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August 11, 2020
Members of Black Lives Matter held a solidarity rally on Monday night with the more than 100 individuals who were arrested after a night of looting and unrest in Chicago. The rally was held at the South Loop police station where organizers say those individuals are currently being held in custody.
“I don’t care if someone decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy’s or a Nike store, because that makes sure that person eats,” Ariel Atkins, a BLM organizer, said. “That makes sure that person has clothes.”
Black Lives Matter Chicago organized the rally after overnight unrest throughout the city, with police saying that more than 100 individuals were taken into custody for a variety of offenses, including looting.
“That is reparations,” Atkins said. “Anything they wanted to take, they can take it because these businesses have insurance.”
(excerpt)
Black Lives Matter: Looting in Chicago is reparations
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/black-lives-matter-holds-rally-supporting-individuals-arrested-in-chicago-looting-monday/2320365/Members of Black Lives Matter held a solidarity rally on Monday night with the more than 100 individuals who were arrested after a night of looting and unrest in Chicago. The rally was held at the South Loop police station where organizers say those individuals are currently being held in custody.
“I don’t care if someone decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy’s or a Nike store, because that makes sure that person eats,” Ariel Atkins, a BLM organizer, said. “That makes sure that person has clothes.”
Black Lives Matter Chicago organized the rally after overnight unrest throughout the city, with police saying that more than 100 individuals were taken into custody for a variety of offenses, including looting.
“That is reparations,” Atkins said. “Anything they wanted to take, they can take it because these businesses have insurance.”
(excerpt)
August 10, 2020
A question for those who are against the use of atomics bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki:
On the 75th anniversary of use of an atomic bomb of the city Nagasaki, I would like to pose a question to those who think that the US should not have ussd them on those targets:
What would you done to defeat Japan?
Specifically, presuming you are against the use of atomic weapons on any Japanese city during WW2, Here are the major strategies we used or anticipated using against Japan, starting in March of 1945. Which of the following would you use?
1) Firebombing of Japanese cities
2) Attacking military targets using conventional forces
3) Mining Japanese waters to destroy shipping ("Operation Starvation" )
4) Invasion of the Japanese Home Islands ("Operation Downfall", projected to begin in March, 1946)
If you have an alternative, please list it.
Lastly, when do you anticipate Japan would surrender based upon your decisions?
August 6, 2020
Cuomo calls on wealthy to return to New York City: 'You got to come back!'
Source: The Hill
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is calling on the wealthy to return to New York City from their weekend homes in the surrounding suburbs, fearing they may choose to stay and file taxes there.
“I literally talk to people all day long who are now in their Hamptons house who also lived here, or in their Hudson Valley house or in their Connecticut weekend house, and I say, ‘You got to come back, when are you coming back?’” Cuomo said at a press conference Monday.
"'We'll go to dinner, I'll buy you a drink, come over, I’ll cook,'” Cuomo added in jest.
His comments come as state legislators and some New York lawmakers in Washington have called for him to adopt a billionaire’s tax, which he has vehemently rejected.
Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/510829-cuomo-calls-on-wealthy-to-return-to-new-york-city-you-got-to-come-back
August 5, 2020
It's not a tumor, but it has been cut out like one. NW Film Center had planned to kick off Cinema Unbound, its summer drive-in movie series at Zidell Yards, on Aug. 6 with a screening of the 1990 action-comedy Kindergarten Cop. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a police detective who goes undercover as a kindergarten teacher in order to bust a drug dealer, the movie was filmed in Astoria, Ore., and celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. NWFC had planned to show the film "for its importance in Oregon filmmaking history," according to a press release.
Those plans are now off—in part, it would appear, due to an online campaign against the screening. In announcing the cancellation, NWFC said it came to the decision after discussions with "staff and community members" convinced them that, given the current political climate, it would be wiser instead to add a second screening of Good Trouble, the new documentary on civil rights icon John Lewis, who died July 17. A screening scheduled for Aug. 7 had already sold out.
On Saturday, Portland author Lois Leveen—whose writing credits include contributions to The New York Times and The Atlantic and the book The Secrets of Mary Bowser, a novel based on the life of a slave-turned-Union spy—took to Twitter to excoriate the organization for leading off its series with the movie. "National reckoning on overpolicing is a weird time to revive Kindergarten Cop. IRL, we are trying to end the school-to-prison pipeline," she tweeted. "There's nothing entertaining about the presence of police in schools, which feeds the 'school-to-prison' pipeline in which African American, Latinx and other kids of color are criminalized rather than educated. Five- and 6-year-olds are handcuffed and hauled off to jail routinely in this country. And this criminalizing of children increases dramatically when cops are assigned to work in schools."
In a message sent to WW over the weekend with the subject line "Kindergarten Cop-Out: Why Does NW Film Center Think There's Anything Fun About Cops Traumatizing Schoolchildren," Leveen elaborated on her concerns. "It's true Kindergarten Cop is only a movie. So are Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind, but we recognize films like those are not 'good family fun,'" she wrote. "They are relics of how pop culture feeds racist assumptions." "Because despite what the movie shows," she continued, "in reality, schools don't transform cops. Cops transform schools, and in an extremely detrimental way."
(excerpt)
Comparing "Kindergarten Cop" to "Birth of a Nation"?
Really?
NW Film Center Has Canceled an Outdoor Screening of "Kindergarten Cop" Following Complaints
https://www.wweek.com/arts/movies/2020/08/03/nw-film-center-has-cancelled-an-outdoor-screening-of-kindergarten-cop-following-complaints-from-local-author/It's not a tumor, but it has been cut out like one. NW Film Center had planned to kick off Cinema Unbound, its summer drive-in movie series at Zidell Yards, on Aug. 6 with a screening of the 1990 action-comedy Kindergarten Cop. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a police detective who goes undercover as a kindergarten teacher in order to bust a drug dealer, the movie was filmed in Astoria, Ore., and celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. NWFC had planned to show the film "for its importance in Oregon filmmaking history," according to a press release.
Those plans are now off—in part, it would appear, due to an online campaign against the screening. In announcing the cancellation, NWFC said it came to the decision after discussions with "staff and community members" convinced them that, given the current political climate, it would be wiser instead to add a second screening of Good Trouble, the new documentary on civil rights icon John Lewis, who died July 17. A screening scheduled for Aug. 7 had already sold out.
On Saturday, Portland author Lois Leveen—whose writing credits include contributions to The New York Times and The Atlantic and the book The Secrets of Mary Bowser, a novel based on the life of a slave-turned-Union spy—took to Twitter to excoriate the organization for leading off its series with the movie. "National reckoning on overpolicing is a weird time to revive Kindergarten Cop. IRL, we are trying to end the school-to-prison pipeline," she tweeted. "There's nothing entertaining about the presence of police in schools, which feeds the 'school-to-prison' pipeline in which African American, Latinx and other kids of color are criminalized rather than educated. Five- and 6-year-olds are handcuffed and hauled off to jail routinely in this country. And this criminalizing of children increases dramatically when cops are assigned to work in schools."
In a message sent to WW over the weekend with the subject line "Kindergarten Cop-Out: Why Does NW Film Center Think There's Anything Fun About Cops Traumatizing Schoolchildren," Leveen elaborated on her concerns. "It's true Kindergarten Cop is only a movie. So are Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind, but we recognize films like those are not 'good family fun,'" she wrote. "They are relics of how pop culture feeds racist assumptions." "Because despite what the movie shows," she continued, "in reality, schools don't transform cops. Cops transform schools, and in an extremely detrimental way."
(excerpt)
Comparing "Kindergarten Cop" to "Birth of a Nation"?
Really?
August 3, 2020
Until a few weeks ago, Julie Reno was dead set against having any kind of firearm in her home. With children around, she felt that it would be irresponsible and dangerous.
All that changed after Reno saw what was happening in Seattle and Portland, where clashes between rioters and racial justice protesters and law enforcement have delayed responses for public safety calls.
“With everything that’s going on in the country right now, I’m realizing that police are not always safe to come out. In Seattle police are being prevented from going to calls from people for help,” Reno, 43, explained. “Everything is safe here right now. But if it ever becomes unsafe, I want to be able to protect myself and my family, if necessary.”
Reno, who works in customer service, and her husband, Michael, network manager at Worcester Public Library, are among a growing number of people in Massachusetts and across the country who are strapping up in light of the uncertainty of the pandemic and violent riots that have mushroomed out of peaceful protests that began after America watched a video of the brutal killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
(excerpt)
Pandemic, protests trigger surge in firearms licenses and sales
https://www.telegram.com/news/20200801/pandemic-protests-trigger-surge-in-firearms-licenses-and-salesUntil a few weeks ago, Julie Reno was dead set against having any kind of firearm in her home. With children around, she felt that it would be irresponsible and dangerous.
All that changed after Reno saw what was happening in Seattle and Portland, where clashes between rioters and racial justice protesters and law enforcement have delayed responses for public safety calls.
“With everything that’s going on in the country right now, I’m realizing that police are not always safe to come out. In Seattle police are being prevented from going to calls from people for help,” Reno, 43, explained. “Everything is safe here right now. But if it ever becomes unsafe, I want to be able to protect myself and my family, if necessary.”
Reno, who works in customer service, and her husband, Michael, network manager at Worcester Public Library, are among a growing number of people in Massachusetts and across the country who are strapping up in light of the uncertainty of the pandemic and violent riots that have mushroomed out of peaceful protests that began after America watched a video of the brutal killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
(excerpt)
August 1, 2020
A FEW MONTHS ago, on an ordinary day in an unremarkable Costco parking lot, I was nearly squashed by an unusually large pickup. Thank God I was wearing a mask. As that chrome grille closed on me like a man-eating Norelco shaver, time slowed. It seemed I was watching myself from afar, being nimble for a man my age, darting from the path of a towering, limousine-black pickup with temporary plates, whose driver barely checked his pace. Jerk.
What the hell was that thing? A 2020 GMC Sierra HD Denali? It was huge! The domed hood was at forehead level. The paramedics would have had to extract me from the grille with a spray hose, like Randall Jarrell’s ball-turret gunner. He didn’t even see me.
Later, returning to my car, I noticed something: The parking lot was dotted with similarly enormous luxury pickups—many new, many taking up two spaces: Ram, Ford, Chevy, GMC. They stood out like Percherons in a herd of Shetland ponies. What is going on here? When did pickups get so big? And why are XL-sized pickups so big now?
I know. Pickup trucks at Costco. Film at 11. Except that in April, U.S. sales of pickups surpassed automobiles for the first time ever—about 112 years, give or take. Trucks and truck-based sport-utilities now account for roughly 70% of new vehicles sold in the U.S.
(excerpt)
Pickup Trucks Are Getting Huge. Got a Problem With That?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/pickup-trucks-are-getting-huge-got-a-problem-with-that-11596254412A FEW MONTHS ago, on an ordinary day in an unremarkable Costco parking lot, I was nearly squashed by an unusually large pickup. Thank God I was wearing a mask. As that chrome grille closed on me like a man-eating Norelco shaver, time slowed. It seemed I was watching myself from afar, being nimble for a man my age, darting from the path of a towering, limousine-black pickup with temporary plates, whose driver barely checked his pace. Jerk.
What the hell was that thing? A 2020 GMC Sierra HD Denali? It was huge! The domed hood was at forehead level. The paramedics would have had to extract me from the grille with a spray hose, like Randall Jarrell’s ball-turret gunner. He didn’t even see me.
Later, returning to my car, I noticed something: The parking lot was dotted with similarly enormous luxury pickups—many new, many taking up two spaces: Ram, Ford, Chevy, GMC. They stood out like Percherons in a herd of Shetland ponies. What is going on here? When did pickups get so big? And why are XL-sized pickups so big now?
I know. Pickup trucks at Costco. Film at 11. Except that in April, U.S. sales of pickups surpassed automobiles for the first time ever—about 112 years, give or take. Trucks and truck-based sport-utilities now account for roughly 70% of new vehicles sold in the U.S.
(excerpt)
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