Fifty years after the first Poor People’s Campaign, organized by Martin Luther King Jr. shortly before his assassination and carried out after his death, activists have launched a new campaign for economic and social justice. Modeled after the original movement, in which thousands of people descended on the National Mall in Washington, DC, to protest poverty, the 2018 Poor People’s Campaign is expected to last six weeks in 35 different states, where people plan to participate in nonviolent civil disobedience and teach-ins.

“We know that in the richest country in the world, there is no reason for children to go hungry, for the sick to be denied health care and for citizens to have their votes suppressed,” Reverend William Barber, the co-chair of the campaign, said in a statement. “Both parties have to be challenged—one for what it does and one for what it doesn’t do.” Barber is the founder of the Moral Monday movement, a coalition of faith leaders and activists who routinely protested poverty and discrimination in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The movement’s list of demands includes addressing poverty, voting rights, environmental stewardship, racism, and more. Each week protestors will focus on a different topic and hold nonviolent protests; the first week primarily focuses on children, women, and people with disabilities living in poverty. “Our research revealed that the states with the highest overall poverty rates also had the worst voter suppression and the highest number of women and children in need,” Liz Theoharis, the campaign’s co-chair, said in a March interview with AlterNet.

The movement kicked off with protests across the country Monday. In DC, Barber was arrested with fellow protestors who were impeding the flow of traffic by standing in the middle of Independence Avenue, in front of the US Capitol building.

A good Samaritan was captured on camera taking down a man who assaulted two women Sunday.

Surveillance video from outside a shop in Brownsville, New York, shows two elderly women walking down the street before they are viciously attacked by a man without warning.

As the women fall to the ground, another man runs after the suspect and tackles him, the video shows.

While the good Samaritan struggles with the suspect, onlookers begin attending to the injured women until police arrive, according to the video footage.

...

The good Samaritan was not identified, but told witnesses he was homeless, ABC New York station WABC reported.

https://twitter.com/ABC/status/996383760345071616

The former Vanity Fair writer has been a harsh critic of President Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, both presidential advisers.

Ward, whose books include “The Devil’s Casino” and “The Liar’s Ball,” said in an April 2017 NPR interview that the White House had become “a horrifying kleptocracy.”

“The White House is turning into the [Jared] Kushner piggy bank and the Trump piggy bank,” Ward said, in the interview with “Democracy Now’s” Amy Goodman.

As for what Ivanka does to shape policy, Ward continued, “Nothing … What she is doing is wearing clothes. She’s in a business that sells clothes, shoes. That’s what she does.”

https://pagesix.com/2018/05/14/ivanka-trump-and-jared-kushner-subjects-of-vicky-ward-book/amp/#click=https://t.co/tvEZi8E5UU

This week’s cover, “The Swamp,” is by the artist John Cuneo. Cuneo’s work employs a scraggly line and dense, precise compositions, a style that, in past covers, has been used to depict subjects as diverse as Anthony Weiner atop the Empire State Building and a simple winter scene. We recently sat down with the artist to discuss his art and influences.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cover-story/cover-story-2018-05-21

Pastor Robert Jeffress, a Fox News contributor, megachurch Baptist preacher from Dallas, and close Trump ally and surrogate, has been chosen by the Trump administration to lead a prayer at Monday’s opening dedication celebration of the new – and highly controversial – U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. The choice of Jeffress makes this highly controversial move all the more problematic, given his views on literally every other religion, including other Christian religions, Judaism, and Islam.

“A HISTORIC MOMENT”: Pastor @robertjeffress will lead a prayer at the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem pic.twitter.com/Vh2GhSbQgv

— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) May 12, 2018

Jeffress, who hosts both radio and TV shows that are broadcast in hundreds of cities in the U.S. and around the world, has a long history of delivering incendiary and bigoted remarks.

In short, Jeffress says that if you’re not a Christian – and a certain type of Christian – you’re going to hell, as Right Wing Watch has documented.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/05/trump-picks-bigot-pastor-claims-jews-going-hell-lead-prayer-new-jerusalem-embassy/