The coronavirus “has now weaponized people. Body temperature is the new top-of-mind threat.”
The face gets flushed because the Black Fist Power is not only okay, but pre$$ approved.
Whitey should be scared:
Trump faces backlash after wielding Bible in nod to evangelical base
The article was by Liz Goodwin and Jess Bidgood of the Globe Staff, and you best cling to that gun and bible.
Just below that article:
US cities gird for more violence as Trump decries ‘lowlifes’
It's a Washington Compost piece with this photo:
\Demonstrators listened during a peace march honoring George Floyd on Tuesday in Houston (David J. Phillip/AP/Associated Press).
Masks, people!
Now over to the side:
Thousands in Boston peacefully denounce killings of Black Americans
It was an "emotional protest that included a dramatic stretch of silence."
Now below the fold:
The state’s top political leaders of color press for change across all levels of government
Some wounds never heal.
With diligence and luck, some nursing homes have kept the virus out
This comes as the state issues new guidelines for visits, and it was an emotional goodbye:
Oger Julien, 78 from Malden, gets applause from emotional nurses, doctors and staff as he was the last patient to leave Boston Hope hospital at the Boston Convention Center which treated COVID-19 patients for several months at the height of the virus (John Tlumacki/Globe Staff).
And finally, this:
"Why Wall Street has bounced back and Main Street hasn’t" by Larry Edelman and Shirley Leung Globe Staff and Globe Columnist, June 2, 2020
Main Street is in trouble, and Wall Street doesn’t care.
After bottoming out on March 23, US stocks have recouped more than 90 percent of their losses from the coronavirus crash. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is back to the level where it stood last fall, when the economy was solid and there was little indication the good times would end anytime soon.
It's back to the good times already for $ome, and it's getting even better!
Now, just as states are reopening, the worst spasms of urban violence since 1968 have hit at least 140 cities across the country, including Boston, where stores in Downtown Crossing and the Back Bay were looted Sunday night after a day of peaceful protests against police killings of Black Americans.
I skipped pages A2 and A3 (a full-page Total Wine ad with four ways to shop, the first such ad I have seen by them in three months) and went straight to the A4 turn-in.
The reaction on Wall Street? Stocks are up this week.
“The social discontent has been ignored by markets,” said Dec Mullarkey, managing director of investment strategy at SLC Management, the asset management arm of insurer Sun Life Financial, in Wellesley. “They generally conclude that these distressing events are somewhat inevitable in a liberal democracy and remain confident they will get resolved and won’t be long-term dislocating forces.”
We are not that anymore! We are full-blown fa$ci$t now!
This is not unusual. Stocks often rise in the face of bad news, and there has been a ton of it lately. This unseemly incongruity stems from the fact the investors buy and sell stocks based on where they see corporate earnings, interest rates, and economic growth in the next six months to two years. Today’s news is only important for what it means for the numbers down the road, but the Wall Street-Main Street divide is also symbolic of the opposing realities that have come to define the United States: That of the wealthy, who are largely inoculated from the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and economic hardship, and the poor and working classes, for whom scratching out a living is only getting harder and more dangerous. The wealth divide is only getting worse, thanks in part to the stock market, whose riches are controlled by a sliver of Americans.
Nice word choice.
So the wealthy have already been vaccinated for COVID, huh?
The market’s view that corporate earnings will be better sometime down the road is cold comfort to anyone who has to earn a paycheck — and pay bills — in the present, especially in Massachusetts, which has been hit harder than most states by COVID-19 and the impact of social distancing and the closing of nonessential businesses.
Just ask Tatum Stewart, who owns the Craft Beer Cellar on Main Street in Plymouth.
“I hear from all the Wall Street pundits” on CNBC, she said. “ 'Don’t worry, Q3 or Q4 we’re going to make up for it.’ That’s not realistic for Main Street,” said Stewart, whose wine-and-beer store has been allowed to remain open throughout the pandemic but expects revenue to be down as much as 30 percent this year.
Stewart isn’t even stocking her store with souvenir wine glasses this summer because “we don’t expect there to be tourism.”
:(
Surrounded by local restaurants and shops, Stewart senses the recovery will be long and painful, but the rally in the stock market suggests many investors are betting on a quick recovery. Analysts point to a laundry list of reasons why the market, after losing a third of its value, has climbed most of the way back: The Fed and Congress quickly stepped in with trillions of dollars in rescue funds, including expanded unemployment benefits for individuals, and grants and loans for businesses.
Must be a $ure thing, and all that money went to the wealthy.
China, Italy, and other countries showed it is possible to contain the pandemic and reopen, and to do so — so far, it seems — without a resurgence of infections, and the industries that suffered the biggest job losses — travel, transportation, entertainment, retail, and dining — account for just 7 percent of the profits reported by companies in the S&P 500 index. Big profit-generating sectors, including tech and health care, have fared much better.
Still not the same, and the contact tracing project $ux!
“The economic numbers are undeniably grim, but there are big differences between the US economy and the stock market,” said Dan Kern, chief investment officer at TFC Financial Management in Boston.
For John Spooner, a longtime money manager in Boston, the market recovered for a simple reason: Investors had sold in a panic when experts were predicting that more than 200,000 people — and perhaps as many as 1.7 million — could die from COVID-19. The US death toll is about 105,600.
Yeah, people forget that now. The wildly inaccurate modeling that led to economic destruction and loss of livelihood. As it is they have thrown every single death (including the murder of elderly) to boost the totals.
No one needs to explain to Amy Naples, executive director of the Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce, why Wall Street is happy. She attributes the run-up to publicly traded companies such as Amazon, Target, and Home Depot that have been allowed to remain open during the shutdown — and see their revenues soar.
If they are happy, then we should all be happy.
“They are a monopoly right now,” said Naples, whose chamber is made up of 750 members, many of them small businesses shut down by Governor Charlie Baker’s order. “I don’t think it has been fair.”
Hmmm.
For those keeping score, Amazon’s stock is up 34 percent this year, compared with a 5 percent decline by the S&P 500. Home Depot has added 16 percent, although Target is down 7 percent.
Bezos has gotten rich beyond belief, but now Target has temporarily closed 200 stores and Amazon is restricting deliveries amid the unrest.
Far from the trading floors, a steady line forms outside food pantries such as the one run by the South Shore YMCA in Quincy. The pantry serves more than 900 people a week, more than triple the number before the pandemic struck.
If people are hitting the pantries now, we are in real trouble down the road.
Heidi Wollerman, 32, lost her job as a server at a Boston restaurant and her boyfriend lost his position at a Boston hotel. Wollerman, who has three children, has been coming to the pantry since early April. “There used to be no line,” Wollerman said, as she picked up groceries that often include cereal, canned goods, milk, and fresh fruit and vegetables. With restrictions placed on restaurants, Wollerman is not sure when she will be called back to work. “I’ve been in contact,” she said.
The experience has been ruined, and it's only outside for now.
More than 135,000 workers in the Massachusetts hotel and restaurant sector have sought unemployment pay since mid-March, according to state data. That represents 42 percent of the sector’s pre-pandemic workforce.
That is a mind-boggling number, and most of those jobs are not coming back.
The South Shore Y has also been upended, shutting fitness centers, canceling programming, and furloughing or laying off most of its 1,100 employees. For now, the Y is focused on its food pantry, as well as delivering meals to seniors and setting up an emergency homeless shelter and two emergency child-care centers.
Other than fund-raising, the Y has little revenue coming in, and that might be its new normal. As other YMCAs have reopened across the country, they’ve found that only 20 percent of members are returning.
Only on Main Street, not on Wall Street.
“Our new plan is to lose the least amount of money per month,” said South Shore Y CEO Paul Gorman, who expects that it will take 18 months before membership returns to normal.
Yes, 18 months is the magic number BG put out, and is that a $u$tainable bu$ine$$ model?
I $uppo$e it is with a federal bailout.
A large minority of Americans don’t own a single share of stock — 45 percent, according to a Gallup survey in 2019, down from 63 percent in 2004 — so the jobless rate is far more important to them than what the Dow Jones average is doing. That number is expected to approach 20 percent when the Labor Department releases its May jobs report Friday.
“The pandemic is falling on those least able to bear its burdens. It is a great increaser of inequality," Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, said during a video interview last week.
Yeah, we get pennies on the dollar before they once again turn to the important people.
For the investor class, the concern isn’t how to make rent, but how to best insulate a portfolio against the uncertainties of the coronavirus era.
Oh, we are in an ERA now -- and according to the history books, that equals a DECADE!
Wall Street is back from the abyss. Main Street is still teetering on the edge.....
When you reopen, fly the flag this way.
--more--"
Right below that were these:
"Organizers of the Republican National Convention said Tuesday they will begin visiting potential alternative sites after North Carolina’s governor told them the COVID-19 pandemic requires them to prepare for a scaled-back event if they want to hold it in Charlotte. Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat told reporters it’s unlikely that virus trends will allow a full-capacity nominating convention for President Trump to proceed at Charlotte’s NBA arena. Republican governors of Tennessee, Florida, and Georgia have said they would be interested in hosting if North Carolina falls through....."
Backtracking a bit I find Joe Biden moving closer to formally clinching the Democratic presidential nomination as he laces into Trump for fanning the ‘flames of hate.’
"As demonstrators flooded streets across America to decry the killing of George Floyd, public health experts watched in alarm — the close proximity of protesters and their failures in many cases to wear masks, along with the police using tear gas, could fuel new transmissions of the coronavirus. Many of the protests broke out in places where the virus is still circulating widely in the population. A fresh outbreak in the places where protesters gathered could lead to reinstituting shutdowns. While case numbers and deaths have been trending down in several of the cities where the largest protests have occurred, the number of people in those places infected with the virus — and with the ability to spread it — remains high, and in some of the communities, such as Minneapolis, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 has been rising."
The next lockdown comes with martial law.
Thanks agitators and instigators and the destroyers of property.
"New York City contact tracers hired to contain the spread of the coronavirus reached out to all of the roughly 600 people who tested positive citywide on Monday, the first day of the program, and succeeded in reaching more than half of them, officials said Tuesday. The city has hired 1,700 people for its contact tracing effort and needs to reach 2,500 in order to meet Governor Andrew Cuomo’s target for entering the first phase of the state’s four-step reopening process. The contact tracers are placing people infected with the virus in hotel rooms if they need to isolate themselves away from their families as well as reaching out to the close contacts of those who test positive for COVID-19."
That's the same group of tracers that Baker is using and that is funded by George Soros and Bill Gates, with Chelsea Clinton on the Board of Trustees.
They want to TAKE YOU AWAY from your SPOUSE and CHILDREN!
HOW EVIL!
They are not the only ones, either, sorry to say:
"France is rolling out an official coronavirus contact-tracing app aimed at containing fresh outbreaks as lockdown restrictions gradually ease, becoming the first major European country to deploy the smartphone technology amid debates over data privacy. The StopCovid app launched Tuesday just as the French government started allowing people to once again go to restaurants and cafes, parks and beaches, and museums and monuments. Neighbors including Britain, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland are developing their own apps, though they’re using different technical protocols, raising questions about compatibility across Europe’s borders. Authorities hope the app can help manage virus flare-ups as they reopen the economy in France, which has been living under some of Europe’s tightest restrictions since it became one of countries hardest-hit, with nearly 29,000 deaths."
Well, it is clear that the French failed to contain COVID-19, and as tensions mar the Paris protest over the Floyd outrage (Sacre Bleu, no Yellow Vests?!) the worst riots in a decade engulf Macron.
The pre$$ has literally become comical:
"The funny papers this Sunday will have more than laughs. More than 70 comic strips and panels — from Garry Trudeau’s “Doonesbury” to Jim Toomey’s “Sherman’s Lagoon” — will each have six symbols hidden in the artwork to honor workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. Look closely and you’ll find a mask for medical workers and caregivers, a steering wheel for delivery workers, a shopping cart for grocery workers, an apple for teachers, a fork for food service workers, and a microscope for medical researchers. This Sunday would have marked the last day of the National Cartoonists Society’s annual convention, which was canceled. “I just felt like that was a great day to do it because we’re missing that big communal feeling, but at least we get to do something together,” said “Baby Blues” co-cartoonist Rick Kirkman."
I no longer find the comics funny and never read them.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
After all, there is bu$ine$$ that needs taking care of:
"Stocks closed broadly higher on Wall Street Tuesday, extending the market’s winning streak to a third day. The latest gains, which followed a rally in global stocks, were driven by optimism that the global economy will begin to recover as governments gradually allow businesses that were closed due to the coronavirus outbreak to reopen. Investors are hoping that the worst of the recession has already passed, or will soon, as governments around the country and around the world slowly lift the restrictions that left broad swaths of the US economy at a standstill beginning in March. So far, Wall Street’s momentum has not been derailed by the wave of daily unrest across the United States that began last week in Minneapolis as a protest over police brutality....."
Some had their momentum derailed just when they were about to reopen:
"Unrest another blow for struggling Macy’s" by Michael Corkery and Sapna Maheshwari New York Times, June 2, 2020
NEW YORK — In the end, the damage to the store may have been limited, but images of looters smashing windows and running through Macy’s flagship location in Herald Square was another symbolic hit to the already badly battered retailer.
As roving bands of people swarmed through Manhattan late Monday and into early Tuesday during ongoing protests over the killing of a black man, George Floyd, in police custody, some of them ransacked the city’s most vibrant and valuable retail corridors, from the Upper East Side to midtown, but the Macy’s in Herald Square looms larger perhaps than any other store in New York.
How was that helping matters?
Macy’s, which employs about 123,000 people nationwide, has seen its sales plummet as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and has been racing to reopen stores as quickly as it can. The pandemic has dimmed the outlook for department stores more broadly, which are generally still hinged to physical locations and largely reliant on malls. Since March, J.C. Penney and the Neiman Marcus Group have filed for bankruptcy, Lord & Taylor has dismissed its entire executive team, and even Nordstrom, which is considered the healthiest chain in the sector, has said it would close 16 of its 116 full-line stores.
It's over for them, especially with the onerous social distancing bullshit.
Macy’s, which also owns Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury, was still assessing the losses from the mayhem, but a spokeswoman said Tuesday that no employees were harmed and “damage has been limited,” a result of New York police officers responding to the scene. The Herald Square location had been temporarily closed since March because of the coronavirus pandemic, but a skeleton crew of employees has continued working in the store.
That is where they all must have gone because they were getting hammered in other parts of my paper.
Across the country, hundreds of stores have been damaged and looted during the unrest. Big-box retailers like Walmart and Target have closed many locations temporarily to clean up and make repairs, while some smaller merchants have reported damages that they fear could threaten their viability. The looting has come as unemployment has surged because of the pandemic.
Since the store’s closure more than two months ago, most of its roughly 3,000 workers have been furloughed without pay but are still receiving health benefits. Many of the store’s workers are black or Hispanic, and have built a career in retailing at Macy’s.
“What I am not hearing from our members is how could they do that to Macy’s,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which represents the store’s workers, referring to the damage to the store. “What we are hearing is now is the time to deal with systemic racism.”
Can you at least clean the place up first?
--more--"
"Raytheon bosses get merger windfall amid furloughs, pay cuts" by Anders Melin Bloomberg News, June 2, 2020
Raytheon Technologies Corp. chief executive Greg Hayes spent weeks delivering grim news to employees about furloughs, pay cuts, and hiring freezes as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the economy.
“While many of these measures have been difficult, it is the right thing to do for the business,” Hayes said on a May 7 conference call with analysts as he outlined billions of dollars in cost reductions.
It's part of the fundamental $hift.
Just weeks later, the company tweaked terms for stock awards issued to Hayes and a large group of other managers, instantly boosting the value of their unvested awards by more than $100 million, according to calculations by Bloomberg News. Raytheon didn’t specify how much of the windfall would go to Hayes and his top lieutenants, but the figure is likely in the tens of millions of dollars.
And they just laid off a bunch of people, huh?
Nice to see that $OME THINGS are $TILL NORMAL!
Behind the gains, which have yet to be realized, lies the complex math that determines how equity awards are treated in large corporate transactions — in Raytheon’s case, two spinoffs and one merger all closing on the same day. Further complicating the situation: extreme stock volatility caused by the pandemic.
The hallmark of a looting $cheme!
The change was made to ensure employees aren’t short-changed by big swings in the stock price, according to a regulatory filing Friday. Raytheon said it was reviewed and authorized by a committee of independent directors and that it’s meant to preserve employee retention and morale, as well as the company’s reputation as a “superior employer.” In previous filings, the company said it reserved the right to retroactively make certain changes to equity awards as a result of the transactions.
OMFG!
“They may have had the right but the issue is whether exercising that right breached an obligation to the stockholders,” said James Cox, a Duke University professor who specializes in corporate and securities law.
So everybody got $crewed, huh?
Bethany Sherman, a spokeswoman for Raytheon, declined to comment beyond the filing.
About 3,900 current and former employees, many of them working below the executive suite, hold equity awards that will be affected by the new calculation, but companies tend to reserve the largest awards for those in leadership roles.
The change followed the completion of a series of deals that Hayes has overseen in recent years.
When public companies combine, it typically falls on a group of accountants and lawyers to figure out what to do with the troves of unvested restricted shares and stock options the two executive teams typically hold. Awards from the predecessor firms are typically canceled and replaced by fresh ones issued by the new entity, with similar terms and conditions.
Figuring out exactly how many new securities should be issued for each old one can be tricky given the fickle nature of stock prices. So companies resort to calculating a conversion ratio that’s based on the price over a period of a few days.
The stock surged more than 25 percent above where it had been just days earlier.
$ure $mells criminal to me.
The boost comes at a tough time.
Hayes said May 7 that the company was cutting about $2 billion in costs and making further efforts to conserve billions of dollars in cash, including furloughing an undisclosed number of workers, deferring merit increases, and cutting pay for some salaried employees in the second half of this year.
Just wait until Trump gets WWIII rolling.
Hayes will take a 20 percent salary reduction. The cut won’t affect his equity awards.....
--more--"
Time to Face off with Zuck:
"Zuckerberg defends hands-off approach to Trump’s posts" by Mike Isaac, Cecilia Kang and Sheera Frenkel New York Times, June 2, 2020
SAN FRANCISCO — Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, on Tuesday held firm even as the pressure on him to take action on Trump’s messages intensified. Civil rights groups said late Monday after meeting with him and Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, that it was “totally confounding” that the company was not taking a tougher stand on Trump’s belligerent posts, which have contributed to the rhetoric around the protests over police violence in recent days, and several Facebook employees have publicly resigned, with one saying the company would end up “on the wrong side of history.”
OMG!
I hate to tell him, but you are only in favor of free speech if it is speech you find objectionable and disagree with; otherwise, you are a fa$ci$t.
Facebook’s internal dissent began brewing last week after the social network’s rival, Twitter, added labels to Trump’s tweets that indicated the president was glorifying violence and making inaccurate statements.
Does that mean they will be taking down all the lying war propaganda?
That led to internal criticism, with Facebook employees arguing it was untenable to leave up Trump’s messages that incited violence. They said Zuckerberg was kowtowing to Republicans out of fear of being regulated or broken up.
Did he?
Zuckerberg and Sandberg have spent the past five days meeting with employees, civil rights leaders, and other angry parties to explain the company’s stance. Zuckerberg has said Facebook does not want to be an “arbiter of truth.” He has also said that he is for free speech and that what world leaders post online is in the public interest and newsworthy, but in trying to placate everyone, Zuckerberg has failed to appease anyone. Employees have continued to revolt, making critical public statements on Twitter, LinkedIn, and their personal Facebook pages, and politicians and civil rights organizations have also criticized Zuckerberg’s position.....
Simply proving that you can not be all things to all people.
--more--"
Time to go to work:
"INNOVATION ECONOMY: Their goal: making you feel safe again; Tech companies are finding business opportunities in coronavirus monitoring" by Scott Kirsner Globe Correspondent, June 2, 2020
What will it take to feel safe from the coronavirus at a bustling workplace like a construction site? Or in a music venue or theme park?
Boston-area companies are rolling out new products this month aimed at monitoring things such as mask wearing and elevated body temperature as a way to supply that feeling of security, but at the moment, the goal is increasing your confidence that you’re not mingling with a mob of unmasked, undiagnosed COVID-19 sufferers, as opposed to offering assurance that you’re at zero risk of catching the disease.
I don't like where this is going.
In ordinary times, Cambridge-based Smartvid.io sells software to construction companies that’s designed to enhance safety on building projects. The software uses video and photos from onsite cameras, coupled with automated image analysis, to spot potential risks like standing water, workers without hard hats, or trenches that lack proper safety barriers, but now that construction sites in most states must ensure that workers also are wearing masks and maintaining at least six feet of distance, when possible, Smartvid.io has updated its software to spot those issues, as well.
Josh Kanner, the chief executive, says the goal isn’t to call out individuals who aren’t following the rules. “We haven’t built facial-recognition capabilities," he says, "and we never will,” but he hopes the software can help construction companies gather baseline data about the percentage of workers on a site that are wearing masks or complying with social distancing recommendations — in part so they can incrementally dial back up the number of people on the site.
He's part of the global surveillance grid they are constructing, and it looks like the silly masks are here to stay, huh?
Smartvid.io’s software tries to detect whether someone is wearing a mask, but Kanner acknowledges it can be challenging to see if the mask is completely on, or covering just the mouth. It can also detect people standing in clusters, Kanner says, though he acknowledges “there are some work activities where it’s really hard to be socially distant.”
Since some of the new features were just released this month, Kanner says he doesn’t yet have data on average mask wearing rates on construction sites, or how good the software is at differentiating a bearded worker from a masked one, but he hopes the data will help improve the rates of mask usage and social distancing.
Why not just mandate shaving like the military?
While Smartvid.io has focused most of its marketing energy on the construction industry, and the message of making job sites safer, Kanner is thinking there may be other locations that can use the software, like warehouses and factories, which suddenly also care about mask wearing and maintaining a buffer zone between workers.
We will all be little Israels with our "buffer zones."
Evolv Technologies sells an advanced gateway system that can identify people with guns, bombs, or knives trying to enter a venue like a school or stadium.
The coronavirus “has now weaponized people,” says Peter George, chief executive of the Waltham company. “Body temperature is the new top-of-mind threat.”
That quote appeared on page C4, and it was the thing that stuck out the most this morning.
What a $ick fuck!
That's what the pre$$ has done regarding the riots, and I will never, ever, see my fellow human being as a "weaponized threat," sorry. Fuck you!
George says Evolv has been inundated with inquiries — especially from the theme park industry, which is eager to reopen parks. One new customer is Six Flags Entertainment Corp. Part of what the Evolv technology enables is a screening process that doesn’t require security officers to handle purses or bags, since the technology can differentiate between a cellphone, keys, or a gun as visitors walk through a gateway.
So going to the "amusement park" will be like going to the goddamn airport now.
This month, Evolv is beginning to offer temperature sensing as an add-on to its system, using an infrared camera made by Seek Thermal of California. “We tested the top three camera systems for accuracy — especially while people are moving, and while they may have glasses on,” George says. (He notes that Six Flags isn’t yet using the temperature scanning feature, which doesn’t work outdoors.)
The technology will stand guard against COVID-19, even if remote temperature screening sensors are frequently inaccurate and people infected with COVID-19 can be asymptomatic and not run a high temperature.
Evolv says that without scanning for fevers, its gateway can screen 60 people per minute as they walk through, flagging those who may require additional screening, but the need for more spacing between people streaming into a facility, and the temperature scan, slows things down a bit — to about 40 people a minute, George says.
Interestingly, despite the strong demand for new types of screening products — George says that Evolv has been setting revenue records this quarter — both Evolv and Smartvid.io have cut jobs in recent months. Evolv eliminated about 12 percent of its workforce, and Smartvid.io laid off less than 10 percent.
(Blog editor chuckles)
What drove that? Kanner says it was about “overall economic uncertainty,” along with a desire to provide two months of free access to the company’s software to help construction companies reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19. George says that as many of Evolv’s existing customers shut down — and it was hard to tell when they’d reopen — “we needed to right-size the company for that reality.” The company’s remaining employees agreed to accept a pay cut.
That's what drug dealers do.
Only one thing worse than them:
The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks changed the way we’re screened before we board airplanes. The coronavirus seems likely to change how we enter workplaces and venues like stadiums and theme parks.....
Then stay out of them!
They don't want fans anyway!
--more--"
Related:
"You get to the airport four hours before your flight is scheduled to depart. When you arrive, an airport security guard checks to make sure you’re wearing a mask and that you have tickets for a flight before allowing you inside the terminal. Once inside, you’re taking the stairs or an escalator (unless you’re disabled) because it’s impossible to stay 6 feet from others in the confined space of an elevator car. In the departures hall, thermal imaging cameras are scanning the crowd to determine whether there are any individuals with abnormally high temperatures walking about. Counter agents are all behind plexiglass, and facial recognition technology is used as much as possible to keep person-to-person contact at a minimum. A dramatic transformation in air travel — with changes potentially more sweeping than those put in place after 9/11 — is well underway. Simple tweaks, such as deep cleaning planes after every flight, to more invasive ones, like spritzing passengers from head to toe with disinfectant, have begun around the world. Nearly all options, no matter how dystopian they may sound (raising your hand to use the bathroom during a flight?), are being tested or considered to slow the spread of the virus. If there is any doubt that at least some of these changes will persist past the pandemic, look no further than TSA security, where those without TSA PreCheck are still removing their shoes because, 19 years ago, a terrorist named Richard Reid attempted to blow up a plane with a bomb hidden in his shoe. When touchless temperature readings at security check points are still de rigueur in 2035, we’ll think back to the spring of 2020 when air travel once again changed forever. Until universal practices are put into place, airports and airlines are trying a bit of everything, some of it practical, some scary. In Hong Kong, the airport is testing a decontamination chamber that blasts passengers with a full-body disinfectant for 40 seconds. There are also robots roaming the airport to kill germs with UV rays. At London Heathrow, thermal imaging cameras are detecting travelers with high temperatures, but not everyone is buying into the need for such seismic changes in aviation. Another place where people tend to bottleneck on planes is in the aisle while they wait to use the lavatory, so RyanAir is now requiring passengers to ask for permission to use the bathroom. In Abu Dhabi, Etihad Airways is testing self-screening kiosks that help identify medical conditions, potentially including early stages of COVID-19. The kiosks use infrared and thermal imaging to record vital signs such as heart rate, body temperature, and respiratory rate. There are many more reports and warnings about what travel in the future could look like. SimpliFlying, an aviation marketing firm, came out with a lengthy report that recommends immunity passports. It envisions an airport where passengers either show their immunity passport, or go through a “disinfection tunnel” and pass through thermal scanners. Luggage is sanitized and passengers are individually notified when they can board via text message so there is no backup on the jet bridge. In order to complete these checks and others, it recommends getting to the airport of the future four hours in advance. Many of these ideas sound outlandish and impossible to enact, but before you dismiss them entirely, would you have believed a year ago that we would be hoarding toilet paper while being quarantined in our homes for two months? This is where the mélange of innovation and adaptation begins. With no vaccine on the immediate horizon and fears of a second wave of coronavirus casting a shadow over future plans....."
Who the f**k would want to board an airplane now, and I'm told the “impact of COVID-19 is going to be more lasting and game-changing for the country’s airlines than even 9/11," so I've lost my appetite for the rest of the business section, sorry -- even the $ports.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Somehow the totalitarianism above has left me cool to the cause of the rioters:
"Minority leaders put legislative agenda behind thoughts and prayers" by Milton J. Valencia Globe Staff, June 2, 2020
One proposal would require police officers across the state to wear body cameras. Another would create independent boards to review police conduct in each community, and another would revoke certifications for police officers who are removed from their positions for wrongdoing, to prevent them from joining a department somewhere else.
They are not necessarily new ideas — in some cases they have been languishing in the legislative process for years — but the state’s top minority elected officials united Tuesday in a call for action at a State House march and news conference, saying it’s time to enact laws that can prevent police brutality and empower those who have been disenfranchised and abused by systemic and institutional racism.
State officials also laid out a legislative agenda for Beacon Hill, including proposals that have been put forward — unsuccessfully — before. One measure, pushed by state Representative Russell Holmes, would decertify police officers who lose their jobs, so that they cannot apply for an opening at another community or on a college police force.
They want things they could never get before, and that just stinks!
Another proposal would require an independent special prosecutor, appointed by a district attorney, in cases of possible police misconduct. Another would work to close sentencing disparities between white people and people of color by establishing sentencing guidelines and better monitoring how sentences are handed out, and another would establish new guidelines for police training, such as deescalation methods, and measures to hold officers accountable to that training.
I don't know how more bureaucracy is going to help as the DAs and prosecutors wage war on the police in favor of the antifa anarchists.
Maybe sending the cops to be trained by Israelis should be rethought instead, huh?
Tanisha Sullivan, head of the NAACP in Boston, said her organization supports the agenda, and called on all elected officials, legislators, and executives, regardless of race — as well as the unions that represent police officers — to support the proposals. “So frequently, there is little to no action that follows,” she said, adding, “There is an opportunity for all of our well-meaning, well-intentioned legislators and those sitting in executive offices today to show us that the ‘thoughts and prayers’ are not empty."
Yeah, never let the opportunity of a crisis go to waste!
Related:
"Attorney General Maura Healey gave a rousing call to action on Tuesday, urging Boston business leaders to do their part in curbing the systemic racism and inequities that have prompted protest marches across the country in the past week. “We have a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Healey said in a speech to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. “The challenge I pose to all of us this morning is: Will we seize it?” She referenced the protests and riots of the past few days over a passionate speech from her Beacon Hill office to more than 300 chamber members on a Zoom call. “I support calls for a revolution, but not the revolution of violence in our streets,” Healey said. “I’m calling for a revolution in mindset, a fundamental change to our ingrained assumptions.” She urged the white business people on the call to talk with their Black and brown colleagues about their experiences. She said companies should protect their executives who promote diversity and inclusion, or create one of these positions if they don’t already have one; they are too important to be sacrificed in budget cuts, she said, as happened in the 2008 recession, and she urged chamber members to support Black-owned businesses and to get behind policies championed by minority lawmakers. “As we reopen, we can’t go back,” Healey said. “The new normal must address the deep inequities that the COVID crisis has exposed.”"
What a OPPORTUNISTIC GRANDSTANDER!
Paired with her is the Women's Speakers Series the Globe is promoting, with the keynote speaker being the CIA agent Steinem who says the "problem is not to learn, but unlearn."
That is how a BRAINWASHER TALKS because we don't "unlearn" -- what a reprehensible term -- we LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES and CORRECT the WRONGS!
I'm sure there is a place in hell for her somewhere.
House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo said through a spokesman that the recent events have cast “a bright light on widespread inequities and injustice that persist within our society.” He committed to working to develop policies and implement reforms. “We must have difficult conversations about race, bias, and accountability,” he said. “We must work together, and we will.”
A spokesperson for Senate President Karen E. Spilka, who attended the press conference, did not immediately respond for comment.
City Council President Kim Janey said the recent attention on cases of police abuse and misconduct should serve as a motivator for change. The municipal agenda includes banning facial recognition technology, diversifying public safety departments, and building equality laws into housing and health systems.
“We can only have healing if there is true justice,” she said. “Our agenda must be one that promotes and protects the true liberation of Black people in our country. . . . Our fight involves more than just putting an end to police brutality.”
I'm sure she will soon forget about it.
Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins said that prosecutors have a role to play, as well, to hold police officers and other officials accountable to the laws. She called on police unions to work with legislators to draft new, effective laws, saying the work will build confidence in law enforcement.
“You have seen an epic failure of prosecutors across the country, not standing up and holding police officers accountable,” she said, adding, “when police can lose their life, the stakes are just too high.”
She has been on the hot seat lately, and may well get ridden out of town on a rail.
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Related:
Inside the push to tear-gas protesters ahead of a Trump photo op
The Washington Compost saw through the smoke, and it was Barr who gave the go-ahead:
Attorney general personally ordered removal of protesters near White House
They saluted smartly and took orders:
"Former commanders fault Trump’s use of troops against protesters" by Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt and Jennifer Steinhauer New York Times, June 2, 2020
WASHINGTON — Retired senior military leaders condemned their successors in the Trump administration for ordering active-duty units Monday to rout those peacefully protesting police violence near the White House.
Isn't that a form of insubordination?
What peaceful protests are they talking about?
As military helicopters flew low over the nation’s capital and National Guard units moved into many cities, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and General Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stood beside President Trump as he took the unusual step of pressing the US military into a domestic confrontation.
General Martin E. Dempsey, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote on Twitter that “America is not a battleground. Our fellow citizens are not the enemy,” and General Tony Thomas, the former head of the Special Operations Command, tweeted: “The ‘battle space’ of America??? Not what America needs to hear … ever, unless we are invaded by an adversary or experience a constitutional failure … ie a Civil War.”
That's not the way the Pentagon's 2030 document read, although I do agree the Constitution is now null and void.
For the past three years, US military officials have expressed private concerns that Trump does not understand either his role as commander in chief or the role of the military that is sworn to protect the Constitution from all enemies.
Why haven't they cleaned out the nest of dual-national Israeli subversives then?
Television networks broadcast images of Milley, in combat fatigues, and Esper, in a suit — walking behind Trump as he crossed Lafayette Square on Monday evening to a photo opportunity in front of St. John’s church. Earlier in the day, Esper joined the president’s call with governors and said, “We need to dominate the battlespace” — a comment that set off a torrent of criticism.
More than 40 percent of the 2 million active-duty and reserve personnel are people of color, and orders to confront protesters demonstrating against a criminal justice system that targets black men troubled many.
The Air Force’s top enlisted airman took to Twitter to express his anger.
“Just like most of the Black Airmen and so many others in our ranks … I am outraged at watching another Black man die on television before our very eyes,” Kaleth O. Wright, the chief master sergeant of the Air Force, said in a Twitter thread, citing the names of black men who died in police custody or in police shootings. “I am George Floyd … I am Philando Castile, I am Michael Brown, I am Alton Sterling, I am Tamir Rice.”
Oh, yeah, remember him?
The Pentagon has yet to say how many soldiers it is deploying to Washington, per Trump’s order. Defense Department officials have given varying numbers, from 500 to “thousands.”
One Pentagon official said that the troops deploying to the capital might not be limited to the military police. The official, who said that decisions were still being made, added that the troops were coming from Ft. Bragg in North Carolina, Ft. Drum in New York, and might also, surprisingly, include the so-called Old Guard ceremonial unit. The Old Guard provides security for Washington and escort to the president.
The deployment of active-duty troops to confront protesters and looters prompted one military official to liken the order to Trump requesting his own “palace guard.”
As soldiers arrived Monday, clad in camouflage uniforms and clutching riot shields labeled “military police” to reinforce the line of crowd control officers guarding Lafayette Square yards from the White House, the crowd of about 400 protesters responded with verbal taunts. “Fascists!” some yelled. Others booed. A few shouted expletives.
As the hours stretched on, a pair of armored Humvees from the 273rd Military Police Company, painted tan for their once inevitable deployments to the Middle East, sat idling in an intersection near a Metro stop. Protesters snapped pictures in front of them. Others quietly walked by shaking their heads.
I wish they were still being sent there and not being used to repress the citizenry.
Around 10 p.m., the military stepped up its attempts to suppress the protesters. A crowd making its way through the Chinatown area of Washington had gone relatively unbothered by law enforcement, having snaked across town, blocking roads and chanting “We can’t breathe,” “George Floyd,” and “Hands up, don’t shoot.” The group, for the most part, was peaceful.
A Black Hawk helicopter, followed by a smaller medical evacuation helicopter, dropped to rooftop level with their search lights aimed at the crowd. Tree limbs snapped, nearly hitting several people. Signs were torn from the sides of buildings. Some protesters looked up, while others ran into doorways. The downward force of air from the rotors was deafening.
Now you know how Afghans and Iraqis feel.
The helicopters were performing a “show of force” — a standard tactic used by military aircraft in combat zones to scatter insurgents. The maneuvers were personally directed by the highest echelons of the Washington National Guard, according to a military official with direct knowledge of the situation. The Guard did not respond to a request for comment.
Bloggers warned for years that those tactics would be brought back from the wars of aggression, and now the chickens have come home to roost.
Parts of the crowd dispersed before continuing on. The helicopters circled for another pass. Afterward, protesters were no longer cursing only the police, the focus of unrest from the start, but the military, too.
In the current unrest, military personnel specialists say, the Guard is caught between expressing anguish over the killing of a black man, George Floyd in Minneapolis, and supporting civilian authorities in quelling the violent protests and looting that followed.
“Most of the soldiers will have sympathy for the peaceful protesters and be angry about Floyd’s death, but they’re probably angry at the violence as well,” said Peter D. Feaver, a professor of political science at Duke University who has studied the military for decades. “It puts them in a fraught position.”
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I will be going on a patrol a little lower in the post, but the Globe wants to know if Trump could deploy the military to cities like Boston to quell protests?
The answer is, yes, Trump can deploy troops to suppress protests; however, the authority is rarely used — and for good reason. Even under the most responsible command, injecting military forces into a domestic crisis has the potential to make a bad situation worse, and under Trump, it could be disastrous; therefore, the Globe is arguing stand down, Mr. President because although Trump didn’t start the fire, he’s pouring gasoline on the flames and turning it into Trump’s America vs. America.
Related:
Police target journalists as Trump blames ‘Lamestream Media’ for protests
The article is from the New York Times, and I should be defending them but they don't defend us and I'm tired of their endless whining!
See:
"An international media rights group said Sunday the coronavirus pandemic is being used by governments around the world to increase restrictions on press freedoms. In a report issued to coincide with World Press Freedom Day 2020, the International Press Institute concluded that in both democratic and autocratic states the “public health crisis has allowed governments to exercise control over the media on the pretext of preventing the spread of disinformation.” It said authoritarian governments have been abusing emergency measures to “further stifle independent media and criminalize journalism,” while in democracies “efforts to control the public narrative and restrict access to information around the pandemic are on the rise.” The Vienna-based group said it has documented 162 press freedom violations related to coronavirus coverage over the past 2½ months, almost a third of which have involved the arrest, detention, or charging of journalists. The institute’s report came three days after the International Federation of Journalists published a survey that found that the working conditions of news reporters around the globe have deteriorated during the pandemic amid job losses and attacks on media freedom. World Press Freedom Day was proclaimed by the United Nations in 1993."
A leading Philippine broadcaster was forced off the air; however, they later backed down and put him back on, and what about rest of us, a$$holes?
As a busy hurricane season looms, NOAA’s credibility has taken a hit, e-mails show
The storm that is coming is bigger than ‘‘Sharpiegate,’’ Washington Compost, now get back to work!
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Time to lock the prisoners back up:
State’s highest court refuses to release prisoners due to coronavirus
"In its ruling, the court acknowledged that prisoners are at an increased risk for COVID-19, but found that incarceration during a pandemic does not necessarily amount to cruel and unusual punishment. The court noted that the state’s Department of Correction has followed federal health guidelines and is conducting extensive testing in its facilities. The decision dealt a blow to one of several efforts to reduce the prison population during the pandemic. Prisoners’ Legal Services, acting on behalf of a group of inmates, filed a lawsuit in late March that sought the release of many state prisoners, arguing that crowded, unsanitary prison conditions were a powder keg for coronavirus spread."
When the coronavirus pandemic and spring allergy season align
Like the two events, some mild symptoms can overlap, and what happens is you get dirty looks and have to get tested as the Massachusetts death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surged to more than 7,000 and the total number of cases surpassed 100,000. The higher-than-usual spike was a result of the state’s decision to begin including probable as well as confirmed cases in its tallies.
"The state reported Tuesday that the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in Massachusetts had risen by 50 and that the number of cases had climbed by 358. The numbers reflect both confirmed and probable cases, a move state officials announced Monday that they would be making in accordance with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control. Taking the cases all together, the state reported that there were 101,163 cases of coronavirus in Massachusetts, and 7,085 total deaths. When confirmed cases only are included, the tally is 97,539 cases and 6,944 deaths, respectively. The state on Tuesday reported 248 new confirmed cases, plus 110 probable cases. The state also reported 50 new confirmed-case deaths, but no new probable deaths....."
Time to light up a victory cigar:
Black-owned Boston marijuana store looted in what owners call a targeted attack amid protests
The robbers knew the shop’s layout and took over $100,000 worth of cannabis.
Where was the Guard?
"Mass. National Guard takes soldier out of active service for ‘inflammatory and divisive comments’" by Danny McDonald Globe Staff, June 2, 2020
The Massachusetts National Guard has taken a soldier out of service after he made “inflammatory and divisive comments,” a spokesman for the organization said Tuesday.
The soldier, who was not identified by the Guard, has been placed on “inactive status and will not serve in any capacity while this matter is under investigation.” The Guard did not offer any details regarding the comments that prompted the action or the hometown of the soldier.
The social media post in question included the phrases “(Expletive) your riots” and “You’re all stupid I can’t wait to shoot you tomorrow night,” according to a source briefed on the situation.
An FBI spokeswoman said that agency is aware of an inflammatory social media post made by a member of the state’s National Guard, but declined to comment beyond that.
The news comes less than two days after the Massachusetts National Guard was sent to Boston to help maintain order after unrest followed a peaceful march that protested the killing of George Floyd and other Black Americans at the hands of police.....
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Not very funny, is it?
Related:
Salem police captain suspended for inappropriate tweet criticizing Mayor Walsh
You may not criticize the party of the Fuhrer!
Fore!
Retired firefighter helps save man who fell 20 feet into trench at Concord Country Club
It was a par 4 hole:
"Two men were arrested after they were allegedly found carrying multiple bricks and other tools typically used in burglaries near Faneuil Hall Monday night, Boston Police said. At 9:19 p.m., officers patrolling the area of Merchants Row in Faneuil Hall saw Brendon Lennon, 27, and Cameron Barakos, 24, both of Dracut, in an alleyway on Commercial Street near 160 State Street, police said. “With many of the businesses closed in the area, officers exited their cruiser to investigate the activity in the alleyway,” police said. The men told officers they were urinating in the alleyway when asked why they were there, and Lennon became visibly nervous during the exchange, police said. Officers allegedly found multiple brick particles inside of Lennon’s sweatshirt. They also allegedly found a black baton, a 10-inch hunting style knife, one full brick, and one partial brick inside of a backpack Barakos was wearing, police said. Multiple bricks were also found in the alleyway where the men were standing, police said. Both men were arrested and charged with possession of burglarious tools and indecent exposure. They are expected to be arraigned in Boston Municipal Court."
You will NEVER BELIEVE where they GOT the BRICKS!
"Two men were arrested in connection with a violent assault and robbery of two teenagers in Park Street Station Monday night, Transit Police said. A 17- and 19-year-old male were visiting the Common “for a day of leisure” when they met a group of males and a female who they spent the day with, Transit Police said in a statement. Around 10 p.m., the two males were led into Park Street Station where they were allegedly assaulted “by the very group with whom they just spent the day with,” officials said. Both victims were allegedly punched, kicked, and threatened before their clothes, shoes, cell phones, and money were stolen, officials said. When Transit Police officers found the victims, they were “naked and bloodied,” authorities said. By using descriptions of the suspects and conducting an area search, officers found two men, later identified as Dashaun Eures, 18, of Dedham and Keshaun Wilkie, 21, of Dorchester, police said. The victims identified both men as two of the several people who assaulted and robbed them. Eures and Wilkie were arrested and brought to Transit Police Headquarters for booking, officials said."
They didn't arrest the getaway driver:
"Police made overnight arrests near the South Shore Plaza in Braintree and seized a vehicle that contained smoke grenades after authorities were alerted Monday night to social media posts about planned looting at the shopping center, law enforcement officials said Tuesday. Braintree police provided information via Facebook about the incident. In one Facebook message around 8:30 p.m. Monday, cops flagged the online postings and warned people to avoid the mall area. Then around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, police provided information on the arrests and the vehicle with the grenades. Randolph police in a separate statement identified the driver as Wesley Goodman, 20, of Randolph.
No kidding?
It wasn’t clear if Goodman had hired a lawyer. He faces several charges including failure to stop for police; negligent operation of a motor vehicle; operation of a motor vehicle with a suspended license; operation of an unregistered motor vehicle; operation of an uninsured motor vehicle; number plate violation, attaching plates; unlawful possession of fireworks; speeding; failure to stop at a stop sign; operating to endanger, and malicious destruction of property over $250, the statement said. “After refusing to stop and fleeing from officers, the driver of a gray Nissan Altima, later identified as Goodman, drove his vehicle through a wooded area and fence abutting the Flaherty Elementary School property in order to flee from police,” Randolph police said. “Braintree officers called off their brief pursuit and notified area police departments to be on the lookout for the vehicle, which had sustained front-end damage, had its rear bumper hanging off and had a flat tire as a result of driving through the wooded area.” A Randolph police officer patrolling North Main Street later spotted a Nissan Altima with heavy damage matching the description put out by Braintree cops, the Randolph officials’ statement said. “The officer pulled behind the vehicle and activated his siren and lights and attempted to stop the driver,” the statement said. “Goodman allegedly refused to stop and drove through a red light at the intersection of North Main Street and Scanlon Drive. Goodman continued to flee down North Main Street, swerving around other vehicles. Officers pursued Goodman as he traveled into Avon onto Harrison Boulevard and eventually onto Route 24 Northbound.” Goodman began to slow down on the highway, since his right front tire was damaged, police said. “Several State Police troopers joined in on the pursuit and were able to box in Goodman’s vehicle just after Exit 20B in the breakdown lane where he came to stop,” Randolph police said. “Goodman was placed under arrest without further incident. After detaining and speaking with three passengers in the vehicle, a male and two females, it was determined that Goodman was acting on his own and the others were released.
WTF?
They must have been scared to death, right?
No one said PULL the FUCK OVER and LET ME OUT?
I wonder jwho his friends were.
In a search of the vehicle, officers located a large amount of fireworks in the trunk, which were seized by police.” Protests and looting have been reported in cities across the US amid continued outrage over the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who died in Minneapolis when a white police officer pressed his knee on his neck as Floyd lay handcuffed. The now-fired officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. In Providence overnight Monday into early Tuesday morning, dozens of people broke into the Providence Place shopping mall, setting a police car on fire, and smashing the windows of stores they then looted. The Providence unrest came after late-night rioting Sunday in Boston, where peaceful protests had been held throughout the day before the tumult unfolded. By Monday, Boston police had confirmed 53 people were arrested, and nine police officers were taken to the hospital in the violence that followed the demonstration, as were 18 bystanders, according to authorities. In their Facebook posting early Tuesday morning, Braintree police thanked the Norfolk sheriff’s department for assistance during the response at the mall. “This evening, all admin, plain clothes, and detectives reported to duty in uniform to assist patrol,” police wrote. “This proactive approach maintained a command presence in and around neighborhoods of the plaza, which contributed to those wanting to commit crime, turn around and head home. Safe Night Braintree.” “Due to numerous social media posts planning to loot the South Shore Plaza, a heavy police presence was shown today and will continue this evening,” Braintree police wrote. “The mall is now closed. Anyone on the property without a legitimate reason will be asked to leave. ... Do not come down here. We had a handful of arrests on the evening shift for refusing to leave, and failure to stop for police,” police wrote. “One vehicle fled the plaza, crashed through the fence separating Flaherty School and was apprehended by Randolph Police and MSP after a pursuit into Stoughton. It was reported the vehicle contained smoke grenades and commercial grade fireworks.”
What kind of thief telegraphs his intentions to the cops so they can be prepared and prevent it?
An un$ucce$$ful one, but at least it got Marshfield to cancel the fair:
"The Marshfield Fair has been canceled for the first time in 153 years due to public health concerns over the pandemic, officials announced Monday. “The health and safety of our fairgoers, our volunteers, our staff, and our community is of utmost importance to us," organizers said in a statement on the fair’s website. "Due to the current health pandemic, the directors of the Marshfield Fair have voted to cancel the 2020 fair. We look forward to seeing you all at the 2021 Marshfield Fair.” The 10-day fair, which normally draws upwards of 160,000 people, was scheduled to begin August 21, officials said. The next fair will begin August 20, 2021....."
The rest, as they say, is history.
