I don’t know when this happened or where, but how it happened shows the reason why thousands of a people around world are protesting police brutality against black people.
The video shows a black man sitting in his car where he recorded the interaction with the police. He is then forced out of his car and can be heard telling the cop to get off his neck.
The video was uploaded, so it’s my assumption that he survived his interaction with the police officers.
Yes, this happened at a Black Lives Matter demonstration, and I think this picture and the unidentified woman is sending a powerful message.
On its face, this picture will cause many to shake their head in disbelief disappointment. Some will even accuse the woman of using Black Lives Matter to promote her hidden agenda. But I see none of that. I see a woman showing the world that in her most vulnerable state, she is more than willing to stand up against an army of thugs in riot gear and rubber bullets.
She emerged as an apparition from clouds of tear gas as federal agents fired pepper balls at angry protesters in the early Saturday darkness.
A woman wearing nothing but a black face mask and a stocking cap strode toward a dozen heavily armed agents attired in camouflage fatigues, lined up across a downtown Portland street. The agents, dispatched by the Trump administration over vociferous objections of state and city officials, are part of a force that has fired projectiles at and detained activists protesting nightly since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police May 25.
Numerous photos and videos posted on Twitter show the unidentified woman as she halted in the middle of the street at about 1:45 a.m. She stood calmly, a surreal image of human vulnerability in the face of an overpowering force that has been criticized nationally by civil rights advocates.
The agents, in gas masks and helmets, continued firing pepper balls in a staccato “pop, pop, pop” heard on video, aiming low at the asphalt, where puffs of smoke mingled with clouds of gas. At one point, a fellow protester, clothed, carrying a homemade shield, darted in front of the woman, angling to protect her.
But the woman sidestepped him. He jumped out of the way, perhaps realizing that he made them both a target.
Before it was over, she struck ballet poses and reclined on the street. She also sat on the asphalt in a yoga-like position, facing officers, before they left.
And in the meantime while Trump sits back and wait for his “right” moment to magically appear, Americans keep dying – over 140,000 of our families, friends and neighbors already dead. And what is Trump doing about it? Waiting…..
Donald Trump continues to insist the coronavirus will “disappear”, despite the recent surge in cases in several states like California, Texas, Arizona and Florida, and in contradiction of advice by public health experts that predict a long battle with the virus.
“I’ll be right eventually,” the president said in an interview that airs on Sunday with Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday after the host played a series of clips that showed Mr Trump making pronouncements about the virus that have turned out not to be true.
“I will be right eventually. You know, I said, ‘It’s going to disappear.’ I’ll say it again. … It’s going to disappear, and I’ll be right,” Mr Trump said of Covid-19, which has killed more than 140,000 Americans over the least five months.
Thank you John for your fight, for teaching us how to fight and for making us a better people.
Representative John Lewis, a son of sharecroppers and an apostle of nonviolence who was bloodied at Selma and across the Jim Crow South in the historic struggle for racial equality, and who then carried a mantle of moral authority into Congress, died on Friday. He was 80.
His death was confirmed in a statement by Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives.
Mr. Lewis, of Georgia, announced on Dec. 29 that he had Stage 4 pancreatic cancer and vowed to fight it with the same passion with which he had battled racial injustice. “I have been in some kind of fight — for freedom, equality, basic human rights — for nearly my entire life,” he said.
Trump has often proclaimed the foolish notion that “testing” for Covid-19 “creates” the disease. And he recently admitted at a campaign event that he told his people to “stop the testing please.”
Now, in an obvious effort to hide Coronavirus information from the American public, the trump administration is demanding hospitalization information be sent to them instead of going to the CDC. A sure way to filter what the public hears about the dangers of the pandemic.
The new instructions were posted recently in a little-noticed document on the Department of Health and Human Services website. From now on, the department — not the C.D.C. — will collect daily reports about the patients that each hospital is treating, the number of available beds and ventilators, and other information vital to tracking the pandemic.
Officials say the change will streamline data gathering and assist the White House coronavirus task force in allocating scarce supplies like personal protective gear and remdesivir, the first drug shown to be effective against the virus. But the Health and Human Services database that will receive new information is not open to the public, which could affect the work of scores of researchers, modelers and health officials who rely on C.D.C. data to make projections and crucial decisions.
“Historically, C.D.C. has been the place where public health data has been sent, and this raises questions about not just access for researchers but access for reporters, access for the public to try to better understand what is happening with the outbreak,” said Jen Kates, the director of global health and H.I.V. policy with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.
“How will the data be protected?” she asked. “Will there be transparency, will there be access, and what is the role of the C.D.C. in understanding the data?”
What to make of the debate on how to open schools?
On the one hand, we have the president and Betsy DeVos, who seem to be ignoring most of the health information contained in a report, which was marked “For Internal Use Only”, that had more sensible guidance for schools and even urged districts in communities where the virus was spreading more rapidly to have classes conducted entirely online, who are urging all schools to open five days per week with all students in the building.
On the other hand, we have education and health professionals who are urging caution because,well, we are still in the midst of the first wave of a global pandemic and conditions in the United States are getting worse, much worse, by the day.
Every teacher in this country understands that students need to be in school. It is key for a child’s social, educational and emotional development. We all know that. The issue is not that we need to open, but how to open safely and create an environment where every child can learn. The evidence does suggest that younger people are not impacted to the same degree as older people and that they don’t spread it at the same rate. We get that too.
What we also know, though, is that enclosed, poorly-ventilated spaces in which people are talking are prime breeding grounds for the virus. Yes, the guidelines call for students to wear masks, but students do not always do what they are told to do, and since they won’t be mandatory for the children, there’s little a teacher can do if a child refuses to wear one or puts the mask below their nose or chews a hole in it where their mouth is. And parents who need to work might give their feverish child a fever reducer and send them on their way so the parent can go to work. Hallways are crowded places. Teenagers like to hug, and more, in various areas of school buildings.
This is why teachers are pushing back against reopening plans that do not take into account their concerns about workplace safety. Many teachers have complicated health issues or are worried about bringing the virus back to their homes where their children, elderly parents or other adults with health concerns live. Teachers are also concerned that cash-strapped school districts will not be able to fully meet the guidelines that are meant to insure that schools open safely, or to invest in distance-learning software or protocols that will enable all students to thrive whether they are in the classroom or at home. Federal and state governments have been defunding education for decades. We are now seeing a literal struggle over the life and death of schools and their staff.
In short, this is a far more complicated answer than what the president and Secretary DeVos want to hear. The president is concerned about his reelection prospects given that adults can’t go back to work if they have to stay home and take care of children who are on alternate day schedules or have decided that their child will stay home rather than go into schools where the danger is real. Secretary DeVos is supporting the president’s proposal to strip already cash-starved public school districts of federal funds if they don’t fully open, despite the health risks.
America’s public school teachers already know that they are not as valued as they should be, are not paid commensurate with their educational levels and value to society, and are seen as union saps who slavishly toe the NEA/UFT line. The president went so far as saying that history teachers especially seek to propagandize students and teach them to hate America. None of this is in any way accurate
but, there is a sizable chunk of people in this country who believe it.
The difference now is that teachers are being asked to put their health and lives at risk. Even in districts that will have students alternate days or weeks, teachers are expected to be in classrooms every day. The best science we have now says that the virus thrives in poorly ventilated, enclosed rooms where people are exposed to each other for lengthy periods of time while talking, coughing, sneezing, or singing. In short, your child’s classroom. This is the part of the discussion that the president and Secretary DeVos have ignored or minimized. Yes, school is about student learning, but it’s also about teachers who make sure that the classroom is safe and secure.
For all of the planning, my sense is that schools will be shut down again because this virus is not going away. Students will test positive. Teachers will test positive (is this the point at which the lawsuits begin?). Communities will be justifiably angry and scared. Maybe this happens in October or maybe it happens when the flu starts to mingle in around November or December.
We have one chance to get this reopening right. Let’s make sure we do just that.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
Florida is going through a lot these days. In addition to being a new epicenter for Covid-19 since Florida’s governor reopened the state too early to please Donald Trump, the state is now host to a brain-eating amoeba.
One person in Hillsborough County has been infected with a potentially lethal amoeba that can cause brain tissue damage, according to a Hillsborough County Health Department release on Friday.
The Naegleria fowleri is sometimes referred to as a “brain-eating amoeba.” The “microscopic single-celled living amoeba” is usually found in ponds, rivers, lakes and other warm freshwater environments. It can lead to primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), a rare infection that can result in destruction of brain tissue and is often fatal.
The Health Department news release did not disclose the water body involved, the identity of the person infected or their condition.nullRELATED: Rabid otters, flying fish, brain-eating amoebas: Here’s how Florida can kill you
The infection occurs when the amoeba enters the nose through contaminated water and travels to the brain. Its peak season is July through August, when there are lower water levels and higher water temperatures over a prolonged time period. The amoeba is more common throughout the South.
Since 1962, there have been 37 reported cases in Florida. Health officials recommend avoiding swimming in warm freshwater and “thermally polluted” bodies of water, like that near power plants. These activities should especially be avoided when water levels are lower and temperatures are higher. As an extra precaution, swimmers should hold their noses shut or use nose clips when in warm freshwater environments and avoid disrupting sediment.
Symptoms include fever, nausea, headaches, vomiting, loss of balance, stiff neck, seizures and hallucinations. A physician should be contacted immediately if one experiences these symptoms, as the infection progresses quickly.UP NEXT:At least 11 Publix employees test positive for COVID-19 in Tampa Bay area
The New York Times is reporting that Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of President Trump’s eldest son and a top fund-raising official for the Trump re-election campaign, tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday before a Fourth of July event at Mount Rushmore, a person familiar with her condition said.
Ms. Guilfoyle traveled to South Dakota with Mr. Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., in anticipation of attending a huge fireworks display where the president was set to speak. They did not travel aboard Air Force One, according to the person familiar with her condition, and she was the only person in the group who tested positive.
Yes, Fox News…
An Amazing video. They thought they’re talking about Joe Biden, but this video shows that the things they were saying lines up perfectly with their president.
Video
https://twitter.com/clairecmc/status/1278652944301375501
If their president can be a racist in the Whitehouse, why can’t they be racist in Pennsylvania? This particular racist was so angry that ‘Black Lives Matter’ protesters want to live freely in the land of the free and the home of the brave, that she just couldn’t suppress her racism.
New Jersey has finally released its long-awaited school reopening plan and the reaction has been…mixed at best.
The main takeaway is that all school buildings must be open for at least some in-person instruction, but since students will be required to be at least six feet apart in classrooms, the cafeteria and on buses, this new plan will require some serious reconfiguration of people and materials. The main question is whether opening buildings and requiring stringent rules will result in greater educational outcomes than the remote learning experiment most of the nation conducted in the spring.
Perhaps.
Releasing the new guidelines was necessary now because school districts and parents will need time to adjust their procedures in time for the late August/early September resumption of the education calendar. Schools will be required to buy barriers between desks and maybe cafeteria tables. They will need to buy sanitizer and dispensers and enact a plan to disinfect bathrooms, playgrounds, and classrooms after almost every use. Parents will need to plan their schedules around schools that will require students to be in school on some days/weeks and at home on others.
But all of this will be dependent on the least predictable variable of all: how the spread of Covid-19 will affect us. Right now, New Jersey is seeing a great, and welcome, reduction in cases, hospitalizations, and fatalities. As we reopen, will we see a spike in cases, as other states have seen? My guess is that we will. And we haven’t even opened indoor dining and businesses to the extent that we will in the coming weeks. I just hope that everyone wears a mask, but that’s unrealistic.
The most pressing problem, though, is the continued education of our students. The state budget is bound to be depleted by the economic downturn and, the expected loss of tax revenue, and the federal government doesn’t seem keen to offer help. How will districts pay for the virus mitigation protocols listed in the state guidance? And what will they have to give up in order to do so? How will they also pay for the computers and software we’ll need if (when) we experience a second wave of infections in October or November and we need to shut down again?
New schedules might allow for more social distancing, but it will still require students to alternate in-class instruction with remote learning. This will mean that teachers in middle and high schools will be teaching two audiences daily, which will require that students have computers and reliable Internet access. How are we supposed to schedule tests, writing, labs? Some of this can be done on the web, but students at home will have access to materials that might give them an advantage on an assignment. This we call cheating. What of the health issues for both students and staff? Teachers will be required to wear masks all day, while students will be “guided” to do so. There’s also a section in the guidance that says that teachers with health concerns will not be penalized if they can’t return to the buildings. If a teacher needs to teach remotely, will the district hire a substitute to sit with the in-school class? All of these will doubtless affect the quality of instruction.
So many concerns and questions. Districts will have until the beginning of August to work out the details, which will then change as conditions change. The result will be a school year unlike any other.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
I am absolutely sure that everyone knows where Trump stands on race relations in America. But just in case you were orbiting space over the last 40 years and hadn’t heard of Trump’s racist past, this latest display by the man some refer to as the president of the Unite States, should be an eye opener.
Donald Trump just retweeted a video from The Villages, where a man is heard glorifying “white power.“
The video, apparently taken at The Villages, a retirement community in Florida, people with Trump shirts and signs on their golf carts drive by protesters yelling insults at them and about the president.
One exchange — eight seconds into the 2-minute video — a white man holding a sign that says “Make America Sane Again,” a reference to Trump’s campaign slogan, yells: “Where’s your white hood?” In response, a white man driving a golf cart with signs reading “Trump 2020” and “America First” yells back “white power.”
Be be aware that the emotions in this video are raw, and so is the language.
