Good talk on blocks

[Van Canna]

When the street person is armed

Not only are street people dangerous, it’s dangerous being a street person. They frequently arm themselves for protection because they live in a dog-eat-dog world where they also prey on each other.

The police find knives and makeshift weapons in every camp they enter and, at least half the street people they encounter are carrying some kind of a weapon on their person or in their backpack.

- If you have the misfortune of facing an armed street person, give him your money, your coat, your shoes, whatever he wants.

- Avoid talking to him and don’t give him any reason to get angry. Just give him what he wants while you memorize what he looks like so you can tell the police later.

- The weapons of choice among street people are assorted knives and clubs and the occasional gun.

Considering how many straight citizens own guns, have concealed gun permits, and then leave their weapons in their car, where, as discussed, street people love to “shop,” it’s amazing there aren’t more floating around.

- If it’s a gun you are facing and your gut tells you he is going to shoot, throw your money to one side and then run like the wind in the opposite direction. Odds are he will go for the money. If he does shoot, the odds are in your favor that he will miss a moving target.

Street people are not going away any time soon. They come to our cities bringing filth, disease and crime. They do nothing to contribute to society, but only ****** off it and hurt people in the process. It’s a national problem that must be addressed by citizens, politicians and law makers.

In the meantime, we must walk defensively among them.

[Van Canna]

The maggots of humanity

While New Zealand has more than 1,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is mostly proud of how people have complied with the nation’s lockdown order. But in a Sunday news conference, Ardern called out those who continue to flout the lockdown.

“While compliance has been generally strong, there are still some who I would charitably describe as idiots,” Ardern told reporters.

The prime minister specifically cited a Christchurch man who was arrested Saturday for filming himself deliberately coughing and sneezing on people at a grocery store.

There will be much personal violence in the coming weeks.

[Van Canna]

The world is upside down right now with the coronavirus pandemic and we are living in a dystopian nightmare come to life. Still, we are still living in an America where history dictates that even in the most absurd times, hatred and bigotry still reign king. We are still judged, convicted, and sentenced by race, by gender, sexual orientation, and class.

[Van Canna]

Why I don’t feel safe wearing a face mask

I’m a Black man living in this world. I want to stay alive, but I also want to stay alive.
By Aaron Thomas

Early reports highlight what many have predicted; those who are impacted by COVID-19 are overwhelmingly people of color, poor people, the homeless, and those living with disabilities. This stems from a lack of equitable access to health care.

Meanwhile, the bigotry escalates. There has been an increase of anti-Asian discrimination because COVID-19 originated in Wuhan, China. Racial tensions are increasingly escalating, and the situation for minorities is getting worse.

As this is a historical moment, it is important that we remember our history. Black men and women in this country have been killed for any and everything. A child with a toy gun, a young girl sleeping in her family home, a man buying an air gun at Walmart. Knowing all that, I just don’t feel safe. Even in a time of pandemic, the discrimination does not stop.

I will not be covering my face until I am able to obtain a face mask that is unmistakable for what it is. Let me be clear, this is not because I do not trust the advice of the CDC — I do. I believe in science, and I have followed all of its guidelines up to this point. I know masks work, and I trust the CDC’s recommendation.

What I do not trust is the innate biases and lack of critical thought about the implications of these decisions. I do not trust that I can walk into a grocery store with my face covered and not be disturbed.

I do not trust that I will not be followed. I do not trust that I will be allowed to exist in my Black skin and be able to buy groceries or other necessities without a confrontation and having to explain my intent and my presence. I do not trust that wearing a make-shift mask will allow me to make it back to my home.

So until I receive a mask, I will get to live out my childhood dream of being on supermarket sweep. And yes, I will attempt to get everything I need into my cart and to the checkout in three minutes or less.

Aaron Thomas lives in Columbus, Ohio.

[Van Canna]

This is really sad, and it will only get worse as time and death continue to march on.

You will likely be 'picked on' for a great number of reasons you cannot even foresee for the time being. It will come to you suddenly and out of nowhere...

Your karate proficiency will not be what you think will get you home safely.

[Van Canna]

The third route of infection

https://youtu.be/kVqDxLkbhJk

[Van Canna]

The human side of this experience has been very telling. Frightening, actually.

So many people (a) have no money, (b) are leveraged to the hilt with consumer debt, (c) are profoundly fearful of almost everything, and (d) are incredibly willing to become tattletales who want to over-enforce restrictions and then tell everybody about it while clearly seeking praise for doing so (a sort of virtue-signaling?).

The idea of people being self-sufficient, free, and independent is a myth and illusion for most folks.

[Van Canna]

An Asian American father and his children in Texas were slashed by an attacker blaming them and others who looked like them as the cause of the pandemic.

An Asian woman in Brooklyn, who was taking out her trash, was attacked by a man who doused her with a substance that left burns.

Across America, Asian Americans have been subjected to threats, physical attacks, and myriad discriminatory acts. Countless thousands of other maxi- and micro-aggressions have added more stress and anxiety to an already amply stressed and anxious community.

Guides on how Asian Americans should deal with threats and prejudice are being circulated as well as concerns raised about what is dubbed “breathing while Asian.” Indeed, early on, all things Asian became suspect.

Chinatowns, including Boston’s, became ghost towns long before mandatory closings and stay-at-home orders were imposed.

[Van Canna]

Many Asians who wear masks in public have been subjected to derision, suspicion, and shunning.

At the same time, health care providers at all levels in emergency rooms, ICUs, and nursing homes, at bedsides, and in medical labs also wear masks, and behind those masks are a disproportionate share of Asian faces.

Asian Americans are also among those who prepare and deliver meals, stock grocery shelves, work in plants to manufacture face masks and respirators, comfort the living, and care for the dead.

They are the heroic ones called upon to venture into danger rather than shelter from it.

[Van Canna]

Before college classes moved online, a student of Asian descent told how she feared going to class and perhaps coughing and incurring the wrath of her teacher and classmates.

She then asked me whether I thought that the treatment of Asian Americans and the manifestations of prejudice would weaken after the pandemic subsides and we can address more clearly the wages of intolerance and xenophobia.

I replied that the long experience with race in this country suggests that lessons are often not learned and, as often as not, trauma elicits scapegoating and prejudice again and again. But I also told her that I hoped that I was wrong.

[Van Canna]

Change can begin with small steps. Perhaps the next time we brush our teeth, wash our hands for the umpteenth time, or tackle the challenge of our unruly hair, we can glance at our image in the mirror.

And, when we do, choose to see ourselves among the faces joined together in their determination to fight the spread of two dangerous foes — COVID-19 and hate.

Paul Watanabe is director of the Institute for Asian American Studies and a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

[Van Canna]

https://theinterviewwithgod.com/video/

[Van Canna]

The fourth horseman

"The horseman on the white horse was clad in a showy and barbarous attire. ... While his horse continued galloping, he was bending his bow in order to spread pestilence abroad. At his back swung the brass quiver filled with poisoned arrows, containing the germs of all diseases."

[Van Canna]

Accessing weapons

For the sake of this article it should be understood that the best defense against an edged weapon attack is distance. Unfortunately this is a luxury not afforded by many environments and situations.

Accessing

When your attacker makes furtive movement to the weapons band. The majority of weapons are carried between the waist and nipple line.

Furtive movement with the hand to access a weapon is often accompanied along with stepping back with the same side foot.

This usually identifies not only the strong hand of the attacker but also the location of their primary weapon.

If you are standing just within arms reach as the best option is to close the distance, control or limit the movement of the weapon hand while at the same time violently attacking the head / face / throat with repeated blows.

[Van Canna]

If you are outside arms reach the tendency seems to be to stay flatfooted and reach in taking you off balance.

Staying just within arms reach also stops your attacker from getting full extension with the weapon. Attempts should also be made to destroy elbows and knees if at all possible.

Another tactic would be to smother the offending arm with your arm (right to right and left to left) and move to the outside, grab the shoulders and pull down sharply at a 45 degree angle bringing the attacker down on their back and striking as needed.