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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
February 13, 2022
(Detroit Free Press) Police moved in to clear protesters opposed to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other restrictions early Sunday near the Ambassador Bridge, a key U.S.-Canadian border crossing linking Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.
Windsor Police, in a tweet about 8:15 a.m., said enforcement actions continued at the bridge — the busiest border crossing to the U.S. — "with arrests being made. Vehicles being towed."
Police advised the public to avoid the area and, in an additional tweet about 9 a.m., said "there will be zero tolerance for illegal activity. "
By mid-morning, there were still a couple of dozen protesters, but police shortly before 11 a.m. issued a verbal warning to leave or face arrest. Shortly thereafter, it appeared protesters had left. ..................(more)
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2022/02/13/ambassador-bridge-protests-arrests/6775034001/
Windsor police say arrests being made, vehicles being towed at Ambassador Bridge
(Detroit Free Press) Police moved in to clear protesters opposed to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other restrictions early Sunday near the Ambassador Bridge, a key U.S.-Canadian border crossing linking Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.
Windsor Police, in a tweet about 8:15 a.m., said enforcement actions continued at the bridge — the busiest border crossing to the U.S. — "with arrests being made. Vehicles being towed."
Police advised the public to avoid the area and, in an additional tweet about 9 a.m., said "there will be zero tolerance for illegal activity. "
By mid-morning, there were still a couple of dozen protesters, but police shortly before 11 a.m. issued a verbal warning to leave or face arrest. Shortly thereafter, it appeared protesters had left. ..................(more)
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2022/02/13/ambassador-bridge-protests-arrests/6775034001/
February 13, 2022
Detroit Free Press editorial: Whitmer's budget 'visionary' in addressing teacher shortage
(Detroit Free Press) It’s a problem that’s been growing for more than a generation.
Michigan’s supply of skilled educators has been dwindling. Each year, fewer new teachers graduate from our state’s colleges of education, while the number of retirements and unfilled vacancies grows.
Enter COVID-19 and its related quarantines, learning losses and trauma. What was an important long-term challenge has become an immediate statewide emergency. Schools have been forced to close due to a lack of staff, sending students back home at a time when they most need to be making up lost educational time.
Fortunately, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has stepped in with a solution that has promise to alleviate our state’s educator shortage, both immediately and over the long-term. Her budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year, unveiled this week, offers significant and meaningful incentives for pre-K-12 public employees beginning this fall. The governor has correctly identified that before we can grow our educator workforce, we must retain the experienced educators we have. ..........................(more)
https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2022/02/13/whitmer-budget-michigan-teacher-shortage/6754456001/
February 13, 2022
New data from the Federal Aviation Administration reveals hundreds of passengers have already interrupted flights during the first six weeks of 2022, most of them over COVID-19 and mask requirements.
The FAA began collecting data on unruly passengers a year into the pandemic, when incidents on flights became more frequent.
Since Jan. 1, 2022, the FAA has recorded 394 reported incidents on flights nationwide, 255 of those were related to face mask mandates. Investigations were launched into 93 of the incidents, and 40 required the intervention of law enforcement officers.
On Wednesday night, an Orlando-bound flight was diverted to Raleigh-Durham International Airport after a passenger became unruly and threatened violence, forcing flight attendants and passengers to restrain him with belts and use a beverage cart to block the cockpit. ........................(more)
https://www.wral.com/faa-more-than-250-mask-incidents-reported-on-flights-in-first-weeks-of-2022/20129789/
More than 250 mask incidents reported on flights in first weeks of 2022
New data from the Federal Aviation Administration reveals hundreds of passengers have already interrupted flights during the first six weeks of 2022, most of them over COVID-19 and mask requirements.
The FAA began collecting data on unruly passengers a year into the pandemic, when incidents on flights became more frequent.
Since Jan. 1, 2022, the FAA has recorded 394 reported incidents on flights nationwide, 255 of those were related to face mask mandates. Investigations were launched into 93 of the incidents, and 40 required the intervention of law enforcement officers.
On Wednesday night, an Orlando-bound flight was diverted to Raleigh-Durham International Airport after a passenger became unruly and threatened violence, forcing flight attendants and passengers to restrain him with belts and use a beverage cart to block the cockpit. ........................(more)
https://www.wral.com/faa-more-than-250-mask-incidents-reported-on-flights-in-first-weeks-of-2022/20129789/
February 13, 2022
(CBC News) Langley, B.C., contractor Damian Conn says he can "agree to disagree" with friends who are opposed to vaccinations or believe in conspiracy theories and still maintain a relationship.
But when he realized he had friends who support the convoy protest in Ottawa — which is now entering its second week of demonstrations, snarling the nation's capital, to call for an end to vaccine mandates and other public health measures related to COVID-19 — those relationships ended.
He'd known some of those friends since high school.
"It seems like this convoy has brought out everybody's true colours with people you never would have thought had that certain close-minded train of thought," he said.
"I think I've unfriended, like, 100 people — and that includes some family," he said. " I won't even talk to them anymore." ................(more)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/convoy-protest-friendship-1.6339582
People are severing friendships over convoy protest, with some saying it shows 'true colours'
(CBC News) Langley, B.C., contractor Damian Conn says he can "agree to disagree" with friends who are opposed to vaccinations or believe in conspiracy theories and still maintain a relationship.
But when he realized he had friends who support the convoy protest in Ottawa — which is now entering its second week of demonstrations, snarling the nation's capital, to call for an end to vaccine mandates and other public health measures related to COVID-19 — those relationships ended.
He'd known some of those friends since high school.
"It seems like this convoy has brought out everybody's true colours with people you never would have thought had that certain close-minded train of thought," he said.
"I think I've unfriended, like, 100 people — and that includes some family," he said. " I won't even talk to them anymore." ................(more)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/convoy-protest-friendship-1.6339582
February 12, 2022
(Guardian UK) Why is Russia threatening to invade Ukraine?
Russian spokespeople daily deny any intention to invade. So, too, did Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, when he met the French leader, Emmanuel Macron, last week, and when he spoke to US president Joe Biden on the phone. There are two problems with this. First, given Putin’s Johnsonian relationship with truth, few western governments believe the denials. Second, Putin has not explained why, if his intentions are peaceful, more than half of Russia’s armed forces, including 130,000 troops, are massed on Ukraine’s borders. It could all be a bluff. But who would bet the house on that?
So what drives Putin?
There are numerous theories. Putin is said to want to rebuild a Russian sphere of influence in eastern Europe, principally embracing former Soviet republics such as now independent Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine. He has frequently bemoaned their “loss” after the Soviet Union collapsed. Putin may also hope to demonstrate to the west (and Russians) that the country is still a superpower, even though by most measures (nuclear weapon stockpiles and geography apart) it is a failing medium-sized power.
Why Ukraine?
Putin fears strategically important Ukraine, commanding Russia’s south-western flank, is assimilating into the west. He objects to its growing closeness to Nato. He also opposes Kyiv’s developing links with the EU. Worse still, from his point of view, Ukraine is a democracy, with free speech and free media, which freely elects its leaders. In practice, Russians enjoy no such freedoms – if they followed Ukraine’s example, Putin would not last long. More broadly, Putin is a nostalgic revisionist who regards Ukraine as an integral part of historical Russia and its loss as a symbol of Russia’s cold war defeat.
Why now?
Putin may sense western weakness. Nato was humiliated last year in Afghanistan and Joe Biden, who campaigned to end wars, not engage in new ones, has refocused American foreign policy and military resources on China, not Europe. It’s also suggested Putin needs a big victory to shore up his domestic support, vindicate his anti-western policies, excuse rampant regime corruption and kleptomania, and justify the hardships Russians endure as a result of western sanctions imposed after his first attack on Ukraine, in 2014. That was when he annexed Crimea and took de facto control of the eastern Donbas region. ...........(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/12/russia-ukraine-what-does-putin-want
The edge of war: what, exactly, does Putin want in Ukraine?
(Guardian UK) Why is Russia threatening to invade Ukraine?
Russian spokespeople daily deny any intention to invade. So, too, did Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, when he met the French leader, Emmanuel Macron, last week, and when he spoke to US president Joe Biden on the phone. There are two problems with this. First, given Putin’s Johnsonian relationship with truth, few western governments believe the denials. Second, Putin has not explained why, if his intentions are peaceful, more than half of Russia’s armed forces, including 130,000 troops, are massed on Ukraine’s borders. It could all be a bluff. But who would bet the house on that?
So what drives Putin?
There are numerous theories. Putin is said to want to rebuild a Russian sphere of influence in eastern Europe, principally embracing former Soviet republics such as now independent Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine. He has frequently bemoaned their “loss” after the Soviet Union collapsed. Putin may also hope to demonstrate to the west (and Russians) that the country is still a superpower, even though by most measures (nuclear weapon stockpiles and geography apart) it is a failing medium-sized power.
Why Ukraine?
Putin fears strategically important Ukraine, commanding Russia’s south-western flank, is assimilating into the west. He objects to its growing closeness to Nato. He also opposes Kyiv’s developing links with the EU. Worse still, from his point of view, Ukraine is a democracy, with free speech and free media, which freely elects its leaders. In practice, Russians enjoy no such freedoms – if they followed Ukraine’s example, Putin would not last long. More broadly, Putin is a nostalgic revisionist who regards Ukraine as an integral part of historical Russia and its loss as a symbol of Russia’s cold war defeat.
Why now?
Putin may sense western weakness. Nato was humiliated last year in Afghanistan and Joe Biden, who campaigned to end wars, not engage in new ones, has refocused American foreign policy and military resources on China, not Europe. It’s also suggested Putin needs a big victory to shore up his domestic support, vindicate his anti-western policies, excuse rampant regime corruption and kleptomania, and justify the hardships Russians endure as a result of western sanctions imposed after his first attack on Ukraine, in 2014. That was when he annexed Crimea and took de facto control of the eastern Donbas region. ...........(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/12/russia-ukraine-what-does-putin-want
February 12, 2022
(Northeastern University) The crest of the omicron wave is in the rearview mirror in the United States. Daily new COVID-19 cases have fallen to half those of the peak of the surge in mid-January. Hospitalizations—a metric that lags behind new case counts—also are declining significantly across the country.
“What we have for the next few weeks should be a decrease in activity. All of the indicators seem to go down,” says Alessandro Vespignani, director of the Network Science Institute and Sternberg Family Distinguished Professor at Northeastern. Vespignani leads a team of infectious-disease modelers that has been developing a set of projections about the possible futures of the COVID-19 pandemic since the crisis began.
If there are no surprises, Vespignani’s team projects that COVID-19 case rates should return to pre-omicron levels in March. And by late spring or early summer, he says, the U.S. and other countries in the Northern Hemisphere may be able to breathe a little easier.
....(snip)....
But that is not a certain future, and trouble could still arise before then, he says. As the emergence of the omicron variant showed, highly transmissible mutations in SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, can change the trajectory of the pandemic quickly.
“Likely there will be other bumps in the road,” Vespignani says. But “what we think is plausible is that those bumps will be less threatening.” ................(more)
https://news.northeastern.edu/2022/02/09/what-happens-after-omicron/
COVID Cases are Dropping. What Happens After Omicron?
(Northeastern University) The crest of the omicron wave is in the rearview mirror in the United States. Daily new COVID-19 cases have fallen to half those of the peak of the surge in mid-January. Hospitalizations—a metric that lags behind new case counts—also are declining significantly across the country.
“What we have for the next few weeks should be a decrease in activity. All of the indicators seem to go down,” says Alessandro Vespignani, director of the Network Science Institute and Sternberg Family Distinguished Professor at Northeastern. Vespignani leads a team of infectious-disease modelers that has been developing a set of projections about the possible futures of the COVID-19 pandemic since the crisis began.
If there are no surprises, Vespignani’s team projects that COVID-19 case rates should return to pre-omicron levels in March. And by late spring or early summer, he says, the U.S. and other countries in the Northern Hemisphere may be able to breathe a little easier.
....(snip)....
But that is not a certain future, and trouble could still arise before then, he says. As the emergence of the omicron variant showed, highly transmissible mutations in SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, can change the trajectory of the pandemic quickly.
“Likely there will be other bumps in the road,” Vespignani says. But “what we think is plausible is that those bumps will be less threatening.” ................(more)
https://news.northeastern.edu/2022/02/09/what-happens-after-omicron/
February 12, 2022
(Detroit Free Press) A six-day protest that shut down the Ambassador Bridge appears to be weakening, though some protesters insist they will stay and the bridge has yet to reopen.
Four or five pickups belonging to protesters left voluntarily about 8:45 a.m., honking their horns as they drove away from the protest on Huron Church Road. An hour later, one of the semis pulled out, blasting its air horn as it pulled out.
About 9:50 a.m., a line of police began walking slowly toward remaining protesters, prompting a few more to leave.
The departures came after a beefed up police presence formed about 8:15 a.m. and was accompanied by a school bus, four other municipal buses and a van labeled "offender transport." Four large pickup trucks with City of Windsor logos on the side also were on the scene. ....................(more)
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/02/12/ambassador-bridge-truck-protest-police/6764936001/
Some Ambassador Bridge truck protesters leave as dozens of police take position
(Detroit Free Press) A six-day protest that shut down the Ambassador Bridge appears to be weakening, though some protesters insist they will stay and the bridge has yet to reopen.
Four or five pickups belonging to protesters left voluntarily about 8:45 a.m., honking their horns as they drove away from the protest on Huron Church Road. An hour later, one of the semis pulled out, blasting its air horn as it pulled out.
About 9:50 a.m., a line of police began walking slowly toward remaining protesters, prompting a few more to leave.
The departures came after a beefed up police presence formed about 8:15 a.m. and was accompanied by a school bus, four other municipal buses and a van labeled "offender transport." Four large pickup trucks with City of Windsor logos on the side also were on the scene. ....................(more)
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/02/12/ambassador-bridge-truck-protest-police/6764936001/
February 12, 2022
CLEVELAND (WJW) — Phones captured a confrontation between an unruly passenger and an airline employee that quickly escalated on board a plane waiting to take off from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on Wednesday night.
The Frontier Airlines jetliner was waiting to depart for Phoenix when witnesses said two passengers exchanged words about the Cincinnati Bengals being in the Super Bowl. A Frontier employee intervened and told one of the men he’d had too much to drink.
The witnesses said it appeared the man was being escorted off of the plane when he lunged at the employee. ........(more)
https://www.wfla.com/top-videos/i-drank-a-little-too-much-unruly-passenger-placed-in-chokehold-before-takeoff/amp/
'I drank a little too much': Unruly passenger placed in chokehold before takeoff
CLEVELAND (WJW) — Phones captured a confrontation between an unruly passenger and an airline employee that quickly escalated on board a plane waiting to take off from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on Wednesday night.
The Frontier Airlines jetliner was waiting to depart for Phoenix when witnesses said two passengers exchanged words about the Cincinnati Bengals being in the Super Bowl. A Frontier employee intervened and told one of the men he’d had too much to drink.
The witnesses said it appeared the man was being escorted off of the plane when he lunged at the employee. ........(more)
https://www.wfla.com/top-videos/i-drank-a-little-too-much-unruly-passenger-placed-in-chokehold-before-takeoff/amp/
February 12, 2022
The CEO of TAP Air Portugal says the requirement that airline passengers wear masks may be with us forever.
“We have put into place so many additional protocols,” said Christine Ourmières-Widener, who was named CEO in June. “I am absolutely convinced they will stay forever.”
Ourmières-Widener said mask wearing during flights, increased aircraft cleaning and checks of vaccine certificates could all remain in place.
“We are still very cautious,” she said in an interview Tuesday as she visited TAP’s Newark office. “The pandemic is about to be gone. The recovery will take time.” ............(more)
https://skift.com/2022/02/10/tap-air-portugal-ceo-says-airline-passengers-will-wear-masks-forever/
As someone who flies relatively frequently, I'm fine with this........
TAP Air Portugal CEO Says Airline Passengers Will Wear Masks ForeverThe CEO of TAP Air Portugal says the requirement that airline passengers wear masks may be with us forever.
“We have put into place so many additional protocols,” said Christine Ourmières-Widener, who was named CEO in June. “I am absolutely convinced they will stay forever.”
Ourmières-Widener said mask wearing during flights, increased aircraft cleaning and checks of vaccine certificates could all remain in place.
“We are still very cautious,” she said in an interview Tuesday as she visited TAP’s Newark office. “The pandemic is about to be gone. The recovery will take time.” ............(more)
https://skift.com/2022/02/10/tap-air-portugal-ceo-says-airline-passengers-will-wear-masks-forever/
February 12, 2022
Canadian trucker protests are the latest example of Covid-19 absurdity
Opinion by Abdul El-Sayed
Updated 12:41 PM ET, Fri February 11, 2022
(CNN) We've officially hit peak Covid absurdism.
It's hard to remember that it hasn't even been two years since the pandemic -- and all that came with it -- befell us.
That's because it's been a singular, all-encompassing experience. Generations hence, they'll talk about us like we talked about the generation who lived through the Depression."They lived through the pandemic" will be a shorthand to explain why we reflexively wear a mask on airplanes or ask about a restaurant's air filtration system before its menu.
But one aspect of the pandemic experience that can't simply be explained by the existence of an exceedingly transmissible, deadly virus spreading between us is the sheer absurdity that it brought with it. Whether boarding an airplane with underwear on your face to protest mask requirements, injecting yourself with horse dewormer instead of a safe and effective vaccine or swallowing household disinfectants because the President of the United States unironically suggested that it might help, the pandemic has amplified the frequency and tenor of ridiculous and sometimes alarming behavior. .............(more)
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/10/opinions/canadian-trucker-protest-absurdity-everyday-life-el-sayed/index.html
Canadian trucker protests are the latest example of Covid-19 absurdity
Canadian trucker protests are the latest example of Covid-19 absurdity
Opinion by Abdul El-Sayed
Updated 12:41 PM ET, Fri February 11, 2022
(CNN) We've officially hit peak Covid absurdism.
It's hard to remember that it hasn't even been two years since the pandemic -- and all that came with it -- befell us.
That's because it's been a singular, all-encompassing experience. Generations hence, they'll talk about us like we talked about the generation who lived through the Depression."They lived through the pandemic" will be a shorthand to explain why we reflexively wear a mask on airplanes or ask about a restaurant's air filtration system before its menu.
But one aspect of the pandemic experience that can't simply be explained by the existence of an exceedingly transmissible, deadly virus spreading between us is the sheer absurdity that it brought with it. Whether boarding an airplane with underwear on your face to protest mask requirements, injecting yourself with horse dewormer instead of a safe and effective vaccine or swallowing household disinfectants because the President of the United States unironically suggested that it might help, the pandemic has amplified the frequency and tenor of ridiculous and sometimes alarming behavior. .............(more)
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/10/opinions/canadian-trucker-protest-absurdity-everyday-life-el-sayed/index.html
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