"Governor Baker’s decision to activate National Guard comes under scrutiny" by Dugan Arnett Globe Staff, September 1, 2020
After activating the state’s National Guard without explanation and deactivating it a few days later, Governor Charlie Baker came under sharp criticism Tuesday by those who viewed the move as an unnecessary — and potentially counterproductive — escalation.
Activists and a Boston city councilor said that Baker’s decision to activate up to 1,000 Guard members to provide “necessary assistance to State and local civilian authorities” had the potential both to stoke tensions and discourage would-be protesters from taking part in peaceful demonstrations.
“He should’ve never done it,” said James Mackey, who organized an event Friday near the State House to bring attention to the social injustices Black people face in Massachusetts. “That doesn’t mean we will be silenced, that doesn’t mean that we won’t show up just because the National Guard shows up. . . . but that’s definitely going to bring some tension, and I don’t think that was a great idea.”
If he did it over a medical, they would be fine with it.
It was a sentiment echoed by Boston City Councilor Julia Mejia, who said Tuesday that Baker’s decision to ready the Guard following unrest in Oregon and Wisconsin sent a distinct message to protesters.
“There’s already a lot of ’Us versus them’ mentality, and when people don’t feel safe to voice their concerns about the police brutality that’s happening across the country, and you deploy military, you deploy the National Guard, it’s in many ways making people feel that they need to be silent,” she said.
“That may not be the intention . . . but there is this sense of control when you see the National Guard, and there’s a level of fear that people have, and that fear is real.”
Asked about his reasoning at a news conference Tuesday, Baker said the decision stemmed from requests made by “a number of municipal officials” to have assistance available in advance of a number of planned demonstrations.
Toward the end of last week, Baker said, 45 to 50 planned events were posted on a variety of social media sites, some of which featured large numbers of anticipated attendees.
“We heard from a number of municipal officials who asked us if we would have people available to support them, if those events turned out to be bigger than what they would be able to manage on their own,” Baker said.
No issues were reported over the weekend, he said, and the state announced Monday evening that the Guard had been deactivated.
“The great thing about this is everybody came out, they did their thing, their voices were heard, we didn’t hear from any municipal officials, and after we didn’t hear from them, we deactivated,” said Baker, who added that he had received no pressure from federal authorities to activate the Guard.
Related:
"Baker warned at a news conference earlier Tuesday that the virus remains a potent threat in the state.“This highly contagious disease will be with us until there are better treatments or a vaccine,” Baker said....."
Liar, and I'm glad I didn't vote if that's what the poll workers looked like.
See:
Ed Markey beats Joe Kennedy in Senate primary
Somehow all the $cummy incumbents won as Joe failed the family and will be replaced by a coke addict(?)!
All a bunch of imposters anyway, and were likely robbed by Russia, right?
That's the twist the Globe is putting on things, right down to the mail-in ballots and seats in the State House.
All Trump's fault, of course, along with Bill Barr, who is blocking investigations as support for Biden drops (despite the ca$h haul from corporate donors) and Pelosi visits the hair salon.
Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn said he supported Baker’s decision, made amid national protests that have grown increasingly intense in some cities — including the shooting last week of a 39-year-old man in Portland, Ore., and the killing of two protesters in Kenosha, Wis., allegedly at the hands of a 17-year-old.
“I trust Governor Baker to make sound judgments on public safety matters, and I’m confident in the restraint of the National Guard,” said Flynn, a Navy veteran. “I’ve worked with them, I’ve served with them, and I understand the critical role they place in our city, state, and country.”
Not anymore, not after the death toll and destruction of our economy.
Lindsay Cohn, an associate professor at the US Naval War College, said the Guard can also serve a useful role when unrest stems from a distrust in local law enforcement.
“It’s a judgment call,” said Cohn, noting that she was not speaking in her professional capacity. “The governor has to decide whether having the Guard out there will be escalatory, or whether it will actually be calming — whether people will say, ’OK, these are not the police, maybe we can feel safer.’ ”
Setting the stage for the comfort of martial law, thanks to city-sacking protesters protected by the state.
Still, some said Tuesday that such actions would do little to discourage the kinds of widespread protests that have become commonplace in recent months in cities across the country.
“The greater the revolution, the greater the repression, and the activation of the National Guard is not going to stop people from protesting,” said Daunasia Yancey, founder of Black Lives Matter Boston. “It hasn’t, and it won’t.”
Somehow, they are not "super-spreader events" like the bike rally in Sturgis.
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Related:
Mass. reports 288 new confirmed coronavirus cases, 22 new deaths
That means basically 1 death from COVID and 29 new cases of infection, as the government continues to make policy based on discredited models.
"Baker urges people in high-risk communities to avoid large gatherings" by Martin Finucane, Jaclyn Reiss, John R. Ellement and Jeremy C. Fox Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent, September 3, 2020
With a holiday weekend ahead, Governor Charlie Baker on Thursday renewed his calls for residents to avoid large gatherings, as community activists criticized city and state officials for allowing a massive two-day street festival in Dorchester last weekend that they fear could become a “super-spreader” event.
Shutting it all down now, huh?
Rioters have served their purpose?
At a State House news conference, Baker said social events, especially in communities with persistently high infection rates, are a major contributor to the spread of the virus, which has killed 8,870 people in Massachusetts since March.
What is 6% of that?
“No one can afford to gather in large groups in these communities,” he said. “This is critically important.”
Baker said contact tracing of infected people indicates that gatherings are “by far the single biggest issue,” as the death toll from confirmed cases of the coronavirus rose by 17 to 8,870. The number of confirmed cases climbed by 393 to nearly 120,000, the state reported Thursday.
“The last thing we should do is give it opportunities . . . as frustrating and as difficult as that can be,” Baker said.
He originally said the test rate for protesters was 3%, but he lied according to the Globe for it was far lower.
He said the state is adding new measures to fight the spread, including a new website, mass.gov/stopcovid19, advertising on billboards and social media, multilingual field teams, and outreach to local community groups.
Where are they getting the loot to do this as they $tiff the rest of us?
Baker’s warning came as members of the Black Boston COVID-19 Coalition said 2,000 to 3,000 people had attended an open-air party that shut down Talbot Avenue near Franklin Park on both Friday and Saturday, while police and other officials failed to intervene.
For one, it's safer outside we are told, and two, why would they want to intervene and stop the alleged spread that they will then use to tighten the tyranny even further?
Organizers used social media to invite people to the event, set up loudspeakers and tables, and attracted a crowd so large that MBTA buses were diverted off the major street, the group said.
The group warned that another large gathering in Dorchester is slated for this weekend and called on city and state officials to treat the party as a major threat to public health and prevent it from taking place.
Louis Elisa, who is also a member of a city panel on COVID-19 health care inequities, said infection rates are increasing in the city’s minority neighborhoods.
“An event like this will only exacerbate those numbers and make it more dangerous,’' he said.
Well, it was fun while it lasted.
Elisa said that he saw police on Talbot Avenue during the celebrations, but that they didn’t intervene to break up the revelry until early Sunday morning, despite repeated requests from neighbors.
“None of the people in the community expected it, they didn’t want it, and they called constantly to 911 about the noise that went on to 3 o’clock in the morning,” he said.
They didn't want to get in trouble after all the agenda-pushing riots, duh!
Dianne Wilkerson, a former state senator, said most of those who attended the celebration did not wear masks or comply with social distancing guidelines.
“I want to be protected,” Wilkerson said. “We have a right to expect that.”
That $CUM is $till $linking around?
What a happy life when one of the corrupted elite.
The mayor’s office said Boston police sent officers to Talbot Avenue over the weekend to ensure public safety and remind participants of voluntary public health guidelines, and officers restricted traffic to stop residents from gathering in large numbers. No arrests were made.
Voluntary?
Since when, because the Globe and officials have made it seem to be ironclad law!
Handing out fines and everything!
Mayor Martin J. Walsh joined Baker in imploring the public not to attend large gatherings.
“To all those who are throwing parties in our city: stop putting residents’ health and lives at risk,” Walsh said in a statement. “Large groups of people gathering together is dangerous right now in Boston, and completely unacceptable.”
You criminal $cum are being tuned out these days.
Walsh’s office did not immediately respond to an e-mail asking if they knew about the party beforehand. At the news conference, Baker was asked about the street party.
“My understanding is that State Police and Boston police responded to those calls, engaging with people there, and basically working to come up with an answer that would translate into people leaving peacefully,’' he said, referring to tension between police and the minority community. “It took a while. . . Maybe it took too long, but [law enforcement] did show up.”
Doublespeak babble from pass the buck Charlie!!
David Procopio, a State Police spokesman, said in an e-mail that troopers went to Talbot Avenue early Saturday morning at the request of Boston police “and assisted with road closures to divert traffic, reduce access and peacefully disperse those in attendance to comply with COVID-19 public health guidance and orders.”
Members of the Black Boston COVID-19 Coalition, some of whom have lost relatives to COVID-19, questioned why Baker briefly activated the Massachusetts National Guard last weekend in case large gatherings were held, but did not deploy them to Talbot Avenue.
Officials from Baker’s office said that the state had not received advance notice of the party and that Baker had not considered sending the National Guard to Dorchester.
“As we have said, the Guard was activated at the request of local officials in the event that local law enforcement requested assistance for the anticipated large demonstrations,” Lizzy Guyton, a spokeswoman for Baker, said in an e-mail.
Health officials, meanwhile, reported the highest single day of testing to date, with 31,584 more people tested. The total number of tests administered climbed to more than 2.56 million.
The state also reported that new antibody tests had been completed for 441 people, bringing that total to 114,108. The seven-day positive rate, a metric closely watched by state officials, was at 0.9 percent, the lowest observed value since the pandemic began.
“We should be proud of the fact that that’s happened because it wouldn’t have happened without the people in Massachusetts stepping up every day and doing the things they need to do to work with us to stop the spread,” Baker said, “but we still have a long way to go.”
It's over, Chuck, and quit stroking us with false praise like patting good slaves on the head.
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Can't hide on the T anymore:
"It really is Charlie on the M(B)TA; After years of resisting entreaties to ride the T, Gov. Baker says he commuted on the Blue Line early this year" by Adam Vaccaro Globe Staff, September 2, 2020
Governor Charlie Baker says he was commuting on the MBTA this winter, and apparently even lodged a complaint about a dead animal along the tracks.
Baker disclosed his commuting foray at a media event Tuesday to mark the conclusion of a 28-day repair sprint on part of the Green Line.
“I was riding the Blue Line a lot in January and February,” Baker said, “and I was actually kind of surprised that, for one reason or another, the media never found out.”
Hmmmmm.
What else haven't they found out about or dictator?
Governor Charlie Baker disclosed this week that he had been riding the Blue Line this past winter, to little public notice. Baker was pictured in September 2019 departing a Red Line train for a ribbon cutting ceremony at the reopened Wollaston T station (David L. Ryan/Globe Staff).
Yup, he pulled a fast one on the pre$$ who, according to the photo, helped him cover it up the whole time, and it sure was funny!
There is really nothing more to say regarding that evil criminal f**k.
The revelation came after Baker said he “absolutely” considers the MBTA safe to ride at this point in the COVID-19 pandemic, and that he planned to ride on the system again soon. The Blue Line terminus at Wonderland is about six miles from Baker’s home in Swampscott, though the town’s commuter rail stop is much closer.
PFFFFFFFFT!
Too late, Charlie. The train has already left the $tation!
MBTA officials were aware that Baker was on board — alerted, it seems, by a peculiar complaint from the governor.
“I had some knowledge of that,” general manager Steve Poftak acknowledged. “We may have had an animal removal issue that was brought to my attention. ... At one point when the governor was riding, he noticed that there was a dead animal next to the track. He sent me the information and we fixed it.”
He's such a consciousness tyrant and dictator, and his bus rides make one think of Mussolini!
According to the MBTA, the animal was located near Wonderland station, though officials did not detail what kind of animal it was. On Wednesday, the T said it did not have an incident report for a dead animal located along the Blue Line tracks this winter.
So he is a LIAR, too, as well as the PRE$$!
The governor did not volunteer more information about his trips, and declined an interview to further discuss them. So it’s not known how many times Baker rode the T, or why, after resisting so many calls to do so over the years. An aide said Baker had used the Blue Line “several times this year when commuting to Boston and plans to do so again in the future.”
Really fooled you guys, huh?
Just WTF am I buying and reading everyday anyway?
Moreover, it seems like a stretch that Baker, at 6 feet, 6 inches and one of the most easily recognizable figures in Massachusetts, managed to tuck into a busy subway car without much public comment from the commuter world, but there was at least one eyewitness account: East Boston commuter Megan Houston said she did see Baker disembarking from a train at Bowdoin in January.
“I feel like I really should have taken a picture, but at the moment nobody else around even seemed to notice him so I felt like it would be weird,” said Houston, who added that Baker was talking on the phone as he exited during rush hour. “It’s all very anticlimactic seeing him, because clearly nobody else was really noticing, or if they did it was just kind of, ’whatever.’ ”
Houston’s colleagues at work did not believe her when she told them of the sighting — probably because of Baker’s refusal to ride the T in the past.
When does this piece of $hit trip end?
Baker has periodically come under pressure by T commuters to ride as a way to better understand their frustrations about the pace of improvements on the aging system. He has usually responded that he does not need to be on the T to know its problems, and argued that his daily travels are often so far-flung that he cannot take transit.
He did, however, ride a Red Line train to check out a worksite about a year ago, and was joined by a Globe columnist for the ride. He caught some flak for that, as well, with critics calling it a photo op.
As skeptics on social media questioned whether Baker really rode the T, one Twitter user on Tuesday wrote that Baker “can’t catch a break” -- if he makes his rides public, it’s a photo op, and if it’s private, there’s no proof. That tweet received one “like,” and it came from the governor’s verified Twitter account.
Awwww, our poor tyrant can't catch break!
Is that when the Globe reporter dropped to their knees and undid trou?
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Time for Baker to be put in a home:
"State halts admissions to Mission Hill assisted living facility after inspection; Investigators found residents with dementia locked in their rooms" by Andrea Estes Globe Staff, September 2, 2020
State officials have suspended the certification of a Boston assisted living facility after inspectors discovered that employees were locking dementia patients in their rooms to enforce a quarantine aimed at controlling the spread of COVID-19.
Inspectors from the Executive Office of Elder Affairs found a host of problems at the facility, Landmark at Longwood, when they investigated last month, describing it as an “unsafe environment” for residents with dementia or memory loss. They noted that, when they visited, the reception desk was unstaffed and some aides failed to wash their hands or wear gloves.
Under the suspension, Landmark cannot accept new residents until the problems have been addressed.
“Please be assured that the suspension will have no immediate effect on your status as a Resident,” wrote Patricia C. Marchetti, the state’s director of assisted living certification and compliance in a letter to residents dated Aug. 27. “However, Landmark at Longwood will be required to make certain operational changes.”
Really makes you fell good if a relative is in there, and I will bet you can't vent visit because of Baker's restrictions.
Of course, the whole nursing home mass-murder policy has been memory holed by the pre$$.
It is the only time this year that an assisted living facility had its certification suspended, according to state officials.
The locks, which had been installed on several residents’ doors, were supposed to protect residents from coronavirus, families were told, and inspectors said they were removed at some point in July, but locks, considered “restraints” under state regulations, are forbidden, officials said, and raised concerns that a resident could have an emergency while locked inside.
Landmark officials did not return calls from the Globe. The 92-unit facility, which offers one-bedroom and studio apartments, is housed in the former Baptist School of Nursing in MIssion Hill. Its website says its offers concierge services, a full service salon, and a dining room with solarium.
Neither would I.
Regulators visited Landmark at Longwood after receiving a complaint from a former employee, who cited a litany of alleged abuses, including the locked doors, medication errors, missing drugs, missing resident belongings, and verbal abuse of residents. The former employee shared these concerns with the facility’s executive director, the letter said, but “the concerns were not addressed.”
The whistleblower, who no longer works at Landmark, told the Globe that locks were placed on more than a dozen residents’ doors, though state investigators confirmed “at least two.” The former employee also filed a report with the Boston Police, alleging that some residents’ money had been stolen, medical documents were destroyed, and employees were instructed to “hide or not report” missing narcotics.
The daughter of one resident said she signed a release form authorizing the use of a lock on her mother’s door, although she says she didn’t completely understand what she was signing.
“I signed the form because I was told I had to sign the form,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified to protect her mother. “There were two options -- you consent or you get her out of here.”
They are doing that with Do Not Resuscitate orders as the cull of our beloved elderly continues.
Now, the woman said she feels naive for signing the contract, saying, “There could have been an electrical fire, or anything.”
It was the second time in two years that officials from the state Executive Office of Elder Affairs has found serious problems at Landmark, one of five assisted living residences owned by Landmark Senior Living. In May 2019, the state suspended its certification because of “widespread operational deficiencies which jeopardized resident health and safety,” according to an Aug. 25 letter to Landmark Longwood executive director David Santos from the state’s Marchetti.
Time to nurse this blog home.
In suspending its certification again on Aug. 25, officials said the facility can remain open but cannot accept new residents. It must submit a corrective plan within 30 days, officials said.
The family of the resident whose door was locked also filed a report with the Boston Police alleging that some of her belongings appear to have been stolen, including two cellphones and a pair of treasured earrings that she had worn for many years.
Her family relied on the phones to keep in touch with their mother, but its members now have to call the facility directly, and find getting through to their mother difficult.
“One day I made 20 calls trying to get through,” said the woman. “The phone rang and rang but no one picked up. "
State elder affairs officials said that the facility’s failure to comply with state regulations presents “a threat to the health, safety or welfare of its residents.”
Based on those findings, the facility may not accept new residents until state officials determine the facility is “in full compliance...with all applicable laws and regulations.”
It also ordered immediate corrective action -- a nurse must evaluate the skills of everyone providing personal care or dispensing of medication ’”including assurance that each is capable of demonstrating appropriate infection control technique,” and the facility must a plan to screen all visitors for COVID.
Landmark at Longwood has reported eight positive cases of COVID-19 -- all before June 17. No deaths were reported, according to state data.
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