The city was able to get photos for 900 of the victims. Each photo was enlarged to “billboard size” (though I don’t think that means to the size of standard highway billboards) and placed around Belle Isle, a park on an island in the Detroit River. On Monday 14 caravans of families will be escorted through the display, a memorial drive, at appointed times. Because the virus is still raging family members agreed to stay in their cars.
Radio station WRCJ has been asked to play appropriate music from 9-4 while the caravans are in operation. This is the classical music station in town that I listen to. On Monday they won’t confine their playlist to classical. They’ll add at least gospel and other piece for a Detroit audience in mourning.
The display will be open to the public at least Tuesday and Wednesday. I’m pretty sure the Sunday paper will have more details. I hope to be able to see it.
I am so glad Detroit is doing this. There has been so little public recognition of so many dead. I hope other cities begin to plan similar events.
If I get really busy with something, or if I get tired of reading the news, I don’t get all the way through a day’s worth of articles from Daily Kos. That happened yesterday. So much of my reading today was about yesterday’s news. I haven’t gotten far in today’s news. So my post for today is based on two nights of the GOP convention, not three.
The GOP has been screeching that Dem candidate Joe Biden is captive of the radical left. Kos of Kos explained why much of America isn’t buying that idea. 1) Biden at his convention didn’t look and act like someone captive by the radical left. None of the speakers did. 2) There were a great number of Republican speakers at the Democratic convention. 3) Several speakers at the GOP convention are obviously from the radical right. 4) They tried that tactic in 2018 and it produced a Dem majority in the House.
But they’re doing it again because the nasty guy doesn’t know any other way to campaign and this is his party.
Madame nasty (Melania) gave a speech for the convention and managed to be unique in showing an ounce of humanity. Joan McCarter of Kos reported that because she didn’t rant the corporate press is fawning over her. Wrote McCarter:
She has demonstrated nothing but complicity with the horrors her husband has wrought on the nation, and because she didn't yell at anyone Tuesday night, she's "restored a sense of normalcy" to Trump. Could the corporate media be more desperate to keep this horror show alive for four more years?
Mark Sumner of Kos reported there were videos shown as part of the convention that featured busy workers. They were “designed to sell the idea that Donald Trump created every job on his way to saving the world.” One little problem – these are not American workers. The video is from Ukraine.
Madame nasty did her speech from the Rose Garden. Tonight the nasty guy will do the same. Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported that some news outlets are framing this as “blurring the lines” between campaigning and governing. Eleveld replied:
Let's be clear: This isn't a "blurring." It's Trump campaigning on the taxpayer dime, leveraging the symbols of American power that have been entrusted to him in service of maintaining that power.
It's a completely egregious violation of the Hatch Act, a federal law that prohibits federal employees from participating in political activity while in a government building or while wearing an official uniform or insignia.
...
This is exactly the kind of controversy the White House wants, and it fits perfectly into their courting of grievance voters. Rather than talking about the 180,000 who have died on Donald Trump's watch and perhaps how more Americans can be spared from the pandemic, Team Trump would much rather be signaling to their base: We can do whatever we want and no one can stop us.
That's exactly the license of privilege Trump supporters live for.
Back when the nasty guy cleared Lafayette Park so he could walk across it to pose in front of a church I wrote about a new fence having been put up around the White House and adjoining areas. That fence has come down … and a new barricade has been put up, as Kerry Eleveld reported. This is now a fortress within Washington. It is hard to see the White House from the Mall.
The Republican National Convention ends tonight after the nasty guy speaks. Walter Einenkel of Kos reported that in honor of this week Bend the Arc, a Jewish activist group, has created a parody website for the Republican Nationalist Convention (sorry, I’m not linking directly, even to a parody). Einenkel thinks it would be funnier if it wasn’t 100% accurate. Some quotes from the site: “Building a country just for us: “We’ve always stood for white wealth and power. We just couldn’t say so out loud. But now? We’re ok with it!” “Dog-Whistling Workshop with Matt Gaetz.” “RED states. WHITE people. BLUE lives.”
I listen to Radiolab podcasts, though I have gotten a ways behind. Today I listened to an episode from last March. The crew was coming to terms with how to work around the virus and exploring some of the issues related to it. This half hour episode has two segments. The first discusses exponential growth, which is the speed at which the virus spreads if we don’t intervene (such as by wearing masks and staying home). One example of exponential growth was to aks would you prefer to be paid for a month’s work either a flat million dollars or a penny on the first day, two on the second, four on the third, and so forth for thirty days? And when talking about the spread of a virus at what point does one bring up the exponential spread? Start when the case count is low and one sounds alarmist. Wait too long and the virus may become too well established.
The second segment discussed the angst of seeing the case count every day. Would we react to other things, like cancer, if the cases per day was reported every day? Would we do something about overpopulation if the news consistently reported the number of babies born each day?
No comments:
Post a Comment