Linkee-poo Friday

"Remnants of Hurricane Laura unleashed heavy rain and twisters hundreds of miles inland from a path of death and mangled buildings along the Gulf Coast, and forecasters warned an eastern turn would again make the storm a looming threat, this time to the densely populated Eastern Seaboard."

"A chemical plant in Westlake, La., that caught fire during Hurricane Laura is still burning Thursday evening."

"The upshot of climate change is that everyone alive is destined to experience unprecedented disasters. The most powerful hurricanes, the most intense wildfires, the most prolonged heat waves and the most frequent outbreaks of new diseases are all in our future. Records will be broken, again and again… But the predicted destruction is still shocking when it unfolds at the same time." That's not what "upshot" means.

"The United States, Japan, Britain and the European Union have struck their own deals to secure millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses for their citizens, ignoring the U.N. body’s warnings that 'vaccine nationalism' will squeeze supplies." Note that we don't know if any of them will work.

The problem with remote classes, "While all parents in the Geauga Local School District don’t have that luxury because of access to a good internet connection, the district is working to change that… In Geauga County, according to Connected Nation Ohio, 21.25% of residents don’t have internet access." Geauga, while "rural" is still a fairly wealthy county.

"Anthony Huber was armed with nothing but his skateboard when he spotted an armed person among a crowded street in Kenosha, Wisconsin, but he still ran toward the danger, his girlfriend says."

"Over the last three months in Portland, mass protests against police violence and racism gradually gave way to nightly often violent standoffs between a core of pro-Black Lives Matter and anti-fascist protesters and law enforcement… But in the past week the city has fallen back into a pattern of more politically polarized street violence which has marked the city throughout the Trump era, with broadly leftwing and anti-fascist activists sometimes facing off against far-right groups."

"Nightly protests passed their 90th day this week. Over the course of nearly three months, crowd sizes have at times exceeded 10,000 people and on other occasions been fewer than 100. Between May 29 and Aug. 27, the Portland Police Bureau declared 23 riots and 22 unlawful assemblies (that doesn't include nights that started as unlawful assemblies and were later declared riots). But the laws governing those declarations are vague and have roots in Oregon's deeply racist past."

"White supremacist groups have infiltrated US law enforcement agencies in every region of the country over the last two decades, according to a new report about the ties between police and far-right vigilante groups… In a timely new analysis, Michael German, a former FBI special agent who has written extensively on the ways that US law enforcement have failed to respond to far-right domestic terror threats, concludes that US law enforcement officials have been tied to racist militant activities in more than a dozen states since 2000, and hundreds of police officers have been caught posting racist and bigoted social media content."

"The Milwaukee Bucks walked out. The Orlando Magic followed. So did the Los Angeles Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder. The WNBA players walked out, but not before gathering and speaking and sporting haunting white T-shirts each designed with a letter of Blake's name on the front and seven bullet holes on the back -- the number of times and the location where Kenosha police shot Blake."

"Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell unveiled a new framework of thinking for the central bank that will tolerate inflation “moderately” above its 2% target. The Fed also committed to reviewing this policy every five years." Fuck. No.

"U.S. consumers increased their spending by 1.9% last month, a dose of support for an economy struggling to emerge from the grip of a pandemic that has held back a recovery and kept roughly 27 million people jobless… The July gain marked the third straight monthly increase in consumer spending, the primary driver of the U.S. economy, but represented a slowdown from the previous two months. Friday’s report from the Commerce Department also showed that income rose 0.4% in July after two months of declines."

"Despite the steepest plunge into a recession on record, historically high unemployment and an uncertain outlook for the economy, the housing market is on a tear."

"A taxi driver wanted on suspicion of murdering his teen daughters has been arrested after 12 years on the run… A warrant for Yaser Abdel Said's arrest was issued the day after the 2008 shootings of his daughters, Sarah Yaser Said, 17, and Amina Yaser Said, 18… The Egyptian-born suspect was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives in 2014."

"Two people were charged in Newton County among nine total suspects following a two-week operation this month in Atlanta and Macon to rescue endangered missing children… The U.S. Marshals Service Missing Child Unit, in conjunction with the agency’s Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and Georgia state and local agencies, led Operation Not Forgotten, a news release stated."

"Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving Japanese prime minister in history, has resigned, citing health reasons."

"The British street artist Banksy has financed a boat to rescue refugees attempting to reach Europe from north Africa, the Guardian can reveal… The vessel, named Louise Michel after a French feminist anarchist, set off in secrecy on 18 August from the Spanish seaport of Burriana, near Valencia, and is now in the central Mediterranean where on Thursday it rescued 89 people in distress, including 14 women and four children."

"Bahrain's king has told visiting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the Gulf state is committed to the creation of a Palestinian state, according to state media, in an implicit rejection of Washington's push for Arab countries to swiftly normalise ties with Israel."

"El Al Airlines will on Monday fly Israel’s first flight to the United Arab Emirates by a commercial carrier, an airline spokesman confirmed on Friday, as the countries forge ahead with a deal to normalise ties."

"China launched a series of ballistic missiles into the South China Sea this week, according to United States defense officials, part of a flurry of military exercises extending thousands of miles along the country's coastline, as tensions with Washington over the disputed waterway continue to escalate."

"The Chinese military said it forced a U.S. warship away from disputed islands in the South China Sea, where both sides have defied military warnings to stay out of sensitive areas amid heightened military tensions between the two powers."

"The Trump administration is pushing dramatic changes to the American retirement system that will benefit Wall Street but push average citizens into plans that are riskier, less profitable, and loaded with high and hidden fees… In the past two months, the Trump’s Labor Department has introduced two pending changes to deregulate vulturous private equity firms and multi-trillion dollar retirement managers like Vanguard, Fidelity, and BlackRock. A third proposed change would restrict retirement investments with an underlying environmental, social, or governance mission — mainly to boost the struggling fossil-fuel industry." The corruption and graft is appalling.

"Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) was confronted by a group of protesters outside the White House with police intervening amid tense scenes following night four of the Republican National Convention."

Meanwhile, on Bullshit Mountain… "U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he was attacked by a "crazed mob" of more than 100 people after leaving the White House following President Trump's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention." I guess being called on being a dick is now "being attacked."

"Republicans wrapped up their four-day convention Thursday having achieved much of what they sought to do: renominating President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on the November ballot, energizing the party's base and portraying Democratic nominee Joe Biden as a pawn of a leftist movement that would destroy America."