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marmar

marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
October 22, 2020

Florida Man Attacks Girlfriend With Pumpkin, Police Say


AFlorida man was arrested in the early hours of Monday morning for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend with a pumpkin.

Nathan Garisto, 26, was arrested on domestic battery charges, after he reportedly threw a winter squash and its innards at his girlfriend at around 2 a.m.

The Largo residents had been cohabiting for a year and a half, according to the police report, when the pair began arguing. The woman asked her boyfriend, who was intoxicated, to leave the property several times. He refused and his girlfriend claims he responded by striking her with a pumpkin, and throwing a tarp with pulp and seeds all over her. .............(more)

https://www.newsweek.com/florida-man-pumpkin-attack-1541220




October 22, 2020

I've seen a few posts lately pathologizing black voters.....

.... always pointing to some anecdote of a black voter who supports Trump.

Newsflash: Black voters aren't the ones you need to be concerned about, n'est-ce pas?


October 22, 2020

The Miami Beach monorail inches closer to reality with $14 million county deal




Oct. 21--Miami-Dade commissioners approved a $14 million contract Tuesday for detailed designs of a four-mile monorail system between Genting's Miami property and South Beach, the first step toward building a transit system sought for decades and a decision Beach leaders criticized as too hasty.

"I believe the time is now," Commissioner Sally Heyman said ahead of the lopsided vote for the deal. She's one of two board members representing Miami Beach, which passed a resolution asking the county to slow down the vote for an 18-month interim agreement for a project expected to cost more than $500 million to build.

The other commissioner representing Miami Beach, Eileen Higgins, had asked to delay the vote on a contract added to the commission's agenda late last week. "I personally have a ton of questions. Pages and pages of them," Higgins said.

But with a majority of commissioners pressing for a vote weeks before county elections will shift power to a new board and mayor, Higgins dropped her opposition. ...............(more)

https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/news/21159463/fl-the-miami-beach-monorail-inches-closer-to-reality-with-14-million-county-deal




October 22, 2020

Anthony Scaramucci is on a mission to stop Trump: "Something's wrong with him mentally"


Anthony Scaramucci is on a mission to stop Trump: "Something's wrong with him mentally"
Salon talks to the former White House comms director about why he and other Republicans have turned against Trump

DEAN OBEIDALLAH
OCTOBER 22, 2020 12:00PM


(Salon) "I'm out there trying to educate as many people as possible at the systemic danger that Mr. Trump represents to our democracy." Those were part of the opening words of my conversation earlier this week with former Trump White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci on "Salon Talks." And it went downhill from there for Trump.

I can't recall another presidential election where as many former officials from a White House administration and members of the president's own political party came out so vocally to defeat that very president. But then again, nothing has been normal in the time of Trump.

In our conversation, Scaramucci, a successful Wall Street investor, shared why he turned on Trump, citing events such as Trump's family separation policy and, finally, when Trump led the "Send her back" bigoted smear of the four Democratic female members of Congress known as "The Squad," saying they should go back to their own countries. As Scaramucci noted, this vile line of attack by Trump was personal for him; his own Italian grandparents heard the same hateful nativist comments when they first came to America.

....(sniip)....

Over the weekend, Donald Trump said that if he loses he might leave the country. When you hear him say, "Maybe I'll have to leave the country," what does that indicate to you about Trump's thought process now?

Well, he said, "You may never hear from me again if I lose, and maybe I have to leave the country." I think those are both statements by him that should not be taken lightly. I mean, he's got serious problems. His business is under threat, he's got tremendous amounts of debt. There are people that think, though, that he's been paid by some foreign leaders and autocrats to move our foreign policy around, and that that stuff is hidden which will offer him some financial protection. I don't know if that's true or not any more than I... I shouldn't even be saying that because who the hell knows what's going on.

But I will say this. He is a guy that is unstable, and he's a guy that is unfit for the presidency of the United States. To just imagine that he's saying to people, "Well, I may not accept a peaceful transfer of power." After 244 years of the American experiment. And then he's saying he may have to leave the country. And it's never a joke with him. Michael Cohen has said that; I have said that. People that know him know he doesn't know how to joke. He doesn't laugh. He has almost like an Asperger's way about him where he can't pick up the emotional cues and know when to laugh and when not to laugh. He's very rarely joking, if ever. .........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2020/10/22/anthony-scaramucci-is-on-a-mission-to-stop-trump-somethings-wrong-with-him-mentally/




October 22, 2020

"Watermelon Head?" .... Sounds like an insult from the dumbest kid in 3rd grade





President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for the arrest of the House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff for voicing concerns over the source of stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop, which he believes are a part of smear campaign originating from Russia.

Mr Trump described the congressman as “watermelon-head”, accusing him of always returning to his “Russia, Russia, Russia” talking points during the election.

Mocking him as “Shifty Schiff”, Mr Trump said, “That guy should be locked up.”

“Lock him up, lock him up,” his supporters screamed back. ................(more)

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/trump-democrat-impeachment-watermelon-head-locked-up-biden-ukraine-b1219365.html



October 22, 2020

US Ice officers 'used torture to make Africans sign own deportation orders'


(Guardian UK) US immigration officers allegedly tortured Cameroonian asylum seekers to force them to sign their own deportation orders, in what lawyers and activists describe as a brutal scramble to fly African migrants out of the country in the run-up to the elections.

Many of the Cameroonian migrants in a Mississippi detention centre refused to sign, fearing death at the hands of Cameroonian government forces responsible for widespread civilian killings, and because they had asylum hearings pending.

According to multiple accounts, detainees were threatened, choked, beaten, pepper-sprayed and threatened with more violence to make them sign. Several were put in handcuffs by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers, and their fingerprints were taken forcibly in place of a signature on documents called stipulated orders of removal, by which the asylum seekers waive their rights to further immigration hearings and accept deportation. .........(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/22/us-ice-officers-allegedly-used-torture-to-make-africans-sign-own-deportation-orders




October 22, 2020

How Europe and America blew it on the pandemic: A tale of blindness and arrogance


How Europe and America blew it on the pandemic: A tale of blindness and arrogance
In Europe and the U.S., politicians and the public were guided by fantasy — when the lessons of Asia were clear

JOSEF BOUSKA
OCTOBER 22, 2020 10:00AM


(Salon) It is said that times of crisis reveal who we really are. If this adage works for civilizations as it does for individuals, Europe and America have reasons to worry.

The illusion of getting the new coronavirus under control was short-lived, barely surviving summer. Europe is seeing infections rising to spring levels; mortality remains lower but health care systems in parts of Spain and France are on red alert again. Meanwhile, the United States has successfully curbed several major outbreaks, most notably in New York, but remains the worst affected country in the world. The light at the end of the tunnel is rather faint.

There have been attempts to identify ritual scapegoats, most often the World Health Organization. Indeed, WHO made its share of missteps, from an initially hesitant stance toward face masks to cheerleading for the Chinese dictatorship. Still, it was WHO that declared COVID-19 a "public health emergency of international concern" on Jan. 30 and urged countries to set up strong measures ensuring early detection of the virus.

The West listened — and did next to nothing. That was the time to prepare tests, stockpile protective equipment, review the capacities of public health care. Donald Trump's lackadaisical stance towards the infection is well known and hardly surprising, but few Western leaders did much better in the beginning. Despite WHO's clear warning, governments across Europe were caught completely unprepared a month later. Why this time was wasted remains a mystery and it's difficult to understand how politicians who are usually scrutinized for every detail were able to get away with such a level of negligence. ...........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2020/10/22/how-europe-and-america-blew-it-on-the-pandemic-a-tale-of-blindness-and-arrogance/




October 21, 2020

HBO's "537 Votes" uses the Florida recount to explain American politics' descent into bloodsport


HBO's "537 Votes" uses the Florida recount to explain American politics' descent into bloodsport
It's impossible to watch the new documentary without thinking of the upcoming election. Consider it a prequel

ASHLIE D. STEVENS
OCTOBER 21, 2020 11:00PM


(Salon) It's basically impossible to watch HBO's "537 Votes" without thinking about Nov. 3. The thrust of the documentary, which traces the complexities of the 2000 Florida recount, is found in the chaos and the uncertainty surrounding the election results. This year feels ripe for a repeat as questions about early and mail-in voting abound amid postal service lags, and as President Trump has yet to guarantee a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election.

As such, it makes sense to view the Billy Corben-directed documentary as both a prelude to this year's election and as a greater warning about political strategy in unprecedented times. As Rick Sanchez, a Cuban-American Miami TV anchor puts it in the film, "While Democrats are sitting around trying to figure out how to do the right thing, Republicans are figuring out how to win."

"537 Votes" opens nearly a year prior to the fateful election, when 5-year-old Elian González was found clinging to an inner tube about three miles off the Florida coast. His mother, Elizabeth Brotons Rodríguez, had drowned while attempting to leave Cuba with Elian and her boyfriend. Rodríguez had family in Miami's Little Havana, while Elian's biological father was still in Cuba.

As the families began to tussle over the boy's custody and future, the nation — but especially Florida — was swept up in the dispute as well. As the documentary lays out, the popularity of Alex Penelas, the Cuban-American executive mayor of Miami-Dade County, surged in the meantime. .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2020/10/21/537-votes-review-hbo-florida-recount/




October 21, 2020

Oh the memes.....




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