Adrien!

She comes from the far left and she allegedly stands alone:

"In Everett, the first Black woman on historically white council stands alone" by Stephanie Ebbert Globe Staff, June 26, 2020

Gerly Adrien racked up the largest vote tally of any at-large council candidate last fall to become the first Black woman on Everett City Council. Suffice it to say she has found no similar base of support within government, where she has spent nearly six months relentlessly questioning and visibly antagonizing the powers that be.

Council President Rosa DiFlorio recently called her “a problem” who had been “trying to destroy our city since day one.” Former councilor Stephen Simonelli, a cancer survivor, called Adrien “the cancer on our City Council,” and things grew so acrimonious at a Monday night council meeting — where Adrien sponsored 14 resolutions and dominated a debate that stretched for nearly four hours — that the entire rest of the council turned on her.

Adrien’s fellow councilors rejected her proposal for a committee on racism, and one took umbrage at the very notion of racism in Everett, challenging Adrien’s assertion that constituents have told her they feel unwelcome in City Hall. “I personally have not experienced racism in Everett,” said Councilor Wayne Matewsky, who is white.

How would he know if he did? He's only white.

The uncomfortable meeting came amid a nationwide reckoning on police brutality and institutional racism that has ignited a multiracial movement for change, but change comes hard to a city like Everett, where until last year, leadership had been almost exclusively white and often handed down by generation. Matewsky has been on council for the better part of 39 years. Simonelli was a third-generation councilor, and the youngest and newest councilor elected before November was a cousin of the mayor.

Looks like nepoti$m with government perks and pensions.

Though it’s considered one of the most diverse communities in the state — 19 percent Black, 26.5 percent Latino, and 40 percent foreign-born — Everett had elected only four councilors of color before 2019. Along with Adrien came the city’s first Latina councilor, Stephanie Martins, and first Asian-American, Jimmy Tri Le — part of a national wave of candidates determined to make governments look more like the communities they serve.

The entry of such changemakers can be uncomfortable to behold.

Monday’s council meeting was the first that Everett resident Kristina Nies had watched since she moved to the city over two years ago. She was stunned.

“I just didn’t realize there would be so much blatant racism occurring in a public space by public officials,” said Nies, 39, who is white. She cited microaggressions, and rules that seemed to be altered for Adrien alone. “This is completely not OK.”

Blatant microaggressions, good God!

The councilors don’t see it that way. They see the newcomer as an attention-seeker and a troublemaker who is never satisfied with the answers to her many, many questions.

Oh?

DiFlorio, the council president, said she tried to give the new councilor a chance but found Adrien to be always “on the attack.”

Noooooo!

“She started in January right out the gate and nothing is ever enough,” said DiFlorio. “If you disagree with her, she goes on Facebook and calls you racist. I’m far from racist.”

According to the new dogma, that confirms you are more than the avowed racists.

Even some of those inclined to root for Adrien privately disagree with her approach, finding it unnecessarily confrontational. They say she alienates city officials by calling them out publicly and won’t collaborate on efforts she can’t lead.

As a case in point, they cite her insistence that council create its own committee on racism; she hoped to chair it. Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria Jr. had just empaneled a similar, citywide advisory board made up entirely of people of color. In fact, Adrien is on it, but when that board met on Tuesday, Adrien didn’t show up. Adrien said she didn’t get the notice, released just two hours earlier. She also fears that an advisory board is toothless and that its mandate to make recommendations in 120 days hardly gives enough time to stamp out systemic racism.

Some of her critics suggest she’s not a team player.

Oooooh!

“You don’t get anywhere like that. You have to work together with your colleagues to get things done,” DiFlorio said. “And she’s not doing that.”

“I’m 65 years old,” DiFlorio added. “She’s been disrespectful to me since day one. She has no respect for seniors or white people.”

I find that hard to believe!

DiFlorio is not the only one who complains about a lack of respect. In November, Simonelli marked his ouster from the council with a Facebook lamentation for “old school politics” and a demand that the newly elected officials show respect for their predecessors.

Simonelli said he felt disrespected because both Adrien and her husband called him a racist in text messages. (Adrien said they did not, but that her husband has questioned Simonelli’s behavior on social media.) In 2018, Simonelli survived a voter recall effort after echoing a resident’s Facebook comments about a “nasty Haitian woman.” Though other councilors defended his right to free speech, he lost the next at-large council race when Adrien, a 30-year-old Haitian-American who works in finance, topped the ticket.

“She’s making history — and that ain’t easy,” said her friend and mentor Boston City Councilor Lydia Edwards, who is also Black.

The Globe is racist! They don't capitalize white, which means they think of whites as less than human.

Edwards noted how different Boston is now than it was in 2009 — when Ayanna Pressley became the first woman of color elected to City Council.

In Boston, women of color now dominate the City Council — and have pushed that city’s conversation on racism and policing.

I hate to say it, but that explains the decline of Bo$ton and one also can't help but notice how many of the besieged cities have female mayors (Seattle, Chicago, Atlanta, D.C., et al).

Edwards pointed to her predecessors of color — Pressley (now a congresswoman), Michelle Wu, and Andrea Campbell. “They made it easier for me to be me,” Edwards said, “and Gerly is all of that. She’s all of those women right now with an even more hostile environment. I am inspired by her.”

She apparently doesn't stand alone after all.

Adrien made waves from the start, casting the lone vote against DiFlorio for council president and vowing to shake things up. She acknowledges she can be “aggressive” but she is not getting discouraged.

“I think I’ve been able to change the conversation. I love it,” she said. “As hard as it is, I can see the impact, and I see how important representation is.”

Ever hear of tact?

I suppose nothing has ever been accomplished without unreasonable people, but the $y$tem demands it be the right kind of unreasonableness. Anti-war, anti-vaxx, anti-billionaire, out.

This spring, after schools were closed due to coronavirus, she ruffled feathers by publicly questioning the leadership of the superintendent, who had started the job only nine days earlier. She also raised concerns about a three-week interruption in the delivery of student lunches and Chromebooks for remote learning.

At Monday’s meeting, Adrien expected the superintendent to report on the number of students who never participated in remote learning. Two weeks earlier, the council had passed her resolution requesting such a report, but the superintendent did not show up, and DiFlorio said Adrien’s resolution had been “reconsidered” between public meetings after one of the councilors changed her mind. When Adrien protested that she’d never heard of such procedure, Councilor Peter A. Napolitano pointed to her inexperience.

“You haven’t seen it in the five months you’ve been on the council,” Napolitano told her, “but I’ve seen it on the 20 years I’ve been on council.”

It's a new world now, dude. Gotta give up the old way of doing things.

One by one, councilors chided Adrien for requesting the information, reminding her that the superintendent reports to the elected school committee, not to them.

“You’re barking up the wrong tree. It’s not in our purview,” said Napolitano.

Did he just equate her with a female dog?

Adrien began to speak up, only to be interrupted by DiFlorio. That led Adrien to protest that she would use her allotted time. “You do not cut anybody else off but you cut me off every single time.”

Victimized again!

Later, Adrien cut off DiFlorio as she name-checked councilors for their volunteer efforts during the pandemic and Adrien pointed out her own efforts at coronavirus fund-raising.

“Stop interrupting me because I’m not going to take it,” said DiFlorio, who then accused Adrien of violating ethics policy with that fund-raising. (A spokesman for the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance said candidates can raise money for charitable causes and confirmed that Adrien had sought the office’s guidance beforehand.)

In an interview, Adrien said she used to question whether she was fielding backlash due to her forceful personality or racism. She doesn’t wonder anymore.

“I honestly think it has to do with me being a Black woman,” Adrien said. “What could happen if we let this Black woman change things or make noise? I’m getting a lot more popular and they’re acknowledging that, and I think they’re scared of it.”

I'm a human being, first and foremost.

Some of her fellow councilors made clear on Monday night they think she is the problem. Matewsky said although he understands racism is “the issue of the day, besides the virus,” he hoped to move on.

“We can’t keep beating a dead horse here,” he said.

Isn't that metaphor filled with racist connotations?

Reiterating that he doesn’t perceive racism in Everett, he described his vantage point.

”I’m a Polish-American,” he continued. “I’m really a minority myself here.”

You know, now that I think of it, they will have to remake Rocky since its racist. This time the champ will have to be a white racist who loses to the militant BLM boxer who was never given a chance. Then the BLM boxer graciously gives him a rematch and wins again in Rocky II, with Rocky III featuring a racist white bouncer getting twice-bounced by the BLM champ. Then the former white racist champ gets killed in the ring by an Uncle Tom-type in Rocky IV so the BLM boxer can exact revenge and whoop his ass before managing the white racist champ's prodigy and teaching him to take a knee after the bell beginning Round One (original music score for all).

--more--"

Right below her are the FACES of college students:

"Amid a national reckoning on race, college students lead a push for change on campus" by Laura Krantz, Deirdre Fernandes and Diti Kohli Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent, June 26, 2020

When the student leaders of an antiracism club at Boston College discovered recently that the official Boston College Instagram account had followed their page, it seemed almost metaphorical.

For months the students had been posting information to fellow students about how to be antiracist, but suddenly it seemed the university was listening.

Leaders of the group, the FACES Council, said for years their organization has filled a void by providing workshops and events about diversity, inclusion, and antiracism, and their work has only ramped up in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd. Now FACES is planning a training for professors, too, after a surprising number of faculty asked the group for guidance on how to be antiracist in the classroom.

“It’s this weird total power shift, but it’s also kind of welcome,” said Alyssa Iferenta, a codirector of FACES.

Amid the nation’s reckoning on race, students at universities across the city find themselves leading the way on efforts to confront systemic racism on their campuses. Some of these campaigns are not new, but students hope the unprecedented national spotlight in this moment will finally spark long-needed change.

Efforts are underway at schools including Suffolk University, Emerson College, Northeastern University, Boston University, the New England Conservatory, Tufts University, and Bentley University. Some campaigns center around defunding campus police, but others are about change that goes much deeper, from hiring more faculty of color to revamping curriculums that focus heavily on white perspectives.

College students have always played a pivotal role in movements such as the one underway now, said Quito Swan, an Africana studies professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston and director of the William Monroe Trotter Institute for the Study of Black Culture.

“Student energy, student voices, the sense of ‘we have nothing to lose’ matters, and it has always mattered in these kind of moments,” he said. “What is particularly striking is the level of intensity.”

He compared students’ efforts now to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and its central role during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and said some members of that movement have sought out today’s student leaders to share their wisdom.

The challenge with student movements, he said, is that students graduate and move on, but in some instances, the change they produce is lasting, like the formation of degree programs or community housing. A lot of college Africana studies programs are the result of student organizers in the 1960s, he said.

More $elf-$erving and worthle$$ degrees for the new technocracy.

In recent weeks, some students have caught the attention of campus presidents after criticizing the leaders’ public statements about Floyd’s murder, prompting the presidents to issue new statements and announce actions to accompany their words.

“This time there’s definitely going to be a change in how the administration responds to us pushing them,” said Madeline Bockus, another codirector of the FACES group at BC.

At Boston University, a group of students in the School of Theatre has developed a list of demands they delivered to the school’s new director, with the goal of broad and deep reform of the program. The requests focus in part on the types of plays that are taught and who is cast in what roles in productions.

“As a Black student, I don’t really get to see myself in the things that we are taught in class,” said Angela Dogani, a rising senior studying stage management.

At Northeastern, activism has focused largely on campus police. Sade Adewunmi, 21, the first executive director of diversity, equity, and inclusion for the student government, penned “In Pain and Enraged” and posted it on the student government website, calling for Northeastern to look more closely at its own policies and policing practices. The column went viral within the university community and attracted the attention of the university’s president.....

That's when I lost my attention.

--more--"

Believe it or not, they approved a tuition hike but it does come with a Zoom dating site.

Related:

"In order for schools to safely reopen in the fall, public health experts say we’ll all need to do some homework over the summer. As Massachusetts starts down the months-long road to reopening public schools, scientists say success and safety require caution both inside and outside the classroom — and preparation must begin now....." 

So say the $cienti$ts, and here, you kids do the math.

I don't know what else you can do this weekend other than drive around town and set off some fireworks that show your pride in protesting -- before going to the drive-in tonight (but can't have a church service tomorrow morning)!

Also see:

"Crews arrived with heavy equipment Friday at an occupied protest zone in Seattle, ready to dismantle barriers set up more than a week ago by demonstrators, but the work was halted when some protesters resisted by climbing atop the makeshift structures. The collective of protesters, activists, educators and volunteers in the Capitol Hill Organized Protest was formed after clashes with police who tear-gassed people protesting the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Mayor Jenny Durkan has expressed support for the protest, calling it “a peaceful expression of our community’s collective grief and their desire to build a better world,” but following several shootings in the area, Durkan said the city would wind down the protest zone, at first by encouraging demonstrators to leave. In addition, she said police would return to a nearby precinct that was abandoned following clashes with demonstrators. The work crews intended to remove the barricades, not protesters, Sam Zimbabwe, city transportation director, told local journalist Omari Salisbury, who has been live-streaming the protest. A number of protesters remained camped in tents outside the East Precinct. The city has not given a timeline for officers’ return to the building except to say it would be in the near future. Protesters have called for cutting the police budget 50 percent and spending the savings on community health and other programs. The mayor has proposed a vastly more modest cut of $20 million to help balance the city’s budget through the end of this year....."

Seattle's Tiananmen Square -- or Palestine's Rachel Corrie, take your pick.

Philadelphia announces end to tear gas and apologizes

He broke down in tears during the pre$$ conference.

Speaking of going viral:

"Jenna Mourey, a YouTube personality who became one of the platform’s first mainstream female stars as Jenna Marbles, said Thursday that she was going to stop her channel amid a backlash over old videos that she made in blackface and mocking Asian people. Mourey, whose channel has more than 20 million subscribers, apologized in a video for the content, which she made in 2011 and 2012 when she had just established her channel. She said she was abandoning the platform to “hold myself accountable. I am ashamed of things I have done and said in my past,” she said in a signoff video. Unlike many other internet celebrities, Mourey has been making videos for more than a decade and managed to remain successful on YouTube, a platform that can be hugely profitable to people making content for it. Mourey said in the 11-minute video that she wanted to address the videos because “we’re at a time where we are purging ourselves of anything and everything toxic. I think now it’s hard for that content to exist at all because I think people watch it and don’t bother to look at when it was posted or care about what path I took to get to where I am,” Mourey said. “It offends them now, and, if that’s the case — where people will watch something and be offended now — I don’t want it to exist.”

She speaks with marbles in her mouth, but why didn't she stick out like Northam andTrudeau?

N.Y. Mayor feuds with Trump over BLM painting

He has the power to touch the soul and bear witness:

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to strike down Affordable Care Act

They have been going his way lately:

"A federal appeals court on Friday ruled against the Trump administration in its transfer of $2.5 billion from military construction projects to build sections of the US border wall with Mexico, ruling it illegally sidestepped Congress, which gets to decide how to use the funds. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit agreed with a coalition of border states and environmental groups that contended the money transfer was unlawful and that building the wall would pose environmental threats. The ruling was the latest twist in the legal battle that has largely gone Trump’s way. The vote was 2-1, with judges appointed by former President Bill Clinton in the majority....."

Trump, coming back in the middle rounds!

House adopts bill to make DC 51st state

Need a referee:

"American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan — including targeting American troops — amid the peace talks to end the long-running war there, according to officials briefed on the matter. The United States concluded months ago that the Russian unit, which has been linked to assassination attempts and other covert operations in Europe, had covertly offered rewards for successful attacks last year. Islamic militants, or armed criminal elements closely associated with them, are believed to have collected some bounty money. Twenty Americans were killed in combat in Afghanistan in 2019, but it was not clear which killings were under suspicion. The intelligence finding was briefed to President Trump, and the White House’s National Security Council discussed the problem at an interagency meeting in late March, the officials said. Officials developed a menu of potential options, starting with making a diplomatic complaint to Moscow and a demand that it stop, along with an escalating series of sanctions and other possible responses, but the White House has yet to authorize any step, the officials said. An operation to incentivize the killing of American and other NATO troops would be a significant and provocative escalation of what American and Afghan officials have said is Russian support for the Taliban, and it would be the first time the Russian spy unit was known to have orchestrated attacks on Western troops."

I think it was the WMD bull-oney that blew it when it comes to "intelligence officials" and my pre$$, sorry. Any f**king excuse to stay, and why not? Last thing I want are the troops home supervising mass vaccinations and running COVID extermination camps.

Yeah, Russia is to blame for everything (after Trump).

Ifr only he had some allies:

"Seven Colombian soldiers have been charged in the rape of a 13-year-old Indigenous girl, an announcement that has alarmed many in a nation already grappling with the military’s long record of abuse, including illegal killings and accusations of sexual assaults....."

Not the kind you want, and they then took the liberty of tossing her into the trash:

"In many ways, it has been a perfect storm for illegal gatherings in England as days of hot weather and Liverpool Football Club’s first league title in 30 years have prompted people to abandon their cooped-up coronavirus existence. British Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned that authorities have the power to close beaches and other public spaces in England amid mounting concerns over the public’s adherence to social-distancing rules. Following widespread rule-breaking at crammed beaches, illegal street parties in London that turned violent and a mass celebration in Liverpool on Thursday night, there were worries Friday that many residents have ditched their risk-averse attitude as the government eases its lockdown restrictions. That’s particularly true in Bournemouth, a coastal town in southern England that witnessed huge crowds of sun-seekers on its beaches in the past couple of days. With many people not working during the pandemic, most children out of school, holidays abroad curtailed and restaurants and bars closed until July 4, popular popular locations such as Bournemouth are feeling the pressure as the mercury rises. Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned people against “taking liberties” with social distancing rules, saying it could lead to a “serious spike” in new coronavirus infections. “If you look at what’s happening elsewhere in the world, where people have been coming out of lockdown, I’m afraid what you’re also seeing is people taking too many liberties with the guidance, mingling too much, not observing social distancing,’’ Johnson said while visiting an east London restaurant ahead of the scheduled reopening of pubs and restaurants in England on July 4. Late Thursday, the hottest day of the year so far in the UK, three men from London in their 20s were stabbed following a fight near the amusements on the town’s pier. Their injuries were described as not life-threatening. Police are investigating. With the hot weather persisting Friday, there was potential for more mass gatherings. Under lockdown restrictions in England, groups are limited to six people and people are advised to avoid public transport whenever possible. Early indications were that people had not converged onto Bournemouth’s beaches in anything like the numbers they did on the previous two days. The local council said extra police patrols were brought in following the “irresponsible” behavior of crowds. “Until there’s a vaccine, we should not be seeing behavior like this,” local lawmaker Tobias Ellwood said....."

But hit the streets to protest for Floyd!

Stay away from these places, too:

"The governor of a southern Italian region insisted on Friday that seasonal Bulgarian crop pickers who live in an apartment complex with dozens of COVID-19 cases must stay inside for 15 days, not even emerging for food. Wearing a mask to discourage virus spread, Campania Governor Vincenzo De Luca told reporters that the national civil protection agency should deliver groceries to the estimated 700 occupants of the apartments in Mondragone, a seaside town about 32 miles northwest of Naples. The complex must be kept in “rigorous isolation,” De Luca said. That means that for 15 days, “nobody leaves and nobody enters” the apartments, where some 50 cases have been confirmed. The south has been spared the high numbers of coronavirus cases that have ravaged northern Italy. Known for his particularly hard line on anti-contagion measures throughout the nationwide coronavirus outbreak this year, De Luca has vowed to lock down all of Mondragone, population 30,000, if the number of cases at the hot spot reach 100."

"India neared half a million confirmed coronavirus cases Friday with its biggest 24-hour spike of 17,296 new infections, prompting a delay in resumption of regular train services of more than a month. The new cases took India’s total to 490,401. The Health Ministry also reported 407 more deaths in the previous 24 hours, taking its total fatalities to 15,301. The ministry said the recovery rate was continuing to improve at 57.43 percent. Also, deaths per 100,000 stood at 1.86 against the world average of 6.24 per 100,000, it said. The actual numbers of infections and deaths from COVID-19, like elsewhere in the world, are thought to be far higher due to a number of reasons including limited testing. Indian Railways was due to resume regular train service on June 30 but said Thursday that it wouldn’t fully resume until Aug. 12. Trains were halted when the government declared a nationwide lockdown in late March. Special trains linking main cities have been running since mid-May as part of an easing of the lockdown."

According to those numbers, the world fatality rate from COVID-19 is a mere 0.00624 percent -- which equates to a nearly infinitesimal 6/1000s of 1 percent -- and for that, the world economy was destroyed and a handful of sick, genocidal $ychopaths were the beneficiaries. How does that work?

It was blow below the belt:

"Australia reported 37 new cases, including 30 in Victoria state, where health authorities are scrambling to contain an outbreak. Authorities said they tested 20,000 people after going door-to-door in Melbourne suburbs Thursday in their attempts to stamp out the virus. In Sydney, a 12-year-old student tested positive, forcing the closure of his school for cleaning. New Zealand, meanwhile, reported one new virus case from a returning traveler. New Zealand has 14 active cases, all of them returning travelers who remain quarantined."

"South Korea reported 39 new cases, mostly from the Seoul metropolitan area where officials have been struggling to stem transmissions. South Korea was considered an anti-virus success story after containing an outbreak during February and March surrounding the southeastern city of Daegu. However, the country has been seeing an uptick in new infections since authorities moved to ease social distancing guidelines and reopen schools starting in May. The update from the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday brought national totals to 12,602 cases, including 282 deaths. Twelve of the new cases were linked to international arrivals.

"China reported a further decline in new cases Friday, with 13. Eleven were in Beijing, where mass testing has been done following an outbreak that appears to have been largely brought under control. The other two cases were brought by Chinese travelers from overseas, according to the National Health Council. This month’s outbreak in Beijing has seen 260 people infected, leading authorities to lock down some communities and cancel classes. Since then, 3 million test samples have been taken from 2.43 million people."

Those last two were the alleged models for reopening, so prepare for a second lockdown soon.

Look what was on the back page:

"SBA exempted lawmakers, federal officials from ethics rules in $660 billion loan program" by Jonathan O’Connell and Aaron Gregg The Washington Post, June 26, 2020

A brief and barely noticed ‘‘blanket approval’’ issued by the Trump administration allows lawmakers, Small Business Administration staff, other federal officials and their families to bypass long-standing conflict of interest rules to seek funds for themselves, adding to concerns that coronavirus aid programs could be subject to fraud and abuse.

Hey, they picked themselves up off the mat (cue music).

Policy experts and government watchdogs said the blanket waiver could allow officials to write the rules to benefit themselves. Josh Gotbaum, a Brookings Institution scholar who has worked in economic policy under Democratic and Republican administrations, said he was ‘‘appalled.”

Representative Susie Lee, Democrat of Nevada, played a role in shaping the Paycheck Protection Program when she joined other Nevada legislators to urge the Trump administration to make casinos eligible for funds.

It probably didn't take much urging, but she's a Democrat?

What Lee did not mention is that among the businesses being barred from applying for the funds was her husband’s Las Vegas casino company, Full House Resorts. When the administration complied with Lee’s request and allowed casinos to apply, Full House received two loans totaling $5.6 million, according to securities filings. Full House, where Lee’s husband, Daniel Lee, is president and chief executive, received its loans after the blanket waiver was put in place.

SBA spokesman Jim Billimoria said the administration issued the blanket waiver because it treated PPP similarly to loan programs that the agency provides in the wake of natural disasters and because agency officials were concerned that there could be large volume of waiver requests.

Lee is not the only member of Congress to benefit. One of its wealthiest members, Representative Roger Williams, Republican of Texas, said in a May 5 blog post that his auto dealerships had received loans. Representative Vicky Hartzler, Republican of Missouri, said that businesses owned by her family had received PPP loans, after they were disclosed in the Columbia Tribune.....

Never mind the inside stock sales just before the crash.

--more--"

So the PPP and SBA loan programs were simply another avenue to kick money to well-connected and $elf-$erving interests, huh? 

Still believe in the COVID-19 $cam?

I hope I'm not violating and regulations by expressing healthy $keptici$m about this whole thing.