administration’s talking points against China. The White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications falsely claimed Voice of America was publishing the communist Chinese government’s information.

The appointment of Pack, and now his installation of Trump allies immediately decimates the integrity of what were once seen around the world as reliable and independent news outlets, and in fact, “one of the largest media networks in the world,” the Times notes. Ethics expert Walter Shaub calls it “being Breitbartized,” while a few others are likening Voice of America to Pravda, the notorious mouthpiece “news” agency for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Pack is under investigation, accused of funneling funds from a non-profit he founded into his commercial business. Despite the investigation by the Attorney General of Washington, D.C., the Senate confirmed Peck on a 53-38 vote.

Shaub, the former Director of of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, issued a strong warning this week: “The Breitbart crowd may be getting a taxpayer-funded global platform.”

 

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THIS IS WHAT RACISM LOOKS LIKE

‘We Will Never Surrender to Violent Extremists’: DHS Chief Deploys SWAT Teams to Portland Over Broken Glass and Graffiti

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5 years ago

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July 17, 2020

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Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf has unleashed armed SWAT agents in camouflage gear  from several federal government agencies onto the streets of Portland, against the expressed concerns of Oregon Governor Kate Brown and Mayor Ted Wheeler.

“This political theater from President Trump has nothing to do with public safety,” Governor Brown says. “The President is failing to lead this nation. Now he is deploying federal officers to patrol the streets of Portland in a blatant abuse of power by the federal government.”

“I told Acting Secretary Wolf that the federal government should remove all federal officers from our streets. His response showed me he is on a mission to provoke confrontation for political purposes. He is putting both Oregonians and local law enforcement officers in harm’s way,” Brown added.

And now Wolf is in Portland, and threatening protestors whom he’s calling “violent anarchists” and “violent extremists.”

Protestors have painted graffiti on a federal courthouse, and broke some windows and doors, according to Wolf himself.

After Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) published a devastating report documenting agents from Border Patrol and other agencies sweeping up protestors into unmarked vans, detaining them, arresting some, and denying at least one was ever in their custody, Acting Secretary Wolf took to Twitter to defend his actions and his agents, and frame the narrative, declaring, “We will prevail.”

Defiant, Wolf freely admits the duly-elected governor and mayor have told him he is not to be on their streets.

“That’s just not going to happen on my watch,” Wolf says.

It’s unclear if he has the legal authority to deploy troops there.

 

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THIS IS WHAT RACISM LOOKS LIKE

Watch: Viral Video Shows Brave Young Woman Stopping Apparent Racist Attack on Women Speaking Spanish

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7 years ago

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October 4, 2018

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A young woman in a Rifle, Colorado grocery store intervened in what appears to be a racist attack on two other young women who were speaking Spanish.

“I’m calling the cops. You leave these women alone! Get out!” Kamira Trent yelled at Linda Dwire inside the City Market grocery store, as The Hill reports.

“You come from a generation that’s destroying this country,” Dwire accused, pointing her finger repeatedly at Trent.

“No I do not. I have respect. You do not harass people,” Trent responded.

“You will lose your country,” Dwire continued. “You know what, you will lose this country.”

“You do not harass Hispanic women!” Trent yelled back.

The video has been video on Facebook nearly 700,000 times since Monday.

Buzzfeed reports Trent followed up on her threat to call police. Dwire was reportedly arrested on two counts of bias-motivated harassment.

The arresting officer, Carlos Cornejo, wrote that when he arrived, he heard Dwire yelling “something to the effect of ‘this is what is wrong with our country’ and ‘they should not be speaking Spanish here.'”

Trent says she overheard Dwire telling the two Spanish-speaking women, “You’re in America. You’re in my country. You can’t speak Spanish here. You need to speak English if you’re going to be in America.”

 

 

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