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A tribute to first responders
Detroit Firefighter Dies Trying to Save Girls From Drowning
Sgt. Sivad Johnson, 49, a 26-year veteran of the Detroit Fire Department, dived in to rescue the girls, who were later safely brought ashore.The body of a Detroit firefighter was recovered from the Detroit River on Saturday, a day after he dived into the water to save three young girls from drowning, the authorities said.
Sgt. Sivad Johnson, 49, a 26-year veteran of the Detroit Fire Department, was visiting Belle Isle, a 982-acre island park in the Detroit River, with his 10-year-old daughter, Hayden, on Friday evening when he heard witnesses say three young girls were drowning, said Eric Jones, the Detroit fire commissioner.
Sergeant Johnson gave his phone and keys to his daughter, and he and a civilian dived into the river to save the girls, Commissioner Jones said. After the girls were safely brought to shore, Sergeant Johnson’s daughter realized she could not find her father and called 911 around 9 p.m., according to the Michigan State Police.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/23/us/sivad-johnson-detroit-firefighter-dead.html
Sgt. Johnson epitomizes emergency personnel everywhere. People who care about other people, and will jump in where others fear to go. But, it's good to remember that Sgt. Johnson isn't alone. Firefighters, EMTs, police, and medical personnel, all around the world rush in when there is an emergency - often at the risk of their own lives.
Give this man a moment of silence, if you will. And, the next time you have reason to speak to a first responder, you might take time out for another moment of silence. Most first responders never have to sacrifice much more than a little blood, sweat and tears throughout their careers, but, they are there, ready to do whatever is required.
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?
Relationship Hacking: Part 30 - The Covid...
Wow, hard to believe it's almost been 6 months since the last update!
Just after the last update, L decided to list her house. She lived about 30 minutes away from me (without any traffic) and all her friends and doctors and pretty much everything else was on the other side of the city, so she decided to move. I helped as much as I could getting her house ready for sale, and when it was finally listed, it sold the first day. That was pretty exciting. Shortly after that, the COVID starting ramping up, but luckily, the sale closed and she ended up selling her house for a good price with amazing timing!
She ended up looking for a rental nearish to me. We all (L, Wife, Daughter, and I) looked at a couple of places together, and she ended up choosing a place about 3 blocks from me. It's a pretty nice rental with lots of windows that is beside a couple parks/field, so it feels really open. She moved in to the new place near the end of April. It was/is really nice having her so close to us. Because of the Covid, everything was locked down. Having her so close effectively meant that we could live out of two houses. This change of scenery was great while everyone else was locked in their house.
When L physically moved closer, we all grew closer too. We starting having dinner as a big family every day. We all like to cook, so every meal was a feast. With three people working together, everyone can put together a dish and then without too much effort, we have an amazing dinner. I'd typically clean up while one of them looked after my daughter, and the other might get a chance to sit down.
L and my wife would spend a lot of time together, and L was great at looking after my wife in her pregnancy. She would rub oils and stuff on the sore muscles and do baby shaking to try get the baby in the right position. We all wanted to have L there at the birth, but at the time, the rules for the hospital were such that only one person was able to be in the delivery room. This was kind of a bummer, but luckily about 2 weeks before delivery, the rules changed and two people were allowed!
As the pregnancy went on, my wife had an appointment to go to the hospital to do some poking and prodding to try get the baby out. L went with her to the hospital, while I stayed home with the daughter. We didn't know it at the time, but they wouldn't be leaving the hospital until the baby came out. When they told me that they weren't letting my wife leave the hospital, I sent my daughter off to Grandma's place, and I went into the hospital and joined them. 20ish hours later, and I have a new son!
That was about 3 weeks ago. We are all adjusting to the new baby. L is amazing with the baby. Always holding and soothing him. Me... not so much. I'm not a baby fan... I'll hold him if needed, but I'd rather do the dishes, or clean the house, or look after my daughter so my wife can focus on the baby. With the addition of the baby, we are all trying to find the new normal. I'm unable to go for as many sleepovers at L's house, but this week we all had a sleepover at L's house, which was nice.
We also don't fit in any of our vehicles... I'm going to have to buy a minivan I think... It's a sad thought. I'm hoping to sell my wife's car, and get a minivan before we all go on vacation. We have a booking for an AirB&B for a week at a nearby lake in August. I'm looking forward to that. It will be nice to have everyone under one roof for a week.
With the new Baby, and L spending so much time with us, it feels like our house is too small. I really like my house (especially where it is located), so it's kind of a sad thought. We have had many discussions about potentially all moving in together, but we are still a ways away from that. We'll see how a week together on vacation goes first...
So yea, I've been busy. Working on getting a house ready for sale and moving, a new baby and the nesting that goes with that, a new job that I have so much to learn for, a wife, a daughter, and a girlfriend. I have almost no free time, and frequently feel overwhelmed, but I feel like I have a full and fulfilling life at the moment.
And yes, sometimes we have challenges or disagreements, but we are all trying. Everyone is looking out for each other, and there have been many times where I think to myself: This might actually be possible.
