Month: June 2020

This is the Most 2020 Story of the Year (So Far)

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A Spanish porn actor has been arrested in connection with the death of a photographer as the result of a bizarre ritual involving toad venom.

I don’t think that this will remain at the top of the pile, 2020 has a lot more sh%$ to toss our way, but right now, this story encapsulates the year almost perfectly:

Spanish police have arrested three people, including a well known pornographic actor, in connection with the death of a photographer who is thought to have died after inhaling toad venom during a shamanic ceremony.

The Guardia Civil did not name those detained, but the fatal ceremony, which took place in the Valencian town of Enguera in July 2019, allegedly involved the Spanish porn actor Nacho Vidal, and resulted in the death of a fashion photographer, José Luis Abad.

………

“Officers began the investigation after the death of a person during a mystical ritual involving the inhalation of vapours from the venom of the bufo alvarius toad,” the statement said.

………

It also warned that the alleged ritual was considerably more dangerous than people might think.

Yes, the dead photographer would indicate that there was an element of risk in snorting toad venom.

Some People Only Live to Hate

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Case in point, the Liberty Counsel, a right wing Christo-Fascist group who is trying to get all references to the LGBTQ from the anti-lynching bill in the Senate, because without their hate, they would have nothing.

Congress is finally close to passing a bill that makes lynching a hate crime — but an evangelical group is trying to remove any reference to LGBTQ communities from the legislation.

When the Senate unanimously passed the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act in December, it marked an important step in a roughly century-long effort to outlaw the practice at the federal level. But before the House begins considering its version of the legislation, the Liberty Counsel, an evangelical litigation group, is calling for the bill to be stripped of language that refers to gender identity or sexual orientation.

It’s no wonder that the SPLC has labeled the group a hate group some time back.

That’s pretty much their entire reason for existence.

Why do We Not See an Agressive Police Presence at Right Wing Protests?

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For the same reason that you never saw Miley Stewart and Hanna Montana together in the eponymous show:

POLICE OFFICER TELLS PROUD BOYS TO HIDE INSIDE BUILDING BECAUSE THEY’RE ABOUT TO TEAR GAS PROTESTERS. THE OFFICER SAID HE WAS WARNING THEM “DISCREETLY” BECAUSE HE DIDN’T WANT PROTESTERS TO SEE POLICE “PLAY FAVORITES.” iTs JuSt a FeW BaD ApPlEs #GeorgeFloyd #babygate pic.twitter.com/sbcpbH2iVu

— Taylor (@sprtneo) June 5, 2020

I’m not surprised that this happened in Oregon.

Oregon used to have a provision in its state constitution prohibiting black people, and in the 1920s, it was arguably the most Klan dominated state in the nation.

Still it raises a broader question, how do you keep white supremacists out of the police force, or as in the case of the Minneapolis Police, keep them from becoming the head of the police union.

Hell Has Frozen Over. Now Give Colin Kaepernick a Job

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Roger Go0dell, NFL President and poster child for white privilege, has now apologized for shutting down “Black Lives Matters” type protests in the league.

The whitest guy in sports has decided that it was no longer in his best interest to suck up to Donald Trump.

Still, no mention of Kaepernick though:

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league made mistakes in not listening to players in a video on Friday denouncing racism in the United States amid widespread protests over police brutality against black people.

“We, the National Football League, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest,” said Goodell. “We, the National Football League, believe black lives matter.”

Goodell, who offered his condolences to the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and all families who have endured police brutality, said he would be in touch with individual players who had voiced concerns about the league.

No mention was made of Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback whose decision to kneel during the national anthem during a preseason game in August 2016 kick-started the protest movement.

I’m not going to hold my breath about this actually resulting in meaningful changes, particularly since Goodell’s real bosses, the team owners, have about as much interest promoting justice and tackling inequality, as I would in reading the complete works of Ayn Rand.

I Did Not See This Coming

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The Scariest Job Chart Ever

The unemployment rate for May unexpectedly fell to 13.3% in May.

This surprised pretty much everyone, with the consensus being an increase to nearly 20%:

The U.S. labor market snapped back to life in May, restoring a chunk of the jobs it lost in the first two months of the coronavirus pandemic while facing big obstacles in the months ahead.

After two months of carnage, employers added 2.5 million jobs last month, the most jobs added in a single month on records dating from 1948. The jobless rate fell to 13.3% from April’s 14.7%, a post-World War II high.

Employment remained down by nearly 20 million jobs, or 13%, since February, the month before the pandemic prompted states to shut down huge segments of their economies. By comparison, the U.S. shed about 9 million jobs between December 2007 and February 2010, a period that covered the recession caused by the financial crisis.

It should be noted that the unemployment rate would have risen to over 16% but for a statistical artifact:

When the U.S. government’s official jobs report for May came out on Friday, it included a note at the bottom saying there had been a major “error” indicating that the unemployment rate likely should be higher than the widely reported 13.3 percent rate.

The special note said that if this “misclassification error” had not occurred, the “overall unemployment rate would have been about 3 percentage points higher than reported,” meaning the unemployment rate would be about 16.3 percent for May.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the agency that puts out the monthly jobs reports, said it was working to fix the problem.

………

Some took this as a sign that President Trump or one of his staffers may have tinkered with the data to make it look better, especially since most forecasters predicted the unemployment rate would be close to 20 percent in May, up from 14.7 percent in April. But economists and former BLS leaders from across the political spectrum strongly dismissed that idea.

………

Economists say the BLS was trying to be as transparent as possible about how hard it is to collect real-time data during a pandemic. The BLS admitted that some people who should have been classified as “temporarily unemployed” during the shutdown were instead misclassified as employed but “absent” from work for “other reasons.”

………

The “other reason” category is normally used for people on vacation, serving jury duty or taking leave to care for a child or relative. These are typically situations where the worker decides to take leave. But in this unusual pandemic circumstance, the “other reason” category was applied to some people staying at home and waiting to be called back.

This problem started in March when there was a big jump in people claiming they were temporarily “absent” from work for “other reasons.” The BLS noticed this and flagged it right away. In March, the BLS said the unemployment rate likely should have been 5.4 percent, instead of the official 4.4 percent rate. In April, the BLS said the real unemployment rate was likely about 19.7 percent, not 14.7 percent.

The situation is still dire, and one hopes that this issue will lead to better statistics on employment in the futurer.

This is a Strong Argument for Abolishing the Police

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After 2 officers were suspended for throwing an elderly man to the ground and leaving him there with blood pouring out of his ears, the the entire Buffalo, NY resigned from the team.

I can think of no better example to show how the entire police force is bad apples, either directly, or as a result of peer pressure:

Fifty-seven officers in the Buffalo Police Department’s Emergency Response Team resigned Friday from their positions on the unit in support of two of their colleagues who were suspended for shoving an elderly man onto the ground during a protest Thursday, putting him in the hospital.

“The cops who are resigning over this are proving they shouldn’t have been on the force in the first place,” tweeted CounterPunch editor Jeffrey St. Clair. “I hope many more of them resign. And soon.”

To be clear, these guys have not left the force, just the Buffalo ERT.

The Buffalo Police Benevolent Association, the department’s AFL-CIO-affiliated union, claimed in a statement announcing the mass resignation that the two officers caught on camera shoving 75-year-old Martin Gugino to the ground with no provocation were only following orders.

It’s unclear what orders led to the unprovoked assault, after which Gugino lay motionless on the ground, blood pouring out of his ear.

“This is an example of officers doing exactly what they’re supposed to,” union president John Evans told the Investigative Post Friday.

I wonder what percentage of police forces are broken this way.

My guess is that over 90% are infected with the “Thin Blue Line” disease.

This Sounds Like Prophecy

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My husband asked a Secret Service Agent guarding the Treasury whether he ever thought he’d see this. He said: “I’m surprised it took this long. I think I’m gonna see the whole building burned down. 40% unemployment.” pic.twitter.com/wxrZX4EWZv

— Krystal Ball (@krystalball) June 4, 2020

The guard at the now graffiti covered Treasury building might a prophet, but I am not sure if that is a good thing, or a bad thing.

Another 1.9 Million New Jobless Claims

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While this is better than the 6 million claims at the peak of the pandemic this week’s jobless report of 1.9 million claims is still almost three times worst than any weekly claims report before this year.

Tomorrow’s unemployment number is going to be grim:

Another 1.9 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week as the total number of claims passed 42 million since the coronavirus pandemic hit the US.

The pace of layoffs has slowed dramatically from its peak of 6.6m at the start of April as states start to relax quarantine orders and last week was the ninth consecutive week of declines. But the scale of layoffs remains staggeringly high. In the worst week of the last recession “just” 665,000 people filed for unemployment.

Jason Reed, professor of finance at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, said the numbers may be coming down, but “this is unprecedented. The figures are so high that it’s hard to grasp the reality.”

On Friday the labor department will release May’s monthly jobs report. Economists are predicting unemployment will rise to close to 20% from 14.7% in April and some 8m more jobs will have been lost after a combined drop of 21.4m in March and April.

Tomorrow is going to be very grim.

Similar Political Dynamics, Let’s Hope for a Similar Results

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed Jamaal Bowman in his primary challenge to Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

All things considered, Engle is a prime candidate for “termination with extreme prejudice” by his constituents.

His district, one of the hardest hit by Covid-19 in the district, is right next to AOC’s, and Engel has been almost completely absent from it for decades, so it’s no surprise that he is vulnerable.

Here is hoping that this challenge gets another old party hack out:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), in her latest break with party leaders, has endorsed a Democratic primary challenger to Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), a long-serving committee chairman who represents a district adjacent to hers.

In a series of tweets, Ocasio-Cortez announced her support for Engel’s leading challenger, middle-school principal Jamaal Bowman, whose message of generational change has echoed that of Ocasio-Cortez ahead of her 2018 upset of a long-serving Democratic incumbent.

………

Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is serving his 16th term in the House.

He has reported raising more than $1.6 million through March — about three times as much as Bowman — but is facing a spirited June 23 primary amid criticism that he has not spent enough time in the district.

On Tuesday, Engel generated headlines after he repeatedly asked to speak at a Bronx news conference on protests over the killing by Minneapolis police of George Floyd, then said near a live microphone, “If I didn’t have a primary, I wouldn’t care.”

………

Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed two other challengers to House Democrats in this year’s elections. Business executive and activist Marie Newman defeated Rep. Daniel Lipinski in an Illinois district south of Chicago, while Rep. Henry Cuellar defeated Jessica Cisneros, an immigration attorney backed by Ocasio-Cortez.

Here is hoping that Engel gets a well deserved retirement.

The geriatric leadership of the House Democrats need to go.

We Are F%$#ed

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The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together mass hysteria!

The Atlanta Fed’s real time estimate of GDP just came out, and while there are plenty of caveats, they are estimating a decline in GDP of -52.8%.

Even the more mainstream estimates shown in the figure are end of the world stuff, but their estimate is a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man moment:

Ok, this is now getting a little scary:

The real time GDP running estimate of US economic activity is half of what it was 3 months ago. As of June 1, the Atlanta Fed is nowcasting that economic activity in the United States, as measured in GDP, is minus 52.8%.

Given the extent of the collapse in demand that has accompanied quarantines and shelter-in-place orders, this is not a surprise. Still, when you see the number in print, it still has the capacity to shock.

Yeah, it has the capacity to shock.

Good

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They just tore down the statue of corrupt mayor and police chief Frank Rizzo in Philadelphia.

That man was one of the worst plagues on law enforcement in the 20th century.

In the predawn hours Wednesday, the city unceremoniously removed the controversial statue of former Mayor and Police Commissioner Frank Rizzo, who was known for his aggressive tactics policing the black and gay communities of Philadelphia.

Some TV news stations were on the scene to capture the massive artwork being rigged with straps and then wobbled back and forth before being yanked from its base in front of the Municipal Services Building across the street from City Hall.

“The statue is a deplorable monument to racism, bigotry, and police brutality for members of the Black community, the LGBTQ community, and many others. The treatment of these communities under Mr. Rizzo’s leadership was among the worst periods in Philadelphia’s history,” Mayor Jim Kenney said in a written statement.

Speaking of plagues on law enforcement, when are they getting J. Edgar Hoover’s name off of the FBI headquarters?

Antifa, My Ass

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A bunch of Alt-Right loone in Las Vegas were just arrested attempting to infiltrate and disrupt the local Black Lives Matter protests: by fomenting violence and vandalism:

Three Nevada men with ties to a loose movement of right-wing extremists advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government have been arrested on terrorism-related charges in what authorities say was a conspiracy to spark violence during recent protests in Las Vegas.

Federal prosecutors say the three white men with U.S. military experience are accused of conspiring to carry out a plan that began in April in conjunction with protests to reopen businesses closed because of the coronavirus.

More recently, they sought to capitalize on protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis after a white officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air, prosecutors said.

The three men were arrested Saturday on the way to a protest in downtown Las Vegas after filling gas cans at a parking lot and making Molotov cocktails in glass bottles, according to a copy of the criminal complaint obtained by The Associated Press.

Clearly, the problem is Antifa.  They are the terrorists.  ……… NOT

Keith Ellison Does His F%$#ing Job

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Which is remarkable, when he is a prosecutor investigating killer cops.

So now, the man who Barack Obama attacked in order to prevent him from becoming head of the DNC, has has upped the charge against former MPD officer Dereck Chauvin to 2nd degree murrder, and charged the other 3 officers who helped kill George Floyd:

Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office on Wednesday upgraded charges against the former Minneapolis police officer who knelt on George Floyd’s neck and charged the other three officers at the scene with aiding and abetting murder.

The decision came just two days after Ellison took over the prosecution from Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman and followed more than a week of sometimes-violent protests calling for tougher charges against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who had pinned Floyd to the ground and held him there for nearly nine minutes. Protesters also demanded the arrests of the three other former officers who were present but failed to intervene. All four were booked into the Hennepin County jail on Wednesday.

………

However, he said, he doesn’t believe that “one successful prosecution can rectify the hurt and loss that so many people feel. The solution to that pain will be in the slow and difficult work of constructing justice and fairness in our society.”

Chauvin, who was recorded on video kneeling on Floyd’s neck as he begged for air on Memorial Day, now faces the more serious charge of second-degree murder, in addition to the original charges of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter with culpable negligence.

………

The other officers at the scene — Tou Thao, J Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane — were each charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder while committing a felony, and with aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter with culpable negligence. Both charges are categorized as “unintentional” felonies.

I hope that he nails these bastards to the wall.

It’s a Primary Night

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There was a general election in Ferguson, Missouri, and they have elected their first black, and first woman, as mayor.

Maybe now, they will stop preying on their poor black citizens for revenue.

Also, in a development that leaves me with mixed emotions, racist dirtbag Steve King lost his Congressional primary in Iowa. I’m glad that he’s gone, but it will make it harder to flip the seat to the Democrats in November.

Finally, in the “I’m so glad that I no longer live in Baltimore City,” news, fresh from a probation stint for corruption plea, Sheila Dixon has apparently been elected again as Mayor of Baltimore.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the case, was caught using gift cards that were intended to be used for poor children’s Christmas gifts.

Putting the “Petty” in petty corruption, I guess.

I Credit Smart Phones

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Protests against inequality and police brutality that were once limited to the slums and their immediate neighbors are now moving to wealthier neighborhoods, as technology, particularly smart phones allow organizers to organize more distant locales.

This is a good thing. Protests SHOULD afflict the comfortable:

In the years since American cities erupted in anger in the 1960s, many of the conditions that fueled that unrest — even with the ideas drafted to address them — have changed little. Most deeply poor urban neighborhoods have remained that way. Schools that for a time grew more integrated have resegregated. Aggressive policing has continued as a defining feature of urban life for young black men.

………

In Chicago, protesters have converged on Michigan Avenue, the city’s famous strip of high-end retail. In Atlanta, it has been affluent Buckhead. In Philadelphia, Center City. In New York, SoHo. In Los Angeles, protest leaders have deliberately steered toward upscale neighborhoods, including downtown and Beverly Hills.

………

There is limited symbolism in a store hit by opportunistic looting. But historians have noted the shifting geography of protest. In 1964 in Philadelphia, black neighborhoods along Columbia Avenue and North Broad Street were damaged, Thomas Sugrue, a historian at N.Y.U., pointed out. This time, high-end Chestnut and Walnut Streets around Rittenhouse Square downtown were hit over the weekend, before unrest spread through much of the city. In Los Angeles, where Watts was a site of unrest in 1960s, now Rodeo Drive is one instead.

This is good.

Logan Paul???? Logan F%$#ing Paul?!?!?! Seriously?!?!?!

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✊🏼✊✊🏾✊🏽✊🏿 pic.twitter.com/dl14Xz5X5y

— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) June 2, 2020

Beyond Surreal

This is Logan Paul, who is known for having a YouTube following in the 8 figures, taking pictures of himself (and a corpse) in a Japanese suicide forest, and many other feats of stupid entitled white boi tricks, just unleashed a tirade against racism and white privilege, which considering his audience, is pretty amazing.

To quote my son, “If the situation that we’re in is enough to make Logan F%$#ing Paul start to speak rationally and responsibly, we’re in some deep sh%$.”

This is as a profound a statement against his own interest as I have seen in a very long time.