In my state of Minnesota a black man
died at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. There was no
reason for his death. He had done nothing to deserve that. Since
then our streets and many others around the country have erupted in a
paroxysm of rage and grief. Many, either in the streets or in the
halls of government, have tried to make this about themselves,
inciting a violence that only further hurts the Floyd family and the
community where they live. Those people only disrespect the memory
of a man who died so tragically.
I would like to honor Mr. Floyd's
memory with one of the most beautiful renditions of this song that I
have heard.
For all of the peaceful
demonstrators who have come out to honor Mr. Floyd and to seek a
justice that has been so scarce in the past.
255 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 255 of 255"Was it that Trump supporters are showing some kind of
responsible behavior…"
Trump's support is especially concentrated among those over 65 years old. These are also the folks most at risk of death from the virus. If you define "responsible behavior" as "I don't wanna die for Trump", then I guess we can call it a combination of causal factors.
Oh this is interesting. There was a woman, older grandmotherly type, who posted a video on TikTok regarding the history of Black Wall Street and Tulsa, and the original date Trump chose of Juneteenth for his rally. It ended up going viral because many people had not heard anything about the history of Black Wall Street. So people on various social media sites came up with the idea of a silent protest. A lot of kids, mostly, called to sign up for tickets for the rally and then never showed up.
The question then is, if this is true, will it happen again?
"A lot of kids, mostly, called to sign up for tickets for
the rally and then never showed up."
Yeah, I had heard about that. That was actually the old woman's idea (claim tickets and then don't show). However, notwithstanding they issue "tickets", it was run on a first-come, first in basis. They ignored the tickets as they always do; they don't ever take up the tickets. The tickets are just an excuse for them to collect your mailing data to plump up Trump's voter list for the get-out-the-vote efforts to come in November.
So, yeah, the empty seats could easily happen again.
ABC News (Martha Raddatz) is doing a one-hour interview with John Bolton tonight; 9:00 pm CDT.
Estimates of attendance at the Tulsa Trump rally run from 6,200 (Forbes) to 10,000 (TulsaWorld--the local daily paper).
Word out on national broadcast TV news is that Trump is "livid", although who's takin' the rap for this ain't quite clear yet.
Looks like the ABC interview with John Bolton has been moved up an hour to 8:00 CDT.
Word out on national broadcast TV news is that Trump is "livid",...
I can see where that might have bugged Trump a teeny weeny bit. They hit him where it hurts, his image. The only thing that would hurt worse is if they boycotted his properties.
Those ghost tickets really threw off the Trump campaign estimates. Word is, is that Jared and Ivanka aren't too pleased either. Yes, it does roll down hill.
I watched the interview with John Bolton. I've never been too much of a fan of Bolton, but at least he was an intelligent speaker. So different from his former boss, who I cannot stand to even listen to now.
Bolton basically confirmed that Putin et al know how to play Trump. But Bolton too is concerned about ending up with another four years of Trump. Something we have in common. He won't vote for Biden, he will write in a candidate.
I just wish people would listen to those from Trump's administration who are trying to warn us about Trump's incompetence. By now people should realize.
The dedicated Trumpkins aren't concerned with competence; they're dedicated to getting "payback" on the America they think has wronged them. Trump's getting them some of the payback they crave; that's enough to keep 'em loyal.
Several articles out today suggesting that the current planning inside the Trump campaign centers around whom to blame for Saturday's fiasco in Tulsa. After they settle that then maybe they can move on to what to do about it (i.e. whom to fire this time).
Just browsing this evening, been kinda slow news day. And I swung by Trump's Twitter feed and discovered that Trump is tweeting about "White Jesus".
Doesn't look good. Seriously.
He'll probably recover, but I've been skimming headlines since Trump got home to the White House on Saturday night after the Tulsa fiasco, and it's lookin' to me like he's really struggling to keep his shit together. So, "probably recover" is about as far out on that limb as I'm willing to go just now.
And I swung by Trump's Twitter feed and discovered that Trump is tweeting about "White Jesus".
Doesn't look good. Seriously.
He's making good on his prediction that he could shoot someone on 5th Ave (or whatever road it was) in broad daylight and get away with it.
*sigh*
I'm tired of all of the people who can't see the forest for the trees. It's getting really old.
I predicted this some time back. Now it's in the headlines of the New York Times: "E.U. May Bar American Travelers as It Reopens Borders, Citing Failures on Virus". Okay, it didn't take a genius to see that one comin'. But, now it's here, so I thought I'd mention it again.
NewYorkMagazine had an excellent article unfortunately entitled "People Don’t Trust Public-Health Experts Because Public-Health Experts Don’t Trust People" which explores some of the core failures of America's efforts to handle the coronavirus pandemic, including, of course, messaging failures by the medical experts, which got all the limelight in the title. Not too long; worth the read just to know there are still some writers who attempt to write balanced and sensible articles.
The topic of the day should be NOOSES!
You know like the NOOSES hanging in a park (where a black man later came out to say they were excercise equipment)
Or where that one black NASCAR driver found (or was told of) a NOOSE hanging in his parking lot (which turned out to be a standard manual garage door opener that was there long before the team even rented the facility - after FBI investigated)
But hey! Don’t let that fool you. Whites across America are putting up NOOSES these days. For the hatred of brownish hue.
Btw Lee: have you knelt yet?
And also I see now Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson are among the statues defiled and tried to be taken down. What’s y’all’s optioning on that? Bc maybe even the White House will need to come down the way things are progressing.
I've been in favor of striking all favorable governmental references to Andrew Jackson for many years now. I don't think he should be on the twenty-dollar bill; I don't think he should have statues posted in his honor. (I don't think he deserves to be honored.)
I got nothing in particular against Jefferson (And before you tell me had slaves, I'll tell you that he had debts--died an undeclared bankrupt, just as he had lived most of his life flirting on the edges of bankruptcy. Virginia law specifically forbade him from freeing his slaves until he proved he could pay his debts. That was one of the requirements for manumission in Virginia--that the slaveholder be debt-free so that the slave could not be considered "collateral" for the slave owner's debts. Whether or not he would have freed his slave had that not been the case is unknown.)
Jeffrey:
“Marcus,
I take a knee for no one.”
Good on you. Me neither. I said a man might kneel before God, but that of course means a religious man would, and I am not one.
Then I said a man might kneel before a King to give his fealty, but that was more in a historic context and not really something I would like us to go back to.
Whites kneeling before blacks at this time in age sickens me to my stomach. It implies that you being white gives you some sort of inherited guilt towards the blacks. It’s just lunacy.
So who decides what versions of your history to abolish and which to keep?
BC I can assure you Lee when that cat’s outta the bag it will surely not stop at your convenience.
And Lee: knelt yet?
"So who decides what versions of your history to abolish
and which to keep?"
You misunderstand; perhaps you misunderstand willfully; perhaps you just ain't quite bright.
I don't wish to abolish any history. Andrew Jackson does not deserve the honor of being on the twenty dollar bill, nor does he deserve the honors of statues in remembrance. I want people to know our history and to know that much happens to be true.
So if you buy slaves and have them slave for you it’s all ok if the BANK forbids you to sell them BC the bank fears you might default on your loans if you were deprived of your slave labor. That’d be about right Lee?
Have you knelt?
"…it’s all ok if the BANK forbids you to sell them…"
I'm gonna havta go with misunderstanding willfully at this point. Highly unlikely you could misinterpret to that extent by accident.
But Andrew Jackson IS part of your history. OK choosing someone else for a new bill is one thing, we do that all the time when we renew our currencies. But tearing down old monuments, that’s something else. Surely you can see that.
Knelt yet?
Andrew Jackson didn't deserve the monuments when they went up. He deserves approbation, not monuments. I'm totally in favor of remembering our history all of it, and correctly. I'm in favor of taking him off the twenty dollar bill and trashing all monuments and public honors to Andrew Jackson. (Maybe give him credit for the Battle of New Orleans--the song, not the battle which was an unnecessary blood-bath fought over two weeks after the war was ended by signed treaty.)
The last sane man, Tucker:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv6Y3a4BV6E&feature=emb_rel_pause
Watch it!
"E.U. May Bar American Travelers as It Reopens Borders, Citing Failures on Virus".
I saw that and remembered your prediction. Can't say as I blame them.
New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are going to require 14 day quarantine for those traveling from high Covid-19 states. They don't want to back slide. Good luck. I think China tried that for travelers coming in from outside the country and they still have cases popping up.
This really won't be over until there has been a high enough infection rate to slow the spread. Or a vaccine.
How's Sweden doing?
By the way, just as a "heads up" kinda thing. Trump has ordered himself a fireworks show at Mount Rushmore this year (election year--good visuals for the PR President running for reëlection).
One week from today. They're figuring on hosting 7,500 dedicated Trumpkins for a possible reboot of the Traveling Trump Reëlection Show, and maybe helping overcome the visuals that came out of Tulsa.
Mount Rushmore is firmly in the grips of a "D2" level "moderate" drought.
Bunch of Trumpkins, out in the dark, shootin' off fireworks in the middle of a dry ponderosa pine forest.
What could go wrong?
I'll wish them good luck with that, be a shame to lose the forest just so's Trump can entertain his Trumpkins and pump up his reëlection campaign.
Bunch of Trumpkins, out in the dark, shootin' off fireworks in the middle of a dry ponderosa pine forest.
What could go wrong?
Typical Trump administration planning. That's why our country is in such a mess.
Petes,
And hello to you.
It looks like the wild days of the blogosphere have come and gone. Twitter and Facebook, in my view, tapped into the worst aspects of human communication. Lengthy debates have no place on those platforms. Virtue signaling is about all you get. Podcasting is where I'm finding the most debate, but it doesn't allow the listeners to engage at length, so not the same as a blog entry and an attached comments page.
Sadly, Lee C. is suffering from Anti-Trumpkin's Disease. Currently there is no vaccine, so we'll just have to pray for the sheriff.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Marcus,
It’s just lunacy.
Absolutely. Over the last month or so, I've watched from here in China as Americans have become unhinged -- well, at least the Americans who have nothing better to do than engage in histrionic protest theater. When I saw a video of a street full of protestors lying on their stomachs and yelling "I can't breathe," I couldn't believe the idiocy of those people. Morons all.
Many African American commentators have called all of this for what it really is, a low hustle.
Yes, I'd love to see Sheriff Lee C. kneel in front of a black American and apologize for the racism coursing in his white blood.
Jeffrey -- Ningbo, China
*
Seems that Trump campaign officials have begun planning for how to avoid a repeat of recriminations like those following Trump's Tulsa fiasco come the Republican National Convention in August (Trump's Acceptance Speech now scheduled for a massive crowd of delirious, dedicated Trumpkins on August 27th in Jacksonville, Florida, although technically the Convention will be held in Charlottesville, North Carolina).
At this early point they appear to be mostly concentrated on how to not be the body who bears the blame should large and rapturous crowds of dedicated Trumpkins not descend on Jacksonville for the occassion. Politico Perhaps later they will get around to the part where they start planning on how to convince, or, if necessary, conscript, the sought after massive crowds of delirious, dedicated Trumpkins.
Lynnette:
“ How's Sweden doing?”
Depends. Better than some countries even some that did full lock down. But significantly worse than our Scandinavian neighbors. About 5200 dead so far but it’s decreasing. And now that Europe is starting to open up we find ourselves somewhat of a pariah nation. We’re not allowed in in many countries.
Which I completely understand. If say Norway did a costly lockdown which prevented Corona spread and we did not it would be insane for them to now let us in when we have much higher infection rates. Their politicians couldn’t even do it if they wanted to bc if it led to even one Norwegian dying from being infected by a visiting Swede there would be hell to pay.
Still, I don’t think you can just go by death numbers from the virus itself, I think you have to counter that w the serious downsides of a lockdown, economically, mentally, and for health reasons.
So, not sure we did it right, but not convinced we were wrong either. Clearly the doom some predicted for us never materialized, but we may well have suffered more deaths than we could have. Plus I’m not sure there is one strategy that works optimally for every nation. So, difficult to say still wether Sweden did this right or wrong, probably a bit of both.
The Russians are voting today to change the Russian Constitution to allow Vladimir Putin to remain as Head-of-State until the year 2036. Putin is in control of the counting of the votes, so the outcome is not much in doubt. Trump is trending a touch greener than his usual shade of orange.
Pete:
First of all nice ta see ya after so long.
“ Witness his inability to grapple with crime statistics when confronted by Marcus. But then he's always had trouble with figgers. You put me in mind that Lee swore blind that Wikipedia's entry on Mathematical Fallacies was wrong. A page that gets 100,000 views a year and has thousands of edits. And Lee is the only person who spotted the problem. He never did get from step 3 to step 4 of that division by zero argument. I can easily understand someone bein' dumb enough to not get it. After all, it probably requires basic secondary school algebra, such as a 12-year-old might grasp. But to not understand it and still claim to spot a flaw that half a million viewers didn't -- that needs a breathtaking level of arrogance. Which pretty much sums up ole' Lee.”
I said it before that I know you Pete are way superior to me in math (although I also don’t need your level of math, what I have is enough for me so I never aspired to learn more, which I could have done) but also that with my own above average understanding of math I am far superior to Lee, whose math skills are rudimentary at best.
You see, the reason Lee can’t phantom how much inferior he is to you when it comes to math is because he’s so inept at it. It’s like a really, really dumb person thinking he’s smart because he’s to much of an idiot to realize just how stupid he in fact is. That’s the case with Lee and math. The man can’t even grasp simple enough statistics. Doubt he could set up a first grade equation even if he had two knowns and one unknown..
But he’s probably got tougher hide on his knees than either you or me from all that KNEELING before blacks he does to make himself feel good.
Plus I’m not sure there is one strategy that works optimally for every nation.
It was always a tough call. The virus isn't going away. The only thing the lock downs could do is delay the number of cases to allow our medical systems to handle the case load and for us to possibly develop a vaccine or effective treatment.
We have to find a way to ride out the pandemic without totally decimating our economies. It takes smart leadership in government, which is why you see the US in such a mess now.
Trump is trending a touch greener than his usual shade of orange.
Jealousy is no virtue. But then nobody would ever accuse Trump of being virtuous.
"The only thing the lock downs could do is delay the number of
cases to allow our medical systems to handle the case load…"
That's not true, not even quite half-true. The other part of the lock-down, the most important part of the lock-down was to allow time for us to get up to speed on testing the population and preparing for "contact tracing" to help prevent the further spread of the virus after the lock-downs were lifted. Supposedly that was gonna come after the "contact tracing" capability was built up. But, the Trump administration screwed that up initially, and then just abandoned the effort entirely. Easier than trying to actually do the work involved. (Sweden has built up their "contact tracing" capabilities whilst they're mostly waiting out the virus.) We, unfortunately, have not been able to mount a national effort to do the necessary contact tracing for persons exposed (nor even for the smaller group of those who've actually become infected). That means we can expect a rather worse outcome over the course of the summer and fall than even the Swedes (on a per capita basis).
We thus have the worst of both approaches--we have the economic shock from the lock-down, and we've simply abandoned the efforts to reap the benefits the lock-down could have bought us.
The European Union is now preparing its list of countries from which they will accept foreign travelers beginning on the 1st of July. China is (tentatively) on the list, pending China's reciprocal agreement to start allowing E.U travelers entry into China once again.
Conspicuously, the United States is not on the list. We weren't even considered; it wasn't even close. WashingtonPost
We'll probably hear more about this next week as the midnight hour approaches.
American Exceptionalism in action I guess it is.
...the most important part of the lock-down was to allow time for us to get up to speed on testing the population and preparing for "contact tracing" to help prevent the further spread of the virus...
I honestly don't believe that to be true, at least not here. Oh, that may have been their intent, but by the time we initiated the lock-down the virus had already spread too far. They seem to only be realizing that now, yet there was evidence of Covid-19 here in Minnesota before March, when our testing began. Contact tracing may work in the beginning when there are few cases and you can isolate those people, but if it is widespread all of the contact tracing won't stop it.
People keep accusing China of being lax at reporting this, but what about us? My sister-in-law became sick after a cruise in early February. She went to the Doctor and he tested her for the flu, which came back negative. A number of people at a bank branch near my office were sick in January and when they went to the doctor's office they too couldn't tell them what they had. Basically they were told they had some kind of virus and to go home. A client exhibited the Covid toes symptom in mid-January before coming down with some of the more severe respiratory symptoms.
My sister-in-laws Dr's office called not too long ago to go over all the symptoms she had back in February, which included severe headache and fatigue, breathing difficulty and diarrhea. They believe she had Covid. She is waiting for a reliable anti-body test.
We didn't lock-down until March. We took longer to ramp up testing because there weren't enough supplies. For us I don't think contact tracing was even an option. No matter how they may have tried.
No, for that to work we needed to have in place a preparation plan before the virus showed up on our shores. Donald Trump has been systematically dismantling anything that Obama put in place to deal with this type of emergency.
We were screwed from day one.
Conspicuously, the United States is not on the list.
Probably a wise move.
But it will take more than that kind of isolation to prevent a second wave in Europe. Good luck.
"I honestly don't believe that to be true, at least not here."
Well then, you've missed out on some of the explanations of how those things work.
First thing to know is that "contact tracing" isn't a one-off event meant to eradicate the virus. It's supposed to be a persistent effort that we have to keep up until a vaccine or an effective treatment is found. It's not about "stopping it". You are correct that eradicating the virus wasn't an option; wasn't gonna happen. Contact tracing is all about minimizing the new infection rate.
South Korea (again) reported its first known case of covid-19 within a day of our first known case. (And it may have been in both places earlier than they know.) It took off in South Korea first and worst (they had that secretive religious cult spreading it).
They've been doing aggressive contact tracing and they have their new infections down to 48 today (Saturday here, Sunday morning in Korea). That's considered an outbreak in South Korea now. Their infection rates are stable; ours are going up again.
And we're also getting new infections at a much higher rate than the European Union, which has more people, but we have more covid-19--enough higher that they've quarantined us. Americans can't visit Europe anymore.
I don't know where you got the notion that contact tracing was supposed to "beat" the disease, but they sold you a bill of goods on that one. (Standard Republican game theory--pretend that any effort to contain an unwanted side effect (global warming for instance) must be a perfect cure or it's not worth the price--no matter how cheap the price compared to the evil)
But, even without the capacity "beat" the virus into oblivion, it could have kept the infection rate down and the death rate down, both to manageable levels. Now we've let the virus run out of control again when that didn't havta happen. And if we could reopen to business internationally, which ain't happenin' now, it might help with the economic recovery.
Post Script:
"For us I don't think contact tracing was even an option."
Just to be clear on how this is supposed to work. It's still an option. Even at this late stage. At least it would be under any other federal administration. But, we don't have any other federal administration; we have Trump.
... we have Trump.
*deep mournful sigh*
I know.
But, even without the capacity "beat" the virus into oblivion, it could have kept the infection rate down and the death rate down, both to manageable levels.
South Korea has around 52 million people and the US has around 330 million. Yes, I get that contact tracing would be a tool in fighting the virus, but unfortunately even if we are willing we have problems with bodies.
You want per capita comparisons, is that it? South Korea's monster outbreak for yesterday would translate into 144 people in the United States. Just for that one day. Our average is now runnin' near'bouts 40,000 new cases a day. Stop and consider that for a moment. The South Korean equivalent (per capita) from Sunday would be 144 cases, and that was considered a monster outbreak. Compared to:
"Across the United States, 39,327 new coronavirus infections
were reported by state health departments on Thursday…"
WashingtonPost
That's contact tracing, right there. And we could still start doing it for real, that is, if we didn't have the Trump administration actively trying to get all his dedicated Trumpkins to pretend along with him that the threat from the virus has passed (and successfully getting them to make that pretense no less--for now anyway, but for how long is a still open question).
144----40,000. That's contact tracing. It works.
Germany, which let the virus get away from them early on, is now down to an average of 687 new cases per day as of the 26th.
Germany's population is a little over 83 million so that works out to 2,731 new cases per day (population equivalent basis).
2,731 - - - against - - - 40,000. Consider that for a moment.
Italy was a famous disaster just a few short weeks ago. Their current case average was 255 on the 26th. That's a population adjusted equivalence to 1,403 new cases per day.
1,403 - - - against - - - 40,000. That's contact tracing at work. It works.
"Their current new case average was 255 on the 26th."
"…unfortunately even if we are willing we have problems
with bodies."
We have 40 million people newly out of work and drawing unemployment. We got no problem with bodies. Not if we want the bodies to be doing the work. Plenty of willing unemployed folks out there. It's not hard to grasp; training will go quick (and can be done online).
Sweden has a daily new new case count of 1,299 as of the 27th (averaged over the last seven days). (NYT) Adjusted to population equivalence that'd be 41,618, and their case rate is spiking up again, but not quite as steeply as ours. It's gonna be a race to see who can lose the most citizens per 100,000 going forward, us or Sweden. Right now they're ahead on dead but only by a nose. We can still take 'em this coming week.
So we got the worst of both models--we abandoned the containment model after taking the full and complete economic shock, and the Swedish "just let them what's gonna die go ahead and die" model is now in full force here as well as in Sweden.
That's contact tracing at work. It works.
I never said I was against contact tracing. But even California which was actually trying it seems not to have been able to make it work. Their cases are rising again just like so many others.
In Minnesota we have seen a couple of outbreaks which were traced back to a couple of bars and gatherings there of the younger crowd. As far as I am aware they just put out the notice to anyone who had patronized either place within the last couple of weeks to watch for symptoms. Of course by now they have come into contact with who knows how many people. Contact tracing will only help if people are willing to self quarantine once they have found they have been exposed.
If we are going to have to live with this virus for a while we must maintain the practices that were put in place earlier, the social distancing and the mask wearing. But people aren't even willing to do that.
One interesting thing, the protests for George Floyd did not result in a large spike in cases of participants. They are thinking it was being outside that put a break on the spread. Not all, but quite a few people were wearing masks. Of course, in that situation perhaps a mask was an attractive option for some who preferred to maintain a low profile.
"But even California which was actually trying it seems not
to have been able to make it work."
That's because we have the White House actively undermining the effort. We have one of the major political parties committed to undermining the effort. This is called "American Exceptionalism", and it appears to be indeed uniquely American. (With the possible exception of Sweden.)
This is called "American Exceptionalism", and it appears to be indeed uniquely American.
I don't know that I would go so far as to think we are the only ones who sabotage themselves. But we certainly seem to be getting good at it.
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