September 4, 2021

Anti-mask protesters show up at Florida school board member's home and cough in her face

According to a report from Florida Today, a Brevard County School Board member and her daughter were harassed in front of her home on Wednesday night by anti-mask protesters that ended with one protester coughing in her face at close range.

The report notes that Jennifer Jenkins has been under fire from local anti-vaxxers with calls for her to resign and some protesters calling her a "tyrant" for advocating pro-mask policies in schools.

Those attacks escalated on Wednesday when protesters showed up at her home.

Florida Today reports that Jenkins filed a report with Satellite Police Department after a protester coughed in her face. Jenkins also said a protester swung a flag at her.

Read more:
https://www.rawstory.com/jennifer-jenkins-school-board-mask-protest/


An anti-mask protester came to her home, and coughed in her face?!

That is arguably a threat to her very life. Nay, not just a threat, but a potentially deadly assault!

Florida has the "Stand your ground" law... It seems to me that someone attacked thusly would be legally justified, under that law, of defending themselves however they thought necessary. They would certainly be morally justified.

Threatening someone with exposure to COVID is a threat to their life. It's not "freedumb"...

In this case, it was clearly an assault.

I am OVER these people.

August 30, 2021

Why are we so "dead-set" on re-opening all the schools?

Yes, things looked better a few months ago, and everyone was looking forward to "getting back to normal"... but the situation has changed radically-- with the super-infectious Delta variant running wild, and the vaccination program stalled (due to the refuse-niks).


In many areas of the country, this would seem to call for a change in the plan... Of course, the worst of the worst are ruled by what can only be described as "pro-covid Republican" governors, who seem intent on getting as many children AND adults infected as possible, but what about the rest?

All we have going for us if that something more than 50% of us have been vaccinated, but that is no longer as effective against this Delta variant-- and the children under 12 are not vaccinated at all, yet we are forcing them to congregate in confined indoor spaces again, with or without masks, whose effectiveness has always been limited anyway...

Back when this started, most (if not all?) of the schools were closed down very quickly, when the virus had only just begun to spread. Yet now, when there are many more active cases, hospitalizations, and over 600k deaths and climbing--- NOW we are forcing the children back into in-person covid factories? And many who get infected will bring the virus home to infect their unvaccinated (and some who have been vaccinated) parents...

Personally, I think it ought to be clear to most that this rush to re-open all the schools was a mistake. I thought it was a bad idea as soon as the Delta variant surfaced, and had my doubts about it before that. The pandemic was clearly not "over", although the situation did appear more hopeful (briefly) than it does now...

When you think about it, it seems clear to me that the "majority" who believe in science and masks and social distancing and vaccinations, have been "pushed" by the mask protesters and the anti-vaxxers and the politicians who were more worried about profits for their business backers than they were about public health-- into a pre-mature relaxation of precautions and a pre-mature full re-opening of schools as well as everything else. Even my own Governor Whitmer of Michigan, who mandated such strict protocols in the beginning of the pandemic, has declined to mandate masks for schools this fall.

(We are in better shape in Michigan vs. covid than many areas of the country, and I give full credit for that to our governor... but the cases are beginning to rise again, and it seems only a matter of time before things get bad again, with Delta even infecting a good number of vaccinated people who can then pass it on to others...Schools operating in-person with students under 12 unable to be vaccinated thus far, will only make the situation worse.)


I think that many schools are going to be forced to close down again, whether they like it or not, before this is over... and it seems to be FAR from over.

August 30, 2021

All Of New Orleans Without Power As Hurricane Ida Lashes Louisiana

Source: Huffington Post

All of New Orleans is without power amid the ongoing assault by Hurricane Ida, the local energy company said Sunday night.

Entergy Louisiana told The Times-Picayune that Ida had already caused “catastrophic transmission damage” affecting the entire city. The only power in New Orleans is now coming from generators.

Ida hit the Louisiana coastline as a Category 4 behemoth, lashing the state with 150-mph winds, tying as the fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the mainland U.S. It weakened to a Category 3 storm as it closed in on New Orleans, but the sheer size of Ida threatened the massive levee system that has been rebuilt and strengthen around the iconic city.

The National Weather Service’s New Orleans office said later Sunday that it expected strong winds and heavy rain throughout the night, urging residents to remain sheltered in place.

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hurricane-ida-new-orleans-no-power_n_612c279de4b02be25b5d5b49

August 28, 2021

Business Insider: Inflation is cooling off just as economists, the Fed, and Biden expected

::snip::

The slowdown from June's inflation print suggests the demand boom seen through reopening could be petering out. Inflation soared to decade-highs through the spring and summer as vaccination helped the US reverse lockdowns. Economic activity rebounded, but where demand quickly shot higher, producers struggled to keep up. Bottlenecks and shortages left suppliers on the back foot, and the resulting gap between businesses' supply and Americans' demand drove prices higher.

Where inflation accelerated the most hints at a future slowdown. Sectors associated with reopening and the direst supply shortages saw prices leap the fastest. Used car prices leaped at least 7.3% for three months in a row before rising just 0.2% in July, according to the CPI report. Airline tickets, fuel, and service businesses also counted for much of the overshoot.

Since the categories are so closely linked to reopening, it's likely inflation will cool off as supply chains heal and demand wanes, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in a July 28 press conference.

"Essentially all of the overshoot can be tied to a handful of categories. It isn't the kind of inflation that's spread broadly across the economy," he said. "And each of those has a story attached to it that is really about the reopening of the economy."

::snip::

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/pce-inflation-july-price-growth-supply-shortages-demand-economic-data-2021-8



I never did agree that Biden's program or government spending were to blame for the recent higher inflation. Supply shortages and pent-up demand had much more to do with it.

August 24, 2021

Arizona's sham election 'audit' report delayed after Cyber Ninjas CEO and others test positive for C

Source: CNN

Arizona's sham election 'audit' report delayed after Cyber Ninjas CEO and others test positive for Covid-19

(CNN)The report detailing the findings of contractors who conducted Arizona's sham "audit" of last year's election results -- which had been expected Monday -- will be late because three of the five members of the auditing team have tested positive for coronavirus, the state's Republican Senate leader says.

Cyber Ninjas Chief Executive Officer Doug Logan, whose firm was hired by the Republican-led Arizona Senate to audit the 2.1 million votes cast in Maricopa County in 2020's presidential race, and two other members of the five-person audit team tested positive "and are quite sick," Senate President Karen Fann said in a statement.

Logan and other members of his team were often seen during the recount process without masks. It is not clear whether those who tested positive had been vaccinated. CNN reached out to Cyber Ninjas requesting comment.

Elections experts in both parties have said for months that results of the "audit" -- pushed for by Republican lawmakers and conducted by the Florida-based company, which had no experience auditing election results and whose chief executive, Logan, has repeated wild conspiracy theories about election fraud -- will not be credible.


Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/23/politics/arizona-election-audit-report-delayed-cyber-ninjas-covid/index.html

July 25, 2021

Gamma variant could have 'high attack rate even in fully vaccinated people' - new study (UK: Express

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1467002/Gamma-variant-covid-vaccine-efficiency-Dominic-cummings-Boris-johnson-contingency-plan

(news from the UK)

::snip:::

"It also comes as the Gamma variant was recorded in Russia, raising fears that it could soon spread to the rest of the world.

In its paper, the CDC (UK)
released a study of miners who caught the variant while working in a gold mine in French Guiana.

Of the 44 people working at the mine 42 miles from Cayenne, 55 percent of the employees were infected.

Among the infected, the attack rate was 60 percent among fully vaccinated miners and 75 percent among unvaccinated miners without a history of infection, it said."
::snip::

=======================

Well, this is extremely disturbing-- what we all feared-- a new COVID variant that seems to very aggressively infect vaccinated people...

Just what we don't need here.. as if 'Delta' was not bad enough...

I presume people flying into our country have to pass a covid test before we let them in?

With the possible "lag time", is that enough??

This new variant appears to have the ability to make all our vaccination efforts "for naught".



Our own CDC never should have given the green-light to "no masking for vaccinated people"...

This is the first time I've heard of the "Gamma variant". The story appeared on a news app that I use on my phone...
anybody have more information on it ?



EDIT: Some in the thread have suggested the source is a "British tabloid" and that the story may have been "sensationalized". I don't know. By posting this, I was not intending to "fear-monger"-- what I read only seemed to be important and new, and about a "variant" which I had as yet never heard of...

God knows I hope this report proves to be totally inaccurate and fucked up.... but I'm not a scientist or a doctor or anything except scared of covid. Let the buyer beware.

July 19, 2021

Conservative says it's time to stop coddling vaccine resisters -- and time to start mandates

In a surprising take, conservative Washington Post columnist Max Boot encouraged states to start mandating that residents take the COVID-19 vaccine.

Writing Monday, Boot said that it's time to stop pleading and start mandating, and he cited data showing that 99 percent of those in the hospital with COVID-19 are unvaccinated as justification to start getting tough.

But Boot didn't only lay the dangers at the feet of red states ballooning with COVID-19 cases. He spread the blame around.

"There is vaccine hesitancy among many different sectors of the population, including reckless youths, granola liberals who believe in alternative medicines and African Americans who distrust the health-care system," he wrote. "Some are still persuadable, but many are not. As I've previously noted, the biggest obstacle to vaccination is now Republicans who are being fed a steady diet of anti-vaxxer propaganda by Fox 'News' Channel, Facebook and other social media, and reckless demagogues such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)."

read more:
https://www.rawstory.com/conservative-wants-vaccine-mandates/

July 19, 2021

My nephew has been posting anti-CRT memes on Facebook...

(He was an Obama supporter years ago, but somehow felt that Obama failed us-- I never got a clear explanation on that. However--)
He is also something of an evangelical christian. I presume he watches Faux, or something worse-- I often see him posting their current "talking points" nowadays...

Anyway, his most recent incursion was to post this meme, with a picture of the young actor from 'The Office', I forget his name... lol
that said, paraphrased, 'if you read critical race theory, and take every word that says "white", and replace it with "black", and it sounds racist, then it was racist from the beginning'

I responded 'But it was in fact whites who enslaved blacks, beating, raping, and killing them with impunity, because they were not even recognized as human beings having any rights under US law, and that was codified with the Dred Scot decision. Your meme is only playing games with words, in order to justify the position of those who want to "white-wash" history. Further, there is absolutely nothing wrong with teaching the real facts about American history, even if it were being offered to younger students, which it isn't'


Well, we went back and forth with this for a couple days.... He bemoaned the station of African-Americans down the street and claimed that liberals had done nothing for them, and I replied with the obvious that 'they were helped by the Biden COVID assistance bills, just like everyone else of lower incomes, and perhaps they need more help, but the rightwing will never allow it' and on and on.

I also pointed out that the whole CRT controversy was ginned up by the right to "work their base into a lather", since it is a false issue (among many other false issues), and no "elementary schools" are teaching CRT since it is a college and graduate school course, and they just want to excite their base with this and other false issues "because they have nothing positive to offer that would help the American people."

We went back and forth on this, and a little more tonight--

I was trying to respond again, when he deleted his own thread, so that I could respond no further. LOL!!!!



I was very surprised when he did that-- but it is obviously a victory! LMAO

So I have done my own small part, to improve Facebook

July 7, 2021

Does DU close down after midnight?

LOL or whatever time...

I suspect the majority of us are approaching 'elderly' status. if not there already, like our politicians.
Many probably keep 'banker's hours'.


I am a "night-owl", still, a habit partly induced by employment in my youth...

I make countless posts in the middle of the night, with nary a single response. lol.

I know, there will probably be some tomorrow... I do not begrudge you your sleep... (he says, lol)

I just hate it when it seems as if I am the only one awake here. lol




GQP fascism keeps me awake at night..

July 4, 2021

Maybe I should have posted this here...

but general discussion seems the most active group.

What old movies have you been watching lately?

https://democraticunderground.com/100215590137