January 1, Authorities Claim ‘Anarchists’, Outside Agitators’ are Hijacking Protests

This Day in History | 2005

W. Mark Felt’s family ends 30 years of speculation, identifying Felt, the former FBI assistant director, as “Deep Throat,” the secret source who helped unravel the Watergate scandal.

Good morning Middle Americans. 

Who is really to blame for the violence associated with these protests that are spreading across the country like wildfire? The whole thing is spinning out of control, and no one is taking responsibility. Authorities in Minneapolis are blaming a lot of the violence on outside agitators, but arrest records from the protests in Minneapolis show that most of the people being arrested are from the twin cities. So go figure. 

President Trump took a victory lap yesterday as two NASA astronauts took off from US soil yesterday for the first time in more than nine years. During the speech he talked about  his phone call with the family of George Floyd, but they are so happy about the way things went down. Like it or not, fair or unfair the president has to reach all Americans in a time of crisis and Trump has not always been able to do that.

We also got a lesson from the Supreme Court about the limits of freedom of religion, with Chief Justice John Roberts siding with the libearl justices on the bench to reject a challenge to a California order, limiting the size of church gatherings. 

Read all about it. 

-Fraser Dixon

Minnesota Officials: ‘Anarchists’, Outside Agitators’ are Hijacking Protests

(USA Today) – Drifting out of the shadows in small groups, dressed in black, carrying shields and wearing knee pads, they head toward the front lines of the protest. Helmets and gas masks protect and obscure their faces, and they carry bottles of milk to counteract tear gas and pepper spray.

Most of them appear to be white. They carry no signs and don’t want to speak to reporters. Trailed by designated “medics” with red crosses taped to their clothes, these groups head straight for the front lines of the conflict.

Night after night in this ravaged city, these small groups do battle with police and the National Guard, kicking away tear gas canisters and throwing back foam-rubber projects fired at them. Around them, fires break out. Windows are smashed. Parked cars were destroyed. USA TODAY reporters have witnessed the groups on multiple nights, in multiple locations. Sometimes they threaten those journalists who photograph them destroying property.

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George Floyd’s Brother: Trump Wouldn’t Even Let Me Talk in Rushed Call

The brother of George Floyd said Saturday that he spoke to President Donald Trump but the conversation was so quick that he “he didn’t give me the opportunity to even speak.”

“It was hard, I was trying to talk to him, but he just kept pushing me off like ‘I don’t want to hear what you are talking about,”’ Philonise Floyd told MSNBC’s Al Sharpton.

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Roberts Joins Liberals as Supreme Court Rejects Challenge to Coronavirus Limits on Church Services

(NBC News) – A California church had argued that putting a limit on crowd size violates constitutional guarantees of religious freedom.

The U.S. Supreme Court late Friday rejected a California church’s request to ease restrictions on attendance at worship services, in the court’s first effort to balance religious freedom and public health during the coronavirus pandemic.

Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s four liberals in an unsigned order that denied the church’s application for a stay of the statewide restrictions imposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom. They limit attendance at 25 percent of capacity or a maximum of 100 people.

“Although California’s guidelines place restrictions on places of worship, those restrictions appear consistent with the free exercise clause of the First Amendment,” Roberts wrote in concurring with the order.

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SpaceX Rocket Ship Lifts Off with 2 Americans

(AP) — A rocket ship built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company thundered away from Earth with two Americans on Saturday, ushering in a new era in commercial space travel and putting the United States back in the business of launching astronauts into orbit from home soil for the first time in nearly a decade.

NASA’s Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken rode skyward aboard a white-and-black, bullet-shaped Dragon capsule on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, lifting off at 3:22 p.m. from the same launch pad used to send Apollo crews to the moon a half-century ago. Minutes later, they slipped safely into orbit.

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