"Leaf-blower wars: How Portland protesters are fighting back against tear gas and forming ‘walls’ of veterans, lawyers, nurses" by Marissa J. Lang Washington Post, July 26, 2020
PORTLAND, Ore. — The tear gas started early Friday night, interrupting a line of drums and dancing, chanting protesters, an artist painting in oils underneath a tree in the park, and a man with a microphone speaking about the issues of racial justice and policing at the center of these nightly demonstrations.
As if on cue, a brigade of orange-shirted men with leaf blowers descended on the cloud, revved their engines, and blew the tear gas away. The crowd cheered.
‘‘Thank you leaf-blower dads!’’ shouted a young woman.
Every night for more than a week, federal agents have been unleashing a barrage of tear gas on crowds of demonstrators, a small number of whom have lobbed fireworks at the federal courthouse, set fires, and tried to tear down a tall, reinforced metal fence surrounding the building. The noxious fog burns and stings. Some people who get hit with the dense plumes of chemicals that cloud Portland’s streets each night feel like they can’t breathe, like their eyes are on fire, like they might vomit onto the asphalt.
Though some Portlanders have been able to get respirators, goggles, and gas masks to protect themselves from the worst effects of the riot control agent known as CS gas, many others have turned to a familiar landscaping tool to blow the chemicals away: leaf blowers.
The loud, pressurized air machines typically used to clear grass, leaves, and other lawn debris are surprisingly effective tools at clearing caustic chemicals from the air. They’re so effective that on Friday night, federal agents frustrated at being caught in up in a redirected cloud of tear gas, showed up to the demonstration with their own handheld blowers.
The leaf-blower wars were on.
‘‘I’m totally impressed with all the courage we’re seeing from just normal people who have taken it on themselves to come out here and stand up for our right to protest,’’ said Eddie, a 35-year-old Portlander who declined to give his last name out of fear of retaliation from federal officers.
It's the right kind of protest.
Eddie, who wore a gas mask and leather jacket for protection from projectiles, said that although he’s not a dad, he was inspired by the formation of the ‘‘Leaf blower dads group’’ to bring a blower to the demonstrations. He even fashioned a leather strap out of a belt so he could sling it over his shoulder and carry it around all night.
‘‘You’ve got the moms out here on the front line and the dads backing them up with the leaf blowers,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s pretty amazing.’’
CS gas, or 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile, has been classified as a chemical weapon. Its use is banned on the battlefield by nearly every country in the world, including the United States, but it is legal to use domestically by police and federal agents to disperse crowds.
They are waging war on you, yup.
Typically, police fire the agent once or twice to clear crowds and encourage people to move away from an area, said Michelle Heisler, the medical director of Physicians for Human Rights. But in Portland, federal agents have been unleashing the chemicals repeatedly for hours. This sustained cascade makes it difficult for peaceful demonstrators to avoid being hit and runs the risk of ensnaring bystanders in the area, she said.
‘‘The people here are not dispersing, so these federal officials are just launching massive amounts of it,’’ Heisler said. ‘‘It can blind people. It can kill people through chemical burns — especially people who have asthma or other lung diseases. This is dangerous stuff.’’
Enter the leaf blowers.
A group of self-identified Portland dads, inspired by the ‘‘Wall of Moms’’ that forms a protective human shield at the front of nightly protests near the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse, set out to help clear the air at protests by arming themselves with leaf blowers. They are known as ‘‘DadBloc’’ and ‘‘Leaf-Blower Dads’’ and turn up to the protests wearing orange shirts to complement the moms’ yellow ones.
I guess some human shields are okay, huh?
Each night, their numbers have swelled. Friday, they were joined by other groups — the veteran-led Wall of Vets, green-shirted Teachers Against Tyrants, the pizza-box carrying ChefBloc, health-care workers in scrubs, and Lawyers for Black Lives, who showed up in suits and ties.....
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I think America is finished.
You average, decent, civilized American simply can not comprehend what is happening and is confused by horror unfolding all around us.
They can't understand it because it is based on a premise that is not true.
"Protests explode across the country; police declare riots in Seattle, Portland" by Gregory Scruggs and Christian Davenport Washington Post, July 26, 2020
SEATTLE — Protests in several major cities across the country turned violent this weekend, as weeks of civil unrest and clashes between activists and authorities boiled over, sending thousands of people teeming into public squares demanding racial justice.
WHAT?
From Los Angeles, to Richmond, to Omaha, police and protesters clashed in another tumultuous night that saw scores arrested after demonstrators took to the streets and police in some cities dispersed crowds with tear gas and pepper spray.
In Austin, a man was shot and killed in the midst of a downtown rally. In Richmond, a truck was set ablaze outside police headquarters. Outside of Denver, a Jeep sped through a phalanx of people marching down an Interstate, when a shot was fired that injured a protester, police said.
The focal point of the protests continued to be in the Pacific Northwest, where a week of clashes between activists and federal agents in Portland, Ore., pumped new energy into a movement that began in the wake of George Floyd’s death in police custody in Minneapolis over Memorial Day weekend.
In Portland, authorities declared a riot after protesters breached a fence surrounding the city’s federal courthouse. The ‘‘violent conduct of people downtown’’ created a ‘‘grave rise of public alarm,’’ the Portland police wrote on Twitter.
Early Sunday morning, federal agents and local police demanded that protesters leave the area and used tear gas to try to disperse them, but the activists stood their ground, blocking intersections. Several people were arrested.
A Marriott hotel in downtown Portland was shut down Sunday morning, and guests were asked to leave after hundreds of protesters demonstrated outside Saturday night because it was believed that federal agents were staying there. The crowd waved signs with messages such as ‘‘No more brutality!’’ as they stood on the riverside parkway outside the hotel and chanted: ‘‘Kick them out, Marriott!’’ A manager at the hotel said after the demonstration that the building had sustained some ‘‘minor damage,’’ including graffiti on exterior walls.
In Seattle, police declared a riot on Saturday afternoon and used pepper spray and flash grenades in an attempt to disperse a crowd of roughly 2,000 people in the Capitol Hill neighborhood marching in the city’s largest Black Lives Matter protest in more than a month.
Nightly protests since Floyd’s killing had dwindled in recent weeks in Seattle, but they were reinvigorated in the wake of federal action in the Portland protests and after Governor Jay Inslee, a Democrat, tweeted that President Trump had sent federal law enforcement agents to the city.
Uh-huh.
This jerk-job is all part of the destabilization and coup, to be followed by flat-out totalitarianism.
Portland’s Democratic mayor, Ted Wheeler, who was tear-gassed last week as he joined protesters, has described the agents an ‘‘occupying force,’’ but on Sunday, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, defended the presence of federal agents there, saying they’re protecting a courthouse targeted by protesters.
They were calling for his head, too.
‘‘It has not only been vandalized, but they’re trying to burn it down,’’ he said on ABC’s ‘‘This Week.’’ ‘‘We can’t have this in American cities. You’ve got people there and fencing there, but they’re throwing Molotov cocktails, and doing all kinds of rioting.’’
Police in Richmond tweeted a photo of rocks and batteries they said had been thrown at them, triggering them to declare the protest an unlawful assembly.
In Aurora, Colo., just outside of Denver, protesters were also marching in response to the death last summer of Elijah McClain, the 23-year-old who died after being put in a chokehold by police. On Saturday, police said in a tweet that ‘‘while the majority of protesters were peaceful, a group decided to hijack the message & cause major damage to the courthouse and courtyard.’’
On Austin’s Congress Avenue, normally a site for music venues and bars, police were monitoring a crowd of protesters Saturday night when Senior Officer Katrina Ratcliff said shots were fired, killing a man. The suspect was detained, she said, ‘‘and is cooperating with officers.’’
‘‘Someone dying while protesting is horrible,’’ Mayor Steve Adler of Austin said in a statement. ‘‘Our city is shaken and, like so many in our community, I’m heartbroken and stunned.’’
OMFG!
Protesters in Omaha marched to bring attention to the killing of James Scurlock, a Black man killed by a white bar owner. Police came out in force Saturday night and detained more than 75 people who were marching downtown, obstructing traffic, according to local news reports.
In Los Angeles, police fired projectiles at activists protesting near a federal courthouse, and north in Oakland, a march in support of racial justice and police reform turned violent when a small group of demonstrators wearing helmets and goggles and carrying large signs that doubled as shields set fire to a courthouse, vandalized a police station, and shot fireworks at officers, authorities said.
About 700 demonstrators participated in what started as a peaceful march Saturday night but then some broke from the larger group and smashed windows, spray-painted graffiti, and pointed lasers at officers, said a police spokesperson.
Several fires were set in the downtown area, including one at the Alameda County Superior Courthouse that was quickly contained. Demonstrators hurled rocks, ceramic paint-filled balls and frozen water bottles through windows at the courthouse, federal building and police building.
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Did you notice that there was NOT ONE MENTION of COVID in EITHER ARTICLE?!!
Agenda-pushing and controlled opposition protests must be immune as the 21st-century civil rights movement continues with new leadership rising out of the good old boys network.
Related:
Overlooked for her role in a galvanizing civil rights protest, Mimi Jones dies at 73
That's why the Globe saluted her on the front page, and she was the subject of an iconic photo after being attacked at a 1964 civil rights protest.
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Closer to home:
"As Tatte promises change, protesters demonstrate at a cafe in Brookline" by Gal Tziperman Lotan Globe Staff, July 26, 2020
BROOKLINE — After the founder of the local bakery and cafe chain Tatte publicly acknowledged she was stepping down as chief executive, a small group of protesters gathered quietly at the company’s first location, on Beacon Street, to raise awareness of employees’ allegations of racism and mistreatment.
Tzurit Or, who launched Tatte Bakery in 2007 and expanded it to 15 locations in Boston, Cambridge, and Brookline, created a culture that enabled “discriminatory hiring practices and maltreatment of Black and Brown employees in entry-level positions,” current and former employees wrote in an open letter.
Since early June, employees have come forward with public allegations, saying managers had made discriminatory comments about race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and staffers’ physical appearance, and that Or had focused on the “Tatte aesthetic” when making decisions about hiring and promotions.
Last week, Or denied the allegations of racism and said the public comments have been “devastating” to her personally.
A spokeswoman said the company is taking complaints seriously. So far, its leaders have spoken to 10 percent of the workers, contributed money to three local civil rights organizations, begun a review of policies, and moved to open an anonymous complaint line for employees.
“As a company, we are committed to doing the hard work of evaluating our operations and culture to assure that diversity, equity and inclusion are deeply embedded in everything we do. In that, we are guided by expert consultants in diversity and management,” spokeswoman Diana Pisciotta said.
“Tzurit Or announced several weeks ago that it was her desire to focus her time on her passions of food, bakery, and café design. As a result, the company will add a new CEO focused on day-to-day business management. We thank our employees and our community for standing with us as we do the hard work of listening, learning, evolving and as we move ahead.”
A protest organizer, Elle E. Marston, said the growing company has more work to do: diversifying its executive board. giving high-level and human resources employees implicit-bias training. instituting pay increases, and making a public commitment to being more equitable.
On Sunday, about 20 protesters stood on the sidewalk outside the cafe, holding signs within view of customers. Part of the purpose, Lani Berkower of Brookline said, was to make people feel some discomfort, enough to have them rethink where they spend their dollars.
Don't BDS from Israel, though!
People in the service industry should not have to accept poor treatment as a condition of their jobs, said Irene Li, owner of the restaurant Mei Mei, who attended to support the Tatte protest.
“I think the situation here is so nuanced, because yes, Tzurit stepped down, but there are still a lot of demands that have to do with company policy and not with her as an individual,” Li said, “and I think it just highlights how much a lot of diners and customers don’t really know about things like pay structure, or staff meal policy.”
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If only we could have unity:
"Boston Unity March ‘resparks’ movement for social justice causes" by Abigail Feldman Globe Correspondent, July 26, 2020
Hundreds of marchers took to the Boston streets Sunday to breathe new life into the fight against police brutality and racism, as protests sparked by the death of George Floyd have begun to wane in recent weeks.
Uh-huh.
The Boston Unity March, which drew more than 300 people in a walk from Nubian Square in Roxbury to Boston Common on Sunday afternoon, was meant to “respark” the movement for social justice in Boston, said Ernest Jacques, a member of the Freedom Fighters Coalition, which organized the protest.
A Facebook event for the march said the coalition hopes to bring together advocacy groups representing Black, indigenous, and other peoples of color.
“We hope that everyone here after attending this protest has the action steps that they can take with them when they get home to continue the good fight,” Jacques told the crowd.
Organizers listed several demands on Instagram, including justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Amaud Arbery, and all the victims of police brutality in Greater Boston. The group also called for community-led public safety systems in place of police departments, the abolition of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, and a reformed domestic violence response system.
Protesters, many of whom wore black in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement despite the heat, held signs that said “All lives can’t matter until Black lives matter,” and “End Police.”
The fact that the protests were waning shows it is a small minority that the pre$$ is blowing up to make it seem like it is a massive movement.
A large banner near the organizers’ base was painted with the words, “There is no noise as powerful as the sound of the marching feet of a determined people.” Almost everyone at the protest wore masks, and two people at the center of the park handed out cold water and snacks to those feeling fatigued in the hot weather.
Jean-Luc Pierite, president of the Board of the North American Indian Center of Boston and a member of the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, emphasized the marchers’ demand that the state pass the Massachusetts Indigenous Legislative Agenda and honor the needs of the state’s Black Economic Council.
He spoke of how the Massachusetts State flag, which bears the visage of a Native American man, symbolizes the state’s oppression of native peoples through laws like the Boston Indian Imprisonment Act, which was repealed only 15 years ago.
“Every time we see that flag we think of all the hurt, all the intergenerational trauma that is associated with that,” he said.
You will still have to pledge allegiance to it (how hypocritical).
Hawa Hamidou, a 15-year-old from Salem and member of Solidarity North Shore, challenged community members on the North Shore to face segregation in their neighborhoods. She called on Salem city councilors to cut the police budget.
“In these communities, Black, indigenous, and people of color voices are silenced and gaslighted to make us feel irrational for experiencing and speaking on oppression,” she said.
Around 3:45 p.m., the crowd began the march toward the Boston Common. On the way they chanted “Out of the house and into the streets” and “No justice, no peace!”
That is where the print copy ended the protest.
A couple of speakers expressed support for the protesters in Portland, Ore., where federal agents clashed with citizens.
Hope Coleman, the mother of Terrence Coleman, a Black man who was fatally shot by police in the South End in 2016, spoke to the crowd about her son’s killing three times during the rally. She asked protesters to continue their demands to reopen cases of police violence in the city.
“I called [911] for help, not to kill my son,” she said
Protestors stopped to “boo” a white family inside an establishment near Clarendon and Tremont Street that gave marchers a thumbs down. Several other people along the route honked or waved at the protestors in support.
Here is my show of support.
Elizabeth Monteiro, a domestic violence advocate who has lived in the city for more than 40 years, spoke about her experience as the survivor of abuse. The state must declare domestic abuse a public health crisis, she said
“Children are growing up without mothers and fathers because they were told to follow a simple protocol that really doesn’t work,” she said. “They told me to leave [my abuser], but leave him and go where?” she said.
How is that the fault of the police who came and stopped the guy from beating you?
At 6:40 p.m., the protesters arrived at the State House where representatives from an organization called Cosecha have been camped out for 10 days. The group hopes to encourage legislatures to allow undocumented immigrants to get driver’s licenses.
What does that have to do with police brutality?
That shows you this is ALL AGENDA-PUSHING PROPAGANDA and a PLANNED NARRATIVE and EFFORT!
Andrea Schmid translated Spanish for a woman named Edy, who represents Cosecha and lives in East Boston.
“We know they’re listening to us right now,” Schmid said pointing to the State House, “and we want them to understand that all of us together, with the power we have built, are stronger than what they’re doing in there.”
The march wrapped up around 7:30 p.m. without incident. One protester stayed for a few extra minutes to shout at two police officers near the State House, though he eventually walked away.
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Once again, NO MENTION of COVID-19 in those two articles as well!
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Time to hit the beach!
"As people gather for summer events, calls grow for public to wear masks, socially distance during COVID-19 pandemic" by Gal Tziperman Lotan, Lucas Phillips and John Hilliard Globe Staff, Globe Correspondent and Globe Staff, July 26, 2020
PFFFFFFFFFT!
As people throughout the region flocked to beaches, parks, and other outdoor areas over the hot weekend, a health expert said the state’s warnings about the coronavirus may not be doing enough to convince the public about the grave risks it poses.
Samuel Scarpino, an epidemiologist at Northeastern University, said more people must understand the danger and the importance of wearing masks and practicing social distancing in public. It’s particularly critical advice as officials hope to reopen K-12 schools and some college students return to the region in the fall, he said.
Unless you PROTEST for SOCIAL JUSTICE!
Then COVID DOESN'T EXIST!
I'm sorry, but all these agenda-pushing liars the Globe calls experts are ASSHOLES!!!!!
Many summer gatherings have been marked by a lack of masks and social distancing in crowds of largely young people — practices critical to stopping the pandemic.
“We need to stress that this is deadlier than influenza for everyone [and] that individuals who don’t die are often faced with a very long and painful or frustrating recovery process,” Scarpino said. “It’s not just about mortality, it’s about quality of life going forward.”
Over the weekend, there were scenes of largely young people crowding beaches in South Boston and standing shoulder-to-shoulder Saturday night on a Boston Harbor cruise. Many were not wearing masks or social distancing.
Soooooooo what?!!
Besides, doesn't sunlight kill the virus?
They aren't protecting you, they are protecting the virus!
Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, in a statement Sunday, warned that people must follow those rules to help protect public health.
“We know all too well the serious health consequences of the coronavirus, and it is very concerning to see crowds of people gathering in large groups, putting themselves, everyone around them, and every person they come into contact with at risk,” Walsh said. “It is incumbent upon every person and every business to take this seriously, and follow the public health guidance that has been issued for everyone’s safety.”
He can shove it, and upon the turn-in I found this wonderful sight:
People crowd onto M Street Beach Sunday during the coronavirus pandemic (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)
What a beautiful sight, and God Bless Them!
Nineteen more people have died due to the coronavirus, the state reported Sunday, as the number of confirmed deaths increased to 8,310. Confirmed cases of the disease grew by 273, and reached a total of 108,380.
The calls for people to follow health guidance comes as the state is asking local school districts to develop plans that include reopening their buildings in the fall.
Those reopening efforts were buttressed by Vice President Mike Pence, who committed federal support to help Massachusetts reopen its K-12 schools during a Saturday visit with Governor Charlie Baker on Nantucket.
Pence told reporters following the meeting that the Trump administration believes it’s best for children to be back in the classroom. Aside from academics, children receive other services at school, including counseling and special education, Pence said.
How was the fund-raiser?
The state’s school officials are still working to determine whether to reopen, hold virtual classes, or a provide a hybrid of both.
Scarpino said he agrees that a top priority for the state should be to reopen schools, but to do so safely, the state needs to expand its testing capacity and get results from those tests in less than 24 hours. It also must continue to keep numbers of new cases low, particularly as some K-12 schools reopen and college students return, “but I’m skeptical we’ll be able to do that if we have a situation that’s even a little bit worse than what it is right now,” Scarpino said, “and that means that everything that we do in the coming weeks, month or so, is going to dictate a lot of how successful we’re going to be with schools in the fall.”
All the kids will be carrying it by then.
Another challenge facing officials working to enlist public cooperation against the coronavirus has been the heat, which draws people to beaches and makes it difficult for them to keep masks on.
After Boston reached a high of 91 Sunday, more heat is expected Monday and Tuesday, when forecasters predict the city will hit a high in the mid-90s, said Bill Simpson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. High temperatures and humidity will also help drive the heat index to about 102 Monday, he said.
I love the heat, and want it to last forever.
There are billions who live at the equator, none at the North Pole.
The weather service has issued an excessive heat advisory for Greater Boston from noon Monday through 8 p.m. Tuesday, when highs are also expected in the mid-90s, which would officially mark the start of a heat wave for the city, he said.
In Boston, where Walsh declared a heat emergency Sunday through Tuesday, he opened 21 community facilities across the city to serve as cooling centers and two public pools, with advanced booking required. All three sessions for the pools were booked Sunday.
The M Street Beach was busy Sunday, like it has been in recent weeks, with groups of people dotting the sand — the vast majority not wearing masks.
Nearby on Carson Beach, Janderson Gomes, 32, of Allston sat on a bench overlooking the shoreline and enjoying the ocean breeze with a friend, neither wearing a mask.
Gomes, who works for a moving company and as a kitchen manager, said he wanted a chance to relax. Sitting at home feels “tight,” he said and confining. Being at the beach reminded him of Brazil, where he grew up.
“Just hang, watch everybody. The bad stuff, you let it go,” Gomes said. “You cannot be safe 100 percent. There’s no way.”
Brendan Lanoue, 32, of Medford and a friend said they wore their masks while walking to their spot on the sand at Carson Beach, and they took off the coverings once they settled in away from other people.
The tan line would look stupid.
He compared it to dining outside at a restaurant: As long as nobody at the beach was getting too close, he felt safer, and during the four hours he spent at the beach Sunday, he said people were respectful and minded their personal space.
“It was good,” he said. “The wind feels good, too.”
Away from the beach, another sign of people disregarding precautions was evident Saturday evening when crowds of people were spotted standing shoulder-to-shoulder without masks on a Boston Harbor cruise ship.
Marty Walz, a former state representative who watched from Pier 4 as the ship set out around 7:15 p.m., posted a photograph of the tightly packed ship to Twitter.
She said many of the people were not wearing masks as they gathered to board and called the ship’s operator, Bay State Cruise Company, irresponsible for not requiring passengers to take precautions.
“I was shocked and scared that we’re going to have another serious outbreak of COVID, and things will get as bad as they were in March and April,” said Walz, a South Boston resident, in a phone interview Sunday. “I couldn’t help wondering why so many people were willing to be so reckless.”
What a NAZI (with all due apologies to Nazis)!
The city’s Inspectional Services Department and the Boston Public Health Commission’s Environmental Division have been in touch with the company and will visit the site Monday, according to city officials.
A WCVB-TV news crew on Saturday night filmed passengers as they disembarked the ship, though people gave conflicting accounts about adhering to masks and social distancing during the trip.
One woman told the news station “no one was wearing a mask” on board, while a man said he wore a mask for the entire trip.
Julie Pagano, with Bay State Cruise Company, which operates the Provincetown II, told the Globe in an e-mail Sunday that the ship was out on a 7 to 9:30 p.m. cruise Saturday and precautions were observed.
The ship provides enough room for 6 feet of space per passenger for up to 44 percentof the vessel’s capacity, she said.
On Saturday evening, the ship sailed at 33 percent of its capacity, she said.
“The general info is that in addition to providing ample space for social distancing, we are an outdoor venue with the benefit of a constant breeze across the decks as we sail at nine knots,” Pagano said.
Scarpino, the epidemiologist, said researchers are still working about how transmission works for this virus. He said officials should take action to prevent such scenes in the future.
They still don't know that, yet they killed an economy over it and denied us herd immunity?
“Certainly seeing packed party barges is not the kind of scene we would like to witness going into the fall,” Scarpino said.
But protests that fill the street are okay?
You didn't mention them, $cum!
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Related:
The M Street Beach on Sunday, where few wore masks (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff).
That photo came with the web version, and what a sight for sore eyes.
Meanwhile, out in the harbor:
"A 43-year old man was killed following a jet ski crash in the Boston Harbor in Dorchester late Sunday afternoon, officials said. The man, who was from Mattapan, received cardiopulmonary resuscitation before being transported to Boston Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, said David Procopio, a State Police spokesman. State police detectives for Suffolk County are investigating his death, he said. At 4:20 p.m., Boston police received a report of a jet-ski incident near Savin Hill Yacht Club, he said. The State Police Marine Unit was able to locate the operator of the jet-ski, he said. The man was transported to shore by a Boston Police Harbor Unit, and he received CPR, said Procopio. He was then taken to a local hospital. State Police were able to locate the family and friends of the man along the beach, he said."
The death certificate says he died of COVID!
Back on land:
"Two men were fatally shot in Dorchester early Sunday morning in separate shootings, according to Boston police. Police received reports of a shooting at Erie St. at about 1:58 a.m., Boston Police Officer Kim Tavares said in a brief telephone interview Sunday morning. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, she said. Ten minutes later, police responded to another shooting in the area of Sumner and Conrad streets, Boston police said in a statement. When officers arrived, they could not find a victim, but later learned that a man suffering life-threatening gunshot wounds had been dropped off at a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the statement said. The deaths bring the city’s homicide toll this year to 32, compared to 23 by this date last year, according to police. Also, about 11:30 last night, a man was stabbed at 2-4 Fidelis Way and was in critical condition, Tavares said. The incidents are under investigation. No further information was immediately available."
Related: Homicides in Boston have climbed 39 percent so far this year, and Boston Police Commissioner William G. Gross chided the court system for ordering the release of prisoners and setting no or low bail for people charged with violent crimes due to the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks among inmates.
At least someone is finally waking up:
"Five people were arrested Saturday night as a protest that started in front of the Providence Public Safety Complex quickly became hostile. About 150 people assembled after sundown outside the complex, which was barricaded off and surrounded by police officers in riot gear. The demonstration was organized in response to the arrests of two people at a Black Lives Matter counter-demonstration outside the complex on Thursday -- and in support of protesters in Portland, Ore., against federal agents. A flyer had circulated on social media announcing the protest in Providence “against federal invasion,” telling people to “rally at the pig pen... Stand against police violence from the modern slave patrols, on the unceded territories of Narragansett, Wampanoag nations, in solidarity with demonstrators facing federal invasion.” The demonstration was immediately contentious, said Providence Police Major David Lapatin. Protesters and police clashed outside the station. Lapatin said demonstrators set off flares and threw bottles and balloons filled with paint at officers. Joan Steffen, 27, of Quincy, Mass., was charged with three felony counts of assaulting police and resisting arrest after police said she threw balloons of red and blue paint at three officers. Steffen’s LinkedIn profile lists her as a student at Harvard Law School and intern as a student attorney for prisoners’ legal services of Massachusetts. She could not be reached for comment Sunday. Educators were among the four Rhode Islanders charged with misdemeanors. Lauren Matthias, 30, of South Kingstown, a teacher at the Paul Cuffee School, a charter school in Providence, was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Police said she rode her bicycle into an intersection to stop traffic while they were arresting Steffen and then fought with officers. In an email to the Globe, Matthias confirmed she was a Providence educator and noted the bruise on her forehead, but she did not respond to questions about the incident. “The Paul Cuffee School will review the matter in accordance with its personnel policies and determine the appropriate course of action,” Keith Oliveira, executive director of the Rhode Island League of Charter Schools, said in a text message Sunday. Gregory Waksmulski, 38, of Pawtucket, a librarian whose resume includes working as a program instructor at the Wheeler School in Providence, was charged with obstructing police. He did not respond to a request for comment Sunday. Michael Simpson, 24, of Providence, is charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing police; he is accused of trying to stop police from arresting Steffen. Ella Fassler, 27, of Pawtucket, a freelancer writer whose bio describes her as a prison abolitionist, was charged with unlawful use of a laser and obstruction. Police also seized smoke grenades, a gas mask, and spray paint, according to a police report. Police Chief Hugh T. Clements Jr. told WPRI-TV that no officers were hurt but a unmarked cruiser had its windows smashed while officers were inside. Protesters eventually dispersed before 11 p.m. “We promote safe, peaceful protests. We will not tolerate violence,” he told the television station."
Is that ANY KIND of EXAMPLE to SET for the KIDS!?
Do those "protesters" really represent America?
"Neighbors in Stoneham woke up Saturday morning to find some of their property had been vandalized, with political messages spray painted onto their white fences. “Vote Trump 2020!” and “Police Lives Matter” were among the messages that police found when they were dispatched to the Oak Street area about 8 a.m. Saturday. Similar graffiti was also found on another fence across the street, police said. “We’re very disappointed to see this type of vandalism in our community and would like to remind everyone that it will not be tolerated,” Stoneham Police Chief James McIntyre said in a statement. “The Stoneham Police Department will be investigating this matter.”
That carries with it the STENCH of a DEMOCRATIC FALSE FLAG, sorry
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
You need to get out of the city:
Who is rescuing America’s national parks? Trump; The administration’s dramatic about-face is largely due to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic as well as two key Senate races" by Linda J. Bilmes July 27, 2020
In a year of astonishing reversals, one of the biggest may turn out to be President Trump’s emergence as the unlikely savior of America’s national parks. The president tweeted that he will sign the Great American Outdoors Act, which will provide billions of dollars to repair and maintain the country’s 419 national park sites and help to protect public lands in all 50 states. Hailed as “a conservationist’s dream,” the act will be the biggest land conservation legislation in a generation.
How did we get here? For the past three years, the Trump administration has been undermining safeguards for public lands. It slashed the acreage of Bear Ears National Monument in Utah by 85 percent, removed protection for millions of acres of sage-grouse habitat, opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and most of the US coastline to oil and gas drilling, reduced protections for wetlands, and weakened the Endangered Species Act. Earlier this year, Trump proposed draconian cuts to the National Parks budget and Land and Water Conservation Fund.
The administration’s dramatic about-face is largely due to the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. As the economy struggles in the deepest crisis since the 1930s, local communities that rely on visitors and tourism associated with national parks are desperate to protect their assets. According to the National Parks Foundation, visitor spending in and around national parks contributed more than $41 billion to the US economy last year and supported 340,500 jobs. Many of these jobs are now in jeopardy.
The national parks are intertwined with the economy of Western states, where several incumbent Republican congressional members face tough electoral battles in November. The push to gather bipartisan support for the Great Outdoors Act was led by Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado, who is facing an uphill challenge from former governor John Hickenlooper, and Senator Steve Daines of Montana, who is running neck and neck with Democratic Governor Steve Bullock. These two seats are critical to Republican hopes of holding the Senate. Gardner’s campaign is already running ads touting his role in the legislation, which is expected to create 108,000 jobs associated with repair and construction of park infrastructure, according to the Pew Trust.
The coronavirus pandemic has also led Americans to rediscover the outdoors. The national parks not only provide economic benefits but also health and enjoyment. My research has found that the public values national parks’ land, waters, and programs at $92 billion per year — at least 30 times the annual budget they receive from Congress. The public wants elected representatives to provide adequate financial support. Reflecting the new realities, Congress passed the Great Outdoors Act by huge bipartisan majorities in the House (310-107) and Senate (73-25).
The Great Outdoors Act is long overdue. More than 300 million people visit the national parks each year, a 50 percent increase since 1980. Yet the parks budget has been flat for two decades, leading to a maintenance backlog of some $12 billion. Roads, trails, campgrounds, monuments, fire safety, and visitor infrastructure have all deteriorated badly.
The new legislation puts a major dent in this. It establishes a National Park and Public Lands Legacy Restoration Fund that will provide up to $9 billion to fix deferred maintenance at national parks, wildlife refuges, forests, and other federal lands, with $6.5 billion earmarked for national parks over the next five years. It also guarantees $900 million per year in perpetuity for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which enables state and local governments to acquire land for recreation and conservation. Established in 1964, this flagship program has been paid for by royalty payments from offshore oil and gas drilling in federal waters but has rarely been funded in full.
It is ironic that Trump will sign a historic milestone that has eluded conservationists for decades. There are few silver linings these days, but the Great American Outdoors Act is one. As Terry Tempest Williams writes, “Our public lands — whether a national park or monument, wildlife refuge, forest or prairie — make each one of us land-rich. It is our inheritance as citizens of a country called America.”
--more--"
I feel it is incumbent upon me to mention that the author is far from a Trump sycophant, and is actually as close to antiwar as the Globe gets.
Right below that opinion piece was this:
Biden’s housing plan would take on systemic racism
I know some want to save everything; however, where will they get the board feet?
A yard sale?
Nice place to have a wedding.
Related:
"Is it out or is it in? That’s the question that hangs over Governor Charlie Baker’s Housing Choice legislation, as time runs out on Beacon Hill yet again. The end of regularly scheduled sessions at the State House is around the corner, on July 31. Baker’s bill to spur more housing production, by making it easier to obtain local approvals, remains very much alive, but its fate remains uncertain. Just two weeks ago, the bill’s prospects seemed dire. Business groups that lobbied for it had all but given up after the Legislature’s economic development bill emerged from committee without Housing Choice attached. Earlier this month, however, the economic development committee decided to drop it from the bill. Oh, well. Better luck next year. Except the House leadership clearly wanted it to happen. Not so fast....."
"The push to develop a prime piece of land along Fort Point Channel is moving forward again. Related Beal on Monday filed more detailed plans for the three buildings it wants to put on on 6.5 acres of what is now parking lots alongside the Gillette World Shaving Headquarters. The developer describes a project, dubbed Channelside, that would include about 1 million square feet of residential, office, and lab space, with new parking areas and a berm to help protect against rising seas. The documents flesh out plans that Related unveiled last fall, after it won a fierce bidding war to buy the site for $218 million....."
The remaking and redesigning of our society continues under the cover of COVID.
Btw, it never even occurred to me to look at the $port$ section yesterday, and why would I?
I'm clicking right past that insulting nonsense now.
"Doctors uneasy about uptick in state coronavirus cases" by Kay Lazar and Dasia Moore Globe Staff, July 27, 2020
The uptick came below the fold, readers.
The reported rate of positive COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts has crept up over the past week, heightening an uneasiness among some doctors who fear that they might be seeing a return of the virus that has spread so quickly around the nation this summer.
In e-mails, phone conversations, and on social media, the doctors say they’re seeing emergency rooms getting busier with feverish patients and more imaging tests coming back with distinctive signs of coronavirus infection.
That was part of the simulation and they lied about it before, so why wouldn't they do it again?
It's all part of the simulation and plan.
It’s too soon to say whether their anecdotal observations, along with the recent uptick in state data, are the tip of an emerging iceberg or simply a temporary blip, but the head of the Massachusetts Medical Society said Monday that the state should seriously reconsider allowing gyms, indoor dining, and casinos to remain open — if the state wants to keep infection rates low as it reopens schools in the fall.
What reopen?
“I would rather act too early than act too late,” said Dr. David Rosman, the society’s president and associate chair of radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Our priority should be kids, school, and health. That’s where we should be focusing.”
Of course!
Rosman, the father of two children, aged 8 and 10, said he realizes closing down certain industries again would significantly and adversely affect a lot of people’s livelihoods.
“We need to decide, as a community, how much we value being able to reopen schools,” Rosman said. “If that is a high priority, as I think it should be, we need to make sacrifices around that. Ultimately, this is about our patients, our neighbors, and our families.”
Over the past week, the rate of positive COVID-19 tests has climbed from 1.7 percent to 1.9 percent, after trending downward earlier this month and then holding relatively stable. Authorities reported increases of more than 200 cases four of the past five days.
On Monday, the number of cases climbed by 182, bringing the total to 108,562. The death toll from confirmed cases rose by seven to 8,317.
“Obviously, we would prefer to see zero new cases of COVID, but we know that’s just not going to be the case until we have a medical breakthrough like a vaccine,” Governor Charlie Baker said during a press briefing.
That's the agenda, and that creature is full on board!
Time to IMPEACH HIM!
Baker said officials are closely analyzing data for trends and are aware of some small clusters associated with gatherings, including a private party in Chatham and recent information regarding an employee at Baystate Health. The governor said the employee traveled to a hot-spot state and was “lax” about mask wearing.
He said the summer months present unique challenges in the fight against the virus.
“We can also assume there’s simply a lot more mobility out there, some of that as a result of the economic activity associated with opening up some of our commonwealth’s businesses and employers,” he said, “but also some of it is just people being out and about — it’s warm out, and people generally speaking are in more contact with people now than they were in the months of April, May, and even June.”
And the protests?
When asked to comment on Rosman’s suggestion that the state should reverse course on reopening, Baker said that individuals flouting health guidelines — not reopening policies — were largely to blame for clusters in cases.
“The public health data is going to drive our decision-making, but so far, most of the data we see about where the clusters have come from have had a lot more to do with people just sort of letting down their guard more than anything else,” he said.
The protests?
Just blowing leaves at us, huh?
Baker cited large private parties and failure to wear masks as examples of behaviors that ignored health guidance and led to more cases, but Helen Jenkins, an assistant professor of biostatistics at Boston University’s School of Public Health, said the state’s latest data give her pause.
“I think the uptick is concerning and shows how little reopening can start to drive up numbers,” Jenkins said. “My hope is that Governor Baker is keeping a close eye on this, and I hope that he prioritizes schools in his decision-making and considers reversing other things such as casinos, gyms, and indoor dining so that schools have even a chance of reopening in the fall.”
At some point, the CURE is WORSE than the alleged ILLNE$$, and we are WAY PAST THAT POINT NOW!
Furthermore, the INCREASED CASES means the DEATH RATE is dropping faster than a WTC tower!
Of course, the agenda-pushing pre$$ has shifted the goal posts so it is now all about cases based on faulty tests, etc.
These bastards want to kill the middle class, they pretty much already have, and turn the place into a communi$tic corporate state.
EVIL!
At the same time, Dr. Helen Boucher, chief of the Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Tufts Medical Center, is taking a more wait-and-see approach. Boucher noted that the rate of COVID-19 cases ticked up to 1.9 percent for a few days early this month before trending downward.
She said she would grow concerned if the number of infections, or the rate of positive cases, continued to climb.
“I am a mom of two daughters and nobody wants success for getting our students back to school safely more than I do. We have to be very focused on the data,” Boucher said, “but one thing I have learned from the pandemic is humility and how much we don’t know.
I'm sick of the globe talking to the $ame old agenda-pu$hing expert$ all the time.
One open question is the impact of delays in processing coronavirus tests. People in Massachusetts and across the country often wait up to a week or more to learn the results of their COVID-19 tests, making it challenging for leaders to stay ahead of percolating cases and control future outbreaks.
The delays are largely being driven by a backlog at some of the nation’s largest laboratories, which process many of the tests from Massachusetts community health centers and businesses. The labs are struggling to keep up with demand caused by surging coronavirus cases in Southern and Western states.....
And yet cases are exploding everywhere!
Are you sick of the f**king excuses yet, and you can have my tests!
--more--"
Lesley Galdamez administered a COVID-19 test in Charlestown (Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff).
Looks like fun, huh?
California National Guard medics administered a COVID-19 test in Galt, Calif., on Thursday. The coronavirus pandemic has left ordinary people debating case counts, positivity rates, and hospitalization numbers in hopes of understanding the virus’s path (Max Whittaker for The New York Times)
Looks painful!
Just what are they putting up there anyway?
Now we are told they don't even know what we are dealing with:
"Hoping to understand the virus, everyone is parsing a mountain of data" by Julie Bosman New York Times, July 27, 2020
CHICAGO — The latest count of new coronavirus cases was jarring: Some 1,500 virus cases were identified three consecutive days last week in Illinois, and fears of a resurgence in the state even led the mayor of Chicago to shut down bars all over town Friday, but at the same moment, there were other, hopeful data points that seemed to tell a different story entirely. Deaths from the virus statewide are one-tenth what they were at their peak in May, and the positivity rate of new coronavirus tests in Illinois is about half that of neighboring states.
Then WHY the FURTHER LOCKDOWN and CLOSING of BARS (I'm sure the mayor didn't have to be led far, and I'm glad she avoided all the gunfire)?
The question was rhetorical, btw. We know why they are doing it. New World Order!
“There are so many numbers flying around,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago health department. “It’s hard for people to know what’s the most important thing to follow.”
This is a pandemic that has been told in harrowing stories from hospitals, factories, nursing homes, and meatpacking plants, but as the crisis stretches on, it is also unfolding in an increasingly complex spread of numbers.
WHAT?!!!?
Six months since the first cases were detected in the United States, more people have been infected by far than in any other country, and the daily rundown of national numbers Friday was a reminder of a mounting emergency: more than 73,500 new cases, 1,100 deaths, and 939,838 tests, as well as 59,670 people currently hospitalized for the virus.
Americans now have access to an expanding set of data to help them interpret the coronavirus pandemic. They are closely tracking the number of sick and dead. They can read daily case counts in their cities and states, the percentage of positive tests, the number of people hospitalized, and the weekly change in cases.
Why should believe any of these numbers when they have been caught inflating and flat-out lying about them?
Sophisticated data-gathering operations by newspapers, research universities, and volunteers have sprung up in response to the pandemic, monitoring and collecting coronavirus metrics around the clock. Elected officials who were not particularly well-versed in public health or infectious disease when 2020 began now sound a little like epidemiologists, spending their days steeped in data and making policy decisions based on the figures before them.
Now the POLITICIANS are $CIENTI$T$!
What ABSOLUTE SLOP is this "report" from Bosman(!) of the Jew York Times!
So WHAT CRAP MODELS are BEFORE THEM to inform the DECISION-MAKING, because those failed models that killed our way-of life, economy, freedom, and liberty has been f**king memory-holed by the pre$$!
For many Americans, the numbers are a way to make sense of the pandemic — which is spreading in the South, West, and much of the Midwest but calming in the Northeast — and to gauge whether things are better or worse in their own cities.
All they are doing is making ones head spin are the simulated shit they are passing off.
They often begin with the case count. That is the daily tally of individuals whose coronavirus infections were confirmed by laboratory tests, a data point that is frequently quoted, misused, and debated.
Yeah, but the PRE$$, and they then talked to a Dr. John Swartzberg, an infectious disease specialist and a clinical professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health.
The numbers are jaw-dropping. In the United States, the cumulative count of people infected with the coronavirus has surpassed 4 million. New daily records tied to the case count have been alarmingly frequent in recent weeks: At least 16 states have posted single-day case records this past week.
Then the death rate must be dropping to near zero!
Specialists suggested that the daily case count is better viewed as a rough measure of whether an outbreak is slowing, expanding, or stabilizing. A decrease in new confirmed cases could also indicate that testing is not available widely enough or that there is a backlog of tests that have not yet been processed and delivered to the local health department.
If Trump says that, they pile on him!
Another frequently cited number is the positivity rate: the percentage of coronavirus tests that have returned with a positive result.
Not the fatality rate?
“The positivity number is one of the first places I go to,” said Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio, who wakes up each morning to a fresh PowerPoint presentation from his staff, which he reads on his iPad before 8 a.m. “That’s what I zero in on.”
He disgusts me.
A rising positivity rate can point to an uncontrolled outbreak; it can also indicate that not enough testing is occurring.
Could be, if, maybe..... aaaarrrrrgggghhhh!
He said he also focuses closely on the number of Ohioans who have been hospitalized for the coronavirus, a data point that is difficult to spin or misinterpret. Last week, the pandemic approached an alarming milestone: About as many people in the country are now hospitalized with the coronavirus as at any other time in the pandemic, including during an earlier surge in the New York region in the spring.
If so, the LOCKDOWNS were an ABYSMAL FAILURE!
They PREVENTED NOTHING!
“Hospitalization is a hard number,” DeWine said. “There’s no fudge on it,” yet even that measure has caveats. Hospitalizations do not reflect how many people are sick at home and experiencing mild symptoms — particularly younger people — but who could still be infecting others.
Are you FLIPPING KIDDING ME!!!??
Perhaps the most telling numbers are trend data — examining which direction a community or state seems to be heading, said Michael T. Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.....
PFFFFFFFFFFT!
--more--"
Related:
"More than 40 people were infected with the coronavirus after attending a multiday revival event at a north Alabama Baptist church, according to the congregation’s pastor. “The whole church has got it, just about,” Al.com quoted pastor Daryl Ross of Warrior Creek Missionary Baptist Church in Marshall County as saying. The pastor says the churchgoers, including himself, tested positive after the congregation held a series of religious services featuring a guest pastor over the course of several days last week. Ross said the services were shut down by Friday after learning that one of the members who attended had tested positive for the virus. Over the weekend, dozens more fell ill, Ross said, adding: “I’ve got church members sick everywhere.’’
May God help them, and they should have went and rioted instead!
Also see:
More US agents may go to Portland; mayors want limits
Officer challenges account of violent clearing of protesters
Juneteenth becomes an official Massachusetts holiday
That is what they are working on with a budget due in three days!
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
I forgot that they yard work is the landlord's responsibility:
"As eviction ban continues, small landlords feel the squeeze" by Tim Logan Globe Staff,Updated July 27, 2020
Marie Baptiste owns a rental property in Randolph. A nurse at a hospital in Fall River, she kept her old house when she moved to a newer one several years ago, figuring the rent would help her pay the bills when she retires.
Lately, though, she’s had to pull money out of her retirement savings to cover the mortgage, property taxes, and insurance because her tenant stopped paying rent last fall, Baptiste said, well before the COVID-19 pandemic.
She says the tenant owes her nearly $19,000, but because of a freeze on evictions during the pandemic, there’s nothing she can do about it now. Baptiste’s tenant, who asked that her name not be used, said she stopped paying rent in November because the house had fallen into serious disrepair, including water damage and an infestation of rats. Baptiste disputes those claims, saying the tenant is to blame for most of the problems.
No matter what the reason for the lack of payments, the bills keep piling up.
“It’s all backwards,” Baptiste said. “You have no way out. I don’t know if I’m going to lose everything I’ve worked so hard for.”
That is crushing to read, and what the overall plan is as we descend into what can be described as corporate fa$ci$m or Communi$m, it's the $ame thing at thi$ point.
The roiling debate about Massachusetts’ eviction moratorium — which Governor Charlie Baker last week extended until mid-October — has focused largely on renters, hundreds of thousands of whom have lost work over the last few months and face rent bills that many can’t afford, but landlords, especially small ones who provide the bulk of modestly-priced rental housing in Massachusetts, say they need help, too.
Stuck between tenants who can’t, or simply won’t, pay up and banks that still expect mortgage payments every month, many landlords say the eviction moratorium puts them in an impossible spot. They don’t want to evict tenants in the midst of a health and economic crisis, but they also don’t want to go broke.
“Landlords are getting squeezed,” said Mike Hoefling, who owns a pair of three-family buildings in Worcester and has several tenants who are out of work. “They’re not getting rent on one side, and on the other, banks are asking for their money.”
This comes as they are doing $o well!
It’s a dilemma with potentially far-reaching consequences.
About a quarter of all housing in Massachusetts is in small multi-family buildings, the three-deckers and six-unit apartment buildings that dot urban neighborhoods across the state. Many are owned by landlords who lack the resources of big national apartment operators and who often charge lower rents than those in large complexes. With few or no employees on the payroll, most got little help from the Paycheck Protection Program or other coronavirus aid.
Even by mid-May, according to a survey conducted by the trade group MassLandlords, about 20 percent of rent payments statewide were late. Housing advocates warn that many more renters could fall behind when the $600-per-week expanded federal unemployment benefits expire this week.
In that same survey, one-fifth of landlords said they didn’t know how they will pay their bills this year. If the eviction moratorium stretches on, and there’s no help forthcoming for property owners, many will have to sell their buildings, or lose them to foreclosure, said MassLandlords executive director Doug Quattrochi.
“You might have a quarter of mom-and-pop landlords exit the industry,” he said, “and the most likely scenario is big investors buy those buildings, terminate the leases, and renovate them or make them into condos.”
That's the plan, same as 2008-09 but on a grander scale.
Once again, banks and billionaires are to benefit with the pre$$ cheering them along.
Even the loudest voices in support of the moratorium agree that scenario will only exacerbate the region’s housing crisis. The fate of renters and their landlords are closely linked, said Lisa Owens, executive director of City Life/Vida Urbana, and everyone’s hurting.
“We’re all in this together,” she said. “Yes, we do have to support our small landlords. They’re struggling just like their tenants.”
Well, the tag line sounds great (remember Support the Troops?), but we are apparently not all in thi$ together as some have enriched themselves beyond belief while the vast majority of us have had livelihoods destroyed.
Related:
Antonio Reonegro's new painting is dedicated to MGH medical workers who worked through the pandemic (Antonio Reonegro)
They then went off to make a dance video, remember all those mockeries?
Can Rosie the Riveter sue for copyright violations?
That has some people pitching proposals they say offer hope for both sides.
In Washington, House Democrats included $100 billion in rental relief for tenants — and by extension, their landlords — in the coronavirus stimulus package they passed in May. Both tenant advocates and large apartment trade groups are pushing for that money to be included in the version now being crafted in the Senate, though its prognosis is uncertain.
We know what that is all about.
Closer to home, Baker has released $38 million in rental and mortgage assistance since the pandemic began, and when he extended the moratorium last Tuesday, he pledged to keep looking for funds as the crisis continues.
He's not up for election this year, is he?
If he were, we would be dumping his butt.
More controversial is a bill before the state Legislature’s Housing Committee that would freeze evictions for 12 months and create a fund to help small landlords who lose rent as a result. Tenant groups are pushing hard for it, with hundreds of people rallying at the State House last Wednesday, but landlords note that no money has been allocated for the fund, and they worry that when lawmakers write next year’s budget, they’ll have other priorities. More concerning to them are clauses that would freeze rents for 12 months, and allow cities and towns to require so-called “just cause” for evictions even after the coronavirus emergency ends.
More approved protests.
They are blowing COVID up your a$$, so to speak.
“This bill would paralyze the real estate industry,” several state trade groups wrote in a letter to lawmakers. “It will have a lasting negative impact that will extend far beyond the timeline outlined in the legislation.”
Looks like Communi$m.
Quattrochi’s group is pushing help of a different kind: state-issued bonds that would guarantee unpaid rent for landlords, in exchange for an agreement not to evict. Funding, they suggest, could come from a 1 percent surcharge on the sale of single-family homes, which could raise roughly $1 billion over three years. has been looking for an influential sponsor on Beacon Hill, Quattrochi said, but has yet to find one.
Where, exactly, will all this money come as we curl up into the fetal position again because of COVID-1911?
That approach makes sense to PJ Szufnarowski.
She and her husband own three condos in Allston that they rent out along with the ground floor of their two-family in Brighton. The income helps them pay their bills — especially now that Szufnarowski’s business selling paintings of Boston landmarks has tailed off because of the pandemic. She says they’re fortunate that their tenants have continued paying rent in full, and on time.
That's the point of inve$ting in real e$tate.
Even if the payments were late, Szufnarowski said, she wouldn’t move to evict, but, she said, the costs of this crisis can’t be borne entirely by landlords like her. The eviction moratorium, with no relief in sight, is starting to make it feel like that’s the plan.
“This feels like an outright attack on landlords,” she said.....
Because it is!
The banks and corporations want your property, same as last time.
That's why the Fed printed all the money, so they could $woop in and buy the stuff up for pennies on the dollar.
--more--"
As for today's Globe, they have Bill Barr facing off with a Black Lawyer in a train-wreck hearing as a tumultuous school year in Bo$ton looms.
I took a quick count of pages in the book before the election with Trump on the defen$ive heading into November. There is only one thing I can see that could derail Biden, but I can't quite remember what it is.
Maybe he could stir up trouble in Korea to help take the focus off the riots and the viru$.
I'm clicking right past that insulting nonsense now.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"Doctors uneasy about uptick in state coronavirus cases" by Kay Lazar and Dasia Moore Globe Staff, July 27, 2020
The uptick came below the fold, readers.
The reported rate of positive COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts has crept up over the past week, heightening an uneasiness among some doctors who fear that they might be seeing a return of the virus that has spread so quickly around the nation this summer.
In e-mails, phone conversations, and on social media, the doctors say they’re seeing emergency rooms getting busier with feverish patients and more imaging tests coming back with distinctive signs of coronavirus infection.
That was part of the simulation and they lied about it before, so why wouldn't they do it again?
It's all part of the simulation and plan.
It’s too soon to say whether their anecdotal observations, along with the recent uptick in state data, are the tip of an emerging iceberg or simply a temporary blip, but the head of the Massachusetts Medical Society said Monday that the state should seriously reconsider allowing gyms, indoor dining, and casinos to remain open — if the state wants to keep infection rates low as it reopens schools in the fall.
What reopen?
“I would rather act too early than act too late,” said Dr. David Rosman, the society’s president and associate chair of radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Our priority should be kids, school, and health. That’s where we should be focusing.”
Of course!
Rosman, the father of two children, aged 8 and 10, said he realizes closing down certain industries again would significantly and adversely affect a lot of people’s livelihoods.
“We need to decide, as a community, how much we value being able to reopen schools,” Rosman said. “If that is a high priority, as I think it should be, we need to make sacrifices around that. Ultimately, this is about our patients, our neighbors, and our families.”
Over the past week, the rate of positive COVID-19 tests has climbed from 1.7 percent to 1.9 percent, after trending downward earlier this month and then holding relatively stable. Authorities reported increases of more than 200 cases four of the past five days.
On Monday, the number of cases climbed by 182, bringing the total to 108,562. The death toll from confirmed cases rose by seven to 8,317.
“Obviously, we would prefer to see zero new cases of COVID, but we know that’s just not going to be the case until we have a medical breakthrough like a vaccine,” Governor Charlie Baker said during a press briefing.
That's the agenda, and that creature is full on board!
Time to IMPEACH HIM!
Baker said officials are closely analyzing data for trends and are aware of some small clusters associated with gatherings, including a private party in Chatham and recent information regarding an employee at Baystate Health. The governor said the employee traveled to a hot-spot state and was “lax” about mask wearing.
He said the summer months present unique challenges in the fight against the virus.
“We can also assume there’s simply a lot more mobility out there, some of that as a result of the economic activity associated with opening up some of our commonwealth’s businesses and employers,” he said, “but also some of it is just people being out and about — it’s warm out, and people generally speaking are in more contact with people now than they were in the months of April, May, and even June.”
And the protests?
When asked to comment on Rosman’s suggestion that the state should reverse course on reopening, Baker said that individuals flouting health guidelines — not reopening policies — were largely to blame for clusters in cases.
“The public health data is going to drive our decision-making, but so far, most of the data we see about where the clusters have come from have had a lot more to do with people just sort of letting down their guard more than anything else,” he said.
The protests?
Just blowing leaves at us, huh?
Baker cited large private parties and failure to wear masks as examples of behaviors that ignored health guidance and led to more cases, but Helen Jenkins, an assistant professor of biostatistics at Boston University’s School of Public Health, said the state’s latest data give her pause.
“I think the uptick is concerning and shows how little reopening can start to drive up numbers,” Jenkins said. “My hope is that Governor Baker is keeping a close eye on this, and I hope that he prioritizes schools in his decision-making and considers reversing other things such as casinos, gyms, and indoor dining so that schools have even a chance of reopening in the fall.”
At some point, the CURE is WORSE than the alleged ILLNE$$, and we are WAY PAST THAT POINT NOW!
Furthermore, the INCREASED CASES means the DEATH RATE is dropping faster than a WTC tower!
Of course, the agenda-pushing pre$$ has shifted the goal posts so it is now all about cases based on faulty tests, etc.
These bastards want to kill the middle class, they pretty much already have, and turn the place into a communi$tic corporate state.
EVIL!
At the same time, Dr. Helen Boucher, chief of the Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Tufts Medical Center, is taking a more wait-and-see approach. Boucher noted that the rate of COVID-19 cases ticked up to 1.9 percent for a few days early this month before trending downward.
She said she would grow concerned if the number of infections, or the rate of positive cases, continued to climb.
“I am a mom of two daughters and nobody wants success for getting our students back to school safely more than I do. We have to be very focused on the data,” Boucher said, “but one thing I have learned from the pandemic is humility and how much we don’t know.
I'm sick of the globe talking to the $ame old agenda-pu$hing expert$ all the time.
One open question is the impact of delays in processing coronavirus tests. People in Massachusetts and across the country often wait up to a week or more to learn the results of their COVID-19 tests, making it challenging for leaders to stay ahead of percolating cases and control future outbreaks.
The delays are largely being driven by a backlog at some of the nation’s largest laboratories, which process many of the tests from Massachusetts community health centers and businesses. The labs are struggling to keep up with demand caused by surging coronavirus cases in Southern and Western states.....
And yet cases are exploding everywhere!
Are you sick of the f**king excuses yet, and you can have my tests!
--more--"
Lesley Galdamez administered a COVID-19 test in Charlestown (Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff).
Looks like fun, huh?
California National Guard medics administered a COVID-19 test in Galt, Calif., on Thursday. The coronavirus pandemic has left ordinary people debating case counts, positivity rates, and hospitalization numbers in hopes of understanding the virus’s path (Max Whittaker for The New York Times)
Looks painful!
Just what are they putting up there anyway?
Now we are told they don't even know what we are dealing with:
"Hoping to understand the virus, everyone is parsing a mountain of data" by Julie Bosman New York Times, July 27, 2020
CHICAGO — The latest count of new coronavirus cases was jarring: Some 1,500 virus cases were identified three consecutive days last week in Illinois, and fears of a resurgence in the state even led the mayor of Chicago to shut down bars all over town Friday, but at the same moment, there were other, hopeful data points that seemed to tell a different story entirely. Deaths from the virus statewide are one-tenth what they were at their peak in May, and the positivity rate of new coronavirus tests in Illinois is about half that of neighboring states.
Then WHY the FURTHER LOCKDOWN and CLOSING of BARS (I'm sure the mayor didn't have to be led far, and I'm glad she avoided all the gunfire)?
The question was rhetorical, btw. We know why they are doing it. New World Order!
“There are so many numbers flying around,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago health department. “It’s hard for people to know what’s the most important thing to follow.”
This is a pandemic that has been told in harrowing stories from hospitals, factories, nursing homes, and meatpacking plants, but as the crisis stretches on, it is also unfolding in an increasingly complex spread of numbers.
WHAT?!!!?
Six months since the first cases were detected in the United States, more people have been infected by far than in any other country, and the daily rundown of national numbers Friday was a reminder of a mounting emergency: more than 73,500 new cases, 1,100 deaths, and 939,838 tests, as well as 59,670 people currently hospitalized for the virus.
Americans now have access to an expanding set of data to help them interpret the coronavirus pandemic. They are closely tracking the number of sick and dead. They can read daily case counts in their cities and states, the percentage of positive tests, the number of people hospitalized, and the weekly change in cases.
Why should believe any of these numbers when they have been caught inflating and flat-out lying about them?
Sophisticated data-gathering operations by newspapers, research universities, and volunteers have sprung up in response to the pandemic, monitoring and collecting coronavirus metrics around the clock. Elected officials who were not particularly well-versed in public health or infectious disease when 2020 began now sound a little like epidemiologists, spending their days steeped in data and making policy decisions based on the figures before them.
Now the POLITICIANS are $CIENTI$T$!
What ABSOLUTE SLOP is this "report" from Bosman(!) of the Jew York Times!
So WHAT CRAP MODELS are BEFORE THEM to inform the DECISION-MAKING, because those failed models that killed our way-of life, economy, freedom, and liberty has been f**king memory-holed by the pre$$!
For many Americans, the numbers are a way to make sense of the pandemic — which is spreading in the South, West, and much of the Midwest but calming in the Northeast — and to gauge whether things are better or worse in their own cities.
All they are doing is making ones head spin are the simulated shit they are passing off.
They often begin with the case count. That is the daily tally of individuals whose coronavirus infections were confirmed by laboratory tests, a data point that is frequently quoted, misused, and debated.
Yeah, but the PRE$$, and they then talked to a Dr. John Swartzberg, an infectious disease specialist and a clinical professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health.
The numbers are jaw-dropping. In the United States, the cumulative count of people infected with the coronavirus has surpassed 4 million. New daily records tied to the case count have been alarmingly frequent in recent weeks: At least 16 states have posted single-day case records this past week.
Then the death rate must be dropping to near zero!
Specialists suggested that the daily case count is better viewed as a rough measure of whether an outbreak is slowing, expanding, or stabilizing. A decrease in new confirmed cases could also indicate that testing is not available widely enough or that there is a backlog of tests that have not yet been processed and delivered to the local health department.
If Trump says that, they pile on him!
Another frequently cited number is the positivity rate: the percentage of coronavirus tests that have returned with a positive result.
Not the fatality rate?
“The positivity number is one of the first places I go to,” said Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio, who wakes up each morning to a fresh PowerPoint presentation from his staff, which he reads on his iPad before 8 a.m. “That’s what I zero in on.”
He disgusts me.
A rising positivity rate can point to an uncontrolled outbreak; it can also indicate that not enough testing is occurring.
Could be, if, maybe..... aaaarrrrrgggghhhh!
He said he also focuses closely on the number of Ohioans who have been hospitalized for the coronavirus, a data point that is difficult to spin or misinterpret. Last week, the pandemic approached an alarming milestone: About as many people in the country are now hospitalized with the coronavirus as at any other time in the pandemic, including during an earlier surge in the New York region in the spring.
If so, the LOCKDOWNS were an ABYSMAL FAILURE!
They PREVENTED NOTHING!
“Hospitalization is a hard number,” DeWine said. “There’s no fudge on it,” yet even that measure has caveats. Hospitalizations do not reflect how many people are sick at home and experiencing mild symptoms — particularly younger people — but who could still be infecting others.
Are you FLIPPING KIDDING ME!!!??
Perhaps the most telling numbers are trend data — examining which direction a community or state seems to be heading, said Michael T. Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.....
PFFFFFFFFFFT!
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Related:
"More than 40 people were infected with the coronavirus after attending a multiday revival event at a north Alabama Baptist church, according to the congregation’s pastor. “The whole church has got it, just about,” Al.com quoted pastor Daryl Ross of Warrior Creek Missionary Baptist Church in Marshall County as saying. The pastor says the churchgoers, including himself, tested positive after the congregation held a series of religious services featuring a guest pastor over the course of several days last week. Ross said the services were shut down by Friday after learning that one of the members who attended had tested positive for the virus. Over the weekend, dozens more fell ill, Ross said, adding: “I’ve got church members sick everywhere.’’
May God help them, and they should have went and rioted instead!
Also see:
More US agents may go to Portland; mayors want limits
Officer challenges account of violent clearing of protesters
Juneteenth becomes an official Massachusetts holiday
That is what they are working on with a budget due in three days!
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
I forgot that they yard work is the landlord's responsibility:
"As eviction ban continues, small landlords feel the squeeze" by Tim Logan Globe Staff,Updated July 27, 2020
Marie Baptiste owns a rental property in Randolph. A nurse at a hospital in Fall River, she kept her old house when she moved to a newer one several years ago, figuring the rent would help her pay the bills when she retires.
Lately, though, she’s had to pull money out of her retirement savings to cover the mortgage, property taxes, and insurance because her tenant stopped paying rent last fall, Baptiste said, well before the COVID-19 pandemic.
She says the tenant owes her nearly $19,000, but because of a freeze on evictions during the pandemic, there’s nothing she can do about it now. Baptiste’s tenant, who asked that her name not be used, said she stopped paying rent in November because the house had fallen into serious disrepair, including water damage and an infestation of rats. Baptiste disputes those claims, saying the tenant is to blame for most of the problems.
No matter what the reason for the lack of payments, the bills keep piling up.
“It’s all backwards,” Baptiste said. “You have no way out. I don’t know if I’m going to lose everything I’ve worked so hard for.”
That is crushing to read, and what the overall plan is as we descend into what can be described as corporate fa$ci$m or Communi$m, it's the $ame thing at thi$ point.
The roiling debate about Massachusetts’ eviction moratorium — which Governor Charlie Baker last week extended until mid-October — has focused largely on renters, hundreds of thousands of whom have lost work over the last few months and face rent bills that many can’t afford, but landlords, especially small ones who provide the bulk of modestly-priced rental housing in Massachusetts, say they need help, too.
Stuck between tenants who can’t, or simply won’t, pay up and banks that still expect mortgage payments every month, many landlords say the eviction moratorium puts them in an impossible spot. They don’t want to evict tenants in the midst of a health and economic crisis, but they also don’t want to go broke.
“Landlords are getting squeezed,” said Mike Hoefling, who owns a pair of three-family buildings in Worcester and has several tenants who are out of work. “They’re not getting rent on one side, and on the other, banks are asking for their money.”
This comes as they are doing $o well!
It’s a dilemma with potentially far-reaching consequences.
About a quarter of all housing in Massachusetts is in small multi-family buildings, the three-deckers and six-unit apartment buildings that dot urban neighborhoods across the state. Many are owned by landlords who lack the resources of big national apartment operators and who often charge lower rents than those in large complexes. With few or no employees on the payroll, most got little help from the Paycheck Protection Program or other coronavirus aid.
Even by mid-May, according to a survey conducted by the trade group MassLandlords, about 20 percent of rent payments statewide were late. Housing advocates warn that many more renters could fall behind when the $600-per-week expanded federal unemployment benefits expire this week.
In that same survey, one-fifth of landlords said they didn’t know how they will pay their bills this year. If the eviction moratorium stretches on, and there’s no help forthcoming for property owners, many will have to sell their buildings, or lose them to foreclosure, said MassLandlords executive director Doug Quattrochi.
“You might have a quarter of mom-and-pop landlords exit the industry,” he said, “and the most likely scenario is big investors buy those buildings, terminate the leases, and renovate them or make them into condos.”
That's the plan, same as 2008-09 but on a grander scale.
Once again, banks and billionaires are to benefit with the pre$$ cheering them along.
Even the loudest voices in support of the moratorium agree that scenario will only exacerbate the region’s housing crisis. The fate of renters and their landlords are closely linked, said Lisa Owens, executive director of City Life/Vida Urbana, and everyone’s hurting.
“We’re all in this together,” she said. “Yes, we do have to support our small landlords. They’re struggling just like their tenants.”
Well, the tag line sounds great (remember Support the Troops?), but we are apparently not all in thi$ together as some have enriched themselves beyond belief while the vast majority of us have had livelihoods destroyed.
Related:
Antonio Reonegro's new painting is dedicated to MGH medical workers who worked through the pandemic (Antonio Reonegro)
They then went off to make a dance video, remember all those mockeries?
Can Rosie the Riveter sue for copyright violations?
That has some people pitching proposals they say offer hope for both sides.
In Washington, House Democrats included $100 billion in rental relief for tenants — and by extension, their landlords — in the coronavirus stimulus package they passed in May. Both tenant advocates and large apartment trade groups are pushing for that money to be included in the version now being crafted in the Senate, though its prognosis is uncertain.
We know what that is all about.
Closer to home, Baker has released $38 million in rental and mortgage assistance since the pandemic began, and when he extended the moratorium last Tuesday, he pledged to keep looking for funds as the crisis continues.
He's not up for election this year, is he?
If he were, we would be dumping his butt.
More controversial is a bill before the state Legislature’s Housing Committee that would freeze evictions for 12 months and create a fund to help small landlords who lose rent as a result. Tenant groups are pushing hard for it, with hundreds of people rallying at the State House last Wednesday, but landlords note that no money has been allocated for the fund, and they worry that when lawmakers write next year’s budget, they’ll have other priorities. More concerning to them are clauses that would freeze rents for 12 months, and allow cities and towns to require so-called “just cause” for evictions even after the coronavirus emergency ends.
More approved protests.
They are blowing COVID up your a$$, so to speak.
“This bill would paralyze the real estate industry,” several state trade groups wrote in a letter to lawmakers. “It will have a lasting negative impact that will extend far beyond the timeline outlined in the legislation.”
Looks like Communi$m.
Quattrochi’s group is pushing help of a different kind: state-issued bonds that would guarantee unpaid rent for landlords, in exchange for an agreement not to evict. Funding, they suggest, could come from a 1 percent surcharge on the sale of single-family homes, which could raise roughly $1 billion over three years. has been looking for an influential sponsor on Beacon Hill, Quattrochi said, but has yet to find one.
Where, exactly, will all this money come as we curl up into the fetal position again because of COVID-1911?
That approach makes sense to PJ Szufnarowski.
She and her husband own three condos in Allston that they rent out along with the ground floor of their two-family in Brighton. The income helps them pay their bills — especially now that Szufnarowski’s business selling paintings of Boston landmarks has tailed off because of the pandemic. She says they’re fortunate that their tenants have continued paying rent in full, and on time.
That's the point of inve$ting in real e$tate.
Even if the payments were late, Szufnarowski said, she wouldn’t move to evict, but, she said, the costs of this crisis can’t be borne entirely by landlords like her. The eviction moratorium, with no relief in sight, is starting to make it feel like that’s the plan.
“This feels like an outright attack on landlords,” she said.....
Because it is!
The banks and corporations want your property, same as last time.
That's why the Fed printed all the money, so they could $woop in and buy the stuff up for pennies on the dollar.
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As for today's Globe, they have Bill Barr facing off with a Black Lawyer in a train-wreck hearing as a tumultuous school year in Bo$ton looms.
I took a quick count of pages in the book before the election with Trump on the defen$ive heading into November. There is only one thing I can see that could derail Biden, but I can't quite remember what it is.
Maybe he could stir up trouble in Korea to help take the focus off the riots and the viru$.
