Author: JD

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2020.06.28

U.S. Used Missile With Long Blades to Kill Qaeda Leader in Syria

‘…The modified Hellfire missile carried an inert warhead. Instead of exploding, it hurled about 100 pounds of metal through the top of Mr. al-Aruri’s car. If the high-velocity projectile did not kill him, the missile’s other feature almost certainly did: six long blades tucked inside, which deployed seconds before impact to slice up anything in its path…‘

New York Times: https://archive.vn/3oAJx

June 28, 1914; 106 years ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand

Donald Trump knows he’s losing.

‘…“Under the current trajectory, President Trump is on the precipice of one of the worst electoral defeats in modern presidential elections and the worst historically for an incumbent president,” said former Trump political adviser Sam Nunberg, who remains a supporter.

Nunberg pointed to national polls released by CNBC and New York Times/Siena over the past week showing Trump receiving below 40 percent against Biden.

If Trump’s numbers erode to 35 percentage points over the next two weeks, Nunberg added, “He’s going to be facing realistically a 400-plus electoral vote loss and the president would need to strongly reconsider whether he wants to continue to run as the Republican presidential nominee.”…’

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/27/trump-losing-2020-election-342326

Black Americans head overseas

‘…Baggette lives in Germany, Drayton in Trinidad and Tobago, Kambon in Ghana.

All three are part of a small cultural cohort: Black emigres who, feeling cornered and powerless in the face of persistent racism, police brutality and economic struggles in the USA, have chosen to settle and pursue their American-born dreams abroad.

No official statistics cover these international transplants.

In Ghana, where Kambon is involved in a program that encourages descendants of the African diaspora to return to a nation where centuries earlier their ancestors were forced onto slave ships, he says he is one of “several thousand.” Kambon rejects descriptors such as “Black American” or “African American” that identify him with the USA…’

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2020/06/26/blaxit-black-americans-leave-us-escape-racism-build-lives-abroad/3234129001/

Carl Sagan explains how the ancient Greeks knew the Earth was round and calculated its circumference over 2,000 years ago.

British firms fulfilling fighter jet contracts which enable kingdom to wage war in Yemen, despite the trade being ruled unlawful

‘…The government stands accused of ignoring a landmark court ruling restricting UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia. In a judgment handed down a year ago, the court of appeal ruled it was “unlawful” for the government to have allowed the sale of arms to the kingdom for use in Yemen, where independent estimates suggest a Saudi-led coalition has been responsible for the deaths of more than 8,000 civilians since 2015…’

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/21/uk-accused-of-selling-arms-to-saudi-arabia-a-year-after-court-ban

https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/1277057770408329217

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2020.06.27 a text dump is born

The beginning of a blog, a blog of text, and links.  Nothing too original.  Something like a personal library, but shared with the world. I call it a text dump.
/jd


St. Louis mayor reads names and addresses of protesters who want to defund police

‘St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson is facing backlash on social media Friday night for reading the names and street addresses of protesters who are calling on the city to defund the police department…’

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/st-louis-mayor-reads-names-and-addresses-of-protesters-who-want-to-defund-police/ar-BB161s3X

Precarious Work in Central and Eastern Europe – and Germany http://postwest.volksbuehne.berlin/en/programme/192/dead-end-jobs-precarious-work-in-central-and-eastern-europe-and-germany

‘…Unregulated working hours, night shifts, wages that barely cover the daily essentials, work that is dangerous and hazardous to their health: this is everyday life for hundreds of thousands of people in Eastern Europe—but also for seasonal workers in Germany.

 

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, precarious working conditions in Germany have become more visible. Due to a lack of protective measures in the workplace and cramped conditions in collective accommodation and residential containers, many workers from Eastern Europe have become infected with the virus…’

 

Inside the body, the coronavirus is even more sinister than scientists had realized

‘…the discovery of filopodia in coronavirus-infected cells suggests that this virus has developed more than one way to wheedle its way into cells and establish itself as a force to be reckoned with. “It’s just so sinister that the virus uses other mechanisms to infect other cells before it kills the cell,”…’

https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-06-26/inside-the-body-the-coronavirus-is-even-more-sinister-than-scientists-had-realized

Is this a real Putin political advert? read the debate…
https://twitter.com/DylMeisner/status/1276622789013680128

https://twitter.com/billoreilly/status/1143231157703757824

Let’s Teach Students About Whites’ Genetic Inferiority ‘…When it comes to this question about white oppression, I have noticed a peculiar pattern. Although many students have thoughtful answers, not one student I have ever taught has brought up the possibility that white people are genetically inferior, and that white violence against black people is a function of this subnormal genetic inheritance. My students’ blind spot is troubling. It’s also made me more sympathetic to recent criticisms about a lack of “viewpoint diversity” in institutions of higher education. These critics have argued that colleges only expose students to a narrow range of ideological perspectives, inhibiting their growth and development and also stifling the free exchange of ideas. In order to address this issue, I propose that we expose students to an argument far outside the mainstream: that white people are genetically deficient. Here’s an example of what this argument might look like…’ satire: https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/06/26/satirical-look-question-genetic-inferiority-opinion

 

‘…”If I’d been almost anywhere else on the planet, I’d be dead. They would have flicked the switch after 30 days,” says Stephen Cameron from his hospital bed. The 42-year-old Scottish pilot spent 68 days on a ventilator, thought to be a longer stretch of time than any patient in the UK. He did so not in a hospital in his hometown of Motherwell, but in Vietnam’s sprawling and hectic Ho Chi Minh City, with no close friends or family for thousands of miles. Cameron, the last Covid-19 patient in an intensive care unit in Vietnam, has been the sickest doctors have had to deal with during the outbreak…’

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53196009

Judge Orders ICE To Free Detained Immigrant Children Because Of COVID-19

‘Citing the unrelenting spread of the coronavirus, a federal judge has ordered that all children currently held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody for more than 20 days must be released by July 17. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee of California issued the scathing order Friday afternoon, saying the Trump administration had failed to provide even the most basic health protections for children and their families amid the pandemic. She described the ICE-operated facilities as being “on fire,” adding that “there is no more time for half measures.”…’

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/26/884186168/judge-orders-ice-to-free-detained-immigrant-children-because-of-covid-19