Prickly City by Scott Stantis for June 05, 2020

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    RobinHood  over 4 years ago

    People who need people,

    Are the luckiest people in the world

    We’re children, needing other children

    And yet letting a grown-up pride

    Hide all the need inside

    Acting more like children than children

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    Brain Pudding  over 4 years ago

    Meanwhile liberal state governors, solely to harm Trump, keep states locked down from opening businesses. They Arrest two black women praying outside abortion clinic (for not wearing masks). They shut down Jews going to Temple. They arrest salon shop owners and shut down gyms. However, they are more than happy to let tens of thousands of people march and Rampage through streets while releasing arrested thugs without bail.

    Yes, there is no rule of law here…only rule of man abusing power all to attempt to take over more government power to increase thier abuse further.

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    Silly Season   over 4 years ago

    General Milley wrote a letter.

    https://www.jcs.mil/Portals/36/Documents/CJCS%20Memo%20to%20the%20Joint%20Force%20(02JUN2020).pdf

    ~

    (Plus a random commenter’s analysis of the letter.)

    To protect his own job AND the job of anyone who Trump tries to forcibly relieve of duty.

    All that letter officially says is to protect American values: that is also a direct instruction written in “command-ese” to disobey orders from any source – very definitely including POTUS – which run contrary to those values.

    Equally as serious, if not more so, Milley is laying the legal and ethical groundwork for a potential mutiny.

    Not a coup, necessarily (in fact almost certainly not), but definitely a mutiny against the presidential chain of command.

    Particularly and especially with that handwritten addendum.

    He is careful to call out and defend both the explicit chain of command and the moral authority from the state governors, and then says in multiple ways that their ultimate duty is to American values and the American people.

    NOT orders from the president.

    If this goes down the way it is looking, this letter will frame the action as a defense of American values and the American people, against a president who not only doesn’t care about either one of those, but is actively working to the detriment of those things.

    Finally, the fact that his name is attached to this and it’s been released publicly is just gigantic.

    Serving military officers don’t do that.

    They don’t release overtly political statements like this, no matter what we might wish Mattis had done years ago.

    There’s literally hundreds of years of tradition (in an institution where tradition really matters, no matter what cynics might think) and officers have it hammered home over and over and over again over years do not interfere in or publicly speak about the political process or chain of command without an incredibly good reason.

    Here, General Milley has done both.

    Overtly.

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    Silly Season   over 4 years ago

    A letter to the Navy:

    https://www.c6f.navy.mil/Press-Room/News/Article/2206521/letter-from-leadership-respect-dignity-and-inclusion/

    ~

    Dear CNE/CNA/C6F Teammates,

    As we continue to watch the demonstrations and violence playing out in cities across America and here in Europe, it is important to take time to reflect upon the situation and acknowledge the impact this is having on us, our shipmates, and our families. The catalyst for the current situation may have been the death of Mr. George Floyd, but we should all understand that the outrage sparked by his death goes much deeper across many communities in our great Nation.

    We encourage you to have the courage to discuss this challenging situation with your colleagues, so we can all gain a better understanding of underlying concerns, as well as find ways to work together to develop and put in place lasting solutions.

    It is also time for each of us to redouble our personal efforts to create – and ensure – a climate and a culture that is based on respect, dignity, and inclusion in every corner of our organization. At the most basic level, the strength of our Navy is our people. We are the world’s strongest Navy and Marine Corps team BECAUSE of our diversity, BECAUSE we value the contribution of each person and empower them to be their best, and BECAUSE we treat others the way we want to be treated. Bias, prejudice, and intolerance have no place on our team.

    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The time is always right to do what is right.” Today, and every day, the right thing to do is to live up to our core values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment, lead by example, and build trust across our team. In service to our nation, we entrust our lives to one another each and every day.

    ✄ (for lack of space.)

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    William Robbins Premium Member over 4 years ago

    Silliness about face masks continues… Right’s manufactured outrage, trademarked Fox*, continues. Left’s outrage continues (of course we’re correct to be outraged…) Meanwhile, 20% of Americans are afraid they won’t see their sons again, every time they go out to the store. * “Fox”, for our purposes, includes all alt-right publishing.

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    jbmlaw01  over 4 years ago

    Day 43 of the Georgia Economic Recovery. Related note, looks like several of the northern cities undergoing crowd-sourced urban renewal have voted to defund their police departments. That is an interesting alternative course to rebuilding their economies so-devastated by the unnecessary lock-downs, hope it goes well for them.

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    RobinHood  over 4 years ago

    And so we raise the perennial question of Job: “Why?” as we weep for the moment.

    Yet we are reminded by the best of the Christian tradition that in the total economy of the universe good will ultimately triumph. Though sorrow tarries for the night, joy comes in the morning.

    Rev, Dr. Ron English

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    jbmlaw01  over 4 years ago

    Follow up:Hydroxychloroquine Studies Tied to Data Firm Surgisphere RetractedThree authors involved in Lancet article that drew scrutiny said they couldn’t get full data set behind study; an article in the New England Journal of Medicine was also retracted

    Two major studies casting doubt on the ability of antimalaria drugs to treat Covid-19 patients based on data from a little-known Chicago company, Surgisphere Corp., were retracted Thursday.

    The Lancet first pulled a study published late last month that found antimalarials provided no benefit as a treatment for Covid-19 infections while increasing the risk of heart problems and death. The New England Journal of Medicine then retracted a separate article, published in early May, that examined the impact of cardiovascular and blood-pressure drugs in Covid-19 patients.

    Both articles featured three of the same authors, Mandeep Mehra, Amit Patel and Sapan Desai, and were based on data supplied by Dr. Desai’s company, Surgisphere.

    Surgisphere had said it collected the de-identified patient information from hospitals that was used in the studies. The Wall Street Journal contacted more than a dozen large U.S. hospitals, including some that treated high numbers of Covid-19 patients. None said they had an arrangement to share patient data with Surgisphere, and several said they had never heard of it.

    Dr. Desai has said previously, through a spokesperson, that his firm was unable to identify the 671 hospitals in the Lancet study due to privacy agreements. He was an author on both papers. Though his name was on the New England Journal of Medicine retraction, it wasn’t on the Lancet retraction.

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    jbmlaw01  over 4 years ago

    It is beginning to look like treason, a true attempted coup, 1/2 from WSJ:

    Because then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions had recused himself from all things Russia, Mr. Rosenstein instantly became responsible for the FBI’s investigation into Trump-Russia collusion. In testimony, Mr. Rosenstein acknowledged that because this was “one of the most important” cases the Justice Department handled, FBI leadership had a duty to inform “the boss”—Mr. Rosenstein—of relevant information.

    Yet the list of what Mr. Rosenstein wasn’t told is jaw-dropping. If he testified truthfully (and he was under oath), FBI Director James Comey and later acting Director Andrew McCabe withheld from their supervisor nearly every relevant and crucial detail of the investigation.

    Mr. Rosenstein didn’t know that the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee had funded the infamous Christopher Steele dossier, which formed the bulk of the accusations against the Trump campaign. He didn’t know the FBI in late 2016 had interviewed colleagues of Mr. Steele who cast doubt on his credibility. He didn’t know Mr. Steele’s primary source had disavowed the dossier’s central elements by January 2017.

    Mr. Rosenstein wasn’t told that the FBI recordings of targets George Papadopoulos and Carter Page provided exculpatory information. He wasn’t told that the FBI had moved to drop Mike Flynn, who became White House national security adviser, from its investigation in early January for lack of any evidence of collusion. He wasn’t made aware of the recent exculpatory evidence the Justice Department turned over in the Flynn case.

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    Silly Season   over 4 years ago

    Hydroxychloroquine and a Republican complaining about a Republican?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThJcHjCI9j4

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    jbmlaw01  over 4 years ago

    I know we are all shocked by the speed the economy seems to be turning around, even though many of the largest states remain mostly locked down. Speaks well of the economic fundamentals that were in place in the US before China spread its cheer around the world.

    How are the rest of the world’s economies doing?

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    jbmlaw01  over 4 years ago

    I think Mr. Biden underestimates the number of democrat voters.

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    Cheapskate0  over 4 years ago

    I am glad I live in a state where the Democratic governor took the steps he did. And I’m pretty sure that the rank-and-file in Michigan feel the same.

    The lock downs were to help still the virus and make it safer to come out later. People have more confidence here than they do in states like Georgia, where going back to work (in a state that never really locked down to begin with) is a matter of “We’ll take away your unemployment benefits if you dare to think it’s still unsafe to come out to work.”

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    Cheapskate0  over 4 years ago

    I might add, the way in which Democratic mayors have been handling the Floyd protests is also a model for the rest of the nation.

    Yes, Denver was a mess over the weekend, but by Monday, a new strategy was employed: Police, even the police chief, were marching with the demonstrators. And then an amazing thing happened:

    When the shooting stopped, the looting stopped. Imagine that.

    Yes, there have been isolated incidents, but nothing like what is going on in the Republican heartland, where the answer has been “bring in the troops.”

    In fact, the whole “bring in the troops” mentality only encourages what the White Supremacists have been advocating for a long time: A race war where, once and for all, them (fill in the blank) are finally put down.

    Indeed, isn’t that what the entire BLM movement has been about? Our knees have been on their necks for so long now: What is our intention toward those who don’t look like us?

    Domination?

    While I don’t entirely agree with Colbert’s joke Monday, in particular, his characterization of Germany, nevertheless, his joke was,

    “You know it’s pretty bad when Germany calls you racist.”

    But I will say that many of the dog whistles right now suggest that, if we don’t watch out, that may be the path we are on.

    And no, it’s not the Democrats who are taking us there.

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    braindead Premium Member over 4 years ago

    “When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength,” Trump replied. “That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak…as being spit on by the rest of the world.”

    Celebrated by Trump Disciples.

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    Cheapskate0  over 4 years ago

    Elsewhere, I shared a portion of a letter my grandson shared with me.

    Something to the effect of:

    “What do I do if I, a black man, see a cop murdering another black man? To interfere with that cop would probably be seen as attacking a cop. And if the cop is already killing another black man, heaven knows what for, what do you think he would do to me?”

    Dear God in heaven, I have no good answer for him.

    The scriptures say, greater love hath no man than to lay down your life for another. But in this case, what would be the good of the deaths of two black men?

    Disclaimer: I am not a black man. I just married into a family.

    It has been an educational experience the whole way.

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