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A man places his hand on a cross bearing the names of the victims of a mass shooting in front of Robb Elementary School on May 26, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas. (Photo by Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images)

Editors note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the authors own.Read moreopinionson theGrio.

Americans are treated like babies by our media. Were a violent society where our children are shot in schools, our cops murder citizens with impunity and our military drops bombs on foreign countries. Are we OK with all of that? Clearly, we are, but how can we really know if were OK with that when we never see the impact of it? We never see the bodies, the blood or the injuries that AR-15s and drone strikes leave.

The story of the Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, N.Y., mass murders is being told through words and peaceful images of the dead smiling beatifically in photos. I appreciate the imperative to restore the dignity of the dead and to remember them at their best, but in doing that, we are protecting the rest of us from the reality of what happened to them. Those sweet photos of the dead at peace are part of numbing us to sleep, which allows this to keep happening. It shields us from the reality of the violence this country is awash in. Being kept from those images keeps us from the outrage that could force political action.

This week on MSNBC, former Attorney General Eric Holder said that when he visited Sandy Hook after the mass murder there, seeing the bodies hurt him to his soul. If we could somehow convey the nature of this carnage from these AR-15s, these weapons of war, then we could move this nation, he said.

If we showed people what bullet-ridden bodies looked like, it would be harder for them to shrug and say, well, nothing can be done. It would be so painful that they would be forced to act. We should not be able to hear these stories and turn away. We should not be protected from the pain of seeing limbs separated and faces destroyed if we are making a choice to live with mass murders all the time. If were going to be a society where mass murder is part of our world, we should have to see what that really looks like.

Horrific images have changed the world before. In the years before 1955, there were thousands of people who were lynched, but when Mamie Till courageously let a photographer take photos of her son Emmetts destroyed body, Americans got to see an unfiltered vision of what was happening in this country. The image of Emmetts disfigured head propelled the civil rights movement to a new level of intensity.

Similarly, the long, graphic closeup of George Floyd being murdered on video was very hard to watchmost of us dont have the stomach to watch an execution. But millions of people saw that footage, and it inspired a galvanizing national event for the modern Black Lives Matter movement. When we see reality in all of its unvarnished ugliness, we can no longer ignore it. We have to stand up against it.

News media is working from an outdated playbook that says images of death are too much to show people, but whats truly too much is living with mass murder all the time. If you think it would be too traumatizing, thats the pointit should be traumatizing. But if your point is, what about my comfort? in a world thats awash with mass murder and a political system thats doing nothing about it, you may be part of the problem.

Tour hosts the podcast Tour Show and the podcast docuseries Who Was Prince? He is also the author of seven books.

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We should show images of the dead - TheGrio

WASHINGTON (NewsNation) Hours after one of the most gruesome mass school shootings in history, the man President Joe Biden tapped to run the agency that regulates gun sales and shooting investigations is set to testify before senators.

Former federal prosecutor Steve Dettelbach is set to answer questions Wednesday about how he would run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Dettelbach was nominated by Biden in April with the timing of the hearing being pure coincidence.

An 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two adults as he went from classroom to classroom at a Texas elementary school, officials confirmed Monday. The attacker was killed by a Border Patrol agent who rushed into the school without waiting for backup, according to a law enforcement official.

Dettelbach is expected to be questioned about the Texas mass shooting at the hearing.

The position as head of the ATF used to not be as controversial as it is now. Bidenhad to withdraw the nominationof his first ATF nominee, gun control advocate David Chipman, after it stalled for months because of opposition from Republicans and some Democrats in the Senate. The nominee will need a simple majority to be confirmed.

The last time the Senate actually confirmed a director for the agency was in 2013. Since then it has been a series of acting directors, mainly because of the gun lobby. Groups like the NRA spend millions of dollars lobbying Congress against any nominee to run the ATF that the organization believes will be too strict on gun control measures. The NRA claimed it spent more than $2 million to oppose Chipman. Even former President Donald Trumps nominee for the ATF was pulled because of the same type of lobbying, with the agency ultimately running under an acting director for Trumps entire presidency.

However, more than 140 former Justice Department officials, including two past attorneys general, threw their support behind Dettelbach to run the ATF. The ex-officials, who worked for both Democratic and Republican presidents, urged congressional leaders to quickly confirm Dettelbach to the post. Their endorsement comes on the heels of support from several law enforcement organizations, including the Major County Sheriffs of America.

Dettelbach is a former federal prosecutor who served as U.S. attorney in Ohio from 2009 to 2016 andhas run in the pastfor attorney general of Ohio. He worked in several other positions in the Justice Department and was involved in the prosecution of a man who firebombed an Ohio courthouse. He also served as the chairman of the civil rights subcommittee as part of the attorney generals advisory committee under former attorneys general Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch.

With the surge in gun crime across our country in recent years, it is all the more important to have confirmed leadership at the helm of the ATF who will help keep our communities safe by taking gun traffickers and other violent criminals off our streets, says a letter by the more than 140 former Justice Department officials, dated Wednesday.

Biden has sought to increase gun control in the country, including restricting ghost guns.

There have been more than 900 incidents of gunfire reported on school grounds since the tragedy atSandy Hook Elementary Schoolin December 2012.

Where in Gods name is our backbone? Biden said Tuesday evening, calling on the American people to have the courage to deal with this and stand up to the [gun] lobbies.

Continued here:
Hours after Texas tragedy, hearing over ATF head begins - NewsNation Now

Rapper Nipsey Hussle died as he had started to branch into entrepreneurship. Although he has been gone for over three years, the fruits of his labor are still being reaped. Next month, The Marathon (Collective), a THC and CBD retail store, will open in Los Angeles and a documentary has been released in anticipation of the grand opening.

According to an Instagram post from The Marathon Clothing, the documentary (see below) was released one month before the grand opening of the family- and friends-owned business, led by his older brother, Samiel Blacc Sam Asghedom. The retail establishment is scheduled to open its doors June 18 at 7011 Canoga Ave. in Los Angeles.

The Marathon (Cultivation) documentary is live on YouTube.

We will be having a grand opening for its first official The Marathon (Collective) flagship dispensary Saturday, June 18.

7011 Canoga AveCanoga Park, Calif. 91303United States

Mark your calendars!

According to Complex, a screening of the documentary took place last week and Asghedom spoke.

This is something we always spoke about, he said. Nipsey, Fatts, Adam and I had a goal to get a legitimate licensed store and have our brand in other stores across the state. Were so honored to be able to fulfill the dream.

The 33-year-old Hussle was killed in front of his Marathon Clothing store, located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. A petition was started to rename the intersection of Slauson Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard near Hussles store to Nipsey Hussle Square. On the day of his funeral, the City Council announced it was set to be renamed Ermias Nipsey HussleAsghedom Square to honor him and his contributions to the neighborhood.

The trial for Hussles murder suspect, Eric Holder, Jr., 32, is slated to begin June 2.

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Documentary by Nipsey Hussle Released Before the Opening of The Marathon (Collective), THC and CBD Retail Stor - Black Enterprise

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past six years or so you have heard much about the Trump-Russia Collusion and that the Russians helped Donald Trump steal the 2016 Election. The allegations were breathtaking: if indeed a presidential candidate had colluded with a foreign adversary and thus won the White House, our whole republic would be in jeopardy. Without the guarantee of free and fair elections, our system collapses.

Even though Trump proved almost all the pundits wrong by pulling off an historic upset and beating Hillary Clinton that November, the accusations filled the news airwaves and newspapers for months and then years. Of course, fighting off those charges hamstrung President Trump and much of his staff for most of his one-term administrationbut those charges also distracted the entire country for years.

In other words, this was no victimless crime. While the yapping media kept much of the national conversation torqued up about the collusion that had never taken place, we Americans were distracted from focusing on truly important issues: the economy, education, national defense, secure borders, a reasonable immigration policy, poverty, healthcare, infrastructure, the environment, energythe list goes on and on. Plus, the collusion hoax sucked most of the oxygen out of the room from 2016-2019, so when a new virus came out of East Asia, we were truly caught flat-footed.

Now, with the passage of timeand Joseph Robinette Biden conveniently ensconced in the White Housemore of the truth of the matter has trickled into the light, bit by bit.

Well Ill be a Moneys Uncle. It so turned out, the whole Trump-Russia collusion narrative was a colossal lie.

The spider web of intrigue surrounding this whole scandal is so complex, intricate, and involves so many people and interactions, time and space do now allow us to even attempt to discuss it all here. And of course, the intricate web of deception was by designto make tracks so faint and byzantine, and then to cover those tracks, so they would never be discovered.

The Epoch Times deserves a hat tip for digging deep into this sordid tale and doing their parts as journalists to make their findings public. Their diligence stands in stark contrast to the bias and I would say dishonesty of so many of the other media channels. Overall, most of the legacy media have beat the drum that the collusion story was a proven fact, and then when evidence to the contrary came out that it was a hoax to help drag Hillary Clinton across the finish line in 2016, many of those same media voices all suddenly developed serious cases of lockjaw.

(As I write this, it has finally dawned on the people at NBC that the Hunter Biden laptop scandal was real all along. It only took them a year and a half to admit what the New York Post tried to alert us all to in the fall of 2020, when the news would have made a difference, before the election.At this rate, maybe by June NBC will tell us if King Henry VIII got his divorce or not.)

But back to the Russian collusion hoax:

According to The Epoch Times April 22, 2022 story, Where Things Stand With John Durhams Probe, in the spring of 2019 prosecutor John Durham was assigned the task of investigating the connections between Trump and Russia. Was there truly collusion? Or, was Trump being framed and the whole thing was a set-up?

To quote The Epoch Times: [Durhams] first indictment, in August 2020, targeted former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmithfor altering a CIA email to say that former Trump campaign aide Carter Page was not a source, when in fact he was providing information to the agency. The message was then used as a part of an application to extend surveillance of Page. FBI Director Christopher Wray later admitted that the surveillance was illegal.

Clinesmith pleaded guilty and in January 2021 received a year of probation and 400 hours of community service. Prosecutors demanded six months in jail. His license to practice law in D.C. was reinstated after less than a year.

I dont know about you, but I think if you or I tried to falsify an email between the FBI and CIA, wed get more punishment that just 400 hours of community service. This is just one more example of what many decry as a two-tiered justice system in our country.

This week, another big trial in this Russian collusion hoax scandal opened. The defendant is Michael Sussman, who is 2016 was a top lawyer for the Hillary Clinton campaign. That same Epoch Times article indicates that, evidently seeking to create an October Surprise with which to blindside Trump and make Mrs. Clinton president, Sussman went to the FBI and, posing as a Good Samaritan, told the FBI he had secret information linking Trump to a Russian bank.

But instead of being a true Good Samaritan Patriot who was concerned about his country, it so happens that Sussman was billing the Clinton campaign for his services. In other words, Sussman was feeding a false narrative to the FBI. He lied to the government, and then with some well-placed leaks, some government officials then planted the false story with some major news outlets, who were all too happy to jump on the bandwagon and spread the (false) story like wildfire.

In sum, you could say that Sussmans lying to the FBI in September 2016 was the initial tap that knocked down the first domino, that then set off the chain reaction.

As further evidence of what some see as a two-tiered justice system and particularly a Washington DC court system that some would label incestuous, there are numerous connections and relationships among the judges hearing these cases and many of the defendants.

For clarity, here are the last four paragraphs of that Epoch Times piece, and I ask you to ask yourself: does this sound like impartiality?

All three current cases of Durhams have highlighted the tight-knit nature of the federal judicial and law enforcement community in the D.C. area.

The judge in the Clinesmith case, James Boasberg, sits on the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that approved spying on [Carter] Page based primarily on the Steele dossier and partly on the false information provided by Clinesmith.

The judge in the Danchenko case, Anthony Trenga, presided over the Mueller-brought case against former business partner of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former national security adviser to President Donald Trump. Trenga threw out the conviction in that case for a lack of evidence.

The judge in the Sussmann case, Christopher Reid Cooper, used to be a colleague of Sussmanns at the DOJ. His wife, Amy Jeffress, is a lawyer for Lisa Page, formerly a high-level FBI attorney whos now suing the DOJ. Page was deeply embedded in the Russia investigation. She was also a mistress of Peter Strzok, former head of FBI counterintelligence operations and a point man in the Russia probe. Cooper and Jeffress also have close ties to the Democratic Party. Cooper served on the 2008 transition team of President Barack Obama, Jeffress spent 20 years at the DOJ and was a national security counselor for Obamas Attorney General Eric Holder, and their wedding was officiated by Merrick Garland, the current Attorney General.

You cant make this stuff up.

Ponder that last paragraph. The judge in the case that began this week, Judge Cooper, used to work with the defendant, Sussman, at the Department of Justice. Does it strike you as odd that a judge would preside over the trial of a former colleague? And Judge Coopers wife is a lawyer for Lisa Page? Hmmm. Page you may remember is a huge Hillary fan, Trump hater, and was having an affair with Trump hater and FBI colleague Peter Strzok, who helped exonerate Clinton from her email scandal.

Page and Strzok were the ones who were texting each other about the icky smelly Trump voters they saw at Wal-marts in Southern Virginia.

This week the trial has focused primarily on calling jurors. As pointed out in PJ Media, since Washington DC is a city where about 92% of the residents vote Democrat, that makes finding a bipartisan, impartial jury challenging.

Ironically, one day this week a woman, identified as Juror #5, explained that her daughter and Judge Coopers daughter both plan on the same high school crew team. The woman added that the daughters are not friends, are at least three years apart in age, the crew team has over 40 members, and that she had never before met Judge Cooper or his wife. The woman claims she can be an impartial juror, and lets all hope and pray they all are. Still, that connection among the two families via their teen daughters seems emblematic of the complex, compromising relationships in that city.

No wonder many call it The Swamp.

Scott Dreyer

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SCOTT DREYER: Trial Regarding Trump-Russia Collusion Hoax Began This Week - The Roanoke Star

PR Newswire

WASHINGTON, May 17, 2022

Michelle Obama's When We All Vote's 'Culture of Democracy Summit' will bring together industry leaders across sectors for a national conversation about protecting and expanding democracy ahead of the midterms

WASHINGTON, May 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, When We All Vote announced that 82nd Attorney General of the United States and Chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee Eric Holder; Grammy, Emmy and Academy Award-winning rapper, activist and actor Common; President of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund Alexis McGill Johnson; Staff Writer at The New York Times Magazine and Creator of The 1619 Project Nikole Hannah-Jones; Emmy-winning writer, comedian, actor and producer Wanda Sykes; and more will join the organization's inaugural Culture of Democracy Summit June 10th-13th in Los Angeles, CA. When We All Vote Co-Chair and Founder Michelle Obama will serve as the keynote speaker. More participants will be announced over the next few weeks.

When We All Vote Logo

Common, Eric Holder, Alexis McGill Johnson, Wanda Sykes and More to Join When We All Vote's Inaugural Culture of Democracy Summit

The Summit will include virtual programming on Friday, June 10th, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. PT and in-person convenings and experiences on June 11th and 12th in Los Angeles, CA. On Monday, June 13th a final series of conversations will begin at 9 a.m. PT on the main stage at the Banc of California stadium culminating Mrs. Obama's keynote speech that evening. This all day event will include on-site activations, food and an after party for attendees.

This nonpartisan convening will bring together artists, athletes, academics, artists, grassroots organizers and leaders in technology, civics and corporations to discuss the role different industries play in protecting and strengthening democracy through voter registration, education, mobilization and culture change. The organization announced the following speakers today:

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Ian Bassin, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Protect Democracy

Caty Borum, Executive Director, Center for Media & Social Impact

Latosha Brown, Co-Founder Black Voters Matter Fund; Founder, Southern Black Girls & Women's Consortium

Valeisha Butterfield Jones, Co-President, The Recording Academy

Anto Chvez, Video Producer, United We Dream

Common, Grammy, Emmy and Academy Award-winning rapper, activist and actor

Tiffany D. Cross, MSNBC Host of The Cross Connection

Marc Elias, Founder, Democracy Docket

DeNora Getachew, CEO, DoSomething

Nikole Hannah-Jones, Staff Writer, The New York Times Magazine; Creator, The 1619 Project

Julia Hartz, Co-Founder and CEO, Eventbrite

Eric H. Holder, Jr., 82nd Attorney General of the United States; Chairman, National Democratic Redistricting Committee

Valerie Jarrett, Board Chair, Civic Nation

Kyle Lierman, CEO, Civic Nation

Alexis McGill Johnson, President, Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Yvette Nicole Brown, Emmy-nominated actress and host

Judith Nwandu, Political Host and Producer, The Shade Room

Wanda Sykes, Emmy-winning writer, comedian, actor and producer

Allie Young, Founder, Protect the Sacred

Stephanie L. Young, Executive Director, When We All Vote

The Summit will explore how voting impacts criminal justice reform, reproductive rights, climate justice and more. It will also explore how the voting landscape is impacted by voter suppression, ways to counter it and culture's role in shaping democracy from the federal level down to local elected officials.

The virtual day of the Summit will be open to the press, and reporters interested in attending in-person on June 13th should email press@civicnation.org. A limited number of in-person press passes will be available. The Summit is being produced by Live Nation Urban and MKG, and ticketing is being supported by When We All Vote partner, Eventbrite. All Summit events, with the exception of a smaller gathering, will be held outside and all events will follow all CDC Covid-19 protocols. More announcements about speakers and the agenda are forthcoming. Tickets and more information are available here.

ABOUT When We All Vote:

When We All Vote, an initiative of Civic Nation, is a leading national, nonpartisan initiative on a mission to change the culture around voting and to increase participation in each and every election by helping to close the race and age gap. Created by Michelle Obama, When We All Vote brings together individuals, institutions, brands, and organizations to register new voters across the country and advance civic education for the entire family and voters of every age to build an informed and engaged electorate for today and generations to come. We empower our supporters and volunteers to take action through voting, advocating for their rights, and holding their elected officials accountable.

In 2020, When We All Vote ran a robust, multifaceted campaign and reached more than 100 million people to educate them about the voting process and get them registered and ready to vote. The initiative also led in voter education, registration, and volunteer engagement and as a result, 512,000 people started or completed the voter registration process, and nearly 500 media, corporate, and nonprofit partners joined its efforts.

Michelle Obama launched When We All Vote in 2018 and is joined by fellow Co-Chairs Stephen Curry, Becky G, Selena Gomez, Tom Hanks, H.E.R., Liza Koshy, Jennifer Lopez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Janelle Monae, Chris Paul, Megan Rapinoe, Shonda Rhimes, Bretman Rock, Kerry Washington and Rita Wilson.

When We All Vote is a key initiative within Civic Nation, a 501(c)(3) organization, and works with Civic Nation Action, a 501(c)(4). These organizations are homes for changemakers who inspire, educate, and activate people around the issues that will define this generation.

ABOUT Civic Nation:

Civic Nation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit home for changemakers who inspire, educate, and activate people around the issues that will define this generation. Civic Nation empowers and educates individuals, companies, institutions and organizations to drive culture, systems, and policy change, working towards a more inclusive and equitable America. Seven initiatives are a part of the Civic Nation family: When We All Vote, United State of Women, ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, End Rape On Campus, It's On Us, Made to Save and We The Action. Learn more here.

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Common, Eric Holder, Alexis McGill Johnson, Wanda Sykes and More to Join When We All Vote's Inaugural Culture of Democracy Summit in June - Yahoo...