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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
June 20, 2020
.... was the only thing getting him through his depression over coronavirus and the BLM protests.
So if he can't even generate crowds at the MAGA rallies, in deep red Oklahoma, what is his raison d'etre? I suspect he's just playing president on TV right now anyway.
Will he even want to soldier through until November if it's going to be more of this the whole time?
The MAGA rallies are Trump's lifeblood. It was obvious that the resumption of the rallies.....
.... was the only thing getting him through his depression over coronavirus and the BLM protests.
So if he can't even generate crowds at the MAGA rallies, in deep red Oklahoma, what is his raison d'etre? I suspect he's just playing president on TV right now anyway.
Will he even want to soldier through until November if it's going to be more of this the whole time?
June 20, 2020
The people in the upper bowl of the arena in Tulsa were dressed like empty seats....
....to own the libs.
Just suggesting some talking points for right-wing media. 
June 20, 2020
Bolton's book makes it clear: Trump is the amoral charlatan we knew he was
Michael H Fuchs
The president has eroded norms, broken laws and installed cronies who facilitate his corrupt reign. How much more can we take?
Fri 19 Jun 2020 08.00 EDT
(Guardian UK) John Bolton’s book is a reminder that, contrary to all of Trump’s claims to be “tough” on China, in reality Trump fawns over China’s President Xi Jinping, his China policies are counterproductive, and Trump has repeatedly sold out the American people to China to advance his own personal interests.
From encouraging Xi to continue ethnic cleansing against Uighurs to asking for China’s help in his 2020 re-election campaign, Trump’s actions make it clear why Chinese officials believe that Trump is good for the Chinese Communist party (CCP).
The revelations regarding China are just a handful of the many episodes in Bolton’s book illustrating Trump’s corruption and ineptitude that, in year four of Trump’s term, may not be surprising, but should still shock everyone.
Daily events highlight how dangerous Trump is to America and the world, from ignoring a pandemic that is killing tens of thousands of Americans to encouraging state violence against protestors and police brutality against African Americans.
There are no more surprises with Trump, just more death and destruction he leaves in his wake. But Bolton’s book helps illustrate two facts about the Trump administration: Trump is exactly who we know he is – an amoral charlatan using the most powerful office in the world to help himself at the expense of the American people; and those around Trump help him carry out his corrupt ends, despite what they may tell themselves to justify their complicity. ..................(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/19/john-bolton-book-trump-china
Bolton's book makes it clear: Trump is the amoral charlatan we knew he was
Bolton's book makes it clear: Trump is the amoral charlatan we knew he was
Michael H Fuchs
The president has eroded norms, broken laws and installed cronies who facilitate his corrupt reign. How much more can we take?
Fri 19 Jun 2020 08.00 EDT
(Guardian UK) John Bolton’s book is a reminder that, contrary to all of Trump’s claims to be “tough” on China, in reality Trump fawns over China’s President Xi Jinping, his China policies are counterproductive, and Trump has repeatedly sold out the American people to China to advance his own personal interests.
From encouraging Xi to continue ethnic cleansing against Uighurs to asking for China’s help in his 2020 re-election campaign, Trump’s actions make it clear why Chinese officials believe that Trump is good for the Chinese Communist party (CCP).
The revelations regarding China are just a handful of the many episodes in Bolton’s book illustrating Trump’s corruption and ineptitude that, in year four of Trump’s term, may not be surprising, but should still shock everyone.
Daily events highlight how dangerous Trump is to America and the world, from ignoring a pandemic that is killing tens of thousands of Americans to encouraging state violence against protestors and police brutality against African Americans.
There are no more surprises with Trump, just more death and destruction he leaves in his wake. But Bolton’s book helps illustrate two facts about the Trump administration: Trump is exactly who we know he is – an amoral charlatan using the most powerful office in the world to help himself at the expense of the American people; and those around Trump help him carry out his corrupt ends, despite what they may tell themselves to justify their complicity. ..................(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/19/john-bolton-book-trump-china
June 20, 2020
Will transit systems convince you it’s safe to ride? The answer is in this European city.
Ridership on Wiener Linien, the operator of Vienna’s transit system, saw daily ridership come back to 65% of pre-COVID-19 levels on weekdays and to 75% on weekends
Larry Higgs
nj.com (TNS)
Jun 19th, 2020
Transit agencies seem to be in the role of dentists trying to convince children to come in for a check-up, when it come to getting them on trains and buses in post coronavirus world.
There’s a lollipop at the end of the dental visit, but there also could be a drill.
For riders, the drill is fear of being exposed to coronavirus, due to close proximity of others on trains and buses. Ways to ease concerns and keep riders and workers safe from COVID-19 were discussed during the introduction of two studies during a Zoom conference Wednesday.
Perhaps what happened to Vienna’s transit ridership, when it and that Austrian city reopened as the coronavirus subsided, might give American transit riders and officials a glimpse of what happened, if everyone does their part. ..........(more)
https://www.masstransitmag.com/management/news/21142674/nj-will-transit-systems-convince-you-its-safe-to-ride-the-answer-is-in-this-european-city
Will transit systems convince you it's safe to ride? The answer is in this European city
Will transit systems convince you it’s safe to ride? The answer is in this European city.
Ridership on Wiener Linien, the operator of Vienna’s transit system, saw daily ridership come back to 65% of pre-COVID-19 levels on weekdays and to 75% on weekends
Larry Higgs
nj.com (TNS)
Jun 19th, 2020
Transit agencies seem to be in the role of dentists trying to convince children to come in for a check-up, when it come to getting them on trains and buses in post coronavirus world.
There’s a lollipop at the end of the dental visit, but there also could be a drill.
For riders, the drill is fear of being exposed to coronavirus, due to close proximity of others on trains and buses. Ways to ease concerns and keep riders and workers safe from COVID-19 were discussed during the introduction of two studies during a Zoom conference Wednesday.
Perhaps what happened to Vienna’s transit ridership, when it and that Austrian city reopened as the coronavirus subsided, might give American transit riders and officials a glimpse of what happened, if everyone does their part. ..........(more)
https://www.masstransitmag.com/management/news/21142674/nj-will-transit-systems-convince-you-its-safe-to-ride-the-answer-is-in-this-european-city
June 20, 2020
Washington – A federal judge ruled Saturday that former national security adviser John Bolton can move forward in publishing his tell-all book despite efforts by the Trump administration to block the release because of concerns that classified information could be exposed.
The decision from U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth is a victory for Bolton in a court case that involved core First Amendment and national security concerns. But the judge also made clear his concerns that Bolton had “gambled with the national security of the United States” by opting out of a prepublication review process meant to prevent government officials from spilling classified secrets in memoirs they publish. ..........(more)
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/20/judge-bolton-can-publish-book-despite-efforts-block/111990788/
Judge: Bolton can publish book despite efforts to block it
Washington – A federal judge ruled Saturday that former national security adviser John Bolton can move forward in publishing his tell-all book despite efforts by the Trump administration to block the release because of concerns that classified information could be exposed.
The decision from U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth is a victory for Bolton in a court case that involved core First Amendment and national security concerns. But the judge also made clear his concerns that Bolton had “gambled with the national security of the United States” by opting out of a prepublication review process meant to prevent government officials from spilling classified secrets in memoirs they publish. ..........(more)
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2020/06/20/judge-bolton-can-publish-book-despite-efforts-block/111990788/
June 20, 2020
"Reading 'Bangkok Wakes to Rain' Helped Me Imagine a New Normal"
from YES! Magazine:
Reading “Bangkok Wakes to Rain” Helped Me Imagine a New Normal
BEENISH AHMED
4 MIN READ
For the past several years, Bangkok has been the most-visited city in the world, drawing 22 million visitors in 2019. Like urban centers across the globe, this metropolis—once filled with selfie-stick toting and sunscreen-slathered tourists—was eerily stilled because of a strictly enforced lockdown that is now being eased. The Thai New Year, which usually draws throngs of people into the street for days in mid-April—splashing one another with water guns, buckets, and even elephants to cleanse away past misdeeds—saw almost no action this year. Millions of people who had planned to visit Bangkok are also under some form of social distancing or stay-at-home order, nursing a sense of uncertainty not only about when traveling safely will be possible again, but what sort of world we’ll re-enter.
Bangkok Wakes to Rain, a novel by Pitchaya Sudbanthad imagines both.
The novel offers a guided tour of corners of Bangkok that may well be overlooked by the average visitor, as well is its temporal contours. The debut novelist deftly cuts across present time, slipping in and out of the past and future to bring forward a slate of characters who inhabit different periods in Bangkok. Sudbanthad maps a sense of perspective and possibility that feels urgent for a city that has faced existential threats long before the current outbreak of the coronavirus.
Bangkok is sinking as the sea is rising around it. Experts predict that 40% of Bangkok will be underwater by 2030 if no major changes are made to mitigate the damage. The city’s precariousness adds a certain morbid twist to its appeal as a destination that has only added to its woes. Bangkok has faced rapid industrialization to accommodate so many tourists and tourist industry workers, leaving the city with fewer of the green spaces and natural coastlines that serve as natural defenses against flooding.
“The snakes were the first to seek higher ground. The people of Krungthep began finding them in places they weren’t often spotted before—curled around roof antennas or slithering up parking garage ramps,” Sudbanthad writes, using the Thai name for Bangkok. He takes us along for an imaginary tour of what might become of the city, with roads turning into canals and the lower stories of building filling completely with saltwater. ...........(more)
https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2020/06/10/coronavirus-bangkok/
June 20, 2020
Florida’s Covid-19 surge shows the state’s reopening plan is not working
As counties end the second week of Governor Ron DeSantis’ ‘safe, smart, step-by-step’ policy, the state marks a record high in daily cases
Richard Luscombe in Miami
Sat 20 Jun 2020 06.00 EDT
(Guardian UK) It has been seven weeks since Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis took a coronavirus “victory lap”, pressing ahead with a swift reopening program while berating the media for a “doom and gloom” approach he said bore little relation to reality.
“We haven’t seen an explosion of new cases,” DeSantis insisted during a 29 April news conference, a day on which the state’s Covid-19 tally increased by 347.
“There is a light at the end of the tunnel,” DeSantis, a keen Trump ally, added.
This week, however, it became clear that the Republican governor’s garden of roses is wilting fast in the face of a resurgent virus.
A period that began with Florida’s daily record of new cases below 1,700 saw eight consecutive days above that figure, five of them topping 2,000 and both Thursday and Friday seeing the highest numbers of all: 3,207 and 3,822 cases, respectively, eclipsing the previous recorded high by more than 35%. ...............(more)
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/20/florida-covid19-surge-reopening-governor-desantis-coronavirus?fbclid=IwAR3taN8EZ2hFUfiW6oNui37DOaqV3LPAa_9rDPuOfrYCiwEqKtTOwOWHoio
Florida's Covid-19 surge shows the state's reopening plan is not working
Florida’s Covid-19 surge shows the state’s reopening plan is not working
As counties end the second week of Governor Ron DeSantis’ ‘safe, smart, step-by-step’ policy, the state marks a record high in daily cases
Richard Luscombe in Miami
Sat 20 Jun 2020 06.00 EDT
(Guardian UK) It has been seven weeks since Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis took a coronavirus “victory lap”, pressing ahead with a swift reopening program while berating the media for a “doom and gloom” approach he said bore little relation to reality.
“We haven’t seen an explosion of new cases,” DeSantis insisted during a 29 April news conference, a day on which the state’s Covid-19 tally increased by 347.
“There is a light at the end of the tunnel,” DeSantis, a keen Trump ally, added.
This week, however, it became clear that the Republican governor’s garden of roses is wilting fast in the face of a resurgent virus.
A period that began with Florida’s daily record of new cases below 1,700 saw eight consecutive days above that figure, five of them topping 2,000 and both Thursday and Friday seeing the highest numbers of all: 3,207 and 3,822 cases, respectively, eclipsing the previous recorded high by more than 35%. ...............(more)
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/20/florida-covid19-surge-reopening-governor-desantis-coronavirus?fbclid=IwAR3taN8EZ2hFUfiW6oNui37DOaqV3LPAa_9rDPuOfrYCiwEqKtTOwOWHoio
June 20, 2020
Deadly Heat Is Killing Americans
A decade of inaction on climate change has put even more lives at risk.
By Dean Russell, Elisabeth Gawthrop, Veronica Penney, Ali Raj and Bridget Hickey
(The Nation) PHOENIX—Charlie Rhodes lived alone on a tree-sparse street with sunburned lawns just outside this Arizona city. At 61, the Army veteran’s main connection to the world was Facebook; often, he posted several times a day. But as a heat wave blanketed the region in June 2016—with temperatures among the highest ever recorded—his posts stopped. Three weeks later, a pile of unopened mail outside his door prompted a call to police.
When officers arrived, they were overcome by the odor of rotting garbage, worsened by the still-searing heat. Inside the home, they found the air conditioner broken and its thermometer reading 99 degrees. Rhodes lay dead in the bedroom, his body decomposing. The cause, his autopsy shows: “complications of environmental heat exposure.”
Yearly heat-related deaths have more than doubled in Arizona in the last decade to 283. Across the country, heat caused at least 10,000 deaths between 1999 and 2016—more than hurricanes, tornadoes, or floods in most years.
Scientists link the warming planet to a rise in dangerous heat in the United States, as well as the spread of infectious diseases and other health conditions. Federal research predicts heat stroke and similar illnesses will claim tens of thousands of American lives each year by the end of the century. Already, higher temperatures pose lethal risks: The top five warmest years nationwide have all occurred since 2006. In the last six decades, the number of annual heat waves in 50 US cities has, on average, tripled. In contrast to a viral pandemic, this is a quiet, insidious threat with no endpoint. ..............(more)
https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/heat-climate-mortality/
Deadly Heat Is Killing Americans
Deadly Heat Is Killing Americans
A decade of inaction on climate change has put even more lives at risk.
By Dean Russell, Elisabeth Gawthrop, Veronica Penney, Ali Raj and Bridget Hickey
(The Nation) PHOENIX—Charlie Rhodes lived alone on a tree-sparse street with sunburned lawns just outside this Arizona city. At 61, the Army veteran’s main connection to the world was Facebook; often, he posted several times a day. But as a heat wave blanketed the region in June 2016—with temperatures among the highest ever recorded—his posts stopped. Three weeks later, a pile of unopened mail outside his door prompted a call to police.
When officers arrived, they were overcome by the odor of rotting garbage, worsened by the still-searing heat. Inside the home, they found the air conditioner broken and its thermometer reading 99 degrees. Rhodes lay dead in the bedroom, his body decomposing. The cause, his autopsy shows: “complications of environmental heat exposure.”
Yearly heat-related deaths have more than doubled in Arizona in the last decade to 283. Across the country, heat caused at least 10,000 deaths between 1999 and 2016—more than hurricanes, tornadoes, or floods in most years.
Scientists link the warming planet to a rise in dangerous heat in the United States, as well as the spread of infectious diseases and other health conditions. Federal research predicts heat stroke and similar illnesses will claim tens of thousands of American lives each year by the end of the century. Already, higher temperatures pose lethal risks: The top five warmest years nationwide have all occurred since 2006. In the last six decades, the number of annual heat waves in 50 US cities has, on average, tripled. In contrast to a viral pandemic, this is a quiet, insidious threat with no endpoint. ..............(more)
https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/heat-climate-mortality/
June 19, 2020
Deadly Heat Is Killing Americans
A decade of inaction on climate change has put even more lives at risk.
By Dean Russell, Elisabeth Gawthrop, Veronica Penney, Ali Raj and Bridget Hickey
(The Nation) PHOENIX—Charlie Rhodes lived alone on a tree-sparse street with sunburned lawns just outside this Arizona city. At 61, the Army veteran’s main connection to the world was Facebook; often, he posted several times a day. But as a heat wave blanketed the region in June 2016—with temperatures among the highest ever recorded—his posts stopped. Three weeks later, a pile of unopened mail outside his door prompted a call to police.
When officers arrived, they were overcome by the odor of rotting garbage, worsened by the still-searing heat. Inside the home, they found the air conditioner broken and its thermometer reading 99 degrees. Rhodes lay dead in the bedroom, his body decomposing. The cause, his autopsy shows: “complications of environmental heat exposure.”
Yearly heat-related deaths have more than doubled in Arizona in the last decade to 283. Across the country, heat caused at least 10,000 deaths between 1999 and 2016—more than hurricanes, tornadoes, or floods in most years.
Scientists link the warming planet to a rise in dangerous heat in the United States, as well as the spread of infectious diseases and other health conditions. Federal research predicts heat stroke and similar illnesses will claim tens of thousands of American lives each year by the end of the century. Already, higher temperatures pose lethal risks: The top five warmest years nationwide have all occurred since 2006. In the last six decades, the number of annual heat waves in 50 US cities has, on average, tripled. In contrast to a viral pandemic, this is a quiet, insidious threat with no endpoint. ..............(more)
https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/heat-climate-mortality/
Deadly Heat Is Killing Americans
Deadly Heat Is Killing Americans
A decade of inaction on climate change has put even more lives at risk.
By Dean Russell, Elisabeth Gawthrop, Veronica Penney, Ali Raj and Bridget Hickey
(The Nation) PHOENIX—Charlie Rhodes lived alone on a tree-sparse street with sunburned lawns just outside this Arizona city. At 61, the Army veteran’s main connection to the world was Facebook; often, he posted several times a day. But as a heat wave blanketed the region in June 2016—with temperatures among the highest ever recorded—his posts stopped. Three weeks later, a pile of unopened mail outside his door prompted a call to police.
When officers arrived, they were overcome by the odor of rotting garbage, worsened by the still-searing heat. Inside the home, they found the air conditioner broken and its thermometer reading 99 degrees. Rhodes lay dead in the bedroom, his body decomposing. The cause, his autopsy shows: “complications of environmental heat exposure.”
Yearly heat-related deaths have more than doubled in Arizona in the last decade to 283. Across the country, heat caused at least 10,000 deaths between 1999 and 2016—more than hurricanes, tornadoes, or floods in most years.
Scientists link the warming planet to a rise in dangerous heat in the United States, as well as the spread of infectious diseases and other health conditions. Federal research predicts heat stroke and similar illnesses will claim tens of thousands of American lives each year by the end of the century. Already, higher temperatures pose lethal risks: The top five warmest years nationwide have all occurred since 2006. In the last six decades, the number of annual heat waves in 50 US cities has, on average, tripled. In contrast to a viral pandemic, this is a quiet, insidious threat with no endpoint. ..............(more)
https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/heat-climate-mortality/
June 19, 2020
(Raw Story) President Donald Trump issued new threats against protesters as nationwide demonstrations continue against police brutality.
The president warned protesters not to show up outside his Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally planned for Saturday, and suggested they would be met with violence.
“Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis,” Trump tweeted. “It will be a much different scene!” ...........(more)
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/trump-threatens-possible-violence-against-protesters-outside-his-tulsa-rally/?fbclid=IwAR3CISmyNn84dCnEYjcRA4vyDPwvyzZVtamRbIekQcyighB2h-uk7xoB3yI
Trump threatens possible violence against protesters outside his Tulsa rally
(Raw Story) President Donald Trump issued new threats against protesters as nationwide demonstrations continue against police brutality.
The president warned protesters not to show up outside his Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally planned for Saturday, and suggested they would be met with violence.
“Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis,” Trump tweeted. “It will be a much different scene!” ...........(more)
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/trump-threatens-possible-violence-against-protesters-outside-his-tulsa-rally/?fbclid=IwAR3CISmyNn84dCnEYjcRA4vyDPwvyzZVtamRbIekQcyighB2h-uk7xoB3yI
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Detroit, MI
Member since: Fri Oct 29, 2004, 12:18 AM
Number of posts: 77,073
