I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Sunday, May 31, 2020

Linkee-poo Sunday redux

There are some posts today grokked from various people I know. I've made a conscious decision to not point out who shared what. For posts that do not have the potential of blowback from those in power, I have included the names of those who shared.

"The ongoing protests following the killing of George Floyd were caught up in violence again on Saturday, as police all over the country tear-gassed protesters, drove vehicles through crowds, opened fire with nonlethal rounds on journalists or people on their own property, and in at least one instance, pushed over an elderly man who was walking away with a cane. Here are some of the ways law enforcement officers escalated the national unrest."

"Police fired pepper spray at demonstrators near the White House and the D.C. National Guard was called in as pockets of violence and vandalism erupted during a second straight night of protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and President Donald Trump’s response to it."

"Protests over the police killing of George Floyd, and the larger problem of racial prejudice in American criminal justice, spread across the country on Friday night and continued Saturday."

"Police are investigating after a video appeared to show a New York City Police Department truck plowing through a crowd during Saturday's protests over the death of George Floyd."

"John Cusack said he was targeted by police officers in Chicago and hit with pepper spray as protests raged across the county over the death of George Floyd."

"National security adviser Robert O’Brien on Sunday defended President Trump’s tweets labeling violent protesters as thugs and saying that looting leads to shooting amid demonstrations over the death of George Floyd, saying the president 'wants to de-escalate violence.'" The president's tweets actually threatened increased violence. Just how strong is this kool-aid they have?

This strong. "National security adviser Robert O'Brien on Sunday denied in an interview on CNN that systemic racism exists across the nation's police forces, arguing instead that 'a few bad apples' give the impression of racism among law enforcement officers."

"Hundreds of people protested in London and Berlin on Sunday in solidarity with demonstrations in the United States over the death of a black man shown on video gasping for breath as a white policeman knelt on his neck in Minneapolis." Funny, it looked like thousands to me.

"A SpaceX Falcon 9, with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken in the Dragon crew capsule, lifts off from Pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, May 30, 2020."

"The city of Moscow has suddenly doubled its coronavirus death toll from last month… Media reports and analysts have questioned the accuracy of Russia's mortality figures for the virus." He's lying to you too, my Russian friends.

"United Airlines will cut 13 of its 67 senior-executive positions, the company said Friday… Eight of its executives will leave Oct. 1 and five openings will not be filled." I'm not an MBA, but if you can cut nearly 20% of your top-level executives without repercussions, that looks like bloat to me.

"Amazon.com Inc said it was removing certain images after messages using extremely strong racist abuse appeared on some listings on its UK website when users searched for Apple’s AirPods and other similar products."

"A divided Supreme Court on Friday rejected an emergency appeal by a California church that challenged state limits on attendance at worship services that have been imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus."

"It is likely to be a preview of what's to come in the fall, and some worry whether the U.S. Postal Service is up to the challenge… A lot of people like the Postal Service; according to a recent Pew poll, 91% of Americans had a positive view, higher than any other branch of government. But it's an agency with some big problems."

"The rampage at a Virginia Beach city government building was the latest in a string of high-profile mass shootings nationwide, between the high school killings in Parkland, Florida, and the Walmart massacre in El Paso, Texas… As the tragedy nears its one-year anniversary Sunday, some victims’ family members feel it has effectively been forgotten after the national spotlight moved on to other mass killings, and more recently has been all but eclipsed by the coronavirus pandemic."

"President Donald Trump escalated his war on Twitter and other social media companies Thursday, signing an executive order challenging the lawsuit protections that have served as a bedrock for unfettered speech on the internet."

"Twitter’s decision this week to stand up to President Donald Trump by attaching warnings to some of his many tweets has been years in the making, a culmination of American divisions playing out and being amplified across social media. It is fueled by some of the very elements that make modern American discourse so polarized, so fast-moving and — at the oddest of historical moments — so fragmented."

"Yet Goldman and other experts interviewed for this story say the most likely outcome of a repeal of Section 230 is one that neither the left nor the right want to see: more censorship by major tech companies and potentially paralyzing other websites."

"More people are more online right now than at any point in human history, and experts say the Internet has gotten only more flooded since 2016 with bad information."

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