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Beirut protesters: We won't leave streets until entire parliament steps down after PM's resignation

Beirut protest
© Reuters/Thaier Al-Sudani
Fireworks are set off in front of police officers during anti-government protests in Beirut, Lebanon, August 10, 2020.
The resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab along with his cabinet hasn't quelled public anger in Beirut. Protesters told RT they'll continue pushing for a "revolution" until the entire parliament steps down.

Diab announced his resignation on Monday, nearly a week after a devastating explosion ripped through Beirut, killing more than 200 people, wounding 6,000, and reducing large swathes of the Lebanese capital to rubble. Since the explosion, protesters had clamored for Diab's resignation, after it emerged that 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in unsafe conditions by officials triggered the blast.

"People here are calling this a revolution," RT correspondent Paula Slier said in her report on Monday night, as protesters again poured into the streets to demand change. She said protesters told her that "they're not going to stop taking to the streets until the whole parliament itself resigns."

Comment: See also:


2 + 2 = 4

Math education prof: 2+2 = 4 'trope' 'reeks of white supremacy patriarchy'

2+2=5 225 math orwell
Math professors and educators at leading American universities have taken to Twitter in order to debate whether math is racist.

Some asserted that objective mathematics is rooted in "white supremacist patriarchy" and white social constructs.

The debate itself was rooted in George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984, in which citizens of a fictional totalitarian state believe that 2 plus 2 equals 5 as a result of government propaganda.

Laurie Rubel, who teaches math education at Brooklyn College, says that the idea of math being cultural neutral is a "myth," and that asking whether 2 plus 2 equals 4 "reeks of white supremacist patriarchy."

"Y'all must know that the idea that math is objective or neutral IS A MYTH," she tweeted.
tweet

Comment: Ya'll must know that Laurie Rubel is an idiot, right? The fact that this even has to be discussed let alone debunked is shameful. Thankfully, James Lindsay has done everyone a service with this:


Heart - Black

Because Covid: People urged to avoid kissing, wear masks during sex, avoid being face to face

medical mask kiss
© LUIS ACOSTA/AFP
A couple kisses as they make a line to be assisted at an Influenza A (H1N1) (swine flu virus) prevention and detection medical mobile unit in Mexico City, on April 29, 2009.
Wearing face masks and avoiding kissing during sex are crucial in preventing the spread of coronavirus, a sexual health charity has said.

Due to the social distancing measures which were introduced in March, the number of people seeking new sexual partners has plummeted, according to research.

The Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), the UK's leading HIV and sexual health charity, found that 84 per cent of people had abstained from sex outside of their immediate household because of the restrictions.

However, after several months of the lockdown and its partial easing, THT said it was no longer realistic to ask people to completely refrain from sex.

Now, the charity has published guidelines on how to have safe sex while managing the risk of Covid-19.

In the guidance, the charity advised the best sexual partner during the pandemic is yourself or someone you live with. Masturbation, using sex toys or participating in phone or online sex are recommended as the safest options, as these can be done at a distance from others.

Comment: In accordance with crucial Covid guidelines, this charity is charitably advised to follow its own advice and go solitarily engage in sexual relations with itself.


NPC

'Woke' physicist panned for calling for phrase 'the British people' to be banned because it's 'divisive'

Brian Cox
© REUTERS/ Dylan Martinez; inset: Wikimedia Commons
Professor Brian Cox (inset) says the phrase "the British people" is "inflammatory" and "nonsense".
Media hungry physicist Brian Cox has found himself at the center of a storm of controversy after calling for the phrase "the British people" to be banned because, apparently, it's "inflammatory and divisive".

The professor of particle physics, who is best known for hosting science programs on TV, made the bizarre argument in response to a tweet from Home Secretary Priti Patel, which called for greater cooperation between France and the UK on intercepting migrants crossing the channel to Britain.

"I know that when the British people say they want to take back control of our borders - this is exactly what they mean," Patel wrote.

The message sparked a furious reply from the scientist, who attacked the use of the seemingly innocuous phrase, "the British people," and called for its use to be "banned from political discourse."


Bad Guys

Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best announces retirement after city council slashes budget

Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best
© AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best
Seattle Chief of Police Carmen Best will leave her post after a summer of unrest in the Emerald City.

Best announced Monday night in a message to the police department that she will retire next month and that she is " confident the department will make it through these difficult times."

Best was appointed to the role of chief of police by Mayor Jenny Durkan in July 2018 and is the first black woman to lead the department.

"I have the credentials. I have the resume. I have the heart," Best said in 2018. "I am the one for this job. I hope the citizens and the mayor and others will see that and make me the permanent police chief."

Comment: Seattle local news outlet KTTH comments:
The woke Seattle City Council is poised to fire officers of color and cut the black police chief's salary to ensure she gets paid less than her white predecessor. How's that for social justice?

Monday's vote is likely to pass, despite the council's best efforts to claim they'll fight for people of color. If those people of color are cops, however, the council deems them unworthy of protection.

Seattle City Council to fire officers of color

The council's Budget Committee passed a series of proposals that will fire up to 100 officers in the short term. Long term, the goal of the council remains defunding the Seattle Police Department by 50%, despite overwhelming opposition to the dangerous and reckless plan.

The council makes this move knowing that newly hired, less experienced officers will be let go first. In the last year or so, the department has been focused on hiring more people of color to better represent different communities. Consequently, the council will force the department to fire minority officers.

Realizing this is a bad look, white Councilmember Lisa Herbold suggests the Seattle Police Department seek permission to exclusively fire white officers. This is, of course, illegal discrimination and flatly racist. It also makes little sense to fire officers who have more experience.

Herbold knows this won't happen. She's merely hoping it'll give her a pass when the public realizes she played a pivotal role in firing people of color. She shouldn't get a pass. Herbold repeatedly makes public statements for political cover, while voting in opposition to promises made to the public.


Council wants black chief paid less than white

Council members like Lorena Gonzalez feign outrage at pay inequity, particularly when it comes to gender and racial wage disparities where white men make more than women of color. Gonzalez, who paid her female staffers less than the white ones when she initially complained, has made this a key issue to address. Now it appears she, and the other council members, are ready to keep independent black women from making too much money.

The Seattle City Council was unhappy with Chief Carmen Best for publicly condemning their dangerous proposals. And a black police chief isn't allowed to criticize council members.

In retaliation, the council is moving forward to cut Best's salary significantly. This means Best would be paid significantly less than her white predecessor Kathleen O'Toole.

"The council, in retaliation for her basically criticizing them about defunding the police and their efforts to reduce the personnel in the Seattle Police Department and services in the city, in retaliation for her criticism they reduced her salary," Best's attorney Anne Bremner told the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH.

Bremner says she's looking at filing a lawsuit over the retaliation.

To be fair, the move to cut Best's salary may not be exclusively in retaliation for criticizing their plan. Herbold previously asked Best for special treatment when a derelict RV was parked in front of her home. Herbold even asked for the chief to investigate a political rival. Best rightly refused. For Herbold, this could be a payback vote.
The police force in Seattle have seen the handwriting on the woke wall, and are quitting in droves.


Black Cat

Divisive martyrs: Chicago's latest excuse for mass looting is another dubious case that undermines BLM's credibility

looted store chicago riots
© REUTERS/Kamil Krzaczynski
Workers clean up a looted shop in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. August 10, 2020.
We don't even know his name yet, but a 20-year-old man who had already wracked up four arrests on his record was shot and wounded by Chicago police after shooting at them and running. In so doing, he inspired a movement.

That movement took the form of a "very orchestrated" caravan of cars overnight Sunday-Monday that rushed aggrieved parties about 10 miles from Chicago's Englewood neighborhood, where the shootout with police took place, to the Magnificent Mile downtown shopping district. Once there, folks expressed their outrage over systemic racism by helping themselves to whatever they could carry off from some of Chicago's poshest stores - from Nordstrom to Gucci to Louis Vuitton to a Tesla dealership.

It didn't matter that police were called Sunday afternoon to investigate reports of a man carrying a gun and confronted a person who matched the suspect's description. It didn't matter that the man responded by shooting at police and fleeing on foot. It didn't matter that Chicago is suffering an epidemic of gun violence in which young black people are killing dozens of other black people just about every month.

Comment: The appalling situation in Chicago is on its feckless mayor, Lori Lightfoot: But what can one expect when Lightfoot thinks this is a smart policy move:

Chicago mayor defends freeing illegal alien accused of child sexual assault


Books

How to fight the enemies of academic freedom

education racist protest
© Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images
Participant holding a sign at a City University of New York (CUNY) protest, 2020/06/27.
According to a 2019 Cato Institute study, 75 percent of immigrants who are American citizens are very proud to be American compared to only 69 percent of native-born Americans. Based on my own experience, I expect the discrepancy to be much greater if you compare the sentiments of all immigrants to those of American-born elites, especially the young.

I escaped communist Romania in 1975 and came to the US to pursue my dream — attracted to the United States, as millions of other immigrants have been, by its reputation as a country that values freedom and rewards hard work and talent. I came with nothing but a strong desire to become a research mathematician, yet have been able to succeed far beyond my expectations. This is the result partly of my own efforts and whatever talent I may have, but a larger part of the credit is due to the sheer good fortune of being able to pursue my career in the US within an academic system which has been, at least until today, the freest, most competitive, and fairest in the world. By "fair" I mean the remarkable ability of this system to reward talent and hard work, with absolutely no regard for ethnicity, religion, race, sex, age, or any other considerations.

Comment: Well said.

See also:


Handcuffs

'Crime minister': Thousands protest against Netanyahu over COVID-19 and corruption

Netanyahu Israel Protest
© Ruptly
Thousands of Israelis rallied outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem on Saturday as anger mounted over corruption allegations and his handling of the coronavirus crisis, Reuters reports.

"Your time is up", read the giant letters projected on to a building at the protest site, as demonstrators waved Israeli flags and called on Netanyahu to resign over what they say is his failure to protect jobs and businesses affected by the pandemic.

The protest movement has intensified in recent weeks, with critics accusing Netanyahu of being distracted by a corruption case against him. He denies wrongdoing.

Comment: RT reports:
The authorities said that 5,000 people took part in the protest, while Channel 13 reported up to 15,000 in the Saturday night rally that took place in Jerusalem for the fifth consecutive week.

Holding signs with slogans like "Your time is up" and "Crime Minister," protesters demanded Netanyahu resign over corruption charges and alleged mishandling of the coronavirus crisis.


The protest ended without major incidents, amid a heavy police presence deployed to prevent any unrest, as well as to ensure the demonstrators "follow the Health Ministry's instructions," according to Sputnik.


Meanwhile, Netanyahu once again blasted Israeli media, and Channel 13 in particular, for its 'one-sided' coverage of the protests. The violence on the part of the demonstrators is completely ignored, he said, as well as the daily "death threats" against his family - all while he is "fighting to restore the economy and provide financial aid to Israeli citizens."


Netanyahu was charged with bribery, fraud and breach of public trust in several cases last November.
A clip from RT's Ruptly video agency shows scuffles between activists and police officers on Sunday as they attempt to disrupt a sit-in at the Israeli PM's official residence in central Jerusalem, that has been become the focus of frequent anti-government demonstrations.



After midnight police demanded demonstrators to disperse, then started to remove those who refused to leave by force. According to The Times of Israel, at least three people were detained for "disturbing public order and attacking officers." The paper citing a police spokesperson reported that a Haaretz photographer was also briefly held for allegedly "attacking" an officer.



Thousands took to the streets on Saturday in a massive anti-government protest. Demonstrations have been taking place across the country for the past several weeks - the largest protests since 2011.



Pistol

Salt Lake City police release footage of shooting of hostage taker

hostage salt lake city
© Salt Lake City Police Department / Toronto Sun
A screen grab from video released by the Salt Lake City Police Department.
The Salt Lake City Police Department has released jarring body camera footage from an officer-involved shooting that killed Andrew Jacob Preece on July 25.

Officers responded to a call about a fight with a knife and found Preece with another man.

When officers closed in on Preece, he grabbed the other male and put the knife to his neck.

Comment: Here's the footage of the shooting:




Fire

1 dead, 6 rescued after gas explosion levels Baltimore homes

baltimore gas explosion
© WJLA-TV via AP
This photo provided by WJLA-TV shows the scene of an explosion in Baltimore on Monday, Aug. 10, 2020. Baltimore firefighters say an explosion has leveled several homes in the city.
A natural gas explosion destroyed three row houses in Baltimore on Monday morning, killing a woman and trapping other people in the debris. At least six people were seriously injured, and firefighters were searching for more survivors.

Dozens of firefighters converged on the piles of rubble. A fourth house in the row was ripped open, and windows were shattered in nearby homes, leaving the northwest Baltimore neighborhood of Reisterstown Station strewn with glass and other rubble.

"It's a disaster. It's a mess. It's unbelievable," said Diane Glover, who lives across the street. Her windows where shattered and her front door was blown open. "I'm still shaken up," she said hours later.

Seven people were hospitalized, while a woman was pronounced dead at the scene, the department said on its Twitter page. Rescuers were painstakingly going through the rubble by hand, prepared to work into the night.

Comment: See also: