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marmar

marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
March 20, 2021

The GOP's xenophobia is fueling toxic culture of hate


(CNN) On Tuesday evening, when we started hearing the details of the murderous rampage that left eight people dead in the Atlanta area, a gnawing fear started taking shape. Gun violence has become eerily routine in the United States. But this time, there was nothing random about the shootings. The killer went to three separate establishments. The first one is called, "Young's Asian Massage." Of the eight people he killed, six were Asian women.

In addition to the sorrow for the lives lost, two troubling thoughts immediately came to mind. First, was this another instance of anti-Asian violence? And then, the elephant in the room, the question that almost didn't need to be asked: If it was a deliberate effort to kill Asians, does former President Donald Trump, who has spent more than a year referring to the coronavirus by using Asian slurs, bear any responsibility for helping set the stage for the rising tide of anti-Asian American violence?

The answer is obvious to many. California Rep. Judy Chu, who heads the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said the former president, "clearly stoked the flames of xenophobia" against Asians. After public health officials named the virus Covid-19, deliberately seeking to avoid potentially xenophobic overtones, Trump ostentatiously, mockingly called it the "China virus," the "Wuhan virus," and the "Kung Flu." According to Chu, that led to attacks on Asians increasing exponentially. And what happened in Atlanta, she argues, is the result of what Trump unleashed. Chu is hardly alone in reaching that conclusion.

The Atlanta area shooting suspect, according to Police Captain Jay Baker, claims he wasn't looking for Asian victims, but there's much we don't know about the case. The fact that Baker, who was the spokesperson for the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office's case, has himself allegedly posted racist anti-Asian material on social media is only one more reason to be skeptical of the claim that race and national origin were not a factor. .............(more)

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/19/opinions/xenophobia-republicans-anti-asian-american-crimes-ghitis/index.html




March 19, 2021

Florida man arrested, found hiding from deputies in dryer


UMATILLA, Fla. - Deputies say they were searching for a Florida man wanted for violating probation and when they found him to make the arrest, he was inside a clothes dryer.

The Lake County Sheriff's Office said that the incident happened in Umatilla. Deputies went looking for 33-year-old Michael Brook to serve two warrants for violation of probation.

They said that as deputies searched a home for him, they found him inside a clothes dryer. ...............(more)

https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/sheriffs-office-florida-man-arrested-found-hiding-from-deputies-in-dryer




March 19, 2021

Michigan eases outdoor stadium capacity restrictions; Comerica Park can host 8,200 fans


(Detroit Free Press) Comerica Park and other large outdoor sports venues can allow more people inside on game day, but youth athletes will need to be tested for COVID-19 more frequently under a new state order easing capacity restrictions.

The new Michigan health department order allows 20% capacity inside these outdoor venues, up substantially from previous limits on these venues. But Gov. Gretchen Whitmer acknowledged Friday case rates overall are going up, pointing especially to transmissions tied to youth sports.

"This uptick in numbers is serious, and we all have to take this seriously. We are so close," Whitmer said.

“But the big unknown factor here is, can we, 10 million Michiganders, continue to take this seriously until we get to about that 70% (vaccinated) number, and that’s what’s so crucial.” .............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/news/health/2021/03/19/michigan-outdoor-stadium-capacity-comerica-park-opening-day/4762570001/




March 19, 2021

Dems dispense with decorum, slam Johnson



(Salon) Republican Sen. Ron Johnson is now complaining that the left is trying to "silence" him after he claimed that while he has not afraid of the violent mob of Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol while all of Congress was inside, he would have been frightened by a Black Lives Matter protest.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed this week, Johnson, R-Wis., doubled down on his comments about the pro-Trump rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, insisting that the left is attempting to "silence" him. Last week, during an interview with conservative radio host Joe Pags, Johnson admitted that he didn't feel threatened by the pro-Trump rioters who staged an armed insurrection at the Capitol but might have if the rioters had been Black Lives Matter protestors or Antifa.

"Now, had the tables been turned — Joe, this could get me in trouble — had the tables been turned," Johnson said, "and President Trump won the election and those were tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned."

....(snip)....

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1371922875712737285?s=20

That same day, Johnson penned an op-ed in the Journal to further his case. "I told Joe Pags the truth," he wrote, "I honestly never felt threatened on Jan. 6. But, I added, I might have been worried if Donald Trump had won and the violent leftists who burned Kenosha, Wis., and Minneapolis last summer had come to Washington." .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/03/19/ron-johnson-labeled-a-racist-by-his-colleagues-in-congress/




March 18, 2021

Canada creates first-ever fund for cycling paths and trails





The government of Canada plans to create a fund to support new and expanded networks of pathways, bike lanes, trails, pedestrian bridges, repairs and planning studies across the country. The government plans to invest C$400 million (US$320.71 million) as part of its dedicated investment to public and active transit.

“Canadians love using safe cycling paths and trails to get around their towns and cities. It’s a great way to stay healthy, enjoy nature and connect to public transit and it is good for the environment. This investment will make it easier for more people to get around on foot, bikes, scooters, wheelchairs and e-bikes,” said Canada Minister of Infrastructure and Communities Catherine McKenna.

The new investment will support the government’s first Active Transportation Strategy, which aims to “coordinate active transportation investments that reflect best practice planning, design, regulations and standards across levels of government, Indigenous communities, not-for-profits and the private sector.”

The announcement of the new fund took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, which has created 325 kilometers (201.9 miles) of new bike paths and encouraged cycling and transit use through changes in zoning laws. The government says this has boosted public transportation, including active transportation, to 54 percent of trips last year. ............(more)

https://www.masstransitmag.com/alt-mobility/shared-mobility/article/21214306/canada-creates-firstever-fund-for-cycling-paths-and-trails




March 18, 2021

It's not just you: Why everyone is super exhausted right now


It's not just you: Why everyone is super exhausted right now
It's not daylight savings time: You might suffer from "Pandemic Trauma and Stress Experience," or PTSE

By NICOLE KARLIS
MARCH 18, 2021 11:02AM


(Salon) Besides being the year of the pandemic, 2020 was the year of keeping busy at home. Pandemic hobbies, as they're commonly called, substituted much of the human socializing that occupied pre-pandemic weeknights and weekends. Some people became prolific at growing the natural yeast for sourdough. Others turned to learning a musical instrument, reading more, or just binging television.

But as the era of the great indoors stretches into 2021, many people are reckoning with a more dominant emotion: exhaustion.

The experience of 62-year-old Lisa Johnson Mandell of Las Vegas epitomized this peculiar exhaustion that many have anecdotally reported on social media.

"I don't get just tired or sleepy, I find myself getting exhausted — bone tired, where I find it hard to place one foot in front of the other," Mandell said. "My limbs ache from exhaustion."

"Anyone else finding it hard to catch a break these days? So many folks are just exhausted (including me)," Dr. Desmond Upton Patton, a social work professor at Columbia University, opined on Twitter. His remark prompted a long thread of agreement from the Twitterverse. "Global fatigue," one person replied. ............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/03/18/its-not-just-you-why-everyone-is-super-exhausted-right-now/





March 18, 2021

Republicans are now working to sabotage Biden's stimulus


(Salon) Even though President Joe Biden just signed the American Rescue Plan, Republicans are not backing down in their fight against the $1.9 trillion Covid relief package. They are now looking for ways to reject the federal funds allotted to state and local governments.

On Tuesday, twenty-one attorneys general penned a condemnatory missive protesting a stipulation in Biden's relief package that imposes limits on states' ability to lower taxes. The letter, a noteworthy counterpunch against Biden's defining legislative victory, specifically takes issue with the $350 billion set aside for cities and counties struggling to front the cost of the pandemic. Congressional Democrats drafting the bill barred state officials from using this money to offset any losses of tax revenue that would come from local cuts. However, the attorneys general said in their letter to the Treasury Department that the provision prevents states that were already pursuing "such tax relief with or without the prospect of COVID-19 relief funds."

The letter continued, "Absent a more sensible interpretation from your department, this provision would amount to an unprecedented and unconstitutional intrusion on the separate sovereignty of the states through federal usurpation of essentially one half of the state's fiscal ledgers."

If Biden does not allow states to carry out tax cuts on their own volition, then the relief law, the GOP letter argues, "would represent the greatest invasion of state sovereignty by Congress in the history of our Republic."

....(snip)....

President Biden's relief bill may prove to be a campaign flash point in the upcoming Senate races as Republicans and Democrats remain split over the bill's political value. Many Democrats have vowed to campaign on the bill, now knowing that their negligence of this tactic contributed to widespread Democratic losses after Obamacare's historic passage. "We didn't adequately explain what we had done," Biden told House Democrats after the relief bill's passage. "Barack was so modest, he didn't want to take, as he said, a 'victory lap.'" ...................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/03/18/republicans-are-now-working-to-sabotage-bidens-stimulus/





March 17, 2021

GOP dreams of a return to Jim Crow -- and not just through racist voting laws


GOP dreams of a return to Jim Crow — and not just through racist voting laws
Republicans come ever closer to embracing overt white supremacy. At least that would be honest

By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
MARCH 17, 2021 9:03AM


(Salon) It is the year 2021. But Republicans and the right-wing movement are trying to pull the American people back to the past.

Their ultimate destination? It could be Jim Crow white supremacist America of the 1950s. It could be the end of Reconstruction in 1876 – or even a time before that.

In that sense, the Republican Party and its allies and followers are time-breakers, not content with harmless nostalgia and happy-pill lies about the past. Their goal? To radically remake society in their own grotesque vision where white, right-wing "Christians" — men, by definition — rule America unopposed and for all time.

....(snip)....

Zachary Roth of the Brennan Center for Justice describes this racialized "legislative anti-democracy" and what it entails:

It's upon us: a wave of legislation, in states across the country, aimed at making voting harder. The Brennan Center has tallied over 250 bills in 43 states this year that would restrict access to the ballot. Many would reverse the expansion of vote by mail, which helped lead to the soaring turnout of 2020, or would tighten ID requirements.

But the latest assault on voting shouldn't be seen in isolation. Some of the same Republican state lawmakers behind these measures are also taking steps to suppress any form of democracy that threatens them — afraid, it seems, that the more say voters have in any form, the worse their side will fare. …

It's hard to ignore that this explosion of what we might call "legislative anti-democracy" is coming from some of the same people who helped stoke an even more troubling effort to overturn the will of the people. At least 14 Republican state lawmakers attended the January 6 "Stop the Steal" rally that led to the Capitol insurrection, and they continue to serve. At least one, State Sen. Doug Mastriano of Pennsylvania, has been a leader in his state's effort to pass restrictive voting laws.


These attacks are targeting those Americans at the base of the Democratic Party: young people, the poor and working-class, college students, urban residents and nonwhite people. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/03/17/gop-dreams-of-a-return-to-jim-crow--and-not-just-through-racist-voting-laws/




March 17, 2021

Florida's New Invasive Species Is A 10-Foot Long River Monster




FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami/AP) — Florida is already in a battle with dangerous and invasive species like the Burmese python, green iguana and lionfish and now there’s a new predator in the state called the arapaima. It is a fish that can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh hundreds of pounds.

A dead one recently washed ashore in Cape Coral’s Jaycee Park along the Caloosahatchee River, which runs from Lake Okeechobee west to the Gulf of Mexico.

The arapaima is native to the Amazon River in South America and is one of the world’s largest predatory fish. Its scales are said to be as impenetrable as armor. And it’s ugly, at least to most people.

“I think it’s kind of cool,” said Captain Josh Constantine, who has been fishing the waters near the Caloosahatchee River for more than 20 years, and has been a guide for his business, Caloosahatchee Cowboys Charters, for more than a decade. ...........(more)

https://miami.cbslocal.com/2021/03/17/florida-new-invasive-species-fish-arapaima-river-monster/




March 17, 2021

Florida Man Angry He Didn't Receive Stimulus Check Threw Smoke Bomb Outside Trump's Mar-A-Lago




AFlorida man upset with former President Donald Trump's administration was arrested on Sunday for throwing a smoke bomb at Mar-a-Lago, the former president's residence.

Stimulus checks started going out over the weekend as part of President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion relief package and not receiving one reportedly irked Paul Rawls Jr., a West Palm Beach resident. While driving by the former president's home, he threw a smoke bomb out of the window and later admitted to it during a conversation with Palm Beach detective Christopher Barber.

"Rawls spoke of his financial struggles and disdain for the former administration because he has not received his stimulus check from the government this weekend," Rawls reportedly told Barber, according to an affidavit. ................(more)

https://www.newsweek.com/florida-man-angry-he-didnt-receive-stimulus-check-threw-smoke-bomb-outside-trumps-mar-lago-1576610




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