This is a special 4th of July #Murica edition of Text Dump. Enjoy.
Trump’s Nazi Speech at Mt Rushmore
“This attack on our liberty, our magnificent liberty, must be stopped, and it will be stopped very quickly.”
He added darkly: “In our schools, our newsrooms, even our corporate boardrooms, there is a new far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted and punished.”
Gesturing to the overwhelmingly white crowd, he said: “Not going to happen to us.”
Trump added: “Make no mistake, this leftwing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American revolution.”
Mount Rushmore before it was destroyed by a member of the KKK
and then…
‘…The Democratic National Committee tweeted at one point that Trump had disrespected Native Americans and that his South Dakota trip was “glorifying white supremacy”. It subsequently deleted the tweet…‘
‘A California bill that would require companies like Amazon to guarantee restroom breaks is moving through the state’s legislature.
The bill, AB-3056, was introduced earlier this year and passed the state’s house in June and is currently being reviewed by the state Senate. The bill aims to ensure that workers are not penalized for spending time using the restroom or washing their hands.
The bill would apply to warehouse workers of large retailers across California like Amazon, Target and Walmart. California – the country’s most populous state — has more warehouses than any other state in the U.S., according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The bill would also require these employers to pay employees overtime if they have to work beyond the time they were scheduled to complete a quota set by the company.
meanwhile in the ‘socialist’ European Union ????????????????????????…
‘Working time and rest
As an employer, you must ensure that your staff does not work more than 48 hours per week on average (including overtime), over a reference period of up to 4 months. Your employees must be given at least 11 consecutive hours of daily rest and at least 24 hours of uninterrupted weekly rest every 7 days, over a reference period of 2 weeks. Breaks
If your employees work more than 6 hours a day, you must ensure that they are given a break, the duration of which is specified in the collective agreements or by national law….’
Crap journalism is a plague during the times of a plague.
No, Alabama frat boys aren’t doing snot shots and betting on who can get sick first. Why does the media keep suggesting otherwise?
‘…It is, of course, technically impossible to rule out the existence of Covid parties. Maybe somewhere in this vast and complex nation there are some foolish people getting infected on purpose. It’s also possible that the miasma of media coverage will coalesce into a vector of its own, inspiring Covid parties that otherwise would not have happened. But so far there’s no hard evidence that even a single one has taken place—just a recurring cycle of breathless, unsubstantiated media coverage.’
Fascinating how British imperialism trumps xenophobia, racism and isolationism.
‘…Up to three million Hong Kong residents are to be offered the chance to settle in the UK and ultimately apply for citizenship, Boris Johnson has said. [….] About 350,000 UK passport holders, and 2.6 million others eligible, will be able to come to the UK for five years. And after a further year, they will be able to apply for citizenship…’
‘…France’s armed forces ministry has provided local authorities with a guide to 100 Africans who fought for France in World War Two, so that streets and squares may be named after them.
France’s reappraisal of its colonial past is fuelled by the global anti-racism protests and Black Lives Matter.
There are many Senegalese and North African soldiers on the list, but none from what was French Indo-China.
Africans played a big role in the liberation of France in 1944.
More than 400,000 Africans in the Free French Forces took part in the Allies’ landings in the south of France in August 1944, codenamed Operation Dragoon. They were involved in heavy fighting to liberate Toulon and Marseille…’
Jeff Bezos’s Wealth
‘…[Jeff Bezos’s] gains — $56.7 billion this year alone — underscore a widening wealth gap in the U.S. during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Initial public offerings and buoyant equity markets have bolstered mega-fortunes, even as tens of millions of people have lost their jobs. This week, after receiving complaints about ending pandemic hazard pay, Amazon said it would spend about $500 million to give one-time $500 bonuses to most front-line workers…’
‘…The employment-population ratio — the number of employed people as a percentage of the U.S. adult population — plunged to 52.8% in May, meaning 47.2% of Americans are jobless, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. As the coronavirus-induced shutdowns tore through the labor market, the share of population employed dropped sharply from a recent high of 61.2% in January, farther away from a post-war record of 64.7% in 2000…’
‘…Soon after Columbus’ first expedition, the treaties of Tordesillas and Saragossa divided the oceans of the newly-known world. The Portuguese effectively took the Atlantic and Indian oceans, while the Spanish took the Pacific. With that, the Portuguese established forts and trading posts along India’s Malabar coast. In time, aloo (potato), tamātar (tomato), and mirchī (chilies) were available on the western coast of the Indian subcontinent. Later, the English set up their first trading posts in India in the eastern Gangetic plain, bringing these same staples into North India.2
So what was curry like before Columbus? Well, curry didn’t exist.
In these cases, I find it useful to consult my Hobson-Jobson, the nineteenth-century dictionary of Anglo-Indian loan words. According to that source, curry comes from the Portuguese word karil (caril) via the Tamil word kari (sauce, relish for rice). In the sixteenth century, this was transliterated into English as caril, but by the 1680s entered English as carrees, perhaps from caris, an Anglicized plural form of the Portuguese.3 It’s a circle: I’m back to Tordesillas and Saragossa…’
Worth watching. There are many examples in this video I hadn't heard of before. And I don't understand why some youtubers have been excluded. Seems like a stricter definition of 'Left' than what I have? But it is true there is an amazing resurgence of Left media. Sadly almost all of the media is online. Whatever happened to the old radical zine or cheaply printed alternative newspaper?
Why have US deaths stayed steady while Covid-19 infections are spiking
‘…Which means that a crucial issue affecting mortality is whether the raging epidemic in Southern states will result in the virus further spreading into nursing homes.
Because there is no mandatory reporting of cases by nursing homes, as well as the suggestion that some states have not been forthcoming about their nursing home cases, the only way to estimate what’s ahead is to examine cases and rates among persons 65 years old and older. Of course, most of the approximately 50 million people in the US in this age group are not in chronic care facilities, which provide care to about 1.3 million Americans, but most who are in chronic care facilities are in this age group.
Overall, looking at the 65+-year-old group is extremely important when examining Covid-19 mortality: Though they make up only 16% of the US population, more than 80% of the US Covid-19 deaths have occurred in this group…’
Los Angeles is racist, by design – and with Federal money
‘…Los Angeles was never a paradise of racial acceptance, but in 1910 some 36% of L.A.’s African Americans were homeowners (compared with 2.4% in New York City) — tops in the nation. L.A.’s comprehensive Red Car transit system, which offered easy, unsegregated access to the region’s growing economic opportunities, was fundamental to this success. Integrated, racially diverse neighborhoods like Watts and Boyle Heights emerged and thrived along these transit corridors.
[….] When the 1944 Federal-Aid Highway Act allocated funds for 1,938 miles of freeways in California, planners used the opportunity, with full federal support, to obliterate as much as possible the casual mingling of the races.
[….] Officials justified these actions as “slum clearance”— intended to upgrade the city’s supposedly crumbling housing stock. But their racially malign intent was obvious, laid bare when officials moved the Santa Monica Freeway so that it ran directly through the stately African American middle class neighborhood of Sugar Hill — anything but a slum — wiping it off the map…’
‘…The government will not apologize for the Netherlands’ history of slavery, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in a parliamentary debate on institutional racism on Wednesday. While he understands the calls for a apology, this is not the time, he said. “Apologies form a risk that society will further polarize” he said. [….]
“I understand the requests and I know what apologies can mean,” Rutte said. But the government carefully considered the matter and came to the conclusion that this is not the time. He called the considerations “a struggle”, adding that the decision not to apologize had nothing to do with fears of financial claims or repatriations. But that the question of how far back in time apologies can reach was a consideration. The concern that an apology now would only increase polarization in society was also an important factor, he said. [….]
“It is 2020 and this is the harsh reality for many of our fellow countrymen. The fact that all those Black Lives Matter demonstrations are waking up more and more people is good, but it also deserves follow up in our systems, our institutions and in our policies,” Jetten said. “To experience racism is to experience inequality and the generations of the future have the right to a world without racism. That will not happen after one debate or overnight. D66 therefore wants a coherent and long-term approach.”…’
2020.07.02 US coronavirus deaths estimated to be 28 percent higher than reported
‘…Coronavirus-related deaths tallied from March through May were 95,232, or 28 percent less than the excess number of deaths. The undercount may be due to early nursing home deaths or deaths attributed to pneumonia rather than COVID-19, Reuters reports …’
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…’
‘…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,”…’
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…’
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.”…’
