Monday, August 31, 2020

Looking Back at the Bo$ton Globe

Yesterday they faced front, and now they are pa$t:

Democrats accuse Trump of stoking violence

It's AP, my pos was NYT, and the reaction was different regarding the shooting of a Trump supporter and counterprotester. The NYT report told me hundreds of trucks full of Trump supporters drove into the city and that's what sparked the confrontation. The mayor has a heavy heart, but blames Trump and I'm told right-wing demonstrations have sprung up in recent days. That means the same people behind the left-wing madness are activating the other side of the coin they control. Real patriots have yet to unload, and we know who is driving the civil war.

The first ad I see is for a mask, and I can't help but wonder if it is a subtle way of saying shut up.

I'm going to skip the front-page feature (there is that ad again) for now and flip below the fold:

"Hard times afflict the state’s iconic cranberry bogs, as economic, environmental changes reshape the industry" by David Abel Globe Staff, August 30, 2020

PLYMOUTH — For centuries, the ruby-colored fruit was like gold: tart gems that brought hard-earned wealth to generations of families in Southeastern Massachusetts.

In recent years, however, the state’s billion-dollar cranberry business has soured.

Environmental groups blame the bogs for draining ground water and harming ecosystems with dams, pesticides, and other pollution. Increasing competition from Canada to Chile has created a surge in supply, causing prices to crash. More recently, the Trump administration’s trade war with China has led to a 40 percent tariff on US cranberries, draining tens of millions of dollars from the industry.

Now, with many farmers aging and seeing limited interest from their children in working the land, the combination of competition, environmental regulations, and other forces is driving more of the state’s cranberry farmers out of the business.

“It’s a big undertaking running these farms, and it didn’t make sense for us to continue,” said Glorianna Davenport, 76, whose family spent 33 years running Tidmarsh Farms in Plymouth.

Three years ago, after years of depressed prices and with none of their children interested in taking over, Davenport and her husband sold their 610-acre farm, which once produced as many as 3 million pounds of cranberries a year.

Tidmarsh Farms is among a growing wave of Massachusetts cranberry farms that have closed, consolidated with other farms, or contracted, selling off less productive parts of their land for development or conservation.

That's where the turn-in came, and the third time is a charm that ends ends in a (drunken) bog.


{@@##$$%%^^&&}

"A Republican strategist and a Bernie Sanders adviser find common ground: spurring Latino voters to defeat Trump" by Jazmine Ulloa Globe Staff, August 30, 2020

WASHINGTON — Republican strategist Mike Madrid and progressive Democratic consultant Chuck Rocha have spent much of their decades in politics on opposite sides of the same cause, helping campaigns reach, court, and organize Latino voters, but in recent months they’ve formed an unlikely alliance fueled by a new shared goal: Preventing President Trump’s reelection by ensuring his campaign does not lure more support from the crucial and growing Latino slice of the electorate.

“We had never worked together before,” said Madrid, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, a political action committee of current and former Republicans aiming to take down Trump.

They are “now worried because if Trump wins again, three staffers might get deported.”

For months, Latino strategists and outreach groups have urged Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to hire more Latino staffers and pump up his outreach and advertising to connect with what is expected this year to become the nation’s largest bloc of voters of color, but while Trump’s campaign has invested heavily in courting Latino voters, the Biden team has been slow to raise money and spend money and mobilize, first amid a crowded Democratic primary field, then during the pandemic.

Once again they are starting on their back foot, just as in 2016. 

Shouldn't all that have been solidified itself by now, or do Latinos think for themselves?

The work of closing the gap has largely fallen to outside voter outreach organizations, political action groups, and independent strategists including Madrid and Rocha.

“Without the independent side, Democrats and progressives would be outspent on digital, radio, and television ad buys, according to what is publicly reported from the Biden campaign,” said Stephanie Valencia, a special assistant to former president Obama who went on to co-found the progressive polling firm EquisLabs Research.

It's the virtual thing because that just doesn't connect.

Madrid and Rocha, both Mexican-American and top political strategists long in each other’s orbits, were brought together through mutual friends. The pair now jumps on weekly calls with each other and members of other Latino voter outreach organizations. Their alliance is emblematic of the unwieldy tent being built by Democrats as volunteers, activists, and strategists across much of the political spectrum set aside their differences, if only temporarily, to take on what they see as the larger threat to democracy: Trump and Trumpism.

Not the left-wing violence in the street -- which Latinos here may well oppose given their own experiences in their home countries.

The Latino electorate — a diverse population of people mostly of Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban descent along with fast-growing groups of Venezuelans, Dominicans and Guatemalans — is projected to make up about 13 percent of all eligible voters, or roughly 32 million people in the November election.

A lifelong Republican, Madrid has been studying Latinos as an emerging political force in the Southwest since he completed his senior thesis at Georgetown University in 1997. He’s worked on Republican and Democratic campaigns in Texas, California, and Florida, as a portion of the voter bloc, largely evangelical Christians and military families, became a small but ardent Republican constituency.

He said he still holds many of those fundamental conservative views on small government and fiscal policy, but the Republican Party has mostly abandoned those under Trump, he said, as it has adopted racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric, rendering many Latino Republicans like himself politically homeless.

“One of the most disappointing things, having worked on issues of race in the Republican Party for 30 years, is that so many people who said this was not what the party is have demonstrated this is exactly what the party is,” Madrid said.

Rocha, one of the few Latinos to hold a top role in a presidential campaign, rose through the ranks of the United Steelworkers union and trained as an organizer under the same teachings that Cesar Chavez used to recruit farm workers in California. He ran Bernie Sanders’ wildly successful Latino outreach program in Nevada during the 2020 primaries and formed the progressive Nuestro PAC to continue the work after Sanders conceded the nomination to Biden.

The Sanders campaign was soon crushed after that as nearly every identity group that makes up their party went for pedo Joe, or so we were told.

At the start of the pandemic, Rocha said, he went into isolation “to literally write the book” on how to replicate the model. “Tío Bernie: The Inside Story of How Bernie Sanders Brought Latinos Into The Political Revolution,” released in August, delves into Rocha’s path into politics and the strategies that resonated with working-class Latinos and young people across the West.

Part of Sanders’ appeal were his progressive policies such as Medicare For All, Rocha said, but perhaps a larger draw was that his campaign was often the only one to call Latino voters often left out of the political conversation.

For months, Rocha and Madrid have sounded the alarm on the Biden campaign. Those concerns grew louder after the party conventions. Progressive Latino strategists decried the conspicuous absence at the Democratic convention of former US housing secretary Julián Castro, the only Latino presidential candidate in the primaries, and the limited speaking time given to Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, but Democrats bashed Trump on his pandemic response and harsh immigration policies, showcasing a range of elected officials, activists, and everyday workers likely to appeal to moderate Latino voters in the middle of the country.

Republicans at their convention sought to offer a positive spin on the Trump administration’s approach to immigration, the economy, and the pandemic. The campaign gave plum speaking slots to Black and Latino surrogates, devoted time to bashing what they called the Democrats’ “radical socialism,” touted law enforcement, and showed Trump conducting a naturalization ceremony.

They are also the party that freed the slaves, if you remember.

Madrid said Trump is likely to get about the same amount of Latino voter support as other Republican candidates — about 30 percent of the vote.

“It is a ceiling and it is a floor,” Madrid said. “It doesn’t matter who it is. The same trajectory has existed for 25 years. There is no evidence that that is going to change,” but the Republican imagery and showmanship could scrape off just enough support from Biden among conservative-leaning Latinos — mainly non-college educated men — in swing states such as Arizona, Florida, and North Carolina, Madrid and Rocha said. The Republicans’ contradicting attacks on Biden’s record and platform, as well as voter suppression efforts, also could temper excitement among young Latinos for Biden or dissuade Latinos from voting.

“The Republican Party doesn’t have to win the majority of the Latino vote,” Rocha said. “So, what they are doing is masterful.”

Some polls have shown Biden lagging with Latino voters in states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, even falling behind where Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was in polling four years ago.

That last paragraph is astounding!

If his support there is down from where it was four years ago for Clinton, Biden is sunk and may well lose the popular vote as well!

Biden’s support “is wide, but this pandemic is all-consuming for this community,” said Kristian Ramos, a Washington, D.C.-based Democratic consultant who is working with national Latino organizations on turnout efforts. “It’s not that they don’t support him, it’s will they be able to vote?”

In focus groups, Latino voters say they want to hear more from Democrats on the pandemic, health care, and jobs, as Latino families have been struck hard by the coronavirus and economic collapse, and in some ways, those conversations, like the unlikely compact between Rocha and Madrid, provide a glimpse into the populist forces reshaping both parties as they fail to fully address the disparities affecting Black and Latino communities amid growing income inequality.

The Biden campaign has recently appeared to be listening. It has hired more Latino staffers, launched Latino state committees and is pouring more money — $26 million last week alone — into radio, digital, and television ads in English and Spanish that hit Trump on his coronavirus response and highlight the struggles of Latino business owners and families.

Things are not always what they appear.

“We are being very intentional and know we have to work hard to reach every voter,” said Jennifer Molina, hired as the campaign’s Latino media director in July. “We know we cannot take anything for granted because our path to victory runs through the Latino community.”

Well, almost every voter. You know they detest and dismiss certain identities.

Researchers at EquisLab first noticed Biden underperforming with Latino voters despite high anti-Trump sentiment in May, but Valencia said those polls surveyed voters before Biden consolidated the Democratic vote, the pandemic became such a harsh reality for Latino families, and California Senator Kamala Harris came on as his running mate. “A lot has happened this summer,” Valencia said. “You are starting to see an increase in investment from them. ... Hopefully, that will yield results.”

Johnny Come lately, the new kid in town?

--more--"

They are probably too late to help Joe Kennedy.

"A move-in day like no other: Tenants have a rare upper hand as apartments sit empty" by Tim Logan Globe Staff, August 30, 2020

These are unusual times in Boston’s rental market. You might even call them unprecedented.

Might?

The coronavirus pandemic, a rapid shift to working from home, and mass confusion at the colleges and universities that drive so much of the city’s housing demand have combined to give tenants a rare upper hand over landlords.

Rents are down by more than 3 percent, compared with this time in 2019, according to one report.

Concessions granted to renters are up, with landlords and brokers sweetening deals with a month or more’s rent, no broker fees, and even a window air conditioner if it will land a tenant, but despite the perks, more than 13,000 apartments in Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville remain available in advance of the traditional Sept. 1 move-in frenzy.

Even in a market with roughly 250,000 rental apartments, that’s a huge number of vacancies, said John Puma, chief operating officer at the rental website Place For Less, and it could spark even better deals in the weeks to come as landlords scramble to fill their empty units.

“A lot of these apartments have never been vacant on Sept. 1,” Puma said. “Once it sets in that there’s all this vacancy, I don’t know what the limit will be on price reductions.”

Rents have dipped in a way unseen since at least 2008, during the Great Recession.

Uh-ho.

“Like in San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C., you’ve got people adjusting to a new economic reality. You’ve got some people asking whether they can continue to afford what they were paying for housing, and others seeing rents going down and hoping to take advantage in some way,” said Apartment List researcher Rob Warnock.

There are also new buildings opening, competing for tenants in a market very different from the one in which the developments were conceived. They include the Bower, a two-building, 312-unit complex that just opened on Beacon Street in the Fenway.

Being new has advantages, said John Rosenthal, whose Meredith Management is codeveloping the project with the Portland, Ore., housing developer Gerding Edlen. The complex has a huge roof deck, all the latest environmental features, and operable windows — not a given in a high-rise.

“That’s fresh air,” Rosenthal said on a recent tour.

They got out alive so they could breathe, huh?

Still, he and Gerding Edlen’s managing partner, Kelly Saito, acknowledged that pre-leasing has been a bit slow. They get a lot of phone calls, but it has been hard to get people to come in for tours because of pandemic fears. It may take longer than planned, but the developers are confident the building will eventually be filled, especially given its proximity to the booming Longwood Medical Area.

Once the Great Re$et is complete, right?

“We are getting a lot of inquiries,” Saito said. “It’s almost like things are good and slow at the same time.”

Indeed, there’s a lot of nuance to the current rental market, say brokers and other real estate experts.

Oh, is that the polite term for shoveling B$?

Bruce Percelay, chairman of Mount Vernon Co., which owns about 1,600 apartments in and around Boston, said, while he’s optimistic the city’s economy — and thus demand for apartments — will recover, some neighborhoods may take longer than others.

“The market is either going through a convulsion that will bounce back in the spring, or a correction, a longer-term change,” he said. “That’s the question, and we won’t know the answer until COVID is stabilized.”

That resides with the sage advice of the college presidents, who say “COVID was a crack of lightning in the night, we saw all the fissures and cracks, COVID has so discombobulated the situation,” and not teachers who are ignored.

--more--"

Somehow your moving day turned into a discussion of Bo$ton real e$tate and its model going forward, and I need to be moving on.

{@@##$$%%^^&&}

"By the time Pete Frates tried medical marijuana, he and his family felt as if they had run out of options for treating his anxiety....."

His wife says it was ‘almost like a magic potion,’ and you can throw cold water on that idea given the evil that flows from drug profits

Should all be put out of business, right?

"Following pledges of police reform, organizers push for change in Boston" by Milton J. Valencia Globe Staff, August 30, 2020

As protesters flooded the streets of Boston this spring and demanded law enforcement reforms, city officials took action.

Mayor Martin J. Walsh declared racism to be a public health crisis in the city and pledged not “to let this moment or this movement pass us by.” He commissioned a task force, which held a series of public listening sessions and planned to offer a slate of solutions by mid-August, but some of these reform initiatives have slowed in recent weeks, and as the nation stews in the wake of another high-profile shooting captured on video, local community organizers are anxious and pressing about the pace of change in Boston.

City officials say the task force reforms are coming soon. The group of advocates, lawyers, police officials, and community organizers requested more time to prepare their report and intend to issue their recommendations in September, according to chairman Wayne Budd.

Walsh’s office said the mayor is anticipating the city task force report, which will be more in-depth than originally requested, and reforms will come directly from the task force’s recommendations.

A Boston police spokesman said the department has already worked to modernize its training practices and policies, and that the department awaits the report.

Meanwhile, a statewide police reform bill, which previously seemed set for approval, remains locked in negotiations on Beacon Hill.

Taken together, the slowed reform efforts have sparked concern among activists and organizers that communities have lost the historic momentum they had just months ago.

Those concerns are underpinned by the Wisconsin police shooting last week of an unarmed Black man who was trying to get into his car after quelling a domestic dispute. The incident has become the latest flash point in the national reckoning over police abuses.....

--more--"

The Globe is calling for a process to identify law enforcement officers who misbehave and for police to stop kettling protesters with controversial crowd-control tactics.

Related:

"A large off-campus party earlier this month at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester has spawned a cluster of COVID-19 cases, according to city officials. As of Saturday, 21 cases of COVID-19 had been linked to the party, according to city spokesman Walter Bird Jr. Although Holy Cross is holding all classes online this fall — and the semester has not even begun — college officials said in a letter to the student body that campus police responded to a “large party” students threw at a rented off-campus apartment on College Street the night of Aug. 15. Officials blasted the party in the letter, released days after the gathering when only one confirmed COVID-19 case among partygoers had been confirmed....."

I hope you kids know your multiplication tables because here is some math for you: how many snow days this year?

"The city of Quincy, Massachusetts, fined a wedding venue on Saturday for violating limits on gatherings. The rules are intended to cut down the spread of the coronavirus. The Neighborhood Club of Quincy received a $300 fine, The Patriot Ledger reported. A spokesperson for the club said it was hosting an outdoor wedding when rain and thunder motivated the general manager to move it indoors. Quincy Health Department Commissioner Ruth Jones said she received a call there were more than 50 people at the venue. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker issued an order in early August limiting indoor gatherings to no more than 25 in a single, enclosed space."

And there is that man again, crashing the wedding.

New Hampshire police investigate shooting death of 19-year-old

He's stalking me now.

Man shot in Dorchester suffers life-threatening injuries

Danvers man dies in crash on Maine Turnpike

He is still there. I know clicking on him brings him up so I'm going to avoid him for now.

UMass Amherst Democrats apologize for homophobic attacks caused by allegations against Alex Morse

Dickie Neal and his dirty politics. 

See ya'!

Way back on B4 it was dueling protests top to bottom:

"Protesters outside State House demand Baker rescind flu shot order" by Gal Tziperman Lotan and John Hilliard Globe Staff, August 30, 2020

Demonstrators crowded outside the State House Sunday morning demanding that Governor Charlie Baker rescind a public health mandate that requires most Massachusetts students get the flu vaccine to attend school.

Earlier this month, Baker announced what is believed to be a first-in-the-nation order requiring the vaccination for anyone 6 months or older who is in a school or day care center, with some exemptions.

Related: Massachusetts Mandates Student Vaccinations

It's actually beyond that seeing as it covers infants.

The mandate, which is intended to reduce flu-related illness during the coronavirus pandemic, has been supported by public health experts. Officials fear that outbreaks of the flu and COVID-19 could overwhelm the state’s health care system.

“I would hope people would understand this is an important part of how we continue to fight the [corona]virus here in Massachusetts,” Baker told reporters at a State House news briefing on Aug. 20. “The more people who get the flu shot don’t get the flu and don’t wind up in the ER.”

We heard overwhelming the hospitals in the spring and that didn't happen,  and this evil puke jabbing at us in the fall is most criminal and disingenuous.

On Sunday outside the State House, protesters, some with young children, crowded along Beacon Street to protest the flu shot mandate for students.

Overhead, a television news helicopter was flying as demonstrators occasionally chanted, “We will not comply, we will not comply!”

Among them were a toddler with a sign around his neck that said “My parents call the shots” and a woman with a shirt wrapped around her waist that read “Flu you Baker.”

May God Bless them all as I applaud them.

In front of the State House steps, a series of speakers said they did not want to abide by the flu shot mandate because of distrust in the government and in pharmaceutical companies and concern that they would not have control over their medical decisions.

“This is about using the fear of COVID to take away a person’s ability, and their human right, to make decisions for themselves and their children — unnecessarily,“ said Allison Chapman, a member of the executive leadership team at an organization called Health Choice.

Hallelujah!

Jonathan Anderson, a member of the town of Sutton’s select board, said he believes the flu shot mandate is “serious overreach by our government.”

“Is this even constitutional?” he said, and the crowd responded with shouts of “No!” “Well, the courts will decide that. We all know it’s not.”

This is very encouraging, and is taking the bitter edge off my final look back.

On Facebook, Oppose Overreach - Health Choice 4 Action MA and No Mandatory Flu Shot MA, which organized the rally, called for parents to “stand in solidarity” against the flu vaccine mandate.

“This is a protest created for the parents, by the parents to protect our parental rights and children’s future!” the Facebook post said, calling the state order “outrageous.”

You don't get any more grass roots than that, and I have yet to see an attendance figure from the Globe.

At the rally, police officers mostly kept some distance from the crowd and did not wear helmets or carry visible batons, unlike officers who were on scene during protests against police violence in May and June.

The rally organizers’ post said mask and social distancing rules, imposed by the state to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, would apply to the gathering.

Many people at the rally were not wearing masks, however, or staying far apart from others.

:)

At one point, a speaker called on those in the crowd to hug one another, he said, remind each other that they are human. After he made the request, several people could be seen embracing each other.

I have to believe that love and life will somehow, someway, beat back the evil.

In a statement Sunday, a state Department of Public Health spokeswoman said the commonwealth has an obligation to advance policies that protect students, teachers, and staff, particularly during a flu season that overlaps with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As students return to in-person learning in the classroom, this vaccine requirement provides an additional and necessary layer of protection and safety,” the statement said.

The hell it does! It's poison!

Public health experts said on Sunday that extensive studies of the flu vaccine have found it effective at slowing and preventing transmission of the disease, especially when children receive it.

“If we do a large percentage of schoolchildren, it’s going to be less likely to spread,” said Dr. Richard Ellison, an epidemiologist for UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.

I no longer believe these bought-off mon$ters, sorry!

Ellison and other experts said they are concerned that if the flu season is left unchecked, the combination of influenza and coronavirus could overwhelm the state’s health system.

We have already seen this movie!

While the flu vaccine won’t prevent someone from getting COVID-19, officials want to help people avoid getting both diseases at the same time, he said.

Yeah, sure they do!

During the surge of coronavirus cases in March and April, some COVID-19 victims contracted other viruses as well, including the flu, he said.

“Flu by itself is bad, COVID by itself can be quite bad, and the combination could be even worse,” Ellison said.

That surge was inflated, and now that the Globe got the real peaceful protesters out of the way, they can ax-grind the agenda.

Samuel V. Scarpino, an epidemiologist at Northeastern University, also warned against allowing an outbreak of flu to coincide with the pandemic.

Not only could the two crises impact hospitals, but some COVID-19 survivors have lungs weakened from fighting that disease, he said, and will be at increased risk for severe influenza.

“It’s OK to ask questions; [and regarding] vaccines, it’s OK to find them intimidating or scary,” Scarpino said. “It’s not OK to reject science and public health wisdom and put our community at risk.”

(Expletive deleted) you and your moralizing and lecturing guilt trip, liar!

Vaccinating children also helps protect families living in multi-generational households from the flu, said Dr. Erica Shenoy, associate chief of the infection control unit at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Children can spread the flu to others in the household who may be vulnerable to complications, including severe disease and hospitalization, she said, and if someone who is vaccinated gets the disease, public health data shows that person is less likely to require hospitalization, Shenoy said.

Or you can just let your wonderful, beautiful immune system do what it does best while getting itself a tune-up!

People with questions about the flu vaccine should turn to trusted public health sources, including their primary care physician, state health department, or the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she said. The agency posts the latest information about the flu vaccine and its benefits on the CDC website.

I'm glad the Globe said that because now you know whom not to trust.

--more--"

Protesters — including sisters Maria Harvey, left, and Ashley Makridaki — took part in a rally against flu shots Sunday at the  State House in Boston.
Protesters — including sisters Maria Harvey, left, and Ashley Makridaki — took part in a rally against flu shots Sunday at the State House in Boston (Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff).

I didn't get that photo with my paper.

It was this one that they led with:

A protester held a mask above his head during a No Mandatory Flu Shot Massachusetts rally held outside of the State House to demonstrate against Governor Charlie Baker's order for mandatory influenza vaccinations for all students under the age of 30.
A protester held a mask above his head during a No Mandatory Flu Shot Massachusetts rally held outside of the State House to demonstrate against Governor Charlie Baker's order for mandatory influenza vaccinations for all students under the age of 30 (Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff).

The article scrubbed the photo of "demonstrators hugged one another at the urging of a speaker during the rally," probably because it showed a strong black man in the background, and I finally shook him.

"Protesters demand justice for Jacob Blake during Sunday rally in Nubian Square" by Abigail Feldman Globe Correspondent, August 30, 2020

Signs were passed out at the rally.
Signs were passed out at the rally (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff) 

The signs and sparseness of the crowd show you it is gra$$ roots, not grass roots!

A crowd gathered in Roxbury’s Nubian Square on Sunday to call for the arrests of police officers involved in the shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man who was left paralyzed after he was shot by an officer in Kenosha, Wis.

Part rally, part vigil, the event organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation was meant to demonstrate solidarity with those who have suffered brutality at the hands of police and demand justice for victims, according to Joe Tache, one of the organizers.

“Boston can’t claim to be a city that cares about racial justice when there are instances of police brutality here,” Tache said in an interview before the event.

Like the shooting of Juston Root, which they apparently don't care about because he is white?

About 150 people stood in the shady Justice Edward Gourdin Park around 6 p.m., wearing black and holding signs with phrases like “This is a revolt against racism.”

Should be able to put that down easy enough.

PSL member Nino Brown began the event with a moment of silence for Blake, who was shot seven times in the back by a police officer on Aug. 23. The father of five children was left paralyzed from the waist down.

The shooting prompted rallies in the city of Kenosha, which turned violent on Wednesday as counterprotesters clashed with demonstrators. A 17-year-old Illinois resident, Kyle Rittenhouse, who is said to have idolized law enforcement, was charged with killing two people and seriously injuring a third.

The kid was defending himself after being assaulted, and the victims were armed.

“Don’t be sorrowful, because we are here to resist,” Brown said, inspiring applause.

Brown encouraged protest-goers to be skeptical about the promises made by officials and companies to fight racial injustice.

Well, we agree on one thing!

“They say Black lives matter, but all we see is Black blood splatter in the street everyday,” he said.

An organizer named Gabby compared the shooting of Blake and his arrest with the arrest of Rittenhouse after he had killed two people.

“This is an incredibly accurate microcosm of the differential treatment white people receive from state security forces, particularly when armed and dangerous,” Gabby told the crowd.

A man named JD also became emotional as he called on the state to prosecute cops involved in shootings.

“I’m sick and tired of crying,” he said into a microphone. “If they do the crime of killing us, they better do the time.”

Several people held signs that said “Baker: Troops out of our streets now!” objecting to Governor Charlie Baker’s decision to activate up to 1,000 members of the National Guard this week. The governor did not give information on why he made this decision.

Tache called the decision “unacceptable,” adding that it showed the governor’s priorities.

“As soon as there are a few hundred people in the streets, the state mobilized the National Guard to suppress protests,” he said before the rally. “They should be going door to door to make sure peoples’ needs are being met.”

After everything that has happened since May, with protests in Bo$ton on a weekly if not daily basis, he has the gall to say that?

Talk about undercutting your own argument.

Around 7:15 p.m., the crowd prepared to march to Franklin Park, beginning a chant of “How do you spell sexist? BPD! How do you spell racist? BPD!”

If past Globe reporting is accurate, they are one of the best in the country and a model for race relations. 

WTF?

The marchers took to the streets as the sun began to set. No police led the walk through the streets. Instead, organizers wearing orange vests directed traffic, waving cars down side streets.

So they own the streets and no police presence (because they were watching the larger protest above?).

“Same story every time. Being Black is not a crime!” the crowd chanted.

Nor is being white, although it sure feels that way these days!

Several pedestrians and bikers joined the march as protesters made their way down Washington Street. Cars blared their horns — some in solidarity, others in frustration — as the group crossed busy Columbia Avenue.

Around 8:30 p.m. the marchers arrived at Franklin Park, filing past the Boston Lights lantern show. Gathered around a small campfire, they joined in a drum performance led by the Jericho Movement, a group dedicated to raising awareness about political prisoners in the United States. Protesters clapped along to the rhythm, illuminated by the fire.

Did they have a permit for that?

--more--"

Related:

Rally supporting police draws scores to downtown Kenosha

Turns out Blake had a knife and fought with officers after a domestic dispute call.

Deputy in Hogan administration fired for social media posts

He made light of fatal shootings that occurred during protests in Kenosha.

Arizona student group slammed for raising money for gunman

Some are not deserving of a defense based on the color of their skin.

Florida suspect killed by police after shooting at officers

Man brandished gun at protest in self-defense

St. Louis Officer Dies After Being Shot by Gunman

Kentucky AG says he has "critical" FBI ballistics report on Breonna Taylor's death

It's never easy mourning a celebrity, an inherently selfish act, because we’re not grieving who they were but rather what they meant to us and to our friends and to the culture, but at least she got a spread in Vanity Fair.


{@@##$$%%^^&&}

Time to turn back to the $weet ta$te of cranberries, and I must tell you that I never found the fruit very appealing despite being a native: 

Over the past decade, the state has lost more than a quarter of its cranberry farms, according to the Cranberry Marketing Committee, a federal body that monitors the industry for the US Department of Agriculture.

A sharp drop in prices for cranberries has been one of the main sources of the decline, while many of the farms’ costs have increased. In recent years, most farmers earned about one-third less per barrel of cranberries than they did at the peak of the business in the 1990s.

“Most of our growers are teetering at the break-even point,” said Brian Wick, executive director of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association, a Plymouth-based trade group that represents most of the state’s remaining cranberry farms.

Although the number of farms has declined, the overall acres in production has remained roughly the same, suggesting increasing consolidation in the industry, but that use of land, too, is likely to change in the coming years.

A study in the journal Society for Ecological Restoration estimated that cranberry growers, especially those on less productive, more ecologically sensitive land, could reduce their farming acreage by as much as 20 percent in the coming years.

“The economics are just extremely challenging,” Wick said.

Climate change has also added unpredictability to the market, because growers rely on frozen bogs to maintain their crops. With temperatures rising in Southeastern Massachusetts, which long provided an ideal climate for cranberries, the bogs no longer freeze reliably and many of the plants have experienced a kind of whiplash that affects their ability to produce fruit, growers and scientists say.

“The fluctuating temperatures, especially in the winter, are bad for the plants,” said Christopher Neill, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Woods Hole, who studies the impact of environmental changes on the cranberry industry.

I'm sick of them spewing that garbage, although it designated this article as an agenda-pushing example of the Great Re$et.

In an effort to help provide farmers with an exit strategy, state and federal officials are encouraging more owners to do what Tidmarsh Farms did. Rather than selling their land to the highest bidder, Davenport and her husband decided to ensure their bogs would be cleaned and restored to their natural wetlands. They sold their rolling hills along the coast to Plymouth and a land conservancy, with the guarantee that the bogs wouldn’t be developed.

“We might have made half as much as if we sold to a developer, but we got a lot of other value,” Davenport said. “This is something we felt we could do to make the planet better.”

For who, Bill Gates and his crowd?

Last spring, the US Department of Agriculture awarded Massachusetts $10 million to encourage cranberry farmers to convert their bogs to open space, restoring streams, wetlands, and a range of vital habitats.

All that sounds great, right, until you realize it's all part and parcel to the Great Re$et and herding of people into cities so the elite can roam free without us ruining it for them.

State officials said increasing wetlands, especially those along the coast, would help absorb rising sea levels over the coming decades.....

As we are all drowning now, and that's where I could no longer inhale the spew, sorry.

--more--"

The Globe will be helping you virtually rebuild your restaurant, where they will then enjoy grilled lobster with garlic butter, corn on the cob, and warm potato salad.

After seeing that "the airline industry, yearning to bounce back, is pulling out more tricks designed to get fliers back on board," there literally is nothing more to talk about or say

We are literally worlds apart, and maybe that is the way it should be. 

I think the wisest man of our era, Jerry Springer, encapsulated it once in his final thought when he said sometimes you have to just accept that the relationship will not work out and just go your separate ways.

Goodbye, Bo$ton Globe. I would have liked to have known you, but I was just a kid. Your candle burned out long before your legend ever did

New York Times Still Lying About COVID Deaths

They couch it in an attack on Trump for tweeting "fringe theories," which tells you he hit a nerve:

"Trump Embraces Fringe Theories on Protests and the Coronavirus" by Peter Baker, New York Times  |  Aug. 30, 2020

WASHINGTON — President Trump unleashed an especially intense barrage of Twitter messages over the weekend, embracing fringe conspiracy theories claiming that the coronavirus death toll has been exaggerated and that street protests are actually an organized coup d’état against him.

They have been to a great extent, 94% in fact.

The Times reaction is very telling, for it is like that of one caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

In a concentrated predawn burst, the president posted or reposted 89 messages between 5:49 a.m. and 8:04 a.m. on Sunday on top of 18 the night before, many of them inflammatory comments or assertions about violent clashes in Portland, Ore., where a man wearing the hat of a far-right, pro-Trump group was shot and killed Saturday after a large group of Trump’s supporters traveled through the streets. He resumed on Sunday night.

I'm not sensing a lot of empathy from the New York Times on that, are you?

Almost feels like they are happy as they obsessively monitor the tweet machine.

In the blast of social media messages, Trump also embraced a call to imprison Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, threatened to send federal forces against demonstrators outside the White House, attacked CNN and NPR, embraced a supporter charged with murder, mocked his challenger, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and repeatedly assailed the mayor of Portland, even posting the mayor’s office telephone number so that supporters could call demanding his resignation.

I would be able to take him more seriously had he prosecuted and imprisoned the Clintons

One of the most incendiary messages was a retweet of a program from the One America News Network, a pro-Trump channel that advances extreme theories and that the president has turned to when he feels that Fox News has not been supportive enough. The message he retweeted Saturday night promoted a segment accusing demonstrators of secretly plotting Trump’s downfall.

“According to the mainstream media, the riots & extreme violence are completely unorganized,” the tweet said; “however, it appears this coup attempt is led by a well funded network of anarchists trying to take down the President.” Accompanying it was an image of a promo for a segment titled “America Under Siege: The Attempt to Overthrow President Trump.”

Yup, he definitely hit an agenda-pu$hing nerve there, and it's right out in the open with all the corporations donating to their own de$truction per Great Re$et protocol.

Trump likewise reposted messages asserting that the real death toll from the coronavirus is only around 9,000 — not nearly 183,000 — because the others who died also had other health issues and most were of an advanced age.

“So get this straight — based on the recommendation of doctors Fauci and Birx the US shut down the entire economy based on 9,000 American deaths to the China coronavirus,” said the summary of an article by the hard-line conservative website Gateway Pundit that was retweeted by the president, denigrating his own health advisers, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci and Dr. Deborah L. Birx.

The post was a distortion of data available on the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reports that 6 percent of coronavirus fatalities list only the virus on the death certificates. For other deaths, the patients had an average of 2.6 other conditions or causes of death. The statistics do not mean that they did not die because of the virus, but help explain who is most vulnerable to it, but Trump also retweeted a message calling for Mr. Cuomo to be locked up because of the high death toll from the coronavirus in New York nursing homes earlier in the pandemic.....

Okay, I want to stop here and note that now the New York Times is calling the CDC conspiracy theorists!

So Trump cites their own data and gets crucified by the piece of shit New York Times, which then proceeds to get into semantic word games regarding the 2 or 3 other conditions that were responsible for their passing with the disassembling statement that somehow they death tolls were inflated because they were vulnerable. 

They talk about distortion of data when they are lead distorters.

Exhibits A and B:

U.S. Coronavirus Cases Top 6 Million

India's daily cases set records, as world's tally hits 25m

That was a day after they admitted that the caseloads have been amplified and inflated, as have the levels of infectiousness.

The level of deceit, duplicitousness, and disingenuousness makes the WMD lies look tame given the genocidal intentions behind the project the Times is pushing with such fervor.

At that point, didn't want to read anymore at that point and that is basically where my print edition ended although the Times went on:

“#KillerCuomo should be in jail,” said the message by the actor James Woods, a strong supporter of the president’s, and the president even “liked” a tweet that offered support for Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old Trump supporter who has been charged with homicide after two demonstrators were shot to death in Kenosha, Wis. “Kyle Rittenhouse is a good example of why I decided to vote for Trump,” the tweet said.

Cuomo responded on his own Twitter feed a few hours later, pointing to the Trump administration’s failure to contain the pandemic. “The White House has learned nothing from COVID,” Cuomo wrote. “National threats require national leadership. It’s been 6 months without a national strategy on testing or mask mandate. Only the federal government has the power to go to war with COVID. They are failing and the nation suffers.”

For his part, Biden issued a statement condemning the violence in Portland as “unacceptable” regardless of one’s political views and criticizing Trump for trying to raise the temperature rather than lower it. “What does President Trump think will happen when he continues to insist on fanning the flames of hate and division in our society and using the politics of fear to whip up his supporters?” Biden asked. “He is recklessly encouraging violence. He may believe tweeting about law and order makes him strong — but his failure to call on his supporters to stop seeking conflict shows just how weak he is.”

The latest social media outburst by the president came just days after he accepted the nomination for a second term in an election in which he has been trailing for months. Trump sought to capitalize on any momentum generated by the Republican National Convention, posting a series of tweets asserting that he is actually leading in polls.

There was one somewhere that had Trump ahead 48-45,  and Zogby has him at 52, but it's better off you be reassured by the same polls that failed four years ago:

A new poll by Morning Consult, however, showed that Trump had narrowed Mr. Biden’s lead but that the president still trailed. The survey, conducted on Friday, the day after the conclusion of the Republican convention, found Biden ahead 50 percent to 44 percent, a six-point lead compared with the former vice president’s 10-point advantage a week ago after his own convention. Another poll by Yahoo News and YouGov likewise showed Biden’s lead shrinking to six percentage points, down from nine points.

So Trump got the bounce Biden did not!

That is because the thing looked normal and without the silly masks.

A post-convention bounce is typical in presidential years but it does not always last, and an ABC News-Ipsos poll showed that Trump did nothing to improve his own standing with voters, only 31 percent of whom reported a favorable view, roughly the same as before the Republican convention. 

I think you can throw ABC-Ipsos in the trash!

More skewed, narrative-$upporting pu$h polling no doubt.

Democrats, however, are growing more concerned that Trump is successfully using violence in the streets after police shootings of Black Americans to energize his own supporters and tar Biden and his party as weak on law and order.

That's why Don Lemon pleaded for them to stop, but it's too late now. These things have a life of their own, and the genie is out of the bottle.

In that vein, many of Trump’s Sunday morning tweets focused on the violence in Portland, where the shooting death of a man exacerbated an already tense situation. The man was wearing a hat with the insignia of Patriot Prayer, a far-right group based in the Portland area that has clashed with protesters before.

Ever notice the Marxist rioters are never referred to as far-left? 

They just mostly peaceful.

Trump repeatedly assailed Mayor Ted Wheeler of Portland for resisting federal help and delighted in showcasing a peaceful protest held at the mayor’s own home on Friday, even retweeting a post accusing Wheeler of “committing war crimes.” Rather than calling for calm, Trump seemed to justify aggressive action against demonstrators by his supporters.

“The big backlash going on in Portland cannot be unexpected after 95 days of watching and incompetent Mayor admit that he has no idea what he is doing,” Trump wrote, as he retweeted a journalist’s post reporting that Trump supporters were firing paintballs and pepper spray, including at the reporter. “The people of Portland won’t put up with no safety any longer. The Mayor is a FOOL. Bring in the National Guard!”

His call for martial law doesn't work for me, nor does the whining of the pre$$ that helped promote all this as they damn near accuse Trump of incitement!

Wheeler responded at a news conference, blaming the president’s “campaign of fear” for the violence that has afflicted cities. “Do you seriously wonder, Mr. President, why this is the first time in decades that America has seen this level of violence?” he said. “It’s you who have created the hate and the division. It’s you who have not found the way to say the names of Black people killed by police officers even as people in law enforcement have, and it’s you who claimed that white supremacists are good people.”

Trump plans to travel on Tuesday to Kenosha, where emotions have been raw since the police shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back seven times, leaving him paralyzed. The president’s trip has caused concern that he could inflame the situation. He made no comment on the shooting for days until he was asked about it on Friday in an interview with WMUR of New Hampshire during a visit to the state.

“It was not a good sight,” he said. “I didn’t like the sight of it, certainly. I think most people would agree with that, but we’ll be getting reports in very soon, and we’ll report back.” His Twitter comments on Kenosha, however, have focused on restoring order in the streets.

Why in the world is he going there? 

He could be shot, for God sakes, and that is the last thing this country needs! 

Pinned on another lone gunman patsy, no doubt, and probably a leftist like Oswald.

Cancel the trip, Mr. President, and stay safe. It has nothing to do with supporting him, it is just a recognition that deeper forces would be behind such a move and much like in JFK's day, half the country will cheer at an absolute tragedy for this nation. I stated many times over the years that despite my loathing of Bush and Obama, the last thing I wanted to see was an assassination.

The president’s string of Twitter messages paused on Sunday morning before he headed to his golf club in Virginia, where he was greeted by a handful of protesters, including one dressed as a grim reaper holding a sign that said “183K,” referring to the number of people in the United States who have died from the coronavirus.

It's actually 9,000 -- unless you consider the CDC fringe conspiracy theorists and liars.

He then picked up his phone again in late afternoon after returning to the White House, resuming his criticisms of Wheeler (“a weak and pathetic Democrat Mayor!!!”), Biden and other Democrats. “The Radical Left Democrat Mayors, like the dummy running Portland, or the guy right now in his basement unwilling to lead or even speak out against crime, will never be able to do it!” he said in one more message.

Yeah, put the phone down. 

In fact, throw it away so they can't trace you.

--more--"

Related:

U.S. Will Revive Global Virus-Hunting Effort Ended Last Year

It's New York Times, and the important takeaway was this:

"The government agency that let Predict die last October has quietly created a $100 million program with a similar purpose as Predict, but it has a different name. The new program, set to begin in October, will be called Stop Spillover. Predict, which was started in 2009 as part of the Obama administration's Emerging Pandemic Threats program, was inspired by the 2005 H5N1 bird flu scare. Predict was run by the United States Agency for International Development, which is an independent foreign-aid agency overseen by the State Department. Predict was an odd fit for USAID, experts said. Unlike the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the National Institutes of Health, the agency is not normally a home to cutting-edge science."

The whole world knows AID = CIA, so it was under that rubric which Obama placed it, and as we say with the neocon OSI, they do this all the time. To hide a program under fire, you change the name. They are never eliminated.

Just because I don't want the president shot doesn't mean I support the policies:

"In Israel, Kushner Says 'Stage Is Set' for Mideast Progress" by Josef Federman, Associated Press  |   August 30, 202

Jerusalem (AP) -- White House adviser Jared Kushner on Sunday trumpeted the recent agreement by Israel and the United Arab Emirates to establish diplomatic relations as a historic breakthrough and said “the stage is now set” for other Arab states to follow suit.

It's as clear as Black and white, isn't it?

Appearing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien, Kushner spoke a day before he is to join a senior Israeli delegation on the first commercial flight from Israel to the UAE. The flight holds great symbolic value and is a key step in what is expected to be full normalization between Israel and the UAE.

The Aug. 13 announcement makes the UAE just the third Arab country to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, and the first to do so in over 25 years. It reflects a shifting Middle East in which shared concerns over Iran have overtaken traditional wall-to-wall Arab support for the Palestinians.

“Today obviously we celebrate a historic breakthrough for peace,” Kushner said, adding that the deal will create “previously unthinkable” economic, security and religious cooperation. “While this peace agreement was thought by many to be impossible, the stage is now set for even more," he said, claiming he has heard optimism throughout the region since the deal was announced. “We must seize that optimism and we must continue to push to make this region achieve the potential that it truly has," said Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and chief Mideast adviser.

That is rather ominous and frightening.

So when does the attack on Iran begin?

Israel and the UAE have moved quickly to cement their ties over the past two weeks. Almost immediately, they opened direct phone lines, and Cabinet ministers have held friendly phone conversations.

On Saturday, the UAE formally ended its commercial boycott of Israel, although the two countries have quietly conducted business for years, but so far, predictions by Israeli and American officials, including Kushner, that other Arab countries would follow the UAE have not yet materialized.

So this "peace deal" doesn't really mean much and just put out in the open what was going on for years, and yet the pre$$ acted like it was a big breakthrough!

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo toured the region last week, stopping in Sudan, Bahrain and Oman — three countries widely seen as candidates to establish ties with Israel — but appeared to leave empty-handed.

The flurry of U.S. diplomatic activity comes as the Trump administration presses ahead with ambitious plans to promote Arab-Israeli rapprochement even in the absence of a settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which had long been seen as a prerequisite for Israel to reach peace deals with all of its Arab neighbors.

The UAE deal gave the Trump administration a welcome foreign-policy victory ahead of November's presidential election. Facing a tough reelection battle, the White House is eager to build on that momentum.

Gulf Arab countries, which like Israel share deep animosity toward Iran, have shown an increasing willingness to make back-channel ties with Israel public.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the agreement with the UAE would bring “unbridled” trade and opportunities. “You will see how the sparks fly,” he said.

He is on top of the world, and have you noticed how coverage of the Beirut blast has completely faded?

Trump unveiled a Mideast plan in January that has been rejected by the Palestinians, who say it unfairly favors Israel.

Oh, yeah, them.

The Palestinians seek the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip — areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — for an independent state. The Trump plan offers them limited autonomy in 70% of the West Bank, leaving Israel in overall control of the territory, and a symbolic presence on the outskirts of Jerusalem, while handing Israel control of the city’s sensitive holy sites.

That's the thing. He's behind Israel 100 percent. Whatever they want, they get.

Netanyahu said the deal with the UAE proves the Palestinians no longer have a “veto” over regional peace. The Palestinians have accused the UAE of treason. “If we have to wait for the Palestinians, we will have to wait forever," Netanyahu said. "As more Arab and Muslim countries join the circle of peace, the Palestinians will eventually understand their veto has dissipated and they will be hard pressed to stay outside the community of peace.”

Aren't they isolated enough as it is?

--more--"

This revealing photo came with the article:

Benjamin Netanyahu and Jared Kushner make joint statements in Jerusalem, Aug. 30.
Benjamin Netanyahu and Jared Kushner make joint statements in Jerusalem, Aug. 30 
(Debbi Hill/Pool UPI via AP)


What, no masks or elbow bumps this time?

Democrats want an investigation of Pompeo, but are crickets when it comes to President Kushner.

Banksy-Funded Rescue Vessel Evacuated After Distress Call 

It's the New York Times picking up the distress call:

http://www.mercurynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/afp_ma7d3.jpg?w=620
GRAND OPENING -- Palestinian boys stood near a hotel being opened in the West Bank city of Bethlehem with the help of an elusive British graffiti artist Banksy. The hotel, which sits next to a mural-covered separation barrier built by Israel, has nine rooms packed with work by Bansky. The owner is calling it the "hotel with the worst view in the world."
--source--"

The fact that the New York Times is praising him unfortunately calls into question his credentials as controlled opposition.

Also see:

Taliban Violated Afghan Deal With Shelling of American Bases

So say U.S. Officials and the New York Times in what was my Nation/World lead.

Justice Dept. Never Fully Examined Trump’s Ties to Russia

Yeah, it's the New York Times still shoveling that bull$hit and it's ex-officials Rosenstein and McCabe at that!

Huge protest on Belarus leader’s birthday demands he resign

Literally on their knees begging.

Montenegro opposition claims election victory in tight vote 

Montenegro’s pro-Serb and Russian opposition groups claimed victory against the ruling pro-Western party in a tense parliamentary election that could see a change in the course of the small Balkan state.

I'm sure it was stolen.

"Thousands of state and local election officials across the U.S are sharing ideas and making accommodations to try to ensure that voters and polling places are safe amid an unprecedented pandemic. Some are finding ways to expand access to voter registration and ballot request forms. Others are testing new products, installing special equipment or scouting outdoor voting locations. 
Here are virus-related obstacles voters could face during this unprecedented presidential election year along with some of the solutions....."

My only question was "what if you, or a fellow voter, choose not to wear a mask, as election and health officials are pretty much universally recommending? States are mostly stopping short of requiring masks on Election Day because voting is a protected right. The most common scenario envisioned is that voters who decline to wear a mask will be offered one. If they refuse it, they’ll be directed to a voting station away from other voters, where possible....." 

So they can then throw it away since they know for whom a no-masker will vote. The conventions made that clear.

Dems seeking to compel in-person election security briefings 

They want mail-in ballots but insist on meeting in person, as Ratcliffe has insisted that China is the graver threat to election security than Russia.

What could happen if Democrats take control of all three branches:

"Senior German officials on Sunday condemned attempts by far-right protesters and others to storm the parliament building following a protest against the country’s pandemic restrictions. Hundreds of people, some waving the flag of the German Reich of 1871-1918 and other far-right banners, breached a security barrier outside the Reichstag late Saturday but were intercepted by police and forcibly removed. “Reich flags and right-wing extremist provocations in front of the German Bundestag are an unbearable attack on the heart of our democracy,” Germany’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said Sunday. “We will never accept this.” Steinmer said people had the right to express their anger about the coronavirus restrictions and to question them publicly, including with demonstrations. “My sympathy ends where protesters allow themselves to be used by enemies of democracy and political agitators,” he added. Police used pepper spray to drive back the protesters, who earlier in the day had participated in a large rally through the capital. About 300 people were arrested in front of the Reichstag and following an incident at the Russian embassy, according to police....."

That's a day after the pre$$ distorted the far more peaceful and attended protests.


"Like many governments around the world, France and Britain want to reopen schools starting Tuesday to reduce the learning gaps between rich and poor students that were worsened by the virus lockdown this spring, and to get parents back to work and revive the ailing economy. French doctors published an appeal Saturday saying that the government’s anti-virus measures for schools aren’t strict enough. They urged masks for children as young as six and a mix of online and in-person schooling. Currently, French schools are set to resume largely as normal, but with masks required all day for everyone 11 and over and some restrictions on movements and gatherings....."

That is not "largely as normal."

South Korea is supposed to be the model:

"South Korea has reported 299 new cases of the coronavirus as officials placed limits on dining at restaurants and closed fitness centers and after-school academies in the greater capital area to slow the spread of the virus. The 17th consecutive day of triple-digit daily increases brought the national caseload to 19,699, including 323 deaths. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 209 of the new cases came from the capital of Seoul and nearby Gyeonggi province and Incheon, a region that had been at the center of a viral resurgence this month. Health authorities have ordered churches and nightspots to close and shifted more schools back to remote learning nationwide as infections spiked in recent weeks. For eight days starting Sunday, restaurants in the Seoul metropolitan area will be allowed to provide only deliveries and takeouts after 9 p.m. Franchised coffee shops like Starbucks will sell only takeout drinks and food while gyms and after-school academies will be shut to slow the viral spread in the region."

Looks like a second wave lockdown, doesn't it?

We will soon be under the most sever lockdown of all:

"The Australian state of Victoria has recorded 114 new coronavirus patients and 11 more deaths. The fatalities bring the death toll from the virus in Victoria to 524 and the Australian total to 611. It follows 94 new patients on Saturday, which was the first day since July 5 that patients had dropped to double digits. Melbourne residents will be subjected to two more weeks of restricted movement, including a nightly curfew. Restrictions across Australia’s second largest city are due to expire on September 13 but will be reduced gradually rather than removed completely. Health officials have indicated that recommendations for face masks could remain in place for several more months."

Try like a year, and go watch the on the ground video report for as long as as it stays up (with great thanks to the Greencrow) as the pre$$ soft sells the outrageous tyranny on display down under.