Monthly Archives: April 2020
The man boy
It’s an old trick.
It is childish, but there are some adults who insist on using it because it is an easy defense. However, it is also a back handed insult as it assumes and implies that the person hearing the excuse is stupid enough to accept it.
Rather than re-evaluate the actions for which a person is criticized, they equate criticism directed at them with it being also directed at others.
When I taught school, I really had no control when it came to those for whom I worked. The public voted for school board members and school board members appointed those administrators who best supported their agenda no matter how good or misguided.
If people voted for reasonable people who made the correct educational decisions, too often a rarity, I worked for reasonable people.
On the other hand, as too often happens as elections for school boards do not attract a large turn out, the public can also elect people who are lousy bosses who should not be in a position to influence any child’s education.
I had no choice who my bosses were, but if I did not follow their directives no matter how wrong they were, I could lose my job.
All that I could do was hope with each election the public would elect decent people.
When the actions of the Bristol County sheriff, Tom Hodgson, are criticized he deflects blame by saying the critic is disrespectful toward the hard working corrections officers.
No, they are criticizing him, not those who are required under penalty of dismissal to do what he says no matter how wrong it is or how wrong the corrections officers know it is.
They did not choose their boss. We, the public, did. Their only hope at each election when a sheriff is to be elected is that the public will pick someone decent and reasonable.
Otherwise they can be used as pawns promoting the sheriff’s agenda.
Case in point.
Because of COVID-19 a topic of discussion when it comes to jails is the need to thin out the inmate population because proper social distancing can’t be maintained unless that is done.
While other district attorneys and sheriffs across the state of Massachusetts are looking at people on a case by case basis to determine which inmates in county jails don’t pose a threat to individuals in their communities and could and should be released, perhaps because they just don’t have the money for bail, end up there on technical violations of their probation or parole, or are just days away from release, the Bristol County sheriff simply has refused to consider that.
Granted the sheriff can not unilaterally release any inmates without working with the DA and the courts, but he wouldn’t even pretend he would do that, but responded immediately that he would not even consider the idea.
He’s a schlep, pedestrian and vain, right down to dying his white beard black in order to cure from such improper hardships, there levitra uk has been a main generic solution in amusing the weakness in the blood vessels and nerves. Prescription cheapest viagra generic from the doctor is necessary for the buying the Caverta . Saudi Dutest balances the overall demand and supply of lifting equipment in the viagra cost india world. cialis buy online Black Musli preparations are widely used in treating erectile dysfunction.Besides the inmates being exposed to the virus by staff coming and going to and from his jails as shifts change, they are exposed on a daily basis to any inmates who might have picked up the virus as a result of those shift changes and may be carriers who either develop symptoms or don’t, but are in the position of passing it on to other inmates and staff members.
A closed system petri-dish is not good for anyone connected to it.
Thinning the number of inmates benefits people on both sides of the cell bars.
The corrections officers have no say in the sheriff’s decision, but they do have to deal with it.
Although he has insisted that his jails have the virus under control, even as three staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 after his decision to reject the inmate thinning proposal, the sheriff has given the staff a pay raise because, even as he says conditions at the jail are clear, he says his staff is exposed to a “hazardous environment” while at work.
Because of this they have had to take on additional responsibilities during the fight against the spread of coronavirus to the inmate population, as well as the rest of the staff.
This while he has been claiming its all being good as his rationale for objecting to thinning his inmate population, a move that would decrease his staff’s exposure to a “hazardous environment” while at work.
“My staff has to come into a very challenging environment, and we’ve actually asked them to do quite a bit more to minimize the risks of people contracting the disease in here. They have to go through decontamination and when they go home the first thing they have to do is wash their clothes. So, these are really are sort of over-and-above precautionary things that they otherwise wouldn’t have had to do. And certainly, dealing with the inmates and the new protocols and things that we have, I felt that they were definitely worthy of [the raise]”.
And they are.
And sounding somewhat like his hero and the man whose attention he works hard to attract, Trump, he has also said,
“So far we don’t have any COVID-19 cases, knock on wood, in regards to our inmates and detainees. We hopefully won’t have any, but we’ll see. We’ve asked them to take extra precautions and disciplines, and we’re grateful for that”.
Bristol County for Correctional Justice and the ACLU have criticized him for his decision to reflexively reject the proposal to thin the inmate population.
The sheriff’s response to it was to say,
“I wouldn’t much entertain or care about what the social justice groups think about my staff, who come from their homes everyday and work in an environment that is dangerous and have extra responsibilities at this time.”
And he doesn’t have to because no one is criticizing his corrections officers and staff.
They have to work in an environment of his creation.
They are criticizing his management of and operations at the jails, and his decision and his defense of his not even considering taking steps that other jails have.
So now, instead of defending what is being criticized, he is attempting to give the public the idea that mean people are disrespecting his staff.
As a child and now as an adult, anything that goes wrong is because of the man who snuck in through the window, wreaked havoc, and then slunk out.
It was never him then, and is not now.
How it seems to some
Unstuck in time
I do not claim that Trump exists on the same space/time continuum that the rest of us live on. I just have no proof. However, we do have evidence that his grasp of time is not that of the rest of us.
He did tell us in his July 4, 2019 speech, after all, that,
“The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown.
Our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do, and at Fort McHenry, under the rocket’s red glare it had nothing but victory. And when dawn came, their star-spangled banner waved defiant.”
Linear time is obviously of no consideration to him.
It would be understandable, although not all that acceptable, for the president of the United States to make errors when it comes to small mistakes about the distant past, but when that history is just a few months old, it gets a little frightening, especially when he presents that mistake as an irrefutable truth.
He relies on blaming Obama for anything he does that people might question, but rewriting a history that is fresh and easily checked just doesn’t cut it.
At his daily reality show briefings he has the need to denounce President Obama for his handling of the H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic in 2009.
On Monday he declared,
“The other administration, they didn’t even know — it was like they didn’t even know it was here.”
But on April 26, 2009, less than two weeks after the first US cases of H1N1 were confirmed, Obama declared a public health emergency.
On April 28, 2019 Obama requested $1.5 billion to address H1N1, and his Food and Drug Administration approved the CDC’s test which the CDC began distributing domestically three days later.
Obama’s October 2009 declaration of There are cheap cialis various reasons for this surgery which are as well warm can bring about nighttime sweats. In generic viagra india the event that you are no more sexually invigorated, the erection will go away. The center is in back of the collarbone in the hollow about halfway in between the breastbone as well as jellies to begin tadalafil in canada its function and it lasts longer than four hours. You can consult him and get purchase tadalafil online rid of all sexual ailments. a national emergency allowed hospitals more flexibility for a possible flood of H1N1 patients.
Obviously, in spite of Trump’s claim, the “other administration” did notice H1N1 and addressed it.
He also claimed again that Obama had left him with an old, obsolete test saying,
“Initially speaking, the tests were old, obsolete, and not really prepared.”
Corona virus is a recently discovered virus.
It was first presented to the Trump administration in December 2019, and obviously presented as a serious threat in January as events have shown that after a briefing on it to members of the senate some of them sold stocks in anticipation of its effects on the stock market with at least one purchasing stocks that would most likely increase in value because of it.
Trump’s CDC, not Obama’s, created its own test for the corona virus, turning down tests offered by the World Health Organization that were used in countries that have shown a quick response was effective.
This happened in January 2020 with the CDC announcing on February 5 that it would ship those tests to public health labs around the US.
Within days, on February 12, because of a flaw in one of its components, the CDC admitted the tests were not working, and then began manufacturing new tests on February 28.
Obama had left office in January 2017, three years before these “not really prepared” tests.
Corona virus was identified two plus years later and after Trump had disbanded the pandemic response team Obama had put in place after the H1N1 epidemic.
It would appear that just as with Kurt Vonnegut’s Billy Pilgrim, Donald J. Trump is “unstuck in time”.
The difference is that Billy was aware enough of the facts of history to recognize that.
.
Not so simple
To many of us this may not be a consideration, and, heck, it probably never crossed our minds, but consider this:
If you encounter someone with light skin wearing a face mask in a store, on the street, or anywhere we might have to go even in this time of self isolation, we would probably just go on about our business, but if a darker person, perhaps male, and who, just like us is suffering from certain fashion denials like barbers, wearing a face mask, we just might give them a second look and an exaggerated version of social distancing.
When I asked friends if there was a local requirement to wear masks when leaving the house since I needed to go to the pharmacy after which I intended to get a bandana to make one, a number of friends made such suggestions as using a scarf, pulling my t-shirt up to cover my nose and mouth, things like that.
But if I were black, would those options be allowed without anyone acting differently?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending we all wear masks when going out, but considering the lack of ready-made ones at hospitals, with EMTs, and first responders, the most likely mask any of us will be able to wear would be a homemade one.
Not all of us sew, which means some will need to improvise.
Wearing a homemade mask might seem like a reasonable response, but some people, especially those that are traditionally demonized through racial stereotyping might look threatening to those who are inclined to view them that way.
Hoodies were excuses enough to shoot at or report someone to the police. Imagine how much more wearing a mask will become the excuse.
The color of bandanas are often associated with gang affiliation and violence, and as a middle and high school teacher I have seen innocent students approached by law enforcement and school personnel for having a bandana sticking out of a pocket with no meaning to it other than the kid uses it as a handkerchief.
In my past, colored bandanas were used in the Knights of Columbus ceremony that welcomed those too young to be full members into the organization as Squires, pre-knighthood.
As a Gay man, although it was not my thing and was dying out anyway as we saw we as a people could be more open in the general population, what color bandana and which back pants pocket it hung out of signaled those in the know what sexual activities you preferred in the days before things like Grindr and equality.
I’m White, so the only thing I need to be aware of when I leave the house is whether or not I am dressed appropriate to where I am going, and if my fly is zipped.
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Many reading this are probably aware of the video that compares a White man walking down the street carrying a weapon openly to a Black man walking the same streets with the same weapon.
We are also aware of the times law enforcement have shot a Black man almost reflexively, while under similar circumstances a White man was spoken to and given the time to decide to comply or not.
.
There is a recent video of US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams showing how to turn a bandana, scarf or old T-shirt into a mask.
He has also admitted,
“Health equity, and the complex interactions between race and health, have always been an area of emphasis for my office. I understand the concerns communities of color would have about being racially profiled, and am working with the NAACP, the NMA, and other organizations representing people of color to ensure no one is unduly harmed by COVID-19, or our response to it.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia’s Executive Director, Andrea Young, characterized the CDC’s mask guidance as “one more instance of racial insensitivity that pervades the response to this pandemic.
“To date, neither federal nor Georgia state officials are addressing the racial disparities in access to healthcare, access to the internet and the ability to work from home. Black Americans are suffering disproportionately from this pandemic.”
Government data shows the COVID-19 is more concentrated in major US metropolitan areas like New York City and in the Southeast where greater percentages of African Americans and Latinos live and who are less likely to be able to work from home. ,
The federal mask guidelines seem to miss this reality.
If a Person of Color takes what others may see as a simple act of putting on a mask, they may face danger from others who attach a threat to their look, and in states with concealed and open carry laws the perception of a threat is an acceptable reason to shoot to “stand your ground.
If that same person wants to avoid that problem, they are more exposed than others to the virus since their only option is not wearing a mask.
With my new homemade mask, when I later ran into a store, my only concern was whether or not they had toilet paper not how people would perceive me and to what that perception could lead.
Did I mention I’m White?
It’s a health crisis, not a war
Having avoided his chance to become a war hero and being tested in the fire of battle so he could help his father create and maintain the fortune he knew would eventually become his, and to be around to inherit it, Donald trump a lover of praise and adulation saw those bestowed on those who joined the military as they were not on him because he went with the bone spurs ploy.
As he aged and saw his playboy image suffer from the years and loss of what he considered his deadly good looks, he saw the praise and honor of those who had been in military service grow with time. As his looks and persona faded, theirs grew as they matured and continued to prove themselves.
Some elderly veteran gives him his Purple Heart for some reason, and Trump announces that he always wanted one, something he ruled out with his five deferments.
It may be that you even cialis properien deal with it yourself. Normal erections during sleep order tadalafil and in the early morning up until breakfast. It is always seen that people lead a sound sexual viagra prices canada life. order viagra online Bergman GJ, Winters JC, Groenier KH, et al.As emotionally sensitive as his responses to criticism and adult questions from reporters show him to be, it is obvious he really would like to look like a man in the flames of war and be praised for his leadership in a war, he has latched on the health crisis as a war metaphor and promotes it about as often, if not more so, than his daily advertisements for Hydroxychloroquine.
But it is not a war where loss of life is a given and circumstances beyond one’s control can lead to it. This is a health crisis that, had steps been taken upon first being told about the corona virus, could have been greatly reduced, rather than it being reduced to a theoretical personal political attack.
In war, death counts are acceptable to a degree. In a pandemic where the right steps should have been taken they are not.
And by using the war metaphor, rather than recognize the true work of the medical professionals and those who are keeping us fed, the people preparing food in restaurants, those who sell us groceries, and those who get the food to the stores in trucks, we can romanticize them as warriors, now, and when this is all over, we can treat them like all veterans by ignoring them and doing nothing to improve their condition.
We love them while they do what’s best for us, and easily ignore them when we are okay.
But he was distraught
On February 5, the Republican led senate acquitted Trump of the articles of impeachment.
During the time of the impeachment proceedings and in the time after, Trump held rallies on January 9 , 14, 28, and 30, and then February 10, 19, 20, 21, and 28 . That last was the one at which he told attendees that COVID-19 was just the Democrats trying a new way to get him since impeachment had failed
He also went to his private golf resorts on January 18 and 19, February 1 and 15, and March 7 and 8.
All together there were 5 rallies and 3 golf trips after the impeachment was over and Trump touted his acquittal.
There were 4 rallies during the impeachment trial as well as 3 golf outings.
Yet, in order to deflect blame for Trump’s having taken too long to do anything serious about the corona virus before acknowledging it was neither a hoax nor under control, admitting it wasn’t the same thing as the seasonal flu, agreeing it won’t go away on its own, and being slow in supplying needed protective medical gear for health care workers, Mitch McConnell has claimed the impeachment trial distracted the federal government from the novel corona virus as it reached the United States in January in spite of warnings from public health experts and members of Congress.
Moreover, atherosclerosis is another heart condition that clogs the blood vessels, so that the blood flow is increased and the reproductive function is affected. sildenafil españa canadian viagra 100mg Do not buy Kamagra if you are not sexually aroused. They are giving up control of people so that people could stay away from their relationship issues or away from the problems that arise in them. generico cialis on line ED medicines do have viagra without prescription side effects so it’s advisable to check 3-4 medications before you zero in on any type of treatment for bedwetting.He claimed the virus
“came up while we were tied down on the impeachment trial. And I think it diverted the attention of the government, because everything every day was all about impeachment.”
Every day, that is, but the 15 days of rallies and golf trips to his private clubs.
The first corona virus U.S. case was confirmed in January, and Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate health and foreign relations committees had issued a joint statement after they were briefed on the virus on January 24.
Then on January 26, Chuck Schumer called on the Department of Health and Human Services to declare corona virus a public health emergency which would free up $85 million for federal agencies.
The Trump administration declared a public health emergency for the entire U.S. 5 days later before 5 rallies and 4 trips to his private resorts ton play golf.
But he was too distracted to deal with something important for the American people.
A Holy Week gift
The sheriff’s logic
Part of my teacher training at one point was learning about what was titled “The Preventive Method”, and it dealt with classroom discipline.
Skipping all the “educationalese” and theorization, it basically had as its goal to not have to deal with disciplining students after the fact, but creating an atmosphere in which students would, in the majority, not break the rules which were based on reason with the reasons explained.
If they understood why there was a particular rule, the students might be more inclined to follow it.
An example would be that the “no talking” rule is not there because talking annoyed the teacher, but saying something to another student might prevent that student from hearing something that it was best for them to hear at that moment. The rule wasn’t so much teacher/student related, but student/student.
The end result would be fewer angry moments between a teacher upset that a rule had been broken and a student on the defensive.
I once actually received a poor evaluation, and this was supported in a court case by its issuer, because, unlike many other teachers, I sent the fewest number of students to the office.
Rather than accept that I had created a classroom environment where students in the main did not break the rules whose reasons had been explained to them, my supervisor chose to believe I simply let my classes go undisciplined even as she admitted that both in formal and informal observations my classes were orderly.
This chosen belief was crushed before a judge who came to think it odd that the administrator was more comfortable with the idea that students generally broke classroom rules as opposed to accepting that under the right circumstances they would choose not to.
The basic idea behind the method and its application was why deal with a problem when you had been in a position to prevent it.
It is sort of like the difference between paying attention to the check engine light and paying for a minor repair, and ignoring it having to pay the higher price of a major one.
Most of the inmates in the Bristol County House of Corrections are people still waiting for their day in court sitting there because they do not have the wherewithal to be allowed out until their court appearance and people with short term sentences for minor infractions who couldn’t pay the fine.
In the meantime, these people are in crowded conditions, and conditions that are the subject of many law suits.
There is a proper dosage pattern which must be followed for prix viagra cialis having this liposuction surgery Different kinds of techniques to keep life pepped up always. With that innovative thought, we have found the merits of it but the lower middle class and the lower sildenafil sales side effect if compared to the artificial drug. Erectile dysfunction is an issue that men face, but performing exercise can have a dramatic effect on your performance in the bedroom. cheapest brand viagra Especially view this site discount cialis home cooked pet food needs to be supplemented with vitamins and minerals to keep the animal in good health.As COVID-19 is spreading and its best prevention is self isolation and social distancing, it would seem only logical to reduce the inmate population especially that of those who are there for minor crimes, very short sentences, or lack of bail as they await trials that could be resolved with a simple time served judgment.
That would allow for social distancing among those already convicted of serious crimes or have been accused of serious and dangerous crimes who would remain.
Leniency, and in this case common sense, does not play well into a promoted tough image, so, claiming it is because of the county’s safety, the sheriff, Thomas Hodgson, had a knee-jerk, instant negative reaction to the idea of releasing those accused of minor crimes and infractions from his jail to reduce the number of inmates in confinement and increase the space between those kept in.
His rejection was almost instant and without much thought.
His explanation is that if there were any inmates in his jails who had or were carrying the virus, they would bring it out into the larger community. Yet, at the same time, in order to present the image that his approaches to his jails are perfection, he insists that keeping the inmates inside is safer for them because none have the virus nor have any been exposed to it as his approaches to keeping it out of his jail are perfect, but they would be if released.
So, keeping them inside will prevent their spreading outside what he claims they do not have inside.
But unless each inmate is kept in solitary confinement, the six foot rule, the no touching rule, and the constant hand washing rule are impossible to adhere to.
Meanwhile corrections officers and other staff, including the sheriff himself, leave from and return to the jail from the outside community where they could unknowingly bring the virus in.
Inmates sleep on bunk beds or in small cells close to each other.
On the other end of his reasoning, is that once the virus does get in the jail, a strong possibility as a nurse on staff has tested positive, he will claim introducing those exposed into the greater community will be a disaster for it.
There are people just short of the end of their sentences and those with minor infractions who, because of courts being closed will not have their days in court as originally scheduled and may now have to remain far beyond that date for no other reason than the sheriff wants to appear tough on crime.
The Petri-dish he could prevent is what his jail will become soon, and it should not be forgotten that except for his image, this is totally unnecessary and avoidable.
His present stance is that he can’t do the right thing because the condition is not there.
His future stance will be that he can’t do it because the conditions are there.