Day: June 15, 2020

Closing Thought–15Jun20

You know how I keep saying that our elected reps are gutless and spineless?

Well I have proof.

First the Trump bunch of thugs have given Israel the green light to finish stealing Palestinian land by annexing the West Bank’s Occupied Territories.

Congress people have been given permission to criticize Israel over this annexation thing.

The leading pro-Israel lobby in the United States is telling lawmakers that they are free to criticize Israel’s looming annexation plans — just as long as the criticism stops there.

Two sources — a congressional aide and a donor — say the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, is delivering that guidance in Zoom meetings and phone calls with lawmakers. The message is unusual because the group assiduously discourages public criticism of Israel.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-aipac-gives-us-lawmakers-green-light-to-criticize-israel-on-annexation/

Does anyone see the cowardice?

Ask permission?

It is okay to speak up against Israel…..

How f*cking pathetic that these spineless bastards are so owned by Israel that they cannot have an opinion without permission.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Open For Business

2.1 million cases……..115,700 deaths…..and rising……

That is the sign that Donald the Orange wants to hang out on the nation…..and since about 01 June state after state has re-opened and ended its isolation……and the prediction is that the cases of Covid-19 will rise with the exposure that citizens are opening themselves up to now that they return to “normal”……

It is now indisputable that the campaign by the White House and major corporations to prematurely reopen businesses has led to a surge in COVID-19 infections throughout the United States.

Between June 6 and 9, there was a 36 percent increase in the average number of new cases in the US, according to a leaked report by the Centers for Disease Control. At 27,221, yesterday saw the highest number of new cases since May 21. Globally, new cases surged to a new record, at more than 140,000.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/06/13/pers-j13.html

And in those states that are opened up…the cases are starting to spike….yet again……

One month ago, I asked epidemiologist Tara Smith if she was worried about states loosening their stay-at-home orders, despite most not meeting the government’s criteria for doing so.

“I am really fearful that by June 1 or June 15, after we’ve seen a couple weeks to a month of [state reopenings], that our cases are going to be climbing,” said Smith, a professor at the Kent State University College of Public Health.

Well, here we are. It’s June 12, and Covid-19 hospitalizations are rising in Arizona, the Carolinas, Utah, Arkansas, Texas, Tennessee, and perhaps Florida. Those states are also seeing higher numbers of positive Covid-19 tests, as well as increases in the percentage of tests that come back positive. This indicates that the higher case counts aren’t simply due to more widespread testing finding milder cases.

Call it a reopening backfire. But really: No expert thought that reopening this quickly was going to work in the first place.

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/6/12/21288009/new-covid-spikes-arizona-florida-carolinas-texas

Is your state opening up?  If so how are the numbers?

Any thoughts about this return to work thing?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Attack On Guardsmen

Let me say here that there are some things happening in these protests that I do not agree with in any shape….contrary to popular belief.

While deployed for duty in DC……The National Guard from South Carolina was sent a pizza that had broken glass baked into the crust…..

While deployed in Washington, D.C., responding to protests, two soldiers with the South Carolina National Guard discovered glass in their pizza, a new report says.

The soldiers were staying at the Marriott Marquis Hotel and used Uber Eats to deliver the pizza from an unnamed local establishment, the Post and Courier reports, citing a Defense Department report on the incident. But upon its arrival, the soldiers found the pizza had pieces of glass baked into the dough and cheese.

The soldiers weren’t harmed, and the S.C. National Guard believes it was an isolated incident.

“The service members are okay. It was a single incident. Their command said the Soldiers were advised to file a report with local police department. From my understanding they chose not to. There is no additional information to report,” Capt. Jessica Donnelly, a spokeswoman for the S.C. National Guard, said in an email to Military Times.

(Military Times)

Let me say here that this is unacceptable…..this is an act of terrorism in my book.  This is the act of a coward.

Now my analyst mind kicks in and I ask why was it not reported to the police?

After all it was an attempt on the lives of serving members of the South Carolina National Guard….this was a crime and needed reporting to the police to make the offenders pay for their murderous attempt.

Again…why was this not reported?

Why was the South Carolina National Guard singled out?

Why is the Uber Eats driver not interviewed?

Surely someone out there has an opinion on this incident…after all they have lots to say about stuff that they have no idea what they are talking about….why not this one?

I have a feeling that those most offended by this report will have little say now that it is in the rear view mirror.

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

World News–2020

There is a lot of news in the country these days……from Covid-19 to Minneapolis to Atlanta to…..so any world news gets lost in the media noise of the day……

I watch international news for those stories that may inform or entertain……these are a couple of reports that did not make the nightly news…..

Remember North Korea?

Well the sis of Lil Kim has made her feelings known….

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un threatened military action against South Korea as she bashed Seoul on Saturday over declining bilateral relations and its inability to stop activists from floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border, the AP reports. Describing South Korea as an “enemy,” Kim Yo Jong repeated an earlier threat she had made by saying Seoul will soon witness the collapse of a “useless” inter-Korean liaison office in the border town of Kaesong. Kim, who is first vice department director of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee, said she would leave it to North Korea’s military leaders to carry out the next step of retaliation against the South.

“By exercising my power authorized by the supreme leader, our party and the state, I gave an instruction to the arms of the department in charge of the affairs with enemy to decisively carry out the next action,” she said in a statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, adding that the army “will determine something for cooling down our people’s resentment and surely carry out it, I believe.” Kim Yo Jong’s harsh rhetoric demonstrates her elevated status in North Korea’s leadership. Already seen as the most powerful woman in the country and her brother’s closest confidant, state media recently confirmed that she is now in charge of relations with South Korea.

I still think that she is setting the stage for her to be the heir apparent to Lil Kim……

This report falls in the category of Oh! Crap!

Poland invaded the Czech Republic last month in what one official has called a “misunderstanding,” the BBC reports. Polish troops were apparently guarding a closed border to keep up coronavirus measures when they crossed a road, putting them in Czech territory—where they stayed a few days and kept people from entering a local church. “A soldier dressed in the uniform of a foreign state and carrying a sub-machine gun started giving me orders,” says Ivo Dokoupil, an environmentalist whose group planned to visit the church and snap photos. “It was a terrifying experience. They wouldn’t let me get closer than 10 meters.”

Local Czech police were soon called and the troops were told to head out. “Our Polish counterparts unofficially assured us that this incident was merely a misunderstanding caused by the Polish military with no hostile intention, however, we are still expecting a formal statement,” a Czech Foreign Ministry spokesperson tells CNN. “The Polish soldiers are no longer present and our citizens can again visit the site freely.” Indeed, Poland’s defense ministry calls it “a result of misunderstanding, not a deliberate act.” The “invasion” occurred in north-eastern Moravia, an area that’s part of historical Silesia, which crosses over into the modern-day Czech Republic.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”