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Lori Lightfoot contemplates invasion of Mississippi
https://yallpolitics.com/2020/08/19/chicago-mayor-blames-mississippi-in-part-for-its-gun-violence-tate-reeves-fires-back/
Chicago Mayor blames Mississippi, in part, for its gun violence – Tate Reeves fires back
“Sixty percent of the illegal guns that come into Chicago every year are from out of state, from Indiana, from Mississippi, from other states that have lax gun laws,” she stated.
Yep, Mississippi, with all their crooked letters. You can't trust them!
Y’all Politics asked Governor Tate Reeves (R) for his response to Chicago Mayor Lightfoot’s comments.
“This ridiculous conspiracy theory from the Chicago mayor—that Mississippians are to blame for the violence in her own city—is bizarre and pathetic,” Governor Reeves said. “No serious person could think that murders are out of control and people are burning police cars in Chicago because of Mississippi’s commitment to the constitution.”
Come on, Governor Reeves, you know there is a vast right wing conspiracy, don't you?
another worthless poll
Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,
A new CNN poll has found that Joe Biden’s lead over President Trump has shrunk by 10 points after over two months of unrest and rioting in major American cities.
CNN’s last survey, conducted in early June when riots had largely been confined to Minneapolis, had Biden ahead by 14 points. Now he leads by just 4.
“Biden leads President Donald Trump by just four points nationally — 50 percent to 46 percent — and by even less across 15 battleground states that will determine who wins the electoral college,” reports Breitbart.
“In those 15 states — Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin — the new CNN poll has Biden leading by just one percent, with Biden at 49 and Trump at 48.”
The poll indicates that the riots have not only convinced many independents and moderates to vote for Trump, but that the unrest has also hardened support amongst Trump’s base.
Indeed, the numbers show that the President’s backing among conservatives has been boosted from 76% to 85%. Those between the ages of 35 and 64 now lean towards Trump having favored Biden back in June.
The survey was also conducted after the announcement of Kamala Harris as Biden’s running mate, suggesting her selection has done nothing to help Biden or even harmed his chances.
[ZH: Notably, only 27% of the poll respondents self-identified as Republicans]
I'm waiting for the poll in November. We all know that useless polls are useless.
KAMALA HARRIS HAS BEEN TOUGH ON BLACK PEOPLE, NOT CRIME
https://afropunk.com/2019/01/kamala-harris-has-been-tough-on-black-people-not-crime/
A couple months ago, I was chillin’ at my potna house watching football. During a commercial break, we started talking about Kamala Harris — and my potna’s older cousin shouted, “Kamala Harris! She been lockin’ niggas up at Renee (referring to the Oakland courthouse) since way back in the day and was doin’ it with a smile on her face.” He wasn’t wrong. Kamala Harris has spent her career as the district attorney of Alameda County, San Francisco, and as the Attorney General aka The Top Cop of California.
As someone from the Bay Area and living in Oakland, I am constantly reminded of her history of locking up Black people in the Bay Area. Her track record consists of terrorizing Black communities through the prison industrial complex and she has consistently shown herself to be an enemy to the masses of Black people.
While I admit the symbol of having a Black woman as president sounds nice, it doesn’t exclude Kamala from being critiqued. I operate under the political belief that there are no good presidents. Presidents are just figureheads for the white supremacist settler colonial state. I aim to have a principled critique of her record that advances Black political thought, yet Twitter has been full of misogynist critiques of Kamala. It is important we critique her while avoiding misogynoir, as there is no place for misogynoir in the Black liberation movement.
Whether it was declining to advocate for legalization of marijuana in California, in which Black people are arrested at the highest rate. Or her failure to support body cameras for the police while simultaneously opposing legislation that would require her office to independently investigate police shootings. Kamala is not for the people. She even defended the 3 strikes law, in which Black people are incarcerated at a rate 12 times higher than whites. Kamala Harris has demonstrated through her actions that she does not value Black lives, but rather supports our death via the carceral state.
Kamala’s support of the death penalty, which is a modern day form of lynching that has executed hundreds of innocent people, and also disproportionately affects Black people proves that she doesn’t value Black lives. Kamala even advocated that an innocent Black man named Kevin Cooper, who was a death row inmate and had a trial that was rooted in overt racism and corruption, be executed. She advocated for this even though Kevin had DNA evidence that proved his innocence yet Kamala Harris opposed it until the New York Times exposed the case.
Furthermore, America has no moral ability to be able to decide who lives and who dies. The death penalty is fundamentally racist, yet Kamala supports it — furthering her record as a tough on crime politician.
Not only has she failed to support policies that might improve the lives of Black people, she has defended the need for prison slavery. What’s dangerous about Kamala is that she weaponizes “civil rights” language however her actions prove otherwise. For instance, she said “the idea that we incarcerate people to have indentured servitude is one of the worst possible perceptions…I feel very strongly about that. It evokes images of chain gangs.” Despite making the connection between prison labor and chain gangs —she “pushed back against a federal order to expand an early parole program, arguing that it would deplete their stock of prison labor, especially inmates who fight wildfires”. These inmates make a dollar an hour, which is a form of slavery. Kamala is not only a super cop, but an adamant defender of the institution of policing that is rooted in slave patrols.
Kamala Harris evokes the language of being a civil rights leader for Black people. In her video announcement for president, she weaponized words like “truth, justice, and equality” and her campaign slogan is “for the people”. This is propaganda, and this campaign strategy isn’t something new, rather it follows what I refer to as the Obama Plan. The Obama Plan is a campaign strategy that will center a civil rights type narrative such as “hope” and will also use all the elements of Blackness we like in order to get a Black person elected. This campaign uses the popular aesthetics of Blackness despite the actions of Harris being fundamentally anti-Black.
Kamala used this plan by announcing her run for presidency on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a day that celebrates the radical legacy of a Black man who stood for the liberation of Black lives with both an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist politic. Kamala Harris announcing her run for presidency on MLK Day is disrespectful to King’s legacy and is a spit in the face to the Black radical tradition. Her announcing on MLK day is propaganda. It’s meant to fool Black people that she’s actually for us, despite her actions terrorizing the Black community through her role as a prosecutor. It shows us how Black liberals will weaponize the aesthetics of a freedom fighter in order to strengthen the united states colonial empire.
It is important that we understand that the “criminal justice system” is built upon the legacy of chattel slavery, and that it’s primary role is to lock up Black, Brown, and poor people to maintain a workforce (re: slaves) that supplies America an endless amount of free labor. This being said, Kamala has been the slave auctioneer and sending Black people to prison in order to maintain this endless supply of free labor. Yet some claim that she was a “progressive prosecutor”. How can there be a progressive prosecutor if the foundation of the criminal justice system is rooted in slavery and the genocide of the indigenous? If she truly was a “progressive prosecutor or a good prosecutor,” she would make sure that prosecutors do not exist. There were no good slave owners, or slave auctioneers, just as there are no good prosecutors.
Kamala Harris is what the Black radical tradition calls a neo-colonialist. Neo-colonialism is the integration of a colonized person into the colonized system in order to enact the policies of the colonizer. That being said, Kamala is a Black face doing the job of a white supremacist system. Neo-colonialism is white supremacist colonial propaganda, and it is meant to fool the masses of oppressed people that becoming the oppressor leads to freedom. Don’t be fooled by symbolism. As Obama’s presidency showed us, symbolism does not mean progress for the masses of Black people.
It is clear that Kamala Harris is not for the people. She is for the American empire. Don’t let her identity as a Black woman, or her identity as an AKA, or her status as an alumna from Howard University fool you into thinking she is actually for us: Kamala don’t give a fuck about you niggas.
Blake is the co-host of Hella Black Podcast. He also is the co founder of People’s Breakfast Oakland. You can also follow him on Twitter @BlakeDontCrack.
Duncan v Becerra goes against California
PDF of 9th circuit appeal, Duncan v Becerra
https://cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/DuncanvBecerraOpinion.pdf
https://cdn0.thetruthaboutguns.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/brownells-cali.jpg
From Brownells:
In the wake of a ruling by a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Brownells has resumed selling its full lineup of rifle, pistol and shotgun magazines to California customers.
Known as Duncan vs Becerra, the case against California’s ban on standard-capacity magazines was brought by the California Rifle & Pistol Association.
The Ninth Circuit applied strict scrutiny in its decision and ruled firearm magazines, including those of 30-rounds capacity or more, are “protected arms under the Second Amendment.”
The entire ruling can be read at the United States Court of Appeals For the Ninth Circuit site.
Effective immediately, Brownells will once again ship magazines to California customers.
To see Brownells full lineup for popular magazines for AR-15 style, AK-47 style and other commonly-owned semi-automatic rifles and pistols, visit the magazine section of the Brownells website.
About Brownells
Serious About Firearms Since 1939™, Brownells is the world’s leading source for guns, gun parts and accessories, ammunition, gunsmithing tools and survival gear. With a large selection of both common and hard-to-find items, and an extensive collection of videos, articles, and gun schematics, Brownells is the expert for everything shooting-related. Committed to maintaining our great traditions, Brownells has more, does more and knows more – and guarantees it all, Forever. For more information or to place an order, call 800-741-0015 or visit Brownells.com. Stay up-to-date with Brownells on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
For the second time, California's restrictive laws over firearm magazines has been shot down. It is expected that a request for an en banc hearing will be filed soon, but that won't happen before firearms companies have sold a few boatloads of magazines to Californians.
I really think the tide has turned against gun control hoplophobes.
The appointment of federal judges is the single best reason to reelect Trump, IMHO. It's time to get rid of the fascists who want to leave all Americans defenseless against criminals and government. Ooops - sorry for the redundancy there.
Gun porn warning:
https://www.brownells.com/magazines/index.htm
The Shoe Finally Drops on the NRA
So yes, the lawsuits and their timing — heading into the fall election for which the NRA had just pledged to spend “tens of millions” in the Trump reelection effort — were transparent political attacks aimed at both Trump and the nation’s most prominent supporter of gun rights.
But that doesn’t mean that what’s being alleged by James (or Racine) in her lawsuit isn’t true. She’s alleging wrongdoing by LaPierre, NRA corporate counsel and secretary John Frazer, retired CFO Wilson Phillips, and the NRA’s embattled former COO, Josh Powell. James’s suit asks for the four to be fined and reimburse millions they allegedly wrongfully received.
So for all of our readers who reacted by dismissing this as another prominent Democrat using her office to attack the NRA and, by extension, gun owners and gun rights, we would only remind you that both things can be true. The lawsuit(s) can be both a conveniently timed political hit job and justifiable on the merits based on actual, verifiable wrongdoing.
That pretty much sums everything up, I believe. Many of us have been watching the NRA trainwreck unfold. Just like watching a real life train wreck, you can see it, but you can do NOTHING to help. Here it comes, rolling along, helter skelter all over the landscape. The best you can do, is to get the hell out of the way before it rolls over you.
RCP Coronavirus Tracker
A lot of numbers get thrown around, in regards to Covid-19. This country has the most cases, that country has the most deaths, etc ad nauseum.
What is the PER CAPITA disease rate, and death rate? I found several hits on that, most of them old. RealClearPolitics has a page that appears to be updated. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/coronavirus/
The columns are sortable. For my immediate purposes, I'm only interested in the "Deaths/1 m pop" column.
Belgium 861.9
UK 694.9
Peru 613.1
Spain 608.8
Italy 581.7
Sweden 564.1
Chile 513.0
US 484.1
At the far end of the spectrum
Burundi 0.1
Caymans 15.2
Curacao 6.3
Benin 3.1
Congo 0.6
Taiwan 0.3
Alright - table doesn't seem to sort itself quite properly. As I work upward from the bottom, I find the Channel Islands hav 12,692.4/million? But they only have 47 deaths total, looks like bad math somewhere.
Are there better charts and graphs somewhere?
Click the column "Confirmed Cases / 1 m pop" and everthing changes.
Qatar 40,197
French Gulana 27,028
Bahrain 26,465
Chile 19,207
Kuwait 16,508
Oman 16,390
Panama 16,149
United States 14,719
Drop down to the bottom and read up,
Burundi 36.1
Cayman Islands 3,084
Liechtenstein 2,347
Curacao 182
Brit. Virgin Isle 266
Turks and Calcos 3,272
The graph is definitely not behaving properly. Maybe I should try a different browser . .. no, other browsers all seem to display the same errors.
Click the column labeled "Tests", and China tops the list with 90,410,000 tests administered. US in second, 60,000,000 and Russia in third with 29,000.000. That blows a lot of headlines away, claiming the US is far behind in testing.
Does anyone know of more useful charts and graphs? It would be really nice to get some kind of handle on all the numbers being thrown around.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/
Seems to have very similar numbers to the above, but only displays 50 entries max at a time.
Operation Legend
In one of the discussions, it was mentioned that Federal troops were seen in Albuquerque. Email from the White House has the following:
On June 29, 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro was shot and killed in his bed after a gunman opened fire on an apartment complex in Kansas City, Missouri.
This afternoon, President Trump announced the expansion of Operation Legend, an interagency law enforcement effort led by the Department of Justice and named after LeGend. Its purpose is to quell the unacceptable levels of recent violence in U.S. cities.
“My first duty as President is to protect the American people, and today I am taking action to fulfill that sacred obligation,” President Trump said.
? President Trump: Anti-police policy and rhetoric has consequences
Attorney General Bill Barr announced the creation of Operation Legend fewer than 10 days after LeGend’s heartbreaking death. The Justice Department is now surging over 200 federal law enforcement officers into Kansas City to help curb the kind of senseless violence that took the young boy’s life.
The President announced today that the operation will expand into Chicago and Albuquerque. Over the next 3 weeks, the Justice Department plans to further expand the initiative into Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee.
In Chicago, for example, more than 300 federal law enforcement personnel will work with state and local police to help apprehend violent criminals. Just yesterday, another mass shooting in Chicago injured 15 people outside of a funeral service.
More than $61 million will be provided by the Justice Department to hire hundreds of new police officers, and about 200 federal agents and deputy marshals will be permanently reassigned to Operation Legend cities.
“We will never defund the police—we will hire more great police,” President Trump said. “We want to make law enforcement stronger, not weaker. What cities are doing is absolute insanity.”
So, naturally, I went looking around the net.
Wikipedia overview
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Legend
Kansas City news conference
https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article244416727.html
Buzzfeed article on Chicago and Albuquerque
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/salvadorhernandez/trump-sending-federal-officers-to-chicago-albuquerque
Mayor of Albuquerque interview on NPR
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/22/894449060/albuquerque-mayor-on-trumps-plan-to-send-federal-agents-into-the-city
It seems like, ohhhh, I don't know, maybe Sanctuary Cities are on a list?
https://newspunch.com/full-list-sanctuary-cities-states-usa/
It's "fashionable" to defy the federal government these days. And, camo fatigues are also "fashionable". Enjoy, America!
The smart people in those sanctuary cities will follow my stepson's example, and evacuate.
Ask Soylent: best cell phone boosting equipment
For starters, I have never really cared a lot about cell phones. They aren't "real computers" in my opinion, and they will never replace my desktop.
But, for reasons I'm not going into here, I suddenly need more reliable service, here at the house. That is, I need the cell phone to work, but I can't be going out into the rain, trying to find that magic spot in the yard where I get a full bar, or maybe two bars for reception.
I have, in the past, used those little cards that go inside of the cell phone, promising to boost your reception. I've had mixed results with that, none of them exceptionally good. The best of them might boost your reception by a bar. When you have no service at all, that little card will usually give you crappy service.
Looking at somewhat more serious equipment, Wilson makes a nice looking cell phone antenna for trucks and cars, that apparently gives you a nice signal boost. It sells for about $80 to $100. Problem is, the phone must be left in the antenna cradle, which probably means using the speaker phone. That sucks - you can't carry the phone around, and speaker phone always sounds like crap.
Car or truck, about $200
https://www.wilsonsignalbooster.com/weboost-drive-sleek-cradle-signal-booster-470135.html
Home use, starting about $500 to $1000
https://www.wilsonsignalbooster.com/
https://www.wilsonsignalbooster.com/weboost-470144-home-multiroom-signal-booster.html
https://www.wilsonsignalbooster.com/wilson-pro-70-plus-for-voice-3g-4g-lte.html
More serious equipment? Starting prices seem to be about $500 for a repeater. Set up your antenna, preferably in an elevated position, and point it at a cell tower. Run the coax inside the house, where it plugs into a booster device, which has another antenna to transmit the signal inside the house. Like magic, you should get 3 to 5 bars, and be able to wander throughout your home while maintaining that good, solid signal.
But, I have almost zero idea who makes good equipment, as opposed to consumer grade feel-good trash.
What is the competition for Wilson / weBoost? Some of you Soylentils have a lot of knowledge and experience in electronics. Point me at some good quality, reputable suppliers, please!!
Or, is this the best, and/or the best price, I'm going to find?
I did run across one booster system, that has to be set to one carrier or another. That is, it will not boost all cell phone signals at the same time - you have to choose one. It supposedly has a much stronger signal than any of the others I've looked at.
https://www.waveform.com/products/cel-fi-go-x
Again, that's a $1000. This particular page suggests that I can't change it from one carrier to another, instead, they want me to specify which carrier I want to use.
This one is near $1000, boosts all carriers, and they claim to have performance comparable to the cel-fi-go-x
https://www.waveform.com/products/hi-boost-home-15k-lcd-f20g-5s-lcd
So, are there better options out there? Cheaper options that are as good or better?
Did you know Rush is still on the air?
So, I'm driving along, and none of the stations are coming in well. I'm scanning the FM spectrum, looking for SOMETHING that isn't retarded. Finally, something came in clear - some asshole spouting his opinion about something. That something was COVID19. I listen a few seconds. Hmmmm - interesting.
The per capita COVID fatality rate is lower in all of those states that kept their economies going, than in any of those states that simply shut down for COVID.
Hmmm - wonder if that's true? And, who is that asshole? Listen awhile longer - hell, it's Limbaugh.
So, I'm still wondering if it's true. So, right now, after beginning my journal entry, I'll try to find numbers . . .
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109011/coronavirus-covid19-death-rates-us-by-state/
Hmmmm - something's not right. There are supposed to be eight states that did not shut down. There are 15 states with lower fatality rates than Arkansas, which did not shut down. Soooooo - the statement that every state that did NOT shut down has a lower death rate than any state that did shut down cannot be true.
Which states did NOT shut down again?
April 3 - not quite what we're looking for here. https://www.travelbinger.com/13-u-s-states-have-not-ordered-a-lockdown-yet-take-a-look/
April 17, but it seems to reference much the same as Limbaugh was pontificating over.
https://www.lendio.com/blog/coronavirus/states-lockdown/
However, 8 states (Arkansas, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Utah, and Wyoming) still do not have any lockdowns or stay-at-home orders.
Compare that list of 8 to the table found in the first link - and Rush is full of shit. Oh well. There's a reason I never liked listening to him . . . Only on those rather rare occassions when the AM/FM couldn't find anything except Rush Limbaugh, did I ever listen to the old fool.
The chart does seem to indicate that all of those 8 states have had low mortality rates, compared with New England and Great Lakes states. Then, there's Louisiana, ranking right below the District of Columbia.
Well, all I can say is, "Fuck you, Rush!" The fool had me hoping that something all scientifical-like was going to prove all the fuss to be wasted.
face masks at work
I suppose everyone knows that every politician, and every executive officer in the world feels the need to "do something" about Covid19.
We've been doing that social distancing thing since early in the game. Everyone has. Face masks, not so much.
Suddenly, our executive branch has decided that face masks are mandatory to even enter the plant. I went to the doctor's office immediately to get an excuse not to wear the mask. Doctor and I had an interesting discussion, in which she reiterated what I already know: masks are bad for healthy people.
Meanwhile, I talked to my co-workers, and told them all that if they didn't want to wear the masks, they needed to get a medical exemption. Everyone says, "I'm getting mine tomorrow morning!" Then it became, "I'm waiting to see what they do about you before I give them mine!" Bunch of no-balls assholes, this is why collective bargaining never works in the south.
So, I take my medical note to HR. Stupid broad lets me work without a mask - for one night. But she's talking on the phone to some bitch somewhere far away, and the second night, I'm barred from entering the plant. Talk, talk, talk, all around the country with people who all think that they're important.
Finally, it's decided that I need to wear a mask to get through the turnstile, and walk through the plant, to my shop. More, I'm being offered a half dozen different options for masks, as opposed to that silly gauze hanging off my ears. I'll test them all out, and see how they work.
BUT - most importantly, I don't have to wear the damned mask for eight, or ten, or twelve hours. Only when I'm face-to-face with someone. Otherwise, the stupid mask can be stuffed into my belt, or pocket, or whatever.
And, I got a near-admission that the masks are pretty meaningless. They do not stop the transmission of the common cold, flu, or Covid19. It's just a feel-good stopgap that shows everyone cares. And, it helps to mitigate any potential liability the company may face for keeping the plant in operation.
Funny thing about the masks I've already seen. There are no brand name tags, or instructions, or anything on them. The best thing I've seen yet, is just a tube, you pull over your head, and down around your neck. Single layer of some artificial fabric, stretchy, and very easy to breathe through. No hot air blowing back in your eyes, or whatever. Did EVERYONE in the boardrooms forget that it's summer now? It's far too damned hot to be breathing into some stupid bag of gauzey cotton or paper.
I got my point across pretty effectively though. If those assholes in the offices want me to wear a mask that interferes with breathing, they need to bring their fat asses into the factory, follow me around, and breathe through the same damned masks they want me to breathe through.
The message would have been far more effective, if all of my co-workers had followed through on their promises to bring doctor's excuses in on Monday, like I did. Assholes all need to grow a pair. They can talk a good story, but they have no real fight in them.
I promise that whatever mask I decide to carry around with me, it will almost never be over my face.
Tonight, we see what we see. Maybe they'll just get pissed off, and lay me off. I can lay around the house and collect unemployment for awhile!!
BTW - as an aside - I mentioned 8, or 10, or 12 hours above. Which explains why I've not been so active here on Soylent. Too many days and too many hours for me to spend much time on the internets. Nice paydays though!
I'll try to post back, and let you all know which mask works best for me.
And, yes, claustrophobia is a legitimate excuse not to wear some stupid rag over your face. There are others, but claustrophobia is about the easiest to "prove" to anyone's satisfaction.
