August 27, 2020

Let's hear it for Kamala Harris. She tore into Trump just now like no one's business.

What a GREAT speech.

Boy, did Biden choose a VP well!

I was literally blown away. Let's hope Trump gets so mad about what she said he destroys himself politically in his own speech tonight.

I like Harris more each day.

August 21, 2020

New Ebola Outbreak in Congo Raises Alarm

Source: The Hill

The WHO has committed about $2.3 million to the battle against Ebola, and Congo’s health ministry has said it will need $40 million to control the outbreak. But the world is consumed by the coronavirus pandemic, and international partners have not committed the funding necessary to stop Ebola.

“The virus is spreading across a wide and rugged terrain which requires costly interventions, and with Covid-19 draining resources and attention, it is hard to scale up operations,” said Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s Africa regional director.

This is the second major Ebola outbreak in Equateur Province in the last two years. A previous outbreak that began in May 2018 was contained in just three months, after 54 people were infected and 33 died.

The latest outbreak came just as Congo ended its worst Ebola epidemic ever recorded, in eastern North Kivu and Ituri provinces. That incident, unconnected to the current conflagration, lasted for almost two years and killed more than 2,200 people.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/513106-new-ebola-outbreak-in-congo-raises-alarm

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Ordinarily, I would not be as concerned about this as I am now, because I'd feel like American scientists and doctors were helping WHO and would get it contained.

But.........................Trump.

August 7, 2020

Louisiana Supreme Court upholds Black man's life sentence for stealing hedge clippers more than 20 y

Source: CNN

A Black Louisiana man will spend the rest of his life in prison for stealing hedge clippers, after the Louisiana Supreme Court denied his request to have his sentence overturned last week.

Fair Wayne Bryant, 62, was convicted in 1997 on one count of attempted simple burglary. In his appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Louisiana in 2018, his attorney, Peggy Sullivan, wrote that Bryant "contends that his life sentence is unconstitutionally harsh and excessive." Last week, though, the state Supreme Court disagreed -- with five justices choosing to uphold the life sentence.

The lone dissenter in the decision was Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette Johnson, who wrote that "the sentence imposed is excessive and disproportionate to the offense the defendant committed." Johnson is the only female and Black person on the court. The rest of the justices are White men.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/06/us/louisiana-supreme-court-trnd/index.html

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So there you have it. Johnson pointed out the people of LA have already spent $500K housing Bryant, and that if he lives 20 more years it would double. So, the people of Louisiana will have spent a million dollars on a guy that stole a pair of hedgeclippers.

Racism sure is costly.

I'd say the Butthole of America award now passes to Louisiana.

August 1, 2020

What Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming says about our republic

This is a bit different that the posts I usually make. But this article and its surrounding history made me sad inside.

It made me sad because I believe this republic could be very noble - a light on the hill providing world leadership in things like mitigating climate change, human rights, social justice, hunger, education. But here, in the treatment of the United States towards the Arapaho tribe, which once lived in Colorado and was forced onto the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming in 1868, we get painful insight into who we really are.

It is hard as someone who believes as I do to come to direct grips with the fact - and it is a fact - that this republic was built on conquest, genocide and slavery.

It was. And that knowledge is painful to bear. We need to figure out a way to redress the grievances, come to terms with the past, talk about it, and create policies that allow for the playing field to be leveled so all people have a real chance to make a good life. Because in truth, most people don't care much for ideology - they just want to have enough. Enough food, shelter, clothing, safety, opportunity, belonging - all that Maslow stuff. But it is true. People need those things. All of us do.

So here's a link to an article in, of all places, Business Insider, about the Wind River Reservation. The prose is so-so, but the pictures - well, you'll see.

https://www.businessinsider.com/wind-river-indian-reservation-in-wyoming-2013-2

It's funny, because coming out with stuff like this causes right wingers to say we 'hate America.' So, I'd like to address that. I don't hate America, because of what this republic could be. But I hate what we have done, and the horrors of our past. It makes me hurt inside.

Equally funny - sometimes prose that I think is my very best and most pithy doesn't get one single response on here. Here I didn't even try. I'm speaking from the heart. You can't look at these photos and think about the history of Native Americans without feeling just sick.