2020.06.30 – JD’s Text Dump…

Missouri Law Suggests St. Louis Lawyers Could Be Prosecuted for Threatening Protesters with Guns

‘Two attorneys in St. Louis who brandished firearms at Black Lives Matter protesters over the weekend could be charged with a felony.

Under Section 571.030(4) of the Revised Statutes of Missouri, it is a crime when a person “[e]xhibits, in the presence of one or more persons, any weapon readily capable of lethal use in an angry or threatening manner.” Such a person “commits the offense of unlawful use of weapons,” which is defined as a class E felony. Such felonies carry up to four years in prison, one year in jail, and/or a $10,000 fine–but are subject to probation.

Here, personal injury attorneys Mark McCloskey and Patricia McCloskey went viral after being featured in a video holding what appears to be an AR-15 style rifle and a small pistol, respectively…’

https://lawandcrime.com/george-floyd-death/missouri-law-suggests-st-louis-lawyers-could-be-prosecuted-for-threatening-protesters-with-guns/


Beijing’s national security law to enter force in Hong Kong, draft still a secret
‘…While the draft law was not disclosed to the public, the NPC revealed some of the details to the media in a briefing on June 20:

• The law would criminalize acts including secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with external forces.
• The new law will override local legislation should any conflicts arise.
• Beijing will set up an agency in Hong Kong to collect intelligence and “monitor supervise, coordinate and support” local government.
• Some cases — “very few” as stressed by the NPC — will fall under Beijing’s jurisdiction. This implies that the offenders could be put on trial in mainland China where a hearing can be conducted in secret.
• The Hong Kong government will set up a commission chaired by the chief executive under Beijing’s supervision to oversee the implementation of the new law.
• The chief executive will appoint designated judges to preside over cases.

The latest source information from NPC suggested that breaking the law will carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment…’

https://globalvoices.org/2020/06/30/beijings-national-security-law-to-enter-force-in-hong-kong-draft-still-a-secret

cartoon by Tjeerd Royaards: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10221746951168031&set=a.1792862346354&type=3&theater


Biden supported by 106 billionaires, Trump by 93

https://twitter.com/OpenSecretsDC/status/1278010156442402823


useful.

https://lingojam.com/PigLatinTranslator



Moonies! Still being crazy after all these years.

Church Faces Backlash for Giving Out Free AR-15 During Sunday Service

‘…The church’s website noted that this was “Round Two,” as a previous giveaway of an AR-15 was held back in 2014. Pastor John Koletas said that the giveaways were meant to honor gun owners and hunters who have “been so viciously attacked by anti-Christian socialist policies,”…’

https://www.newsweek.com/church-faces-backlash-giving-out-free-ar-15-during-sunday-service-1514113


‘String players who traveled from all over the U.S. to Aurora, Colorado for a violin vigil and peaceful protest over the death of Elijah McClain were met with police in riot gear, attacking people with tear gas and pepper spray Saturday…’
https://www.violinist.com/blog/laurie/20206/28342


Jack Goldstone predicted current US unrest and ‘civil war’ a decade ago

‘In the early 1990s, when Bill Clinton was in the White House and the United States looked unshakeable, the administration appointed Jack Goldstone to study how states fail. They meant other states; not the US. Few expected that his model would later predict their country’s collapse. [….]

Ten years ago, Professor Turchin pointed his model towards the future, and made an uncannily accurate prediction. Just like in the 1850s, crisis indicators were rising, he wrote in the journal Nature. They could be a reliable indicator of looming instability and “look set to peak in the years around 2020,” he wrote. [….]

Professor Goldstone predicts the real problems will begin after July 31, when Americans’ $600 a week COVID-19 unemployment welfare expires.

“Social tensions likely continue to grow as we move to November,” he said. “The risks of violence in November are very high.”…’

https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/model-predicting-united-states-disorder-now-points-to-civil-war/12365280


I bet those 'reductions' will be considered 'aspirational' until the economy 'gets back on track' - rather than this being seen as an opportunity to stop greenhouse gas emissions where they are now.  Just a wild guess.

‘Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell said on Tuesday it will write down the value of its assets by up to $22 billion in the second quarter, after revising down its long-term outlook for oil and gas prices.

It comes after the energy company announced in mid-April an ambition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.’

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/30/shell-to-write-down-assets-worth-up-to-22-billion-in-q2.html



CDC says USA has ‘way too much virus’

‘The coronavirus is spreading too rapidly and too broadly for the U.S. to bring it under control, Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, [….]

“What we have in the United States, it’s hard to describe because it’s so many different outbreaks,” Schuchat said. “There was a wave of incredible acceleration, intense interventions and control measures that have brought things down to a much lower level of circulation in the New York City, Connecticut, New Jersey area. But in much of the rest of the country, there’s still a lot of virus. And in lots of places, there’s more virus circulating than there was.

The coronavirus has proven to be the kind of virus that Schuchat and her colleagues always feared would emerge, she said. She added that it spreads easily, no one appears to have immunity to it and it’s in fact “stealthier than we were expecting.”

“While you plan for it, you think about it, you have that human denial that it’s really going to happen on your watch, but it’s happening,” she said. “As much as we’ve studied [the 1918 flu pandemic], I think what we’re experiencing as a global community is really bad and it’s similar to that 1918 transformational experience.”…’

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/29/cdc-says-us-has-way-too-much-virus-to-control-pandemic-as-cases-surge-across-country.html


wait, so CNN sat on this story for 4 months?
/jd
'The sources were interviewed by CNN repeatedly over a four-month period extending into June'

Trump attacks female world leaders in phone calls

‘…The sources were interviewed by CNN repeatedly over a four-month period extending into June.”

Trump got belligerent with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former UK Prime Minister Theresa May, the report said.

“Some of the things he said to Angela Merkel are just unbelievable: he called her ‘stupid,’ and accused her of being in the pocket of the Russians,” one source told Bernstein. “He’s toughest [in the phone calls] with those he looks at as weaklings and weakest with the ones he ought to be tough with.”…’

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-near-sadistic-phone-calls-female-world-leaders-merkel-may-2020-6


Looks like predestination to me :D



Brexit.

Anyone remember Brexit?


 

 

In Israel a fountain at ‘Donald Trump Square’ turned blood-red

‘…The fountain of Donald Trump Square in the Israeli city of Petah Tikva was vandalised on Sunday evening, Israeli police said on Monday, with the water turned blood-red by activists who also sprayed graffiti reading “Annexation will cost us blood”.

The incident came two days before the official date when the Israeli government was expected to reveal its plans for unilateral annexation of around one-third of the occupied West Bank. [….]

“The vandalisation of public property is a nefarious act, which must be ripped out by its roots,” Petah Tikva’s mayor, Rami Greenberg…’

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-donald-trump-fountain-blood-red-west-bank-annexation


In Racial Justice Victory, Johnson & Johnson to Pay $2B to Women in Asbestos-Laced Baby Powder Suit
‘Johnson & Johnson has been ordered to pay $2.1 billion to a group of women who developed ovarian cancer after using talcum powder contaminated with asbestos. Johnson & Johnson heavily marketed the powder to African American women despite warnings that the products could cause cancer. Six of the plaintiffs in the Johnson & Johnson case died before the trial started. Five more of the women have died since 2018. We get response from M. Isabelle Chaudry, senior policy manager at the National Women’s Health Network, who says the company must ban the products globally and do more to address the harm it has caused, particularly to communities of color. “They have a history of engaging in racist practices,” she says…’