Riots over George Floyd's death by Minneapolis cop

Buildings near the demonstrations were destroyed by fires  

The US National Guard has been deployed to Minneapolis after two nights of violent clashes following the death of an unarmed black man in police custody.

George Floyd, 46, died on Monday and video showed him gasping for breath as a white policeman knelt on his neck.
Police fired tear gas at protesters as businesses were looted on Wednesday. There have also been protests in Chicago, Illinois, Los Angeles, California, and Memphis,
Tennessee. Floyd's death added to longstanding anger over the police killings of black Americans, including the recent cases of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state's national guard troops on Thursday at the request of the mayors of Minneapolis and nearby St Paul. He said the looting, vandalism and arson of a night earlier had resulted in damage to many businesses, including ones owned by minorities.
"George Floyd's death should lead to justice and systemic change, not more death and destruction," he said in a statement calling on all protests to remain peaceful.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called on Wednesday for criminal charges against the policeman who was filmed pinning down Mr Floyd. Four police officers involved in the arrest have already been fired.
The incident echoes the case of Eric Garner, who was placed in a police chokehold in New York in 2014. His death became a rallying cry against police brutality and a catalyst in the Black Lives Matter movement.

The protests began in the afternoon on Tuesday, when hundreds of people came to the intersection where the incident had taken place. Organisers tried to keep the protest peaceful and maintain coronavirus social distancing, with demonstrators chanting "I can't breathe".

During the second night of demonstrations on Wednesday, the crowd grew into the thousands, with protesters pelting rocks and some throwing tear-gas canisters back at police. There was a standoff outside the police station where officers formed a human barricade to prevent protesters gaining entry.

The morning after a violent and destructive night across the city, the air was thick with acrid smoke as buildings continued to smoulder. Fresh graffiti covers nearly every wall, sign and surface. Bus stop shelters are skeletal with their glass walls completely shattered.
This thriving commercial corner of the city of Minneapolis has taken on the look of a war zone.

Much of the worst damage was concentrated around the Minneapolis Police Department's 3rd Precinct, where the officers involved in the killing of George Floyd are believed to have worked.
At least 100 demonstrators gathered once again this morning, shouting at a line of silent, helmeted police officers blocking the entrance to the precinct's parking lot. Armed officers watched from the roof.
The car park of a looted Target was strewn with debris from inside the store, and people were still freely going in and out of smashed windows and doors. Everyone seemed agog at the extent of the damage. And it was indiscriminate.
Banks, cheque cashing shops and liquor stores were hit, but the windows of a public library branch were also smashed in. The classrooms of a charter school in the same strip mall complex as the Target were under several inches of water, as a security alarm droned on from somewhere.
Anger in the streets was palpable. Periodically there were shouts and wails. It seems a foregone conclusion that demonstrations will continue for days if not weeks, and further violence could follow. As one protester said: "It's sad. But this is how they're going to listen."

Mr Floyd's brother said he hoped the officers involved got the death penalty.
"I'm never gonna get my brother back," he said. "We need justice."
Speaking through tears, he said the officers who "executed my brother in broad daylight" must be arrested and that he was "tired of seeing black men die".

 

Fires raged overnight close to the site where George Floyd was pinned down by police officers 

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo apologised for the "pain, devastation and trauma" caused by Mr Floyd's death and said his department had contributed to "a deficit of hope" in the city.

United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has also condemned Mr Floyd's death, saying the role of "entrenched and pervasive racial discrimination" must be recognised and dealt with.
She called for protesters to act peacefully, and for police to "take utmost care not to inflame the current situation even more".

What happened to George Floyd?

Officers responding to reports of the use of counterfeit money approached Mr Floyd in his vehicle on Monday.

According to police, he was told to step away from the car, physically resisted officers and was handcuffed. The police statement noted his apparent "medical distress". Video of the incident does not show how the confrontation started.



George Floyd

 

George Floyd repeatedly told the police officers who detained him that he could not breathe



A white officer can be seen using his knee to pin Mr Floyd to the ground by the neck as Mr Floyd groans "please, I can't breathe" and "don't kill me".

The city has identified the four officers involved as Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J Alexander Kueng.

Local media have named Mr Chauvin as the officer seen with his knee on Mr Floyd's neck.

The Minneapolis Police Officers Federation said the officers were co-operating with the investigation. In a statement to local media, the union said "now is not the time to rush to judgment".

"We must review all videos. We must wait for the medical examiner's report."

One of the ex-officers - Derek Chauvin, 44 - had previously been involved in three other police shootings and had 17 complaints filed against him over his 19-year career, according to the Associated Press.

Racism is alive and well in the USA. Slavery was abolished 155 years ago but racism, fueled by the preconceived notions of inferiority and superiority of those days, still persists. What does it take to abolish attitudes and injustice ??

Heh Heh !

 

Finding Waldo is no problem in 2020

How bout a nice cruise ?

 

Too Soon

If you are thinking of sticking your head out to enjoy some sunshine, it might be better to stay in your own backyard.

 

 

Witness the scene in a Toronto park on Saturday:

 

Trinity Bellwoods Park

 

Do you see any masks or efforts at social distancing? Evidently, when restrictions are loosened up just a little, people go absolutely ape-shit... endangering themselves and everyone around them. Also endangering anyone they come in contact with when they return home. No one in the image appears to give a damn about a lethal pandemic. There has been a definite spike in Covid cases in Ontario this week due to lowering some restrictions. IT"S TOO EARLY TO IGNORE PANDEMIC PROTOCOLS FOLKS. If we do, we will go back to square one and suffer a complete lock-down all over again and miss out on a beautiful summer.

 

 

 

Mayor of Toronto, John Tory, is setting a poor example by lowering his mask and ignoring social distancing. Apparently on Sunday, May 24, the police belatedly paid more attention and patrolled the parks.



Saturday at Victoria Park in Coburg, on Lake Ontario. The sunshine must have blocked their thinking processes



LET OTHER PEOPLE TEST THEIR STUPIDITY

STAY SAFE FRIENDS!



Mika defends husband Joe from Trump's sick innuendo

Mika Brzezinski

 

Mika with husband Joe

  TV host, Mika Brzezinski, has furiously rebuked President Donald Trump for falsely suggesting her husband and co-presenter may have got away with murder. In tweets, Mr Trump has appeared to link MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough to the death of an aide two decades ago, a conspiracy theory debunked by police.
"Donald, you're a sick person," anchor Brzezinski said on air as she defended her husband.
She also demanded Twitter take down the president's incendiary tweets.
"He's once again tweeting conspiracy theories about Joe, falsely accusing him of murder," Ms Brzezinski said on her MSNBC show Morning Joe on Wednesday, before addressing the president directly.

She questioned how the president could subject the family of a congressional aide - who authorities said died of natural causes in Mr Scarborough's office in 2001 - to such "BS".
"Donald, you're a sick person," Ms Brzezinski said. "You're really a cruel, sick, disgusting person." She said the president's tweets were merely a ploy to deflect from the Covid-19 pandemic because her husband "speaks the truth" about Mr Trump's "lack of ability to handle this massive human catastrophe".

MSNBC, Ms Brzezinski and Mr Scarborough have been highly critical of the president's handling of the US coronavirus outbreak. Countrywide, cases have surpassed 1.5 million.
Ms Brzezinski then turned to Twitter, saying the company should remove Mr Trump's tweets.
"You should be ashamed of yourself," she scolded the social media giant.

@jack At what point is @Twitter a part of this? TAKE DOWN TRUMP’s ACCOUNT— the world world be safer. Retweet if you agree— Mika Brzezinski (@morningmika) May 20, 2020

It is by no means the president's first clash with the couple. In 2017, he referred to Ms Brzezinski on Twitter as "low IQ Crazy Mika" and claimed she had been "bleeding badly from a face-lift" when he saw her once near his Florida home.

What did Trump say and what is the truth?

On Wednesday, Mr Trump complained that his convicted former adviser Roger Stone had been treated unfairly, "while guys like Low Ratings Psycho Joe Scarborough are allowed to walk the streets? Open Cold Case!"
Last week he tweeted: "When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so. Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isn't it obvious? What's happening now? A total nut job!"
The president first directed the baseless charge at Mr Scarborough in November 2017, suggesting he should be fired "based on the 'unsolved mystery' that took place in Florida years ago".

Facts
However, the case the president is apparently referring to is not a cold case.
Mr Scarborough is a former Republican congressman who represented a Florida district from 1995 to 2001. In July 2001, a member of his staff, 28-year-old Lori Klausutis, was found dead in the lawmaker's office in Fort Walton Beach.
Mr Scarborough was in Washington DC at the time. Despite the president's suggestion of something untoward in his exit from Congress, Mr Scarborough had stepped down before Klausutis' death.
Authorities determined Klausutis died after losing consciousness from an abnormal heart rhythm, before collapsing and striking her head. She had told a colleague a day earlier that she felt unwell.
Police found no foul play and a medical examiner established Klausutis had suffered an acute subdural hematoma, or blood clot, ruling her death accidental.
After Mr Trump's tweet about the matter on 12 May, Mr Scarborough said live on air: "Why don't you turn off the television, and why don't you start working, OK?"

What other conspiracy theories has Trump promoted?

Mr Trump was the most high-profile supporter of the bogus "birther" theory that former President Barack Obama was born in Kenya and ineligible for the presidency.
In 2016, Mr Trump suggested the father of his then-Republican presidential rival Ted Cruz had been seen with John F Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, before the president's death. His source for the claim was an unverified tabloid report.
Last April, Mr Trump suggested that the noise from windmills causes cancer. Scientists have found no such health risks.
The president has also shared a baseless theory that former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton were connected to last year's prison suicide of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Apparently, the president is brilliant at something, after all.....distraction and lies.

New Covid facts

Summary of latest Covid 19 facts

Facts

1. The number of confirmed cases since the outbreak began approaches 5m
2. The true number of infections is likely to be far higher, with many unrecorded or undiagnosed
3. The number of people with Covid-19 who have died is 328,079
4. Figures from the World Health Organization show the biggest daily increase in infections yet, with 106,000 reported over the last 24 hours.WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus revealed that almost two thirds of this number was reported in just four countries.

Ghebreyesus warned the world still had "a long way to go in this pandemic".

Despite this, a number of countries, including the US, have already begun to loosen lockdown restrictions. The US remains the worst-hit country, with more than 1.5m cases and 93,000 deaths so far.

In spite of the fact the United States' death toll passes 93,000, all 50 US states have partially reopened after a two-month shutdown. But wide discrepancies remain between states in terms of infection rates and the pace of their economic restart.

Countrywide, the US is seeing an overall downward trend in new cases and deaths over time.

Some of the hardest-hit areas, including New York, New Jersey and Washington state are now showing the sharpest declines, while majority of states have reached plateaus.  Still, states like Arizona and North Carolina continue to report increases.

 

Canada has 80,142 documented cases and 6,031 deaths. New cases have declined dramatically. All provinces are re-opening in a slow step by step process. The hardest hit provinces were Ontario and Quebec. They also have the densest population

 

The number of people that have been infected with the virus worldwide has now reached just shy of 5 million. The global number now stands at 4,995,127, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, which has been keeping track throughout the crisis. However, with many cases going unrecorded or undiagnosed, the true number of infections is likely to be far higher.

 

Here's a quick breakdown of the countries with the highest number of cases:

• US - 1.5 million
• Russia - 308,705
• Brazil - 291,579
• UK - 249,619
• Spain - 232,555

The worldwide death toll now stands at 328,079.

 

It's too soon to celebrate...too soon to rush out and do all those things you've been dying to do.... and in most cases too soon to go back to work. And it's far too soon to stop social distancing, or wearing your masks or to stop using hand sanitizer, frequently. Take it slow and easy and stay safe. 💗

World leaders pledge billions for vaccine fight

Scientists in Beijing carrying out one of dozens of research projects into potential vaccines

 

More than $8 billion has been pledged to help develop a coronavirus vaccine and fund research into the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.  Some 40 countries and donors took part in an online summit hosted by the EU.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the money would help kickstart unprecedented global co-operation. She said it showed the true value of unity and humanity, but warned much more would be needed in the days ahead.In total, more than 30 countries, along with UN and philanthropic bodies and research institutes, made donations.

Donors also included pop singer Madonna, who pledged $1.1million, said Ms von der Leyen, who set out the Brussels-led initiative on Friday. The European Commission pledged $1bn to fund research on a vaccine. Norway matched the European Commission's contribution, and France has pledged more than $545 million as have Saudi Arabia and Germany. Japan pledged more than $ 800 million.
The US and Russia did not take part. China, where the virus originated in December, was represented by its ambassador to the European Union.

Of the money raised, $4.4bn will go on vaccine development, some $2bn on the search for a treatment and $1.6bn for producing tests, the EU said.
In her opening remarks at the summit, Ms von der Leyen said everyone must chip in to finance "a truly global endeavour".
"I believe May 4th will mark a turning point in our fight against coronavirus because today the world is coming together," she said.
"The partners are many, the goal is one: to defeat this virus."

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, another co-host of the conference, said the "more we pull together" in sharing expertise, "the faster our scientists will succeed" in developing a vaccine.
Mr Johnson, who spent three nights in intensive care with Covid-19, was to confirm the UK's pledge of  over $483 million for vaccine research, testing and treatment during the conference.
Along with the European Commission, the conference is being co-hosted by the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway and Saudi Arabia.

 

 

 Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel, pictured last year, are among the world leaders who signed the letter

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are also among those who have signed up to the initiative.
In the open letter published in weekend newspapers, the leaders said the funds raised would "kickstart an unprecedented global co-operation between scientists and regulators, industry and governments, international organisations, foundations and healthcare professionals".
"If we can develop a vaccine that is produced by the world, for the whole world, this will be a unique global public good of the 21st Century," they added.
At the same time, the signatories gave their backing to the World Health Organization in the face of US ( Trump's) criticism of its handling of the outbreak.
 Consensus of world opinion reveals that Mr Trump's administration, so far, has handled the pandemic poorly and not lived up to it's promises.

"No Laughing matter", you say... I beg to differ; laughter is the best medicine.

A guy in hospital with Covid 19 has an oxygen mask on, an iv in his arm and a high fever.

A nurse comes into the room and he asks her, "Will you check and see if my testicles are black?"

 

"Well, sir, I just came in to take your temperature, but if it will put your mind at rest, I will check.

 

She lifts his sheet and examines his man parts...looks on both sides, lifts them up and checks underneath, palpates them to check for lumps and swelling and then tells him,

" They look perfectly normal sir".

 

He pulls off his oxygen mask and says,

" Thank you, nurse,  that was very nice, ... but I just wanted you to check and see if my test results were back".

Murder hornets have arrived in North America ( appropriate name)

 

 

Even as the US and Canada remain under attack from the coronavirus outbreak, a new terror has arrived: "murder hornets". The 2-inch long Asian giant hornets have arrived for the first time, spotted on the west coast of British Columbia and in Washington State.

Multiple stings are deadly to humans and in their "slaughter phase" the hornets destroy honeybees, whose bodies they feed to their young. Scientists are now on a hunt for the hornets, hoping to eradicate the species before they wipe out the declining bee population .
Though they typically avoid people, in Asia, "murder hornet" stings are thought to cause as many as 50 human fatalities a year, according to the New York Times.

 

Washington State University (WSU) are unsure how or when the hornet first arrived in North America, but beekeepers in the region have reported gruesome hive deaths in recent months. Scientists are bracing for further emergence of the species, which begins its life cycle in spring.

The hornets are "shockingly large", said Todd Murray, a WSU scientist and invasive species specialist. "It's a health hazard, and more importantly, a significant predator of honeybees."
The insects, roughly the size of a matchbox, have large yellow-orange heads, prominent black eyes, and a black and yellow striped abdomen.
"They're like something out of a monster cartoon with this huge yellow-orange face," said a bee breeder with WSU entomology department in a press release.
The Asian giant hornet's life cycle begins in April, when queens come out of hibernation, and begin to feed and seek out subterranean dens to build their nests. Once their habitats are built in the summer and autumn months, worker hornets are sent to find food. With their sharp, spiked mandibles, the hornets decapitate honeybees, using the bodies to feed their young. The hornets can destroy a honeybee hive in a matter of hours.

Though beehives are their primary target, when threatened the hornets can attack people. Multiple stings can kill humans, even those who are not allergic. In Japan, where they're most common, murder hornets kill roughly 30 to 40 people each year.
"It was like having red-hot thumbtacks being driven into my flesh," Vancouver Island beekeeper Conrad Bérubé told the New York Times. He was stung through a bee suit with sweatpants underneath.

 

 

The WSU scientists will begin trapping queen murder hornets this spring, aiming to detect and eradicate the species.
Populations of honeybees and other pollinators in the US were already under pressure. Between 1947 and 2017, the number of honeybee colonies in the US plummeted from 6 million to 2.5 million. And last year, researchers from the University of Maryland reported that 40% of the country's honeybee colonies died in a single winter, between October 2018 and April 2019 - the largest loss of its kind.
Pollinators, most often honeybees, are responsible for one of every three bites of food taken in the US ( also Canada), and increase the country's nation crop values every year by more than $15bn, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
Bees are necessary to human life on this planet. We, literally, must save them to prevent future world wide starvation. We can help them by planting plants and flowers that are bee friendly, in our gardens. You can google the list of flowers that bees favour. Many species of plants, birds, insects, or mammals become extinct every day, (EVERY DAY). We are responsible for their destruction, when we should be responsible for their protection.
(Scientists estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every 24 hours. This is nearly 1,000 times the “natural” or “background” rate and, say many biologists, is greater than anything the world has experienced since the vanishing of the dinosaurs nearly 65m years ago.)