Society's ChildS

Target

The Scarlet Letter of Covid-19

Girl and fingerpointers
© Unknown
"Wearing a mask is an act of love." I have about a dozen similar little snippets of wisdom collected over the recent weeks, as I am sure most of you have also witnessed if you are a frequent visitor of Facebook. If wearing a mask is an act of love, what would not wearing a mask be an act of? I have often heard it directly referred to as an act of extreme selfishness, among other equally shaming descriptions.

Early on mask wearers described those they encountered who do not wear masks as "dismaying, confusing," or "selfish" these descriptions have now evolved to "hateful, moronic, disgusting," or "unconscionable."

Wearing, or its reverse, not wearing, a mask no longer seems to be a medical choice โ€” something to ward off Covid-19 transmission, but it has become more of a social or political statement โ€” a device to indicate "who is with us" and "who is against us."

Snakes in Suits

Khabarovsk politicians quit after Putin sends fellow LDPR member from Moscow to replace governor

Mikhail Degtyarev
© Sputnik Alexandr NatruskinMikhail Degtyarev
He might be one of their own, but new Khabarovsk governor Mikhail Degtyarev isn't local enough for two Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) members in the Far Eastern city. They've quit after President Putin sent him to their region.

The two regional government politicians, Petr Emelyanov and Alexander Kayan, opted to leave the far-right LDPR after Degtyarev, an MP from the city of Samara - over 5,000km west of Khabarovsk - was chosen to replace the highly popular Governor Sergey Furgal.

Furgal and Degtyarev are both members of the LDPR, and some local opposition figures believe the replacement to be a favor to party leadership, rather than the best choice for Khabarovsk. In 2013 and 2018, Degtyarev ran as a candidate for Mayor of Moscow, neither time achieving double-figure support.

Comment: Meanwhile, rallies continue now targeting the newly appointed governor:
Hundreds of supporters of the arrested ex-governor of Russia's Far Eastern Khabarovsk region, Sergei Furgal, rallied for an 11th day in the regional capital, denouncing newly appointed acting Governor Mikhail Degtyaryov.

Degtyaryov met with the region's officials for the first time and said that his main priority is to increase efforts to slow down the spread of the coronavirus in the region and become familiar with local social and economic issues.


Protesters also expressed their anger over the new appointment online with more than 1,300 comments under Degtyaryov's latest Instagram post, the majority of which appeared to criticize the acting governor.


Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) had also warned of an alleged terrorist threat involving explosives, which it claimed to have already foiled.

In addition, the authorities in the Khabarovsk region said they were considering a return to strict quarantine measures and attributed this to the "difficult situation with the spread of the coronavirus infection."
See also:


Pistol

Ukraine hostage siege ends as Zelensky fulfills gunman's bizarre demand by endorsing 2005 Joaquin Phoenix film

bus/passengers
© Reuters/Pavlo PalamarchukA Ukrainian law enforcement officer shows the way to three hostages, who left a seized passenger bus in the city of Lutsk, Ukraine on July 21, 2020.
The gunman who took some 20 people hostage in a western Ukrainian city has freed them after President Volodymyr Zelensky fulfilled his rather strange wish.

Giving in to the gunman's demands, Zelensky recorded a short video address and released it online. By then, the hostage situation in the city of Lutsk had been unfolding for more than nine hours.

"The film Earthlings, 2005. Must watch, everyone," the president says in the clip - exactly as the hostage-taker requested.


X

Bay Area city washes away BLM street art after resident asks for MAGA 2020 painting

Protesters kneel
© Nhat V. Meyer/Digital First Media/The Mercury News via Getty ImagesProtesters kneel in downtown Redwood City, CA
Roughly two weeks after a massive Black Lives Matter street painting appeared in downtown Redwood City, Calif., it was washed away - leaving the asphalt without a trace of the message's familiar bright yellow paint. But unlike in other cities where vandals targeting BLM murals have been arrested and even charged with a hate crime, this time it was the city that suddenly removed the artwork.

Despite granting permission for the temporary street art and even providing the paint for the July 4 project, officials in the Northern California city ordered the painting removed from its prime location late last week, KPIX reported.

City spokeswoman Jennifer Yamaguma told The Washington Post in a statement early Wednesday:
"Staff is concerned about public safety issues that may arise from painting murals on its public streets, which could result in driver confusion and traffic accidents. Thus, the existing mural has been removed from Broadway and no further art installation will be authorized on the City's streets."
But supporters of the artwork, who have expressed outrage over its removal, point to another factor they say actually prompted the city to take action: one resident's request to paint "MAGA 2020" along the same stretch of street.

Attention

California officials free 'Mr. Rape, Torture, Kill' sex offender from mental hospital

Cary Jay Smith
© OCDA
California state officials have freed a sex offender considered "dangerous" from a mental hospital where he spent more than 20 years there in confinement.

Cary Jay Smith, 59 years old, was released from the Coalinga State Hospital this month after being in state custody since 1999. Smith was originally placed in state custody after his wife provided evidence of her husband's intentions to sexually abuse a seven-year-old boy in their Costa Mesa neighborhood.

During hearings every six years, Smith has said that he goes by the name "Mr. RTK," which stands for "Mr. Rape, Torture, Kill" and has claimed to have murdered three boys and sexually abused 200 others. Smith has said he fantasizes about raping and killing boys.

Bad Guys

Rebellion brewing? Regional UK police force announces they won't stop shoppers for not wearing masks

UK police face masks
© European Press Agency
A police force has announced they won't crack down on shoppers not wearing masks in stores after retailers also said their staff would not intervene. Devon and Cornwall police said its officers don't have time to respond to calls about the face coverings, unless they involve a public order offence.

From Friday, masks will be mandatory for people going to shops and other enclosed places in England, with ยฃ100 fines in place for non-compliance.

Scotland imposed a facemask rule for shop-goers on July 10, while the devolved governments of Northern Ireland and Wales are still keeping it under review.

Comment: Good to see common sense is flourishing in the UK countryside.


Star of David

Escorted by heavily armed police, Israel demolishes livelihood of local fisherman in Jisr al-Zarqa

israel demolish fishing shack palestinian business
© Naim MousaA sign reading "The State of Israel and Lands Administration Authority/ Entry to this area is prohibited!/ Those who enter do so under their own responsibility and will have to face the consequences" at the demolition of Ali Jurban's fishing shack in Jisr al-Zarqa
A demolition in the Palestinian village of Jisr al-Zarqa highlights the discrimination Palestinian citizens of Israel face on a daily basis

Early in the morning on July 20th the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, escorted by heavily armed police equipped with assault rifles and bullet proof vests, demolished a fishing shack belonging to a local fisherman in the Palestinian village of Jisr al-Zarqa.

After completely destroying the building, the demolition team and police forces abandoned the wreckage, forcing the local fishermen and the building's owner, Ali Jurban (whom they did not notify of the imminent demolition), to clean it up. Adding insult to injury, the costs of the demolition will fall upon Jurban.

Comment: Can we call it apartheid now?


Arrow Up

More evidence emerges of inflated Covid-19 fatality rates - are we being intimidated?

NHS Seacole Centre
© Getty Images / Victoria Jones/PA ImagesA Rehab Support worker checks on patient notes as the first patients are admitted to the NHS Seacole Centre at Headley Court, Surrey, a disused military hospital, which has been converted during the coronavirus pandemic, May 28, 2020
This week we were told that, in the UK at least, anyone who has had a positive Covid test and who then died - from any illness - would be recorded as a coronavirus-related death. No matter when they die.

This means that someone could have tested positive in March, with no symptoms of Covid at all, and who then died in July, would be recorded in the official figures, as having died of Covid-related causes. Even if they were hit by a bus.

Even more weird is the fact that there does not seem to be any time limit to this. So, you could test positive in March 2020, then die in March 2040, and still be recorded as having died of Covid. I doubt this will happen, but it could.

To be honest, I have known something very strange has been going on with the UK data for some time. The UK has not provided any figures on how many people have recovered from Covid-19. In almost all countries, figures are provided on the total number of cases, the total number of deaths, the number of active cases and the number who have recovered.

In the US for example, there have been almost four million cases, over 140,000 deaths and over a million people have officially recovered. In the UK, there have been nearly 300,000 cases, 45,000 deaths - and no recorded recoveries.

In short, in the UK, you cannot ever recover from Covid. Once you've got it, that's it, you've got it. This anomaly has been reported-on before. Here, for instance, from The Guardian in June.

Comment: See also:


NPC

Time's up kiddies: NYPD clears out 'Occupy City Hall' camp after weeks-long standoff

NYPD occupy city hall July 2020
© TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFPPolice move out squatters from the New York City Hall encampment
NYPD officers in riot gear, armed with shields and helmets, cleared out the weeks-long 'Occupy City Hall' encampment in Manhattan's City Hall Park overnight. According to the police, it was a planned operation.

Footage from the scene shows the moment officers descended on the camp and warned protesters to leave or be arrested.

There were no reports of major clashes, though some local media say there were at least four arrests during the operation, citing an unnamed NYPD spokesperson. Additional video uploaded to social media shows city workers and garbage trucks clearing the area of debris and trash.

Comment:


Sheriff

The Atlantic finally admits its police abolition piece is based on a false narrative

police
© Spurekar/Flickr
"We called 911 for almost everything except snitching" reads the first line of an Atlantic article, "How I Became a Police Abolitionist," by social justice activist and lawyer Derecka Purnell. Her deeply personal essay, first published July 6 in the Ideas section, tells of her childhood in a polluted neighborhood surrounded by violence and beset by fear, using one particularly disturbing memory of a police officer shooting their cousin, just a "boy," in the arm for skipping the basketball sign-in sheet in front of Purnell and her sister, who had been playing basketball but were forced to hide "in the locker room for hours afterward."

"When people dismiss abolitionists for not caring about victims or safety," she writes, "they tend to forget that we are those victims, those survivors of violence."

"This story means everything to me," Purnell wrote on Facebook later that day. "I cried a lot while writing it."

An investigation by The Federalist encompassing newspaper archives, police department records, questions to The Atlantic, the police union, and the office of the mayor, however, called the story โ€” including facts about the neighborhood, the timeline of the incident, and if the incident described even happened at all โ€” into question.

Four days, six comment requests, and one follow-up story later, The Atlantic issued a series of major corrections that confirmed The Federalist's investigation โ€” and gutted the Purnell's story of the police violence that made her "a police abolitionist," rendering it a story about a private security guard shooting his adult cousin. Although the updated story no longer involves personally motivated and barely punished police violence against children, it now includes mention of a police investigation. Additionally, a contemporary news article uncovered by The Federalist using the updated timeline details pending police charges against the shooter.

Someone in the neighborhood, it appears, called 911.