Wednesday, June 17, 2020
White House Steps Up Efforts to Downplay Ongoing Coronavirus Concerns
https://time.com/5854657/white-house-downplay-coronavirus-concerns/
The Trump administration’s push to diminish concerns about the virus
comes as the president looks to resume his reelection campaign in
earnest. Trump has seen his support erode over his handling of the
pandemic and nationwide protests following the killing of George Floyd,
the African American Minneapolis man who died after a white policeman
pressed his knee onto Floyd’s neck.
Portugal finally recognises consul who saved thousands from Holocaust
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53006790
Eighty years ago, a middle-aged,
mid-ranking diplomat sank into deep depression and watched his hair turn
grey in days, as he saw the streets of Bordeaux filling with Jewish
refugees fleeing the Nazis.
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
The KKK Is a Terrorist Organization
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/04/the-kkk-is-a-terrorist-organization-105717
With time, it’s become even clearer that the alleged perpetrator is a
terrorist. As founder of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and
the White Patriot Party, Frazier Glenn Miller has a long history of
militant anti-Semitism. The Southern Poverty Law Center described him as
a “raging anti-Semite” known for posting online rants, like “No Jews,
Just Right.” The Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights
has also noted, “His worship for Hitler and Hitlerism is real.”
According to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, Miller is
“one of the pioneers in the modern hate world, he’s been entrenched in
the hate movement his entire adult life.”
And yet, the word terrorism wasn’t mentioned “in a single bit of news coverage,” as one observer noted. Why?
Drug Proven to Reduce Virus Deaths, Scientists Say
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/16/world/coronavirus-live-updates.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Scientists at the University of Oxford
said on Tuesday that they have identified what they called the first
drug proven to reduce coronavirus-related deaths, after a 6,000-patient
trial of the drug in Britain showed that a low-cost steroid could reduce
deaths significantly for hospitalized patients.
The
steroid, dexamethasone, reduced deaths by a third in patients receiving
ventilation, and by a fifth in patients receiving only oxygen
treatment, the scientists said. They found no benefit from the drug in
patients who did not need respiratory support.
Shas candidate gives up Knesset following lewd modesty comment
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/new-shas-mk-dressing-immodestly-causes-breast-cancer-miscarriages-631657
Rabbi Baruch Gazahi, who was set to enter the Knesset thanks to the Expanded Norwegian Law that passed on Monday night, was forced to resign from the Shas
list on Tuesday after it was revealed that he said in a Torah class
four years ago that women miscarry and get breast cancer due to
immodesty.
Shas leader Arye Deri said he spoke to Gazahi, who told him his words
were part of a two-hour lecture and were taken out of context. Deri said
he told Gazahi his words were unacceptable and do not represent Shas.
‘No cop-free zone’: Seattle police chief says officers are responding to CHOP with caution
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/no-cop-free-zone-police-chief-says-officers-are-responding-to-chop-with-caution/?utm_source=marketingcloud&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Morning+Brief+6-16-20_6_16_2020&utm_term=
Though CHOP has been described over the past week as a cop-free zone,
Best said that is not the case and officers have written multiple
police reports for crimes reported in that area in the past 48 hours.
Dispatchers and officers are coordinating with crime victims or callers
to meet police on the edges of the CHOP boundaries, she said, adding
officers will go into the CHOP area if there are threats to life safety —
for instance, if someone is injured or there’s a report of shots being
fired.
Dozens of Attendees at Donald Trump's Tulsa Rally Could Turn Up Infected With COVID-19
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-rally-tulsa-oklahoma-coronavirus-cases-covid-19-1511021
Peter Drobac, a physician and an infectious diseases specialist at
the University of Oxford's Saïd Business School, pointed to alarming
facts that highlight the risks of holding the Tulsa rally.
New
COVID-19 cases are surging in Oklahoma. On Friday the state reported its
highest single-day increase in new cases to date. Neighboring states,
from which rally attendees may travel, are also reporting spikes in new
infections.
"If you tried to design a superspreader event for COVID-19, it would look a lot like one of these rallies," Drobac told Newsweek.
"It's perfectly designed to foster the spread of a respiratory virus. I
worry about the risk to attendees, to their loved ones, and to the
president."
Seattle's mayor and police chief diverge on autonomous zone
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/12/seattle-protests-autonomous-zone-315149
The mixed messages from Mayor Jenny
Durkan and Police Chief Carmen Best come amid wall-to-wall coverage on
the zone on conservative news outlets and a barrage of tweets from
President Donald Trump blasting the city’s response to what he says is
an “anarchist takeover.”
“These Liberal Dems don’t have a clue,” Trump tweeted
on Friday morning. “The terrorists burn and pillage our cities, and
they think it is just wonderful, even the death. Must end this Seattle
takeover now!”
Trump continued his criticism of Seattle in an interview that aired Friday afternoon with Fox News' Harris Faulkner.
"You can look at a couple of places
that are in such great shape, but then you look at Seattle," Trump said.
"What's that all about? How did they allow that to happen? That's just a
bad philosophy."
Michael Solan, the president of the
Seattle Police Officers Guild, also told Faulkner that the situation in
the city was out of control.
Trump excoriates Inslee, Seattle mayor over autonomous zone
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/502828-trump-excoriates-inslee-seattle-mayor-over-autonomous-zone
Trump has fixated over the past week on demonstrators living in what
has been dubbed the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in downtown Seattle,
ridiculing the movement as a group of radical anarchists. He has focused
his ire on Inslee, a former Democratic candidate for the White House
who has previously tussled with Trump, and Durkan, accusing the two
leaders of being weak.
But when pressed for specifics, the president demurred. He suggested
he could do "about 10 different things" to disperse the gathering, then
launched into a diatribe accusing the news media of failing to give the
protest adequate attention.
Lockdown Versus Freedom
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-philosophers-diaries/202005/lockdown-versus-freedom
The question is, what level of risk do those actions pose, and is
imposing that risk impermissible. What we have here is a conflict
between the right to act freely, on the one hand, and the duty not to
endanger the life and health of others, on the other. Where freedom ends
and the duty to keep others safe even at a cost to oneself begins is by
no means obvious.
The alternative is to forgo analysis and insist – via protests and
social media campaigns – that one’s preference becomes public policy.
That's hardly a way to sound decision making. (In
addition, the alternative has costs of its own. For instance, protests –
being large gatherings – may involve high levels of risk, indeed,
higher than the risks associated with going back to work or engaging in
any of the other activities protesters would like to engage in.)
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