OMG this has been a week.
"Protesters clashed with riot police firing tear gas for a second night in Minneapolis on Wednesday in an outpouring of rage over the death of a black man seen in a widely circulated video gasping for breath as a white officer knelt on his neck." Amazing how the difference in police response to protests, such as this one versus the Michigan "stay-at-home" protesters who stormed the capital heavily armed, leads to different outcomes. In other words, the police escalated the violence in Minneapolis which lead to rioting and looting.
"A CNN crew was arrested while giving a live television report Friday morning in Minneapolis -- and then released about an hour later -- as the crew covered ongoing protests over the death in police custody of George Floyd." Yet they allowed another CNN reporter, not on camera, to remain. Let's see if you can spot the difference.
There are reports of police officers acting as agents provocateur in Minneapolis, but I can't find a reliable report, although the police have denied it was their officer.
"President Trump said he will 'send in the National Guard' to restore order to Minneapolis, which has been wracked by protests and looting following the death of George Floyd, a black man, after he was pinned to the ground for several minutes by a white police officer. 'When the looting starts, the shooting starts,' Trump said, prompting Twitter to hide the message for, in its view, 'glorifying violence.'" Funny how there's no fact check stating the president doesn't have the power (in this case) to mobilize the National Guard. That's still in the hands of the governor.
"When police stopped a Texas man for an alleged traffic violation, the confrontation turned tense, videos of the incident show… What happened next left a family shaken, a young man on the ground and his grandma attempting to intervene in the tense confrontation that followed." He was not charged with the supposed traffic violation, but "was charged with evading in a motor vehicle while police were attempting to detain him, according to a statement from Midland police."
"Outcry over the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor reached a boiling point overnight Thursday in Louisville, Kentucky, when gunfire erupted during protests and audio was released of Taylor's boyfriend's call to 911 the day of her death… Seven people were shot downtown, the mayor said in a video message on Twitter. Property damage also was reported after peaceful demonstrations took a turn, Louisville Metro Police Department officials said during a news conference."
"Stormy weather across Florida's Space Coast forced SpaceX to call off the long-awaited launch of two astronauts aboard the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft, the first piloted flight to orbit from U.S. soil in nearly nine years… The company plans to make another attempt Saturday, at 3:22:45 p.m. EDT, the next opportunity for a launch into the plane of the International Space Station's orbit with the proper conditions for a rendezvous and docking."
"When a woman told a wildlife official she thought she'd seen a wolverine on the beach of Washington state's Long Beach Peninsula they didn't believe her." I remember trying to tell some park rangers that I saw two golden-eagles eating carrion on the road and they told me they must have been turkey vultures. Awful lot of feathers on their heads to be vultures. Then I told rangers in Denali that I had found a wolf print close to the visitors center and they said it must be a coyote because wolves don't come in that close and have much bigger feet. Then I showed them the photo I took, "Well, it's probably a very large coyote…" Or, ya know, it was the right size for a wolf.
"(Scientists have) identified features on the seafloor that indicate the ice edge was reversing at rates of up to 50m a day at the end of the last ice age… That's roughly 10 times faster than what's observed by satellites today."
"Rising temperatures, deforestation, development and climate-induced disasters are transforming the very makeup of the Earth's forests, new research published in the journal Science finds… Older, bigger trees — stalwarts in their respective ecosystems — are being lost at an alarming rate, making the planet's collective forests shorter and younger."
"For untold millennia, screwworms were a grisly fact of life in the Americas. In the 1950s, however, U.S. ranchers began to envision a new status quo. They dared to dream of an entire country free of screwworms. At their urging, the United States Department of Agriculture undertook what would ultimately become an immense, multidecade effort to wipe out the screwworms, first in the U.S. and then in Mexico and Central America—all the way down to the narrow strip of land that is the Isthmus of Panama. The eradication was a resounding success. But the story does not end there. Containing a disease is one thing. Keeping it contained is another thing entirely, as the coronavirus pandemic is now so dramatically demonstrating."
"It has become a political and cultural flashpoint, drawing a clear divide between the 'masked' and the 'masked-nots.' The disdain runs between the consciously unmasked president of the United States and his deliberately mask-donning Democratic rival, all the way on down to those crossing paths — and often crossing each other — in the cereal aisle of the grocery store." Wear the goddamn mask.
"Blue, turquoise, and white crosses mark the dead in mass graves in Manaus, Brazil, a visual reminder of the toll the novel coronavirus has had on the country… Brazil now has the second-most COVID-19 cases in the world, just behind the US."
"More than 500 schools closed again Friday to students after briefly reopening, as South Korea moves to stamp out a resurgence of the coronavirus in the capital, Seoul, and its surrounding metropolitan area."
"Mounting evidence suggests the coronavirus is more common and less deadly than it first appeared… The evidence comes from tests that detect antibodies to the coronavirus in a person's blood rather than the virus itself." It's still at least 4x as deadly as the annual flu. Also note, we don't test for antibodies to the annual flu.
"The number of US servicemen and women killed in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan - over an aggregate 44 years of fighting - is almost exactly the same as the number of Americans who've now lost their lives to coronavirus in just three months of America's war against the hidden enemy, as Donald Trump likes to refer to Covid-19."
"The chief executive of AstraZeneca, which is developing a leading coronavirus vaccine with Oxford University, said it is too early to deliberately expose trial participants to the pathogen, but it may become an option if ongoing tests hit a snag." Can't make omelets without breaking some eggs, amIright?
"President Donald Trump expressed his condolences Thursday morning to the American victims of the coronavirus pandemic, a day after the US officially reached 100,000 dead and amid a morning tweetstorm in which he tweeted and retweeted political insults and criticisms." Gee, that only took (checks watch) three months.
The White House claims the president ordered the flags at the White House lowered to half-staff to honor those who have succumbed to the coronavirus. The flags were lowered last weekend… over Memorial Day. A weekend where it's traditional to lower the flag to half-staff.
"On Friday, the Justice Department will try to come after the Bundys again, when federal prosecutors will appeal for a retrial over a 2014 armed standoff between Bundy, his militia and federal agents who had come to round up the rancher's cows that were illegally grazing on federal land."
Ah those good ol' boys of Duck Dynasty, the bedrock of Christian conservatism. "Phil Robertson and his children Al, Jase, Jep and Willie revealed during the Unashamed podcast on Thursday that the family recently discovered the deeply religious patriarch has an adult daughter… Phil has previously admitted to being a philander prior to finding Jesus, however, it appears his daughter was conceived just before he devoted himself to the church." Nobody goes to Jesus on prom night.
"The Justice Department accused more than two dozen North Korean and Chinese individuals with operating an illegal global financial network to aid Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and missile program in violation of U.S. sanctions."
"Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said he stands by the company’s decision to fact-check two tweets by President Trump, even as it has attracted intense criticism by Trump and his allies." After many years of users asking for twitter to enforce their TOS on the president, they finally make a small move. The president over reacts, exactly how we all thought he would.
"President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order aimed at social media companies Thursday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Wednesday evening, a move that comes as the president and his allies have escalated their allegations that companies like Twitter and Facebook stifle GOP voices." Aww, somebody's liddle fewllings are hurt.
Full text of the executive order. I guess having Administrator Pei loosen restrictions on ISP and internet content providers wasn't a good thing, then. So, in the name of Free Speech the government (the organization actually prohibited by the 1st amendment to censor content) is, by executive order, prohibiting commercial entities the free exercise of their political speech. Do I have that correct?
"Supermarket customers are paying more for beef than they have in decades during the coronavirus pandemic. But at the same time, the companies that process the meat for sale are paying farmers and ranchers staggeringly low prices for cattle… Now, the Agriculture Department and prosecutors are investigating whether the meatpacking industry is fixing or manipulating prices."
"First-time jobless claims totaled 2.1 million last week, slightly ahead of the 2.05 million Wall Street estimate… Continuing claims, or those who have been collecting for at least two weeks, numbered 21.05 million, a clearer picture of how many workers are still sidelined. That number dropped sharply, falling 3.86 million from the previous week." Hunting the silver lining.
"Consumer spending in the U.S. fell 13.6% in April, the government reported Friday. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a 13% decrease, compared with an original estimate of 7.5% decline in March. On Friday the Commerce Department revised consumer spending in March to an decrease of 6.9%. Meanwhile, personal income rose 10.5% in April, boosted by government payments."
"The two-year trade war between the US and China has slashed $1.7 trillion from American companies' market cap, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said in a Thursday report."
"Brazilian police have raided addresses linked to some of Jair Bolsonaro’s most ardent online cheerleaders as part of an investigation into a fake news network investigators reportedly suspect could be linked to the president’s son." Okay, that's interesting.
"President Donald Trump said 'it is time' for all U.S. service members to exit Afghanistan, undermining his administration's agreement with the Taliban that stipulates any withdrawal below 8,600 troops be based on conditions on the ground." He doesn't care, he desperately needs a "win." Also, "'We are acting as a police force, not the fighting force that we are, in Afghanistan,' the president tweeted on Wednesday. 'After 19 years, it is time for them to police their own Country.'" They can't police the US, by law. The president is a moron.
"As President Donald Trump attacks the legitimacy of elections with increased mail-in voting, his campaign is trying to make it easier for supporters in Pennsylvania to request mail-in ballots for next week's primary there." Some are more equal than others.
"Attorney General William Barr has appointed a U.S. attorney to scrutinize episodes of the intelligence practice known as 'unmasking' that took place 'before and after' the 2016 election as part of the Justice Department’s broader review of the Russia investigation, department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec announced Wednesday." We've already been through this. And Barr is a tool. It's how he got the job.
"A little more than three months ago, as Democrats cast their ballots in the Nevada caucuses, Republicans felt confident about their chances in 2020. The coronavirus seemed a distant, far-off threat. Democrats appeared poised to nominate a self-described socialist for president. The stock market was near a record high. The economy was roaring. President Donald Trump looked well-positioned to win a second term, and perhaps pull enough incumbent Republicans along with him to hold the party's majority in the Senate… Today, that view has drastically changed." Just wait until the stock market wakes up from its bender and realizes the economy isn't going to come roaring back.
No comments:
Post a Comment