Maybe the name of the city needs to be changed, too, 'eh?
"Ohio police fatally shoot Black teenage girl just before Chauvin verdict" by Randy Ludlow, Hannah Knowles, Reis Thebault and Teo Armus Washington Post, April 21, 2021
In an image from police bodycam video that the Columbus Police Department played during a news conference Tuesday night, a teenage girl (foreground) appears to wield a knife during an altercation before being shot by a police officer (Columbus Police Department via WSYX-TV via Associated Press).
Appears to wield a knife?
It's CLEARLY VISIBLE!
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Tuesday’s fatal shooting of a Black teenager by Columbus police stoked grief and anger just as the murder conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was being celebrated as a sign of long-elusive accountability for law enforcement.
Police said at a news conference that the girl had threatened two others with a knife before the shooting, playing segments of body camera video that showed the victim lunging toward someone in a driveway before an officer fired four shots. A knife is visible in the driveway next to the girl as police perform CPR on her.
’'We know, based on this footage, the officer took action to protect another young girl in our community,’' Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther, said at the news conference, ’'but a family is grieving tonight, and this young 15-year-old girl will never be coming home.’'
That is sad in any instance as our society comes apart, and it could have been the other girl's family saying that.
Family members and Franklin County Children’s Services identified the victim to local media as 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant and said she had been in foster care. Police have not named the victim and said that she was 15 years old. Paula Bryant told WBNS that the victim was her daughter, ’'a very loving, peaceful little girl.’'
The incident prompted demonstrators to gather in the neighborhood where the violence unfolded and outside Columbus police headquarters, with many questioning whether police could have taken less lethal action in the case.
The poor cop was a rookie and was probably all geeked up due to the climate in this country, and honestly, who would want to be a police officer these days?
That is why the problem can only get worse.
Hazel Bryant, who identified herself as the victim’s aunt, told the Columbus Dispatch that her niece got into a fight with another person at her foster home. Bryant said the victim had a knife but dropped it before the officer shot her.
My print quotes her as saying "the body cams don't show the truth of what occurred, [because her niece is] so loving and kind" even though she didn't personally witness the incident but arrived soon after, while Kiara Yakita, founder and president of the grass-roots group Black Liberation Movement Central Ohio, told the Post, "law enforcement and city officials are rushing to make excuses because she had a knife. Those excuses are not valid to me."
I guess that would be true unless they were coming for you!
Then it is where were the police (think Capitol, which has faded since the Sicknick and IG reports)?
Ginther and other Columbus officials vowed to release more information ’'as soon as it becomes available’' and appealed to residents to ’'remain calm,’' as the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation opened a case on the shooting.
’'No matter the circumstances, that family is in agony and they are in my prayers. They deserve answers,’' Columbus director of Public Safety Ned Pettus Jr. said, ’'but fast, quick answers cannot come at the cost of accurate answers.’'
Pettus, who is Black, added that the teen ’'could be my granddaughter.’'
That's as close as they get to print article.
Neighbor Ira Graham III said that he had just come home from work when he heard shots and ran outside to see a teen girl on the ground badly wounded. It was disorienting coming so close to the verdict in the Chauvin trial, he said. ’'It’s just so ironic,’' he said. ’'This stuff just never ends.’'
Columbus Interim Police Chief Michael Woods said that just after 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, police received a 911 call from someone who reported that women were trying to stab them and then hung up. Dispatchers ’'were unable’' to gather any information about what weapons were at the scene, he added.
Body-camera footage shows a white officer emerge from a vehicle as the victim appears to chase someone, who falls onto the sidewalk. The teen then turns toward someone else wearing a pink sweat suit and takes a swing at her head. The officer fires four shots at the girl, leaving her sprawled next to a car in the driveway. ’'She had a knife. She just ran at her,’' one officer says on the footage.
Video taken at the scene by a neighbor shortly after the shooting shows two police officers kneeling over the girl. One is performing chest compressions. She appears unresponsive and blood is pooled on the ground beneath her. Around them, several more officers tape off the area as family and neighbors cry. One neighbor says, ’'He shot her four times.’'
Woods said that full body-camera footage of the incident was not shown because of a public records process that requires officials to blur the faces of juveniles. He added that per the division’s policy, officers can use deadly force to protect themselves or a third party. ’'Whether this applies with that will be part of an investigation,’' he said at the news conference. The officer who shot and killed the teen was not identified, although they would be taken off patrol, Woods added.
The shooting struck a raw nerve as Chauvin’s trial for the death of George Floyd came to an end and leaders including President Biden emphasized the need for broader changes to policing and greater trust between law enforcement and their communities.
’'As we watched the verdict from Minneapolis many talked about the sigh of relief — but there is a truth that for so many in our community there is no relief,’' said Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin at a Tuesday meeting related to a new civilian review board for police. ’'This is not all right. It’s not OK,’' he said, ’'and it can’t continue on.’'
I agree, but Obama and Biden spent eight years loading them up with military equipment and such for just such things.
They decry the very problem they created, so why is anyone listening to them anymore?
Following the incident, a crowd of about 60 people gathered at the scene on Columbus’s southeast side, some using bullhorns to denounce another fatal police shooting.
They demanded answers from police officers standing watch on the cordoned-off perimeter. The crowd began to disperse about 10 p.m. as Karla Harris, a cofounder of Mothers of Murdered Columbus Children, told people to go home. ’'The baby is gone,’' Harris said. ’'We need it to be over. We’re not getting anywhere. Answers are going to be a while.’'
Late on Tuesday, about 100 protesters circled the streets of downtown Columbus, followed by vehicles honking horns, waving Black Lives Matter flags, and chanting, ’'No justice, no peace’' as they passed the Statehouse, City Hall, and police headquarters.....
That was the National lead, and there is now a sit-in at Ohio State University, and I hope all the kids had their shots and are in their socially-distanced bubble.
They are dealing with such things in Florida in the article directly below:
"How the GOP is creating harsher penalties for protesters" by Reid J. Epstein and Patricia Mazzei New York Times, April 21, 2021
While Democrats seized on Floyd’s death in May to highlight racism in policing and other forms of social injustice, Republicans responded to a summer of protests by proposing a raft of punitive new measures governing the right to lawfully assemble, according to Elly Page, a senior legal adviser at the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, which tracks legislation limiting the right to protest.
They sure did! Used him as a political tool!
The laws carry forward the hyperbolic message Republicans have been pushing in the 11 months since Black Lives Matter protests against racial injustice swept the country: that Democrats are tolerant of violent and criminal actions from those who protest against racial injustice, and the legislation underscores the extent to which support for law enforcement personnel and opposition to protests have become part of the bedrock of GOP orthodoxy and a likely pillar of the platform the party will take into next year’s midterms.
At the very least, it forestalls a complete takeover by UN troops because of an alleged civil war.
“This is consistent with the general trend of legislators’ responding to powerful and persuasive protests by seeking to silence them rather than engaging with the message of the protests,” said Vera Eidelman, a lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union. “If anything, the lesson from the last year, and decades, is not that we need to give more tools to police and prosecutors, it’s that they abuse the tools they already have.”
Laws already exist to punish rioting, and civil rights advocates worry that the new bills violate rights of lawful assembly and free speech protected under the First Amendment. The overwhelming majority of last summer’s nationwide Black Lives Matter protests were peaceful — more than 96 percent involved no property damage or police injuries, according to The Washington Post, which also found that police officers or counterprotesters often instigated violence.....
Yeah, don't believe your lying eyes and why is the ACLJU AWOL when it comes to fighting the unconstitutional and tyrannical CVD lockdowns and restrictions on the civil liberties of us all?
Related:
"In comments made after Tuesday’s murder conviction of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thanked George Floyd for “sacrificing your life for justice. For being there to call out to your mom — how heartbreaking was that — call out for your mom, ‘I can’t breathe,’ " she said in remarks at an event with the Congressional Black Caucus, “but because of you, and because of thousands, millions of people around the world who came out for justice, your name will always be synonymous with justice.” Her suggestion that Floyd had sacrificed himself drew a backlash online, where a clip of her words circulated Tuesday night and Wednesday. On Twitter, people reacted with shock and outrage. “He did not SACRIFICE his life,” tweeted Barbara Ransby, an activist and University of Illinois professor. “His life was violently taken.” Others made similar observations. “Nancy Pelosi’s take is awful and tone deaf,” wrote screenwriter Randi Mayem Singer. “George Floyd didn’t ‘sacrifice’ his life. He was not a soldier who died in battle. He was an American citizen murdered by a cop.” Pelosi later tweeted a quote from her comments, adding, “George Floyd should be alive today. His family’s calls for justice for his murder were heard around the world. He did not die in vain. We must make sure other families don’t suffer the same racism, violence & pain, and we must enact the George Floyd #JusticeInPolicing Act.”
Not the right criticisms, as they have no problem with Floyd being used as tool.
"Democratic Representative Jimmy Gomez of California is reigniting his effort to garner more support for a resolution that would expel Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, from Congress after Republicans tried to censure a Democrat for inciting violence but stayed silent about a member of their own party. In a Dear Colleague letter to all congressional offices, Gomez said Greene continues to represent “a threat,” given her “documented acts of sedition and advocacy for lethal violence against the United States Government.” He also cited the reported attempt by a group of Republicans to create an “America First Caucus” that, according to a document published by Punchbowl News, would promote “Anglo-Saxon political traditions” as a reason to remove Greene. She has denied having any knowledge of that document. “From her open support for political violence against our colleagues to her brazen promotion of anti-Semitism and racism, there is no shortage of reasons as to why Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is unfit to serve in this legislative body,” Gomez wrote after citing numerous ways her comments had incited violence, including the Jan. 6 insurrection at the US Capitol. The push came a day after Republicans tried but failed to censure Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, for comments they said could have incited violence by protesters in Minneapolis had the jury reached a not-guilty verdict in the case of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the killing of George Floyd. Greene joined the chorus of Republicans condemning Waters this week but took it a step further by introducing her own resolution to expel Waters. Before the vote Tuesday, House majority leader Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland, warned Republicans that if they moved forward with the vote, Democrats would be tempted “to proceed on numerous resolutions” proposed by members to censure Republicans who they say incited violence ahead of the Capitol insurrection. He also called it irresponsible to censure Waters over comments taken “out of context to just hold a gotcha partisan vote” when they have failed to do the same with Greene. Gomez introduced the expulsion resolution in March but did not force an immediate vote, in hopes of rounding up more support. Only 72 other Democrats have signed on since, a number that falls short of the two-thirds of the House needed to remove a member from Congress. A Gomez spokesman said the office had conversations with Republicans who have privately agreed with the resolution’s intent but would not sign on publicly due to potential retribution from leadership, Greene, or Republican supporters who could possibly put their lives in danger. Gomez has received threats since introducing the resolution, the spokesman said."
PFFFT!
Those are either lies or false flags and I'm sick of it!
"The Senate narrowly confirmed civil rights lawyer Vanita Gupta as associate attorney general, voting 51 to 49, with only one Republican breaking ranks. Earlier in the day, Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, broke with her party to support moving forward with the nomination for the number three position at the Justice Department. She later did the same on the confirmation vote. Murkowski explained in a floor speech that when she met with Gupta she’d been impressed with her passion for her work and that they had a long conversation about the staggering rates of domestic violence against Alaska’s Native American women. Gupta’s nomination has been among the more controversial ones put forward by President Biden, with Republicans seizing upon previous tweets that they claimed showed too much partisanship for the position."
That's all it takes!
Maybe Manchin will show some courage and do a Jeffords!
Also see:
"The superintendent of the Florida school district where 17 students and staff died in a 2018 high school massacre was arrested Wednesday after investigators said he lied to a grand jury investigating events surrounding the shooting. Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie was arrested by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement at district headquarters and charged with perjury in an official proceeding, which is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. According to an indictment issued by the grand jury last week and released after Runcie’s arrest, the superintendent lied when he testified before the panel three weeks ago, but it gave no specifics about the alleged falsehood....."
His defense will be $y$temic raci$m, and I didn't know that until I saw his face.
"A white Louisiana school bus driver who made a racist remark to a Black student about the murder of George Floyd is out of a job after the child’s mother complained to school officials. WWL-TV reported that 11-year-old Rashad Gabriel had a face mask below his nose and told a driver he was out of breath after running to catch a bus to Trist Middle School in St. Bernard Parish, located in metro New Orleans, on April 9. “Since George Floyd, that’s what you all say, but I don’t see a knee on your neck,” the driver replied, according to the child’s mother, Rose Gabriel. Other children heard the statement, which also was captured on a video surveillance system on the vehicle....."
Get OFF the BUS, and notice how the Capitol crash by a Farrakhan supporter has now faded into obscurity as well?!
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Yeah, racial disparities persist in Bo$ton, and "as thunderstorms rolled through Boston Wednesday evening, activists marched through the city, calling for an end to police brutality one day after Derek Chauvin, a white former Minneapolis police officer, was convicted for the death of George Floyd. Shouts of “all three counts,” a reference to Chauvin’s conviction on murder and manslaughter charges, and “No Justice, No Peace, you’ve got to prosecute the police,” echoed from the Massachusetts State House to Nubian Square, the heart of Boston’s Black community. As rain fell, the families of several victims of police brutality gathered outside the State House to share their stories — and to call for the prosecution and conviction of the police officers responsible for their deaths."
What about the Asians?
"Man claiming to have rifle, bomb fatally shot by Worcester police during confrontation" by Nick Stoico and Travis Andersen Globe Correspondent and Globe Staff, April 21, 2021
WORCESTER — Police fatally shot a 31-year-old man who claimed to have a rifle and a bomb after a lengthy standoff, the authorities said Wednesday.
At a news conference, Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. said Phet Gouvonvong, 31, called 911 around 10:40 p.m. Tuesday and told a dispatcher he had a rifle and a bomb that “could and may” detonate.
Police negotiators and SWAT officers arrived on Grafton Street and set up a protective perimeter. Gouvonvong appeared to be carrying an “assault rifle, body armor, a backpack, and an explosive device, as well as other wires and different things about his person,” Early said.
Negotiators began a lengthy effort to deescalate the situation, Early said, but Gouvonvong “appeared to get more and more agitated [and] was making furtive movements,” Early said.
It will do that in any case, and I expect full-throated outrage and protest like in Columbus.
Shortly after midnight, an officer shot Gouvonvong “as a result of those furtive movements,” Early said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
WHAT?
Furtive = attempting to avoid notice or attention, typically because of guilt or a belief that discovery would lead to trouble; secretive.
He was "secretive(?)" so they shot him?
I guess that means he wasn't waving a knife around.
Video footage of the confrontation, recorded by neighbors, showed police keeping a careful distance with their guns drawn as Gouvonvong stood in front of a Cumberland Farms. Gouvonvong eventually moved out of view but could still be heard talking and shouting at police before four gunshots rang out.
Uh-oh!
Officials did not identify the officer who shot Gouvonvong. The officer has been placed on administrative leave, according to protocol. Police urged anyone with cellphone video of the standoff to contact investigators.
Early said the 911 dispatcher was on the phone with Gouvonvong for “an extended period of time” before the officer opened fire. Gouvonvong did not fire his weapon, he said.
“He was telling us that this bomb could and would go off if things occurred to him, but I can’t get into the negotiations,” Early said. “She kept him on the phone for a long time doing her job.”
Gouvonvong was carrying a handgun with “multiple rounds” of ammunition, Early said.
“They weren’t able to ascertain that until after he was shot,” Early said, “but if you saw the appearance of the guy, it appeared to be an assault rifle. He had body armor on him.”
I can't help but wonder if a cop dropped it on the pavement while out of sight, sorry.
They do that, you know.
The shooting happened hours after a jury in Minneapolis convicted former officer Derek Chauvin of killing George Floyd last year — a case that prompted nationwide calls for police accountability, but Early said there is no evidence that Gouvonvong’s actions were related.
Really, how could they be other than the systemic problem of cops blowing people away, including whitey.
Early said investigators were working to determine whether his apparent explosives were operable at the time of the standoff.
“We have a very good idea what he had, but again it’s still part of the investigation,” he said.
Marco Saez, who lives nearby, said he frequently hears gunshots in the area, but this time was different, as he awoke to the sound of several shots in succession.
“When I look out the window, I seen like all these tactical, like, maybe 10 guys all huddled around coming this way and going that way,” Saez said. “Everybody woke up.”
Saez said he later saw Gouvonvong’s body on the ground underneath a covering.
“It’s nerve-racking” he said of the deadly confrontation. “I’m glad that nobody [else] got hurt.”
A couple named Esmarlin and Rafael said they went outside when they heard sirens and began taking video with their phones. They could hear police talking with Gouvonvong.
“He was so calm,” said Rafael, who declined to give his full name. “That’s what made us nervous. He said, ‘If you shoot me, I’ll just blow up.’ ”
He also said he couldn't breathe, and they will be naming a street in his honor.
When they realized Gouvonvong might have a bomb, Rafael took their 5-year-old daughter up the street to a relative’s house.
Chris Belsito, who runs a pop-up kitchen inside a restaurant near Gouvonvong’s apartment, said Gouvonvong had come in once or twice.
“Never bothered anybody,” Belsito said. “Nothing like you’d expect all this out of him.”
The news had left him stunned, he said.
“It’s shocking because you might expect that from a kid who’s always in trouble, but he wasn’t,” he said. “He was just quiet and didn’t seem to have any trouble around him.”
Belsito, 53, said neighbors were troubled by the case.
“Everyone I’ve talked to is really upset because there’s a lot of families and kids here, and to have someone who was armed with ammunition and bombs and whatever else,” Belsito said. “I didn’t know if they were going to find more explosives or what would happen.”
The dead body under the sheet didn't bother him?
Ron Messier, who lives next door, said he saw investigators enter Gouvonvong’s apartment Wednesday morning. They left carrying bags.
Yes, Worcester is not like Columbus at all, and you can now head over to the most expensive minor league stadium in history, at $157 million, after Worcester agreed to borrow $100 million and the state kicked in $60 million for the entire project.
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Of course, the page-one, above-the-fold, righthand-corner lead today is that Merrick Garland's the Justice Department is going to review the Minneapolis police for systemic issues, signaling that the Biden administration will seek to combat police abuses around the country and apply stricter federal oversight to local forces (they need to check their own thugs, first).
Instead, Boston is defending them while showing nothing.
Maybe Biden's Post Office could do some sniffing around with the Covert Operations Program to spy on Americans’ social media posts and share them with other agencies(?).
Of course, the Chauvin verdict changed nothing as the racism never ends, and the Floyd killing forces business to reexamine their record on race relations beyond the “virtue signaling.”
"Technology companies and banks helped lift stocks on Wall Street broadly higher Wednesday, enabling the market to claw back some of its losses after a downbeat start to the week. Tesla, Amazon and other companies that rely directly on consumer spending also rose. Investors continued to work through company earnings reports while much of the market's focus over the next two weeks will be on individual companies and their quarterly results. Analysts expect quarterly profits across the S&P 500 to climb 24% from a year earlier, according to FactSet....."
I hope you get as much of a kick out of this as I did:
:)
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Meanwhile, the women’s world hockey championships in Canada have been postponed and no one is hollering $exi$m!
Gisele Bündchen walked off the field after the NFL Super Bowl game between Tampa Bay and Kansas City on Sunday, Feb. 7, in Tampa, Fla (Jason Behnken/Associated Press)
Now what kind of example is that to set?
Here is a better one, and you can check how green she is.
She said in a in a press release that it is “very important for successful corporations to make the necessary shifts in [environmental, social, and governance] initiatives to truly make a difference on a global level, because in today’s world, in my opinion, it isn’t enough for companies to just be successful financially.”
I'm also told she is one of several celebrities to ink special advising roles at the company, including baseball legend Cal Ripken Jr., and NBA superstar Michael Jordan, who both have equity in the company that just minted their new billionaire.
I gue$$ she can't $ee the fore$ts for the trees as Biden will announce Thursday that the United States intends to cut planet-warming emissions nearly in half by the end of the decade, which would require Americans to transform the way they drive, heat their homes, and manufacture goods as cutting emissions at least 50 percent from 2005 levels by the end of the decade is the only way to put the United States on a path to eliminating fossil fuel pollution by mid-century.
We will all be long gone way before then, and you can then take a tour of New York City:
"Manhattan to stop prosecuting prostitution, part of nationwide shift" by Jonah E. Bromwich New York Times, April 21, 2021
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office announced on Wednesday that it would no longer prosecute prostitution and unlicensed massage, putting the weight of one of the most high-profile law enforcement offices in the United States behind the growing movement to change the criminal justice system’s approach to sex work.
They call it female liberation, and can legalized pedophilia and beastiality be far behind?
The office will continue to prosecute other crimes related to prostitution, including patronizing sex workers, promoting prostitution and sex trafficking, and said that its policy would not stop it from bringing other charges that stem from prostitution-related arrests.
That means, in effect, that the office will continue to prosecute pimps and sex traffickers as well as people who pay for sex, continuing to fight those who exploit or otherwise profit from prostitution without punishing the people who for decades have borne the brunt of law enforcement’s attention.
I see the discrimination lawsuits lining up already.
Manhattan will join Baltimore, Philadelphia, and other jurisdictions that have declined to prosecute sex workers. Brooklyn also does not prosecute people arrested for prostitution but instead refers them to social services before they are compelled to appear in court — unless the district attorney’s office there is unable to reach them.
The Brooklyn district attorney, Eric Gonzalez, in January moved to dismiss hundreds of open cases related to prostitution and loitering, and said that he would eventually ask that more than 1,000 be dismissed. The Queens district attorney, Melinda Katz, followed in March, moving to dismiss hundreds of prostitution-related cases.
The district attorney’s office had been in the practice of dismissing prostitution cases after sending those charged to mandatory counseling sessions. Going forward, Vance’s statement said, such counseling sessions would be provided only on a voluntary basis.
Sex workers have been fighting for decriminalization for decades, but the 2019 formation of Decrim NY, a coalition of organizations that support full decriminalization and has worked to lobby lawmakers, represented a turning point for the movement.
In New York City, those calls have grown louder. Last month, Mayor Bill de Blasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray, called on the state to end criminal penalties for sex workers.
“The communities hit hardest by the continued criminalization of sex work and human trafficking are overwhelmingly LGBTQ, they are people of color, and they are undocumented immigrants,” McCray said at the time. “Sex work is a means of survival for many in these marginalized groups.”
Why anyone would want to travel to that $hithole is beyond me.
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Try a call girl next time:
"The ominous phone calls began last summer. The callers said they were investigators from mainland China. The wealthy 90-year-old Hong Kong woman on the other end was led to believe that she was the subject of a money-laundering investigation. Perhaps driven by an urge to clear her name, she began transferring huge amounts of money to bank accounts she did not own. In the end, according to the Hong Kong police, the unidentified woman deposited a staggering sum — $32.8 million — into accounts controlled by grifters, in one of the worst phone scams to hit the Asian financial hub. A 19-year-old university student, identified by his family name, Wong, was arrested in connection with the crime, the Hong Kong police said on Tuesday......"
The chips are down now (how odd when they want to phase out fossil fuels, 'eh?), and the only question left is who will lead the New World Order?
Will he take on the Chinese cancer or allow it to spread?
They will have defenders who come to their aid and they just might release another virus, the monsters, since that is where it originated, in Wuhan, at least, that is to where it has been traced after the investigation.
In fact, there is now a museum in Wuhan, China, a sprawling exhibition paints a stirring tale of how the city’s sacrifices in a brutal 76-day lockdown led to triumph over the coronavirus and, ultimately, rebirth, but the exhibition may be most striking for what is not included about the experiences of the city where the virus first came to the world’s attention as propaganda agencies have push feel-good videos and adulatory articles that depict Wuhan as a city reborn (there goes the New York Times again, , projecting their own behavior on someone else).
Of course, in the New New World, a topsy-turvy pandemic world where many countries are still reeling from Covid-19, China — where the pandemic originated — has become one of the safest places in the world, but citizens of China don’t have freedom of speech, freedom of worship or freedom from fear — three of the four freedoms articulated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt — but they have the freedom to move around and lead a normal day-to-day life. In a pandemic year, many of the world’s people would envy this most basic form of freedom -- as they are UNDER TYRANNICAL LOCKDOWNS!
Thank God AmeriKa is not China, 'eh?
I know it sounds crazy, but they did it with magic and a homegrown vaccine said to be 79% effective, which is a worry but a small one. Their frenetic response to the crisis gave them a short reprieve and had them popping bottles of bubbly at midnight and getting all wet.
Unless they reverse course again, the U.S. will be shut out of Asia unless they can cut a deal, and that includes the Philippines and Nepal as well as Indonesia. They will need to do a strategic review to combat the deep damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic and work to offset food shortages in the remote islands of the Pacific as the supply chains of some of America’s most famous food and cosmetic companies being to break down and crash from the $ugar high as the stakes are raised and we face a Red May and Red Death!
So forget about COVID because “we may never find the true origins(?)” and Hong Kong because when the rubber hits the road, these three nations could rule the world together if they wanted — if they could only get past centuries of conflict and the issue of sexual slavery.
I'm sure Putin would have something to say about that despite the U.S. meddling and movement they spawned.
Also see:
"A powerful bomb exploded in the parking area of a luxury hotel in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Wednesday, killing at least four people and wounding at least nine others, police said. Security forces rushed to the Serena hotel and no one was being allowed to go near the site of the blast. Police said rescuers transported victims to nearby hospitals. Footage on Pakistan news channels showed burning cars....."
HMMMM?!
They are calling it genocide as the coffins stack up and the the EU spearheads the development of new global norms to make sure AI can be trusted (what's with the Masonic hand signal?) so you can pay-by-palm at Whole Foods without having to open your wallet and as the airline industry’s chief lobby group widened its estimate for losses this year by a quarter, saying new COVID-19 flare-ups and mutations have pushed back the timeline for a restart of global air travel -- which is just what Bill Gates wants!
There is really nothing left to talk about as it “all boils down to COVID” -- meaning Certificate of Vaccination ID, otherwise known as a vaccine passport.
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NEXT DAY UPDATES:
You won't be able to flee to Canada if you are from Quetta, and why would you want to?
"Russian minister orders partial pullback from Ukraine border region" by Andrew E. Kramer New York Times, April 22, 2021
MOSCOW — Russia’s Defense Ministry ordered a partial pullback of troops from the border with Ukraine on Thursday, signaling a possible deescalation in a military standoff that had raised alarm that a new war in Europe could be looming.
The order came a day after President Vladimir Putin, in an annual state of the nation address, rattled off a list of grievances against Western nations.
More regarding New York Times whining below.
The Russian defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, who had called the buildup a test of the Russian military’s readiness, said that the units deployed to the border area had shown their capabilities and should now return to their regular positions.
Shoigu’s announcement made no mention of naval exercises currently underway in the Black Sea near the Ukrainian coast. The Russian Ministry of Defense has said about 10,000 soldiers, more than 60 ships, and more than 1,000 airplanes, amphibious vehicles, and other pieces of military equipment are deployed for the exercises.
Well, the NYT never mentioned the vessels Biden was going to send into the Black Sea before they turned around.
Honestly, folks, the lying war propaganda and distorted spin is really sickening at this point.
Soon after Shoigu’s announcement, Ukraine’s president — who only two days earlier addressed his nation on television, warning of the possibility of war — said he welcomed Russia’s move.
“The reduction of troops on our border proportionally reduces tension,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Twitter.
Ukraine, he added, “is always vigilant, yet welcomes any steps to decrease the military presence” and “deescalate the situation in Donbas. Ukraine seeks peace.”
PFFFT!
Ukraine, a vast country in Eastern Europe that was once part of the Soviet Union, has been a flash point of East-West tensions for many years. Efforts by Ukraine’s government to align itself with the West have deeply angered the Kremlin, which sees Ukraine as part of Russia’s sphere of influence in the region.
The tensions have been elevated since 2014, when Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula and backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. The conflict between Ukrainian forces and separatists has killed more than 13,000 people.
Well, there they go again. Russia didn't "seize" anything.
In Ukraine, many had feared that the buildup — which officials in Kyiv said included some 110,000 Russian troops — could be the prelude to a Russian annexation of separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine or an outright invasion.
For the moment, at least, the withdrawal announcement signaled that such a move was not imminent, but Ukrainian officials said they continued to be prepared for an escalation of the conflict.
“Their position on Ukraine is not changing,” Zelensky’s national security adviser, Oleksiy Danilov, said in an interview Thursday, referring to Russia. “They want to bring back the empire, in those borders that existed in the previous century.”
Throughout the buildup, Russian officials never formally stated specific demands, even as tanks accumulated on the border. Analysts suggested they sought concessions in settlement talks with Ukraine or hoped to dissuade the Biden administration from imposing sanctions, but the withdrawal began without Ukrainian concessions and despite new US sanctions, announced last week.
“They didn’t get any obvious concessions from Ukraine and they didn’t get any obvious concessions from the West,” Sam Greene, director of the Russian Institute at Kings College London, said in a telephone interview. “They didn’t achieve very much, on the face of it. They did show they were willing to make a lot of people very nervous.”
By Thursday evening, Putin’s attention had shifted to another post-Soviet Eastern European country in which Moscow seeks to retain its influence: Belarus. The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, flew to Moscow for talks with Putin that the Kremlin said would last “late into the evening” Thursday.
With Putin’s support, Lukashenko has brutally put down protests in his country since last summer, when he claimed victory in a reelection that critics and Western officials said was blatantly rigged. In his state-of-the-nation speech Wednesday, Putin claimed that Western countries had plotted to assassinate Lukashenko.
That's where the New York Times leaves it!
It's the British who will be on the front lines if war does break out.
Related:
"The Israeli military said Thursday that a Syrian missile that reached deep into Israeli territory and set off air raid sirens near the country’s top-secret nuclear reactor was the result of a misfire and not a deliberate attack. The missile landed in southern Israel early Thursday, prompting Israel to respond with airstrikes on the missile launcher and other targets in Syria. The army’s chief spokesman, Brig. Gen. Hidai Zilberman, was quoted as telling military correspondents that the Israeli air force was already operating in Syrian airspace when the anti-aircraft missile was fired. He said the projectile, identified as a Russian-made SA-5 missile, missed its target and exploded in southern Israel. The missile, also known as an S200, set off air raid sirens in a village near Dimona, the southern desert town where Israel’s nuclear reactor is located, and some 300 kilometers (200 miles) south of Damascus. “There was no intention of hitting the nuclear reactor in Dimona,” Zilberman was quoted as saying. In Washington, Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, gave a similar assessment to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday. “I think it reflects, actually, incompetence in Syrian air defense, where they were responding to Israeli strikes on targets in Syria. The fired their missiles, the missiles went ballistic, literally, and followed a parabolic trajectory to Israel,” he said. “I do not believe it was an intentional attack, but just rather a lack of capability on the part of the Syrian air defenders.” In recent years, Israel has repeatedly launched air strikes at Syria....."
Yeah, Israel commits acts of war all over the place and the world is silent.
What does that tell you?
Furthermore, the Syrians have the world's most advanced air defense system courtesy of Russia, and as for McKenzie:
"The U.S. military has begun shipping equipment and winding down contracts with local service providers ahead of the May 1 start of the final phase of its military pullout from Afghanistan, a U.S. Defense Department official said Thursday. The pullout under U.S. President Joe Biden marks the end of America’s longest war after a 20-year military engagement. Currently, some 2,500 U.S. soldiers and about 7,000 allied forces are still in Afghanistan. In February last year, the U.S. military began closing its smaller bases. In mid-April, the Biden administration announced that the final phase of the withdrawal would begin May 1 and be completed before Sept. 11. Since then, the military has been shipping equipment and winding down local contracts for services such as trash pickup and maintenance work. While preparations are under way, troops likely won’t begin to depart for a few weeks, he said, adding that “we won’t see a coming down of the (troop) numbers” until remaining bases close. There have been indications that the pullout could be completed well before Sept. 11, which marks the 20th anniversary of the al-Qaida terror attack on the U.S. and the trigger for the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan....."
No mention of the Trump deal that had us out by May 1st, not any mention of the Taliban's disappointment and now lack of trust of AmeriKa.
"U.S. President Joe Biden and other leaders of NATO member countries plan to discuss tense ties with Russia and China, the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and the future of the 30-nation military alliance at a summit in Belgium on June 14. The meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels will be a face-to-face opportunity for Biden to rebuild relations with leaders from Europe and Canada that became strained under former President Donald Trump. “This is a unique opportunity to reinforce NATO as the enduring embodiment of the bond between Europe and North America,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday in a statement. Stoltenberg said the meeting will focus on the security “challenges of today and tomorrow: Russia’s aggressive actions, the threat of terrorism, cyber-attacks, emerging and disruptive technologies, the security impact of climate change, and the rise of China.” The meeting will take place as NATO-led troops leave Afghanistan, the alliance’s biggest and most challenging operation ever, with the aim of being gone by Sept. 11 at the latest. NATO allies activated the organization’s collective defense clause for the first and only time after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001....."
They are going to try and spilt Taiwan from China, all a plot to take advantage of the self-governing island’s time-off policy for couples who get married —as the New York Times whines about censorship in Hong Kong!
The hypocritical gall is enough to make one gasp in disbelief:
"The New York Times Co. said Thursday that it would not voluntarily recognize a newly formed union of tech and digital employees, instructing the group to put the matter to a formal vote through the National Labor Relations Board. The Times Tech Guild, a group affiliated with the NewsGuild of New York, had asked the company for recognition April 13, when it announced that a majority of tech workers had formed a union. The group includes software engineers, data analysts, designers, and product managers. In an e-mail to staff Thursday, Times chief executive Meredith Kopit Levien wrote that, since the union was formed, “we have heard questions and concerns from many of our colleagues about what this would really mean for their careers.” A NewsGuild spokesman said in a statement that The Times’ decision not to voluntarily recognize the union was “deeply disappointing” and “a sign of disrespect” to the company’s 1,400 union members."
Just as they disrespect the reading public with their "journali$m."
Hey, what are they going to do, start blogging?
That would mean the big paycheck for pushing propaganda will go away, you ungratefuls!
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Of course, no new$papers would be great for the environment:
"Biden, calling for action, commits US to halving its climate emissions" by Lisa Friedman, Somini Sengupta, and Coral Davenport New York Times, April 22, 2021
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday moved to put four years of official climate denial behind the United States, declaring that America would cut its global warming emissions at least in half by the end of the decade.
Addressing 40 world leaders at the start of a two-day summit about the U.S. return to the Paris climate agreement, Biden sought to galvanize other countries to take more aggressive steps.
He cast the challenge of avoiding catastrophic warming as an economic opportunity for America and the world, a striking contrast to his predecessor who had abandoned the agreement.
“This is a moral imperative, an economic imperative,” Biden said. “A moment of peril, but also a moment of extraordinary possibilities.”
(Blog editor exhales at the ga$eous $pew after we had snow flurries yesterday)
Energy experts said it would require a dramatic overhaul of American society, including the virtual elimination of coal for electricity and the replacement of millions of gasoline-powered cars with electric vehicles, and the Biden administration’s ambitions cut to the heart of its toughest diplomatic challenge: Dealing with China. While the United States is the largest emitter in history, China’s emissions are currently the largest, which only add to the issues that have both Republicans and Democrats seething at Beijing.
It's called the Great Re$et, and it is the plan of the globali$t ruling cla$$ and the Davo$ crowd!
Republicans immediately questioned why Americans should sacrifice when Chinese coal pollution is likely to swamp any gains from U.S. emissions cuts, at least in the near term.
The stakes are enormous, for Biden and for the planet, but, like many of Biden’s promises, that would require the approval of Congress, and even that level would only match what many other rich countries did years ago. Experts said the climate finance announcement was anything but ambitious.
That underscores a central fact: Biden’s promise is little more than that — a promise. Unlike pledges this week from the European Union and Britain, the U.S. target is not entrenched in law. Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, which includes the money and the policies to draw down carbon pollution, has not yet been translated into legislation much less found support from a divided Congress.
You know what they say about promises and politicians: promises are made to be broken!
Biden is pushing the heads of his Cabinet agencies to enact executive-branch climate change policies across the federal government, from new fuel economy standards for vehicles to rules limiting fossil fuel extraction on public lands to new financial regulations designed to curb Wall Street investment in heavily polluting industries, but those rules alone are unlikely to add up to the steep emissions reductions necessary to meet Biden’s ambitious new target, and, as the Trump administration showed, they could be undone by a future White House without much trouble.
Like a dictator?
John Kerry, Biden’s global climate envoy, said changes in the marketplace were happening so quickly that, he believes, the United States will not just meet but surpass its new goal.
“It’s not easy,” he allowed. “Is it doable? Yes. Will we probably exceed it? I expect yes.”
He has a Christ complex as he spews emissions from his jet-$etting, something that should worry everyone!
Republicans denounced the new emissions target as illegal and unrealistic. Patrick Morrisey, the attorney general of West Virginia, called it a “radical” plan and a “domestic and foreign policy blunder of almost unfathomable proportions.”
They have other ma$ters to answer to.
To overcome such domestic opposition, Biden will have to bring the world along, especially China. Several major industrialized nations did announce aggressive new goals at the summit.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan raised his country’s target for cutting emissions to 46% from 2013 levels by the end of the decade, up from 26%, and in a last-minute surprise said the country would “continue to try for an even higher cut” of 50%. The Biden administration had exerted strong pressure on Japan to announce a 50% goal.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada raised his country’s goal to a cut of 40% to 45% from 2005 levels, up from 30%. President Moon Jae-in of South Korea announced an end to public finance for coal-fired power plants overseas. Even President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, an ally of former President Donald Trump’s who has denied the science of climate change in the past, vowed to end illegal deforestation by 2030 despite having overseen the sharpest rise in the destruction of the Amazon in 12 years.
He has finally seen the fore$ts for the trees!
President Xi Jinping did pledge that China would “strictly limit increasing coal consumption” in the next five years and phase it down in the following five years. That could prove significant, since China is, by far, the world’s largest coal consumer and is continuing to expand its fleet of coal-fired power plants. Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel.
Xi also repeated his pledge from last year to draw down carbon emissions to net zero by 2060. In a pointed reminder to his host, he said that the industrialized countries had a responsibility to act faster to reduce emissions, but the United States cannot tame climate change alone, Biden stressed. America accounts for about 15% of global emissions, a point made repeatedly by the president, Kerry and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“All of us, and particularly those of us that represent the world’s largest economies, we have to step up,” Biden said.
His new target and the summit drew expected approval from environmental groups who called the figure an aggressive but attainable target that would help America reach its long term goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
Former Vice President Al Gore called the target “a groundbreaking step for our country” and called the summit proof of America’s ability to galvanize other countries even after four years of Trump’s isolationist agenda.
They dug that $elf-$erving creep up for comment?
Notably, major fossil fuel industry associations like the American Petroleum Institute, as well as the Chamber of Commerce, praised Biden for reengaging internationally on climate change and did not directly criticize the target or question the ability to reach it.
They REALLY DO want to PUT THEMSELVES out of BUSINESS!
Thursday’s summit made history as one of the first all-digital gathering of world leaders, and the White House demonstrated that even it was not immune to the Zoom-induced glitches that have frustrated remote workers throughout the pandemic.
The opening speeches by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were plagued with painful echoes, evidently the result of overlapping microphone or speaker devices. The screen on whitehouse.gov then shifted to show Biden, sitting alone at a small conference table against a starkly-lit blue backdrop, as other world leaders beamed in.
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!
Despite the technical glitches, leaders expressed open relief at working with a United States administration that embraces science and again acts as part of the global community.
“The Paris Agreement is humanity’s life insurance,” said Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission. “It is so good to have the U.S. back on our side.”
Blinken introduced President Vladimir Putin of Russia, but evidently signals were crossed as the screen alternated between Putin and President Emmanuel Macron of France, and Putin sat in stony silence.
Suga, the Japanese prime minister, acknowledged the realities of the global time differences by beginning his remarks to his fellow leaders with a cheery, “Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.”
As the speeches went on, Kerry joined Biden at the conference table to welcome other world leaders to the summit — although he said with a laugh to Biden, “If you can call it a summit.”
Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian, said the inability of the United States government to solve basic computer glitches made him uneasy about its larger promises.
“It was amazing to see how bad the technology is and it makes you think, how are we going to solve climate change when you can’t even do video linkage for world leaders?” he said.....
I'm told the article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Related:
"Senate Republicans on Thursday offered an early counterproposal in the nascent Washington debate over improving the country’s aging infrastructure, endorsing roughly $568 billion in new spending that could be financed through higher fees on some drivers. In doing so, the GOP plan takes a more narrow view of infrastructure reform than Biden, who has sought to proffer major investments in other areas of the economy, including schools and elder care. Republicans also recommend recovering the costs of their spending through fees imposed on those who use the infrastructure. That could include new charges on the owners of electric vehicles, though GOP lawmakers said they also hoped to cover some of the spending by repurposing other unused federal funds. The new GOP plan as introduced is unlikely to win much favor among Democrats in Congress and the White House, as Biden has firmly maintained he will not raise taxes on Americans making less than $400,000 per year. Raising the gas tax, for example, threatens to violate the pledge, at least in spirit, and the president has indicated he does not support the idea, but the Republican counteroffer still sets the parameters for further negotiations between the parties....."
Baker is one of them, it turns out, as the Great Re$et moves apace in the concrete jungle that is Bo$ton.
Also see:
"The next phase of President Biden’s $4 trillion push to overhaul the US economy will seek to raise taxes on millionaire investors to fund education and other spending plans, but it will not take steps to expand health coverage or reduce prescription drug prices, according to people familiar with the proposal. Administration officials had planned to include a health care expansion of up to $700 billion, offset by efforts to reduce government spending on prescription drugs, but they have decided to instead pursue health care as a separate initiative, a move that sidesteps a fight among liberals on Capitol Hill but that risks upsetting some progressive groups that have pushed Biden to prioritize health issues. The president is set to outline his so-called American Family Plan, which includes measures aimed at helping Americans gain skills throughout life and have more flexibility in the workforce, before his first address to a joint session of Congress next week. Its details remain a work in progress and could change in the days before the announcement, but after weeks of work, administration officials have closed in on the final version of what will be the second half of Biden’s sweeping economic agenda...."
Where the money will come from is anyone's gue$$:
"A report that President Biden will propose a hefty tax increase on the gains wealthy individuals reap from investments triggered a stock market sell-off on Thursday afternoon on Wall Street that left indexes broadly lower. Investors who earn $US1 million ($1.3 million) or more would have to pay a 39.6 per cent tax rate on any capital gains, nearly double the current rate for Americans in that income bracket, according to the report by Bloomberg. A separate tax on investment income could boost the overall federal tax rate for wealthy investors as high as 43.3 per cent, the report said, citing unnamed people familiar with the proposal. The S&P 500 fell 0.9 per cent, wiping out an early gain. The benchmark index gave up nearly all of its gain from the day before, leaving it on track for its first weekly loss in five weeks. The selling was widespread, with every sector in the S&P 500 closing lower. Technology stocks, banks and companies that rely on consumer spending, accounted for much of the skid. The S&P 500, which set a record high on Friday, started the week with a two-day slide before closing higher Wednesday. It’s still down 1.2 per cent for the week....."
Sorry, it's too late for buyer's remor$e!
What a kick in the head, huh?
Then there is the flip $ide to the markets:
"New state unemployment claims fell last week to pandemic low" by Patricia Cohen New York Times, April 22, 2021
New claims for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level of the pandemic, the US government reported Thursday, offering fresh evidence of the labor market’s recovery.
“The bigger story — even though we’re going to see volatility week to week — is that the labor market continues to heal and labor demand is coming back quite strongly in line with robust growth,” said Kathy Bostjancic, chief US financial economist at Oxford Economics. “We’re seeing both a strong reopening in economic activity and demand for hiring,” she said.
There is no supply, though, if the Globe is to be believed!
Warmer weather, more extensive coronavirus vaccination efforts, and a stream of government assistance that has enabled consumer spending have all contributed to recent gains.
AnnElizabeth Konkel, an economist at the online job site Indeed, said that job postings as of Friday were up 19 percent from pre-pandemic levels.
“We need elevated hirings for a while,” she said, to absorb all the workers who were laid off.
Encumbrances remain. The labor market is weighed down by continuing anxiety about coronavirus infections and the demands of child care when regular school schedules have been disrupted.
According to the Census Bureau’s weekly Household Pulse Survey, more than 4 million people who were unemployed in March said they were not working because they were afraid of catching COVID-19.
“It’s important to keep in mind that the trend is going in the right direction,” said Heidi Shierholz, director of policy at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, “but we’re still at crisis levels of unemployment claims.”
Once again, the pre$$ completely torpedoes their thesis by the end of the article!
The weekly level of new claims is still near historical highs recorded before the pandemic, and there are roughly 8.4 million fewer jobs than there were in early 2020.
But EVERYTHING is GREAT and we are ready for the Biden boom!
The long-term unemployed, who make up more than 43 percent of the total number out of work, face particular hurdles. The ranks of those filing claims to continue receiving emergency federal benefits — as opposed to initial claims, reflecting a recent job loss — rose in April’s early days.
The totals for state benefits aimed at helping the long-term unemployed dropped, but a new report from the California Policy Lab, a research institute based at the University of California, said some states were prematurely ending extended unemployment insurance because of the way they count claims.....
You still have to wait months because of the antiquated $y$tems and investigations for fraud, but.....
At least environmental advocates are not violent like the racial ju$tu$ folk:
"Climate change activists have vandalized HSBC’s London headquarters, smashing windows in a protest against the bank’s alleged links to the fossil fuel industry. Nine women from the Extinction Rebellion activist group and political party Burning Pink targeted the building in Canary Wharf, London’s financial district, on Thursday. They used hammers and chisels on the building’s glass windows. HSBC said in a statement that it welcomes “meaningful dialogue on our climate strategy, however, we cannot condone vandalism or actions that put people and property at risk.” It added that it is committed to “phase out the financing of coal-fired power and thermal coal mining by 2040 globally.”
(Blog editor puts palm to forehead)
"The central bank of Norway, where old-fashioned cash is now used less than anywhere else in the world, says it’s time to take the next step in exploring the introduction of a digital currency. Only 3-4 percent of transactions in Norway are conducted with bank notes and coins, according to Norges Bank, which estimates that’s the lowest level of cash usage in the world. Norges Bank Governor Oystein Olsen, who in the past has seemed less enthusiastic about central bank digital currencies than his peers, says the case for looking into their feasibility now “has been strengthened.”
Also see:
"The Trump administration put up bureaucratic obstacles that stalled approximately $20 billion in hurricane relief for Puerto Rico and then obstructed an investigation into the holdup, according to an inspector general report obtained by The Washington Post. Congress requested the investigation into the delays to recovery aid for Puerto Rico after Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 left residents of the US territory without power and clean water for months. But, the report said, former Housing and Urban Development secretary Ben Carson and another former HUD official declined to be interviewed by investigators during the course of the examination that began in 2019....."
Who cares about that controlled opposition blowhard these days?
Fuck him!
The Puerto Ricans are going to have to build some new homes, but because there are so few on the market, the fierce competition for those that do exist is pushing prices to new highs
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"The Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation Thursday designed to more forcefully investigate hate crimes, particularly those against Asian Americans following the March 16 shootings at three Atlanta spas and a wave of violence following the spread of the coronavirus from China last year. “The vote today on the anti-Asian hate crimes bill is proof that when the Senate is given an opportunity to work, the Senate can work to solve important issues,” Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, said Thursday morning ahead of the vote. The vote was 94 to 1. Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, was the lone no vote. Senator Mazie Hirono, Democrat of Hawaii, introduced the bill last month, officially titled the COVID19 Hate Crimes Act, based on a year’s worth of rising attacks following the pandemic coming out of Wuhan, China......"
What a profile in courage is Hawley, and am I the only one who finds it odd that five days after Hirono introduced the legislation, eight people were killed, including six women of Asian descent, in mass shootings at three Atlanta spas, a crime that heightened the pressure on Congress to respond to the rise in attacks against the Asian American community.
Btw, not one word in the Globe today regarding what happened in Worcester yesterday!
"For the second time in history, the House passed legislation Thursday to make the District of Columbia the nation’s 51st state, bolstering momentum for a once-illusory goal that has become a pivotal tenet of the Democratic Party’s voting rights platform. Democrats unanimously approved Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton’s Washington, D.C. Admission Act, describing it as a bid to restore equal citizenship to the residents of the nation’s capital and rectify a historic injustice, but the political odds remain formidable, with the Senate filibuster requiring the support of 60 senators to advance legislation. Republicans, who hold 50 seats, have branded the bill as a Democratic power grab because it would create two Senate seats for the deep-blue city....."
Meanwhile, today's National lead was regarding a sheriff’s deputy in North Carolina killing a Black man with few details released about circumstances, according to the New York Times, with the co-lead being a eulogy for Daunte Wright by the Al Sharpton.
Related:
"The man accused of killing 10 people at a crowded Colorado supermarket last month armed himself with 10 high-capacity ammunition magazines, devices banned in the state after previous mass shootings, a prosecutor said Thursday. Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty told reporters that Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 22, possessed the magazines that hold more than 15 rounds unlawfully but that investigators don’t believe the magazines were purchased illegally. The high-capacity magazines were banned in Colorado after the 2012 mass shootings at a suburban Denver movie theater and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. The magazines were found on Alissa and in a car parked outside the King Soopers store in Boulder after the March 22 attack, Dougherty said. He declined to say how many unused bullets investigators recovered and did not say how many bullets the magazines seized could hold. Investigators have still not determined a possible motive for the attack. There is no indication that Alissa, who is from the nearby suburb of Arvada, had ever visited the supermarket before the attack, Dougherty said. Besides the murder charges Alissa was originally charged with, Dougherty said his office has filed more than 40 new felony charges against Alissa, including attempted murder charges involving responding police officers and shoppers....."
Notice how that Boulder rolled away fast after it didn't fit the white supremacist narrative of the pre$$?
Whole thing looked like a fake anyway if one goes by the cellphone video of the alleged attack.
"Chicago is laying its cards on the table and officially seeking bids to build the first casino in the nation’s third-largest city. City leaders want a “world-class” resort that’ll draw locals and tourists while boosting Chicago’s finances, but several steps remain. Chicago leaders believe there’s a “tremendous appetite” for gaming as gamblers slowly return to casinos after coronavirus pandemic-related closures....."
They are INSANE, and how many shootings where there this past week, Globe?
Of course, some are beyond criticism at this point if my reading of the mail is correct. He faces life without parole despite the home court advantage while the victims receive monetary awards from the banks.
They are literally gunning for him as policing the police makes a comeback and Merrick Garland puts the Justice Department back in the watchdog game.
Meanwhile, the Globe tells you how to help friends avoid conspiracy theories, and the mere fact that they now hear us is victory of sorts because it shows we are past the ignore and laugh at phase.
:)
