Friday, August 09, 2019

The Flint families need to consider telling their stories to "StoryCorps." In remembrance of Michael Brown StoryCorps has displayed the story as seen through the community at the time of the killing. These efforts are very important because it is a forever record of the experiences of Americans.

August 9, 2019

There is something new greeting visitors (click here) to the Flint Institute of Arts. Beginning this week and running until September 4th, a shiny airstream trailer is outside the museum. It’s StoryCorps all set up in Flint and hoping to gather stories in its mobile booth for the next month.

Danielle Anderson, the associate director of the StoryCorps Mobile Tour (click here) says they chose to add Flint as a stop on their tour in part because the mobile booth had never been there before. It was also a natural fit for StoryCorps because of the strong relationships they have connected to the city, including an on-going project with the Flint Public Library and the support of Michigan Radio.

Participating in the mobile booth tour is a free public service, and anyone can sign up. Anderson says the one requirement is to register ahead of time. When participants arrive, they're guided by trained StoryCorps interview facilitators to help the conversation along. But the experience is very simple Anderson says, "it's forty minutes of recording time for you to sit down with somebody you care about or somebody you're curious to learn more about and you take some time to ask some questions and do some listening, thinkgs that we often don't have time to do in the midst of our busy lives."...

I could not believe my eyes when I read that Flint had a "Boil Emergency" for their water. And this boil emergency included filtered water. It began yesterday, August 8th at about 2:30 pm. As of 7 PM tonight on Friday, August 9th it has been lifted. These people never have peace of mind.

FLINT (WJRT) (8/8/2019) - All customers of the Flint city water system (click here) are under a boil filtered water advisory after a large water main break caused a drop in pressure.

A 24-inch water transmission main broke in the area of 12th Street and VanSlyke Road near the General Motors facility. Flint Department of Public Works Director Rob Bincsik said a contractor demolishing a bridge broke the water main.

Crews were working to isolate and shut off the leak, but a large area of the water system lost pressure. A loss of water pressure can cause bacteria to enter the system, so a precautionary boil advisory is issued.

Bincsik isn't sure how far the pressure loss extends from the break, so the entire city water system was included in the advisory as a precaution.

All customers on the Flint city water system are urged to boil filtered water for one minute before drinking it, using it for cooking, washing dishes brushing teeth or making ice....

August 9, 2019
By Ron Fonger

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 9 with information from a city press release stating the advisory has been lifted.

FLINT, MI -- The city has lifted (click here) the boil water advisory that was issued Thursday, Aug. 8

The city of Flint sent out a press release around 6:45 p.m. Friday, Aug. 9 informing residents that the advisory was lifted.

Flint’s Director of Public Works Rob Bincsik reported Friday that crews have completed repairs on a water main break, according to the release....

The cruelty is the point.

The writer Adam Serwer (click here) surmised the driving sentiment of the Trump era when he famously noted: “The cruelty is the point.”

While this country was coping with the trauma caused by a trio of random mass shootings in one week, the Trump administration conducted the largest one-day workplace Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in history. More than 650 ICE agents descended upon several different meatpacking locations in Mississippi and snatched any employee who did not have proof of residency on them. 680 Mississippians were detained and forcibly removed from their jobs and families. On the first day of school in many districts, children were stranded with one or two parents suddenly missing. Several babies and toddlers were left at childcare without anyone to pick them up. Images of their devastation and grief flooded social media....

...However, none of the company executives were marched out in handcuffs or forcibly removed from their families. In fact, as ProPublica recently reported, the Trump administration has weakened legal protections for workers while easing off of enforcing rules on powerful meat companies like the ones illegally hiring undocumented workers.

Why the raids? Why Mississippi? Politics, that's why.

Mississippi Lt. Governor Tate Reeves, a Republican who is locked in a tight battle for the governor’s seat, gleefully praised the raids. "Glad to see that ICE is working hard to enforce our immigration laws," Reeves said in a Wednesday tweet....

This is a release from Barr's DOJ:

...As part of HSI procedures pursuant to this operation, (click here) if HSI encountered two alien parents with minor children at home, HSI released one of the parents on humanitarian grounds and returned that individual to the place from which they were arrested. HSI similarly released any single alien parent with minor children a home on humanitarian grounds and physically returned that person to the place where he or she was originally detained. Based on these procedures, it is believed that all children were with at least one of their parents as of last night....

Also noted in the "Slate" article was the fact this was a round-up like cattle. The people that work in the meat processing plant don't carry personal effects into the area where the meat is processed for sanity conditions. These people didn't have their IDs on them, as a result, half were released after they were removed from their place of work.

Chicago mayor to Ivanka Trump: Stop tweeting and call us (click here for news article - thank you)

More Fake News from Ivanka Trump.

"She got the numbers wrong. She got the location wrong," Lightfoot said, CBS Chicago reports. "That's the danger of trying to govern via tweet."
Ivanka Trump's tweet read: "As we grieve over the evil mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, let us not overlook that Chicago experienced its deadliest weekend of the year," she tweeted Tuesday morning. "With 7 dead and 52 wounded near a playground in the Windy City- and little national outrage or media coverage- we mustn't become numb to the violence faced by inner city communities every day."


"Moscow" Mitch McConnell stated, "If we came back early to pass legislation everyone would be making points and nothing else."

He has today obstructed a return of the Congress to pass necessary legislation while people are dying, frightened and facing gunmen wearing body armor and carrying weapons of war into Walmart. That is pretty sick in the neighborhood where I come from.

Trump stated as he left for vacation it is a very short time before Congress returns. Tell that to people terrified of their own neighborhood stores.

They don't care about the people, they care about their own creature comforts, good times and sick political priorities. Any legislation is already partisan. The Republicans intend to include the NRA in any legislation. They aren't interested in meaningful legislation. The Republicans don't care about the people.

Ferguson, Mo., five years after Michael Brown shooting

This time a MIssouri Walmart. Looks like the "greeters" need to be armed at Walmart.

They are coming out of the woodwork now. Does the USA have enough jail space to hold them? The lifers need to go to Supermax. ICE should be reassigned to raids where it matters.

August 8, 2019
By Brandon Bailey

Springfield - The Springfield Police Department (click here) has detained a man they say donned body armor and carried loaded weapons into a Walmart.

According to NBC affiliate KY3, the man walked into the Walmart at Republic Road, grabbed a shopping cart, and began recording himself as he walked through the store. The store manager reportedly pulled the fire alarm to get people out of the store.

Officials say the man went out an emergency exit where he was held at gunpoint by an off-duty firefighter. Police arrived shortly thereafter and detained the man....

Trump stated "Toledo" in his speech instead of "Dayton."

Evidently, there is a lot Trump knows about, but, continues to set fires under those predisposed to act in the violence of White Supremacy/Nationalism.


August 8, 2019

By Eric Heisig 

Vincent Armstrong, 23 YEARS OLD and his girlfriend was coming along for the ride. They have quite an army of young men willing to act.

Cleveland - A Toledo man (click here) on Thursday admitted his guilt in a plot where he and his girlfriend planned to use explosives and guns for a mass murder.

Vincent Armstrong, 23, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport or receive an explosive with intent to kill, injure, or intimidate any individual, and maliciously damage or destroy by fire or explosive. The FBI arrested he and Elizabeth Lecron in December for a plot they started forming in April, according to court records....