Isn’t it bro-mantic?
It is clear to anyone paying attention that Bristol County sheriff Thomas Hodgson has an oddly pathological and self-serving devotion to Trump. It goes beyond simple admiration.
The sheriff takes every opportunity to get in a photo with his idol, many having his teen-aged girl crush smile as he stands near him or is handing him some sort of award for something his sheriff organization finds important enough to spend money on a plaque for, or praising him at every opportunity no matter how irrelevant.
He has even recently come up with a claim that anyone criticizing his own job performance is an Anti-Trumper.
Questioning him is questioning Trump, as far as he is concerned.
His over the top devotion reminds me of the stories when I was a kid of fans of the television show Superman who put on capes or tied towels around their necks, jumped off tall structures, and hit the ground breaking a bone or two, or, worse, tying a rope around their waist hoping to simulate flight by dangling from tree branches or shower curtain rods and accidentally hanging themselves when the rope slipped.
Adoration to the point of imitation has its danger.
I suppose there are some who should be glad the sheriff wasn’t as avid a fan of that show as he is of Trump.
And if his praise and fawning weren’t enough, he worked hard to get himself a position as a co-chair of Trump’s reelection campaign here in Massachusetts. He wasn’t asked, he volunteered himself.
Being a fan is one thing. No one has a problem with a teenager having posters of an idol on bedroom walls, although it would seem a little strange for a grown man to do this, or wanting to emulate a celebrity by taking up the sport they play or the musical instrument they are known for. That would be productive.
The problem comes in when the idol worship subsumes the worshipper who slowly identifies so closely with the idol, they become poorly executed carbon copies.
I may not be a psychologist, but like anyone with an opinion and an outlet, that doesn’t stop me from expressing my thought that Sheriff Hodgson is so enamored of Trump, he is becoming a weaker version of him, at least in his own mind
We have already seen his obsession with getting Trump’s attention by volunteering county jail inmates to help build the wall on the southern border and doing that at his official swearing in as sheriff by the governor in 2017.
Now it would seems that he wants it noticed that he is handling the Covid-19 pandemic just like Trump has been handling it, unfortunately with the same results I.E, letting it spread until, rather than being something to prevent, it became something to handle.
This is how Trump handled the virus until it got out of hand.
Back in January, Trump claimed, while the rest of the world was addressing the pandemic seriously,
“We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China.”
So why do anything?
As far as addressing it?
“We pretty much shut it down coming in from China. It’s going to be fine,”
and in February insisting.
“The Corona virus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”
Because the Stock Market is more important than people’s lives, it didn’t matter how many people went down as long as stocks went up.
And how was he doing addressing the virus?
“CDC & my administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus.”
Toward the end of February he assured the American people,
“If the virus disappeared tomorrow [Democrats] would say we did a really poor, and even incompetent job. Not fair, but it is what it is, So far, by the way, we have not had one death. Let’s keep it that way.
And at the same time, he assured us that a vaccine was coming, and soon.
“I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away. They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”
More assurance came when he said,
“So I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away.”
And, in spite of first President Bush and then President Obama establishing protocols, compiling a document for dealing with pandemics, and putting together a commission to deal with one, after he dismantled the commission and ignored the book he claimed,
“If you go back six months or three months ago, nobody would have ever predicted.”
Well, they may not have predicted it exactly, but for the first 2.5 years of his tenure, the way to deal with it had existed
When asked if schools should be preparing for the virus, he assured us,
“I would think so, yes. I mean, I haven’t spoken specifically about that with the various doctors, but I would think so, yes. I think every aspect of our society should be prepared. I don’t think it’s going to come to that, especially with the fact that we’re going down, not up. We’re going very substantially down, not up.”
And then there are these quotes:
“One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
In March he returned to vaccine claims,
“You take a solid flu vaccine, you don’t think that could have an impact, or much of an impact, on corona?”
“A lot of things are happening, a lot of very exciting things are happening and they’re happening very rapidly.”
“If we have thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work – some of them go to work, but they get better.”
“I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down. We’ve really been very vigilant, and we’ve done a tremendous job at keeping to down.”
And then he made his now famous promise and praised his own mental acuity,
“Anybody right now, and yesterday, anybody that needs a test gets a test. And the tests are beautiful. They are perfect just like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.”
“I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should have done that instead of running for president.”
As far as numbers, his idea was to limit finding out how many people have it or acknowledging, when he spoke about a ship with American passengers waiting off shore,
“I like the numbers being where they are, I don’t need to have the numbers double because of 1 ship that wasn’t our fault.”
“We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on Coronavirus.”
“The Fake News media & their partner, the Democrat Party, is doing everything within its semi-considerable power to inflame the Coronavirus situation.”
“It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”
And his most recent comment on testing,
“When we have a lot of cases, I don’t look at that as a bad thing. I look at that as in a certain respect as being a good thing because it means our testing is much better. So, if we were testing a million people instead of 14 million people, we would have far fewer cases, right? So, I view it as a badge of honor. Really, it’s a badge of honor. It’s a great tribute to the testing and a lot of the work that the professionals have done.”
And, here we are with the latest numbers of those who have contracted and died from something that was supposed to have just gone away.
That may have been a lot to take in, but it will help in understanding Trump’s Mini-Me, Sheriff Thomas Hodgson of Bristol County, Massachusetts.
When concern in the beginning days of the COVID-19 pandemic was expressed about the spread of the Corona virus among those in the state’s prisons and jails, both inmates and staff, a reasonable step to thin the enclosed population was proposed by prosecutors in Massachusetts, “Cite and Release”, that would look at inmates on a case by case basis, and release those who were incarcerated for non-violent crimes, those sitting in a cell who were waiting for their court appearance for having allegedly committed such a crime because they could not make bail, or those who were within days or weeks of their release having done the majority of their time.
Those who had committed or were charged with committing a violent crime would not be eligible.
The Bristol County sheriff immediately opposed it.
“We have no current plans to release inmates in the manners you described.”
He claimed his approach for the welfare of those under his care was the best, but there is doubt because, judging by his actions and expressed attitude, it could merely be his feeding his ego that carefully promotes a tough guy image, or his need to have people in his jails in order to feel complete.
His explanations for his opposition seemed to mirror Trump’s comments about the corona virus made at the same time as if he were echoing them using Trump’s phrases like “ever in history”, “no one has done more”, and, when he chooses to avoid having to state something in solid terms while claiming he has the greatest plan ever that no one has ever seen before, “We’ll see”.
After saying,
There buy levitra cute-n-tiny.com are people with some diseases which can be known for influencing men while making love. This sildenafil samples is one of the reasons why osteoarthritis doesn’t only impact athletes. It should also be able to block the enzyme responsible for breaking testosterone down into estrogen – thereby helping to keep testosterone levels higher, which can have an impact on sexual performance. buy cialis generic As a result please obtain prescription by health care team, eat and drink levitra sale in a new way, i.e., smaller portions and appropriate healthy food choices, adopt exercise schedule in their daily routine, pay attention to their bodies and give respect to it and attend regular follow- ups as advised.“We have no current plans to release inmates in the manners you described”
He subsequently explained,
“Releasing people to go back into the community, whether back to friends, family, or whoever may be exposed already? Why would we add people to that environment, when we have a controlled environment here? We could probably get them medical treatment faster.”
At the time he made that statement the population at the Bristol County House of Corrections was at 955, down from a previous high of 1,300 with about 650 employees who left and re-entered his facilities on a daily basis and could be bringing the virus in with them.
“We’re disinfecting as much as we possibly can. We are taking extra precautions. We are spraying more than we normally do. We educate the inmates about the preventive measures…. We’re doing probably more than most people would be doing on the outside. … We’ve not had any circumstances with any inmates here indicating (that they may have the coronavirus).”
When it came to the calls to reduce the prison population to protect the safety of the inmates he said,
“To make an arbitrary statement like that, without understanding the impact of it and the level of risk here versus on the outside, says it all. That’s why we are in the business we are in. We’ve dealt with this before in a prison setting. We have protocols. We make adjustments. We pay attention to the CDC. We pay attention to briefings from the White House.… As far as I’m concerned, it’s a baseless suggestion.”
We all watched those briefings and could see that they weren’t the best guide to follow.
He went on to explain that the “arbitrary” proposal co-aligned with the preexisting views of the ACLU and politicians.
He would later refer to these people as “Anti-Trumpers”.
In like manner, when advocates addressed releasing non-violent ICE detainees that had not broken any law beyond being here without the proper papers, the sheriff’s spokesperson who speaks for the sheriff said,
“We suspect these detainees are working with outside political activist groups to use the coronavirus crisis to advance their political agenda.”
When an activist group demanded that “incarcerated and detained people, who pose no danger to individuals and the community” should be released “to thin out the population so that safer practices can be implemented”, and went so far as to not only criticize, but make a suggestion for a solution,
“These should prioritize those with serious medical conditions, others awaiting trial for inability to pay bail, and those who have been jailed for technical probation and parole violations. Anyone who is infected with the virus should be quarantined off site, but not at home, so as not to infect family members and friends,”
the sheriff dismissed it as a political agenda.
Then in April it began.
On March 25 a nurse at the jail complained of not feeling well and went home. After five days she took the test for COVID 19 and was found positive. Hodgson’s response was,
“It’s encouraging that she’s had no symptoms for a week and is feeling well. It’s also encouraging that no other BCSO or CPS staff members, nor any inmates or detainees, have reported symptoms.”
And, so, they could just move on.
A follow up press release from the sheriff’s office regarding this case said,
“Any headlines or press releases from political activist organization claiming infections or outbreaks are completely false and reckless.”
In another statement the sheriff’s office added,
“There are lawyers who represent clients in our custody that are spreading lies and rumors around the community to advance their personal political agendas in a time of national crisis.”
By April 7, a correctional officer and a K9 officer tested positive for COVID-19 according to a press release from Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson’s office.
“Both are feeling well,” Hodgson said. “They have some minor symptoms but both said, overall, that they’re feeling okay. That’s very encouraging.”
Taking into Consideration that there is an incubation period during which symptoms may be absent, and considering that these officers and the nurse traveled between the jail and the community outside, the virus was in the jail.
Steps to release those eligible under “Cite and Release” could still be taken.
In typical Trumpian fashion, while the sheriff praised his staff and tried to make it appear his critics were being unfair to his staff when they were holding him, and not them, accountable for his refusal to be cautious, when announcing that he was giving his staff a raise during the pandemic, he revealed more than he may have intended.
“My staff has to come into a very challenging environment.”
If all was well how could the environment he initially described as “we have a controlled environment here?” have become a “challenging environment” unless the sheriff knew that he was projecting an image of being in total control while hiding that he knew this was not so?
He went on to say what in retrospect was either his not seeing or choosing not to accept reality,
“Provided we remain mindful and vigilant with our social distancing and personal sanitation, both here and in the community, we can reach our shared goal of preventing our inmate population, us, and our families from becoming exposed to and infected by COVID-19.”
But things had to be done his way.
And rather than science and preventative measures, the sheriff continued to rely on his self-image and luck, and echoing one of Trump’s signature phrases when it comes to results.
“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.”
By April 21, while an additional staff member tested positive for COVID-19, the sheriff would continue to claim that no inmate or ICE detainee had tested positive mainly because they were not being tested in spite of calls for it beginning on the first days of March, and although he followed this news by appealing to emotion by saying,
“Massachusetts has been hit very hard by the coronavirus and the next few weeks are expected to be pretty rough, so I hope everyone stays safe, practices social distancing, and follows strict sanitation recommendations,”
he still refused to follow the practice of releasing those who were eligible according the “Cite and Release” recommendation he had in knee-jerk fashion refused to follow when it was first proposed over a month before.
As April was coming to a close, 2 more staff members tested positive, and obviously this was a concern to inmates aware that there had been a method proposed to keep them safe even if it meant house arrest and ankle bracelets.
On May 1 there was a “riot” of questionable origins in the Ice detention center on the campus of the Bristol County House of Correction, and in response, a judge decided that it was time for accountability and required regular testing with required reports of the results.
Obviously now the Trumpian belief that the fewer people you test the more you can claim low numbers ended.
On the same day as the ICE detention center “riot”, a county inmate, who had been sent to a local hospital for a pre-existing condition was given a COVID-19 test the day before, and was notified he had tested positive on May 1.
The corrections officer who had accompanied the inmate to the hospital was also tested and on May 2 he was notified of the positive result.
Knocking on wood was not the right approach, and this was just the beginning.
Within days of the order to have inmates tested, according to a press release, six Bristol County Sheriff’s Office staff members and eight inmates tested positive for COVID-19 that week, however a later press release on that same day stated that seven staff members had recovered from COVID and had returned to duty while eleven are away from the facility recovering.
This increase in numbers is happening in a place the sheriff assured the public, his employers, it would not happen because he just knew that what he was doing was the only acceptable approach, and, so, he needed no advice from anyone else. And, as is typical of him and his idol, where people have been criticizing his leadership during this time, he thinks pointing to a squirrel will distract the public, and he is pretending that his critics are attacking his staff by this mental flatulence,
“The COVID pandemic has taken a toll on our country. In the middle of this national epidemic, essential workers like those in corrections, law enforcement, and health care have joined others at grocery stores, gas stations and other places in reporting to work to keep our country going. They deserve an enormous amount of credit.”
Okay, sheriff, fine.
But what about his responsibility?
The virus is in his jails and his ICE detention center, and he purposely refused to see the inevitable coming.
And that is how the idol helps a pandemic spread in his wider world, and his biggest fan emulates him to do the same in his smaller world.
It’s a glorious and dangerous bro-mance.
face masks vs guns
I didn’t say that, I said that
It seems that a common trait among the Trump administration cabinet members, and Trump himself, is the inability to connect one statement to an earlier one, or one event to an earlier one.
In defending himself against the charge of having an inspector general dismissed from the state department for the offense of looking into some potentially incorrect action on the part of himself, Secretary of state Mike Pompeo had this attribute on full display.
An inspector general is supposed to be a Senate-confirmed independent watchdog within his or her agency.
When Pompeo was asked about the firing of Steve Linick, the IG in the state department, he first avoided giving an explanation for the termination and then contradicted himself by admitting that he was behind the firing and recommending it to Trump.
“I recommended to the president that Steve Linick be terminated. Frankly, should have done it some time ago.”
Because he was the subject of the inspector general’s inquiry, obviously Pompeo could not fire him himself, so turning to Trump to have him do was his only option which Trump did while admitting that he knew nothing of Linick and made the move on Pompeo’s recommendation.
Firing an inspector general because he is doing his job defeats the purpose of having an internal watchdog.
Linick was conducting investigations of Pompeo’s personal conduct and departmental actions including allegations that he inappropriately made department staff perform his personal errands, like walking his dog and questions around the odd emergency declaration which permitted selling U.S. arms to Saudi Arabia for its ongoing war with Yemen.
The only reason originally given for the firing was because Linick’s action, unspecified, was “undermining the department’s mission.”
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“Unlike others, I don’t talk about personnel matters. I don’t leak to y’all. I’ll just say this; I can’t talk, I can’t give you specificity. We’ll share with the appropriate people the rationale.”
But going to the president who admitted he knew nothing about the inspector general means whatever that personnel matter was it was presented by Pompeo and not a third, independent party.
Having the inspector general fired while Pompeo was the subject of the IG’s investigation was seen as a little suspicious, and when asked about it, rather than give a straight-forward answer, Pompeo decided to get snippy, and cutely combined separate charges to pass the whole thing off with humor that missed its mark by stating,
“There are claims that this was for retaliation, for some investigation that the inspector general’s office was engaged in. It’s patently false. I have no sense of what investigations were taking place inside the inspector general’s office. Couldn’t possibly have retaliated for all the things — I’ve seen the various stories that someone was walking my dog to sell arms to my dry cleaner. I mean, it’s all just crazy! It’s all crazy stuff! So I didn’t have access to that information, so I couldn’t possibly have retaliated. It would have been impossible.”
And in the next instant, he contradicted what he had just said by mentioning questions he had to answer that would have certainly given him some inkling as to what an investigation was about.
“There’s one exception. I was asked a series of questions in writing. I responded to those questions with respect to a particular investigation that was some time earlier this year, best I can recall. I responded to those questions, I don’t know the scope, I don’t know the nature of that investigation, other than what I would have seen from the nature of the questions that I was presented.”
With nothing to back his claim that there was no retaliation in the firing he sought, he wants us, his boss, to just accept his claim that he is innocent of what he did.
If he did nothing wrong, he has the obligation to tell the public the whole and truthful story.
With Virginia’s potatoes unprotected What happens to the fries?
For the safety of the potatoes
Usually when he gives a speech, it is clear when Trump is on script and when he goes off on an impromptu tangent. He generally goes from sounding somewhat organized to going off on a riff that is rarely, if ever, still on topic, going, instead, off into the woods.
The degree of comedic content to these tangents vary, but more often than not, after a good deal of analysis, what connection might exist between the meandering thoughts and the topic, no matter how meandering, can be found.
This past Tuesday Trump was addressing farmers in the Oval Office. He was dealing with getting produce and dairy products to food banks rather than having them destroyed as excess because there was no way to distribute them to potential buyers.
Regardless of certain procedural questions, the idea was a good one, and if he had stuck to the topic, regardless of other concerns, would have come across that way. It might have been the frightening proximity to too many fruits and vegetables that set him on his mental wandering, but true to form, off Trump went into the mists of his mind.
Back in April in response to protests at the state capitols of Minnesota, Michigan, and Virginia when armed terrorist either surrounded or entered the state houses when legislators were meeting, instead of standing against them, Trump seemed to support their objection to his steps to handle the Corona Virus, by encouraging the vocal minority, his supporters, to liberate their states. The governors of those three state are Democrats, but he went so far as to single out Virginia’s Democratic governor, Ralph Northam, in a press briefing by stating he “should be under siege.”
Although the topic had been the gatherings of armed people carrying Confederate flags and the appearance of their armed threat, Trump added a dig at the Virginia governor whose state legislature was considering a reasonable gun control bill, and went off topic with,
“They want to take their guns away. That’s the Second Amendment. That’s Virginia. You have a governor—I guess he should be under siege. He seems not to be. If he were a Republican, he would be under siege. But he seems to have escaped something that is really bad…So when you talk about ‘liberate’ or ‘liberation,’ you can certainly look at Virginia.”
His opinion of the protesters was that they simply were
“people expressing their views. They seem to be very responsible people to me. But they’ve been treated a little bit rough.”
Gun control was not the topic, those demonstrations was.
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So while his statement about Virginia and its governor may have been highly questionable coming from the president whose program was being supported by the Virginia governor, his statement after a speaker from Virginia made in the Oval office about getting food to food banks had absolutely no connection to the purpose of the White House photo-op.
From the fog of his mind, Trump intoned,
“We’re going after Virginia, with your crazy governor, we’re going after Virginia. They want to take your Second Amendment. You know that, right? You’ll have nobody guarding your potatoes.”
The governor simply responded,
“I grew up on a Virginia farm, Mr. President—our potatoes are fine. And as the only medical doctor among our nation’s governors, I suggest you stop taking hydroxychloroquine.”
For eight years the cry was that “Obama is coming for your guns!”
But the reality was and should be clear that after eight years of Obama and three and a half years with Trump, and as was obvious from the state house demonstrations, no one has actually done that..
Virginia is not known for its potatoes as it produces one of the smallest potato crops of any state.
Its biggest agricultural products are corn, soybeans, sweet potatoes, apples, tobacco, peanuts, and cotton.
Apparently, though, according to the president, that miniscule potato crop is its most important and needs armed protection.
And as the Second Amendment to the Constitution clearly states,
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State and for the protection of potatoes, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
More protests
Hodgson’s contradiction
One of Trump’s go-to tactics is to say things, and then, when he is called on it, deny he has said it. Sometimes he will claim, after the fact and after much reasoned criticism, that what he said was his just being sarcastic even if he had followed the original statement with his trade mark, “believe me”.
The Bristol County Sheriff, Thomas Hodgson, the Joe Arpaio of Massachusetts and acolyte that simply adores Trump and seeks his attention at every possible turn, has adopted Trump’s practice of making statements that cancel each other out while holding that each is legitimate.
As with Trump, the problem is that the words are written down and recorded so deniability is impossible.
After a major altercation at the ICE detention center on the campus of the Bristol County House of Corrections in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, Sheriff Thomas Hodgson received criticism for not only his handling of the actual incident, but also for the conditions in his facilities that would have made such an event inevitable.
While some have been calling for accountability for a number of years now, this incident has prompted others to begin scrutinizing his job performance more closely with some calling for independent investigations with others, after weighing the sheriff’s history, calling for his resignation.
If people in authority are allowed to abuse that authority without question either because there is no system for accountability, people are “too busy” to exercise that system, or that person’s actions, regardless how unacceptable, support certain political agendas, the intensity of the abuse increases. Over time, they become so used to their freedom to abuse, the assumption of the abuser is that it will continue to go unquestioned, and it usually does.
Being called on it, therefore, is often so unexpected that the abuser is not prepared to react rationally, rather, ignoring facts and grabbing at any straws that protect the abuser, going so far as to take on the part of a victim being persecuted unfairly, and jumping from one defense to another with them being unconnected or inconsistent.
The abuser often just keeps throwing defenses out as needed and related only to the moment as they come to mind.
This is how it is now when, after having his ways unquestioned, the sheriff has taken one step too far and has now got to explain himself.
This reaction of the sheriff is most clearly seen in the letter he wrote to the friendly local newspaper in his defense against calls for his resignation.
When a person, who refers to the majority of people in his jails as “drug addicts” and people in the ICE detention center as “Criminal illegal aliens” to create a monster under the bed with which to frighten the people of Bristol County into accepting that he is more than what he really is, begins a defensive letter to the editor with
“The motto of the left-wing activist groups, abolish-ICE advocates, Prisoners’ Legal Services and plain anti-Trumpers has always been, and continues to be, ‘Don’t let the facts interfere with your political agenda,’
the reader just knows that what follows is going to be well reasoned and unbiased.
Right?
His condemnation of his critics that he claims paint him and ICE with a negative broad brush is priceless because the sheriff does exactly that by claiming to be able to characterize any critics as extremists.
And it is laughable that he assigns himself a lofty stature by also claiming some equivalence to the president by claiming criticizing him is somehow the work of “Anti-Trumpers”
As far as his description of those who have lately called for his resignation being Left-wing activist groups and anti-Trumpers, among them are Bristol County for Correctional Justice, Unidad Latina en Accion, the Coalition for Social Justice, the New Bedford Chapter of the NAACP, the Community Economic Development Center, the New Bedford Immigrant Support Network, the Business Innovation Center, Centro Communitario de Trabajadores, the Episcopal City Mission, Marching Forward, and the Southeastern Mass Labor Council.
Not surprisingly, the sheriff omitted the names of the groups in his defensive letter so he could mislead the public, unless he considers Immigrant groups, racial justice groups, churches, business organizations, and labor representatives as anti-Trump with solely political agendas in which case he further reveals his bias and perhaps more extreme attitudes.
Trump has nothing to do with this beyond as co-chair of the state’s Trump re-election committee Hodgson wants to promote his idol by any means necessary.
No, sheriff, they are against many of your practices that are bad for the incarcerated people in your facilities, most yet to be proven guilty in a court of law.
Things like suicides, poor medical treatment, attempts to deny them legitimate family contact, having no programs for re-entry into the community that results in a ridiculously high return rate were concerns before the time of COVID-19 and are what his critics have been addressing.
The sheriff’s history is rife with law suits against him for inmate abuse, employee abuse, and abuse of the county taxpayers, which he has lost to the cost of millions to the county.
He relates a tale about events on May 1 at the ICE detention center claiming there are tapes that show his version is the true version, but it has been two weeks since that event, and no one outside of his office and ICE has seen the tapes.
Yet he claims letters from inmates, conversations between inmates and their attorneys, and interviews with former inmates are merely a “manufactured version of events”.
While he claimed his actions had guaranteed that no inmates in his facilities had COVID-19, this was based on not having tested his inmates.
How would he have known if no one had the virus if he had not tested all his inmates?
When, after two months of resistance the sheriff finally began testing, he found that of the people he tested at least 5 people under his care tested positive.
He said he was thinking of the community’s safety since releasing nonviolent offenders, those there only because they could not afford bail, or those within days of their end of sentence release would expose them to the virus in the community, yet he lamely mumbles that among his staff who exit and reenter his facilities on a daily First, the nerve, or group of nerve fibers, must be intact; and secondly, the neurotransmitters or those natural substances that allow nerve impulses transmitting from nerve to nerve, and nerve sildenafil discount to end organ, must be present in sufficient quantity. He, no more, has to worry about running out of your medication either. levitra for sale online levitra generika 40mg Speed: Speed is another most important factor considered by every patient. Most of all not just for men but they have to have far generic cialis cipla robertrobb.com more than adequate knowledge of several procedures. basis and could very well be bringing the virus in, first 3 then 7 staff have tested positive for the virus.
Non-existing things cannot increase.
In defending himself against those calling on him to resign, the sheriff quotes certain parts of a recent court decision that he presents as supporting him, but which actually commend those who work under him.
He wrote,
“the judge praised the Bristol County House of Corrections for its Herculean efforts in following the CDC guidelines and places themselves at the frontlines of danger every day, unlike anyone in these vocal political activist groups. Contrary to the misleading ramblings of these groups, one only needs to actually read the words of the judge’s opinion to ascertain the truth,”
And then quotes the court decision,
“The Court acknowledges and commends the significant steps that BCHOC has taken in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at that facility and treat anyone infected.”
He also included the quote,
“The Court previously noted several protective measures that BCHOC has put in place since February, including restricting contact with outsiders, performing temperature screenings, and splitting up detainees during meals and recreation… The court recognizes the commendable efforts of the BCHOC staff, which have been operating in difficult and risky conditions where much is unknown. It is necessary to point this out given that, while the Court and the attorneys have been conferring remotely due to the pandemic, the dedicated professionals at BCHOC continue to perform their duties on site. That is no small thing.”
The sheriff is not the staff.
However, when the judge made his decision, Hodgson’s assessment of the Court decision he refers to was,
“I absolutely disagree with Judge Young’s decision”
while also declaring that the judge had “far exceeded his authority.”
He can’t condemn the decision for criticizing him and then rely on that same document to justify himself, especially when he clearly says that he disagrees with it.
The sheriff defends himself by relying on a court decision he himself sees no value in, but expects others to accept it when he quotes from it in his own defense.
He is both defensive and inconsistent in his claims, his actions, and his self-defense.
Like members of the religious right condemning other people by choosing selected Bible verses to quote in support of their opinion while ignoring any that contradicts them, while he might have found and quoted certain passages in the court decision to present to the public who most likely will never see the full document, he ignores those parts that outnumber those he chose and should also be seen by the public to get a full picture.
He also applies to himself in this case, comments relating to his hard working staff, not him.
What he omits to include are the negative parts of the decision that apply to him and his leadership. The judge made many statements that criticize him for putting his staff and those under his care at imminent risk to their health and wellbeing.
Immediately following the above quoted commendation of his staff, the decision has some things to say about what he must take responsibility for as he is the administrator of his facilities and establishes the practices that his staff is to follow.
Conveniently omitted statements in the decision include:
“Nonetheless there remains critical safety gaps that establish a likelihood of irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary equitable relief. Testing of both Staff and detainees has been minimal, so the real infection rate is a mystery.”
“A related problem is the “insufficient and ad hoc contact
tracing of detainees and BCHOC staff who may have interacted with COVID-19
positive individuals.”
“Of particular concern is the contradictory evidence in the
record regarding monitoring of those Detainees who are especially vulnerable to
COVID-19.”
“Had the Court
stayed its hand little or no progress would have been made at BCHOC towards
accurately determining the virus presence among the Detainees and Staff and
towards effectively separating potential carriers from others…”
“Keeping individuals confined closely together in the presence
of a potentially lethal virus, while neither knowing who is carrying it
nor taking effective measures to find out, likely displays deliberate
indifference to a substantial risk of serious harm. That is what the
evidence shows here.”
Those statements
substantially modify what the sheriff refers to as praise.
Further self-serving inconsistency is illustrated by his claim that
“Contrary to the misleading ramblings of these groups (his critics), one only needs to actually read the words of the judge’s opinion to ascertain the truth”,
while he leaves out the words that the public should read.
Deflection, another of his hero’s tactics.
It would be almost comical if his ego wasn’t putting people’s lives at risk.
Perhaps, if he were to simply do the job he was elected to do and cease trying to be more than what his job is and reduce his attempts at self-promotion, he would not have to defend himself in such a contradictory way, and people who care about those in his facilities would not have so much to question.
Trump’s dilemma
Well, that didn’t go right.
Trump has now made Mar a Lago his official residence, and that makes sense.
Who wouldn’t exchange a high rise apartment in a crowded city prone to cold winters for a residence on a grassy estate on the waterfront ina state that most people go to for the sun and warm winters.
Cape Cod Snow Birds do it every winter when the Cape closes down with nothing to do but wait out the cold weather and for the denial of heat because of power outages.
But Trump’s problem is different than most people who move to Florida.
Mar a Lago was once a private estate and residence, but Trump wanted to convert it to a private money making club. He could charge high membership fees, book weddings and other functions, have a restaurant and bar, and charge daily room fees for guests who chose to stay overnight.
At the time of purchase, however, West Palm Beach was a small community wary of over building and the type of businesses and home expansion that has pretty much wiped out the attraction that Cape Cod had until over building left it with a main land feel with only pockets remaining of the reason people liked to go there but then destroyed by moving there and wanting mainland amenities.
At the time of purchase, Trump had to decide if he was going to have a residence or a private club because, among other things to keep its character, West Palm Beach, in wanting to limit traffic on its waterways restricts docks to private residences that would have a limited number of boats to dock and travel the waters, and excludes clubs that would have many boats and much traffic.
So having to decide at the time between a home and a money-making business, Trump decided on the club and signed an agreement to that affect with the city. Also, because it is a private club and not a residence, he had to agree that members cannot stay longer than seven days at a time three times a year, and Trump’s attorney assured the town council that he would not live at the club.
So Mar a Lago is clearly a club and not a residence, and, although he may own it, Trump cannot live there beyond the limits he agreed to.
It seemed a good idea at the time.
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First, by not being a residence, Mar a Lago cannot be the home address of a registered voter which means that when he voted in the Florida Republican primary and not the New York address of registration ptimary his vote was mail ballot fraud.
He has also applied for a permit to build a dock for the travelling convenience of his club members, but there is that dock restriction.
His neighbors rightfully oppose a club accommodating dock.
Not only does it go against city restriction, it would adversely affect the beauty of the waterfront and their own boating excursions.
The legal question that the dock permit request brought up is whether Trump considers Mar a Lago a club or a residence.
If it is a club, he cannot reside there, so he cannot use it as his voter registration address.
If it is a residence, well, the ramifications would be obvious as residences cannot conduct businesses like restaurants, function room rentals, and room fees. His club would have to close.
When the dock application was submitted it claimed the dock was needed for Trump’s protection when he stayed there as the president on vacation from Washington, but it did not declare it as a residence. After this was pointed out Trump asserted that the Mar a Lago is his “personal residence” and the dock would be for private family use.
That would remove the club status and all that comes with it.
If it is a club, Trump cannot use it for voter registration.
What is he to do?
He can’t have it both ways, and either way goes against what he wants, and he does not handle not getting his way very well.
Take up my cross
In spite of the belief that by wearing masks, avoiding large crowds, staying home, and, well, just being considerate of others by not putting other people in danger either knowingly or unknowingly by passing on the virus we may or may not have or even know we have, most of the people who have been gathering to protest at various state capitals to protest these actions have been carrying certain objects in common—long guns, Confederate flags, Trump signs, and Christian symbols.
You hear a lot about God when people at these events are interviewed. Some have even claimed since they have God with them, they do not need to worry.
Maybe not worry about themselves, but what about their neighbor?
These people demand certain amenities, many not necessary, with most calling for people other than themselves to do what pleases them.
Opening bars, restaurants, hair and nail salons, bowling alleys and stores where they can get more things means someone has to be there to run the establishment and wait on them, and that means other people have to endanger themselves and are usually people who work for low wages.
Jesus said,
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it”.
He also gave us the Beatitudes and other teachings that tell us to be kind to others and sacrifice our wants for others’ needs.
Something that goes ignored in the demands to make people help us entertain ourselves at their expense and make some of us beautiful.
Nowadays, it seems, giving up selfish wants and desires is persecution in the minds of some.
To counter this persecution, some churches demand to be allowed to open, or defy the refusal to allow them to, not caring that they may be spreading the virus among themselves and not caring that they may also bring the virus from their churches into the wider community that has no say in the matter.
They want things their way or they will cry persecution. At the same time they deny anyone else having things their way.
Complaining about not being able to have Holy Week services, many Christian leaders harrumphed their belief that liberals, those persecutors of Christians would say nothing about Muslims closing mosques for Ramadan or Jews their synagogues for Passover, yet remained eerily silent when, with little fanfare and no protests, mosques and Synagogues were closed.
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Had there been outrage, she certainly would have known about that.
While condemning those who take a knee at football games because they are anti-American, they stand in front of statehouses threatening the legislators inside while carrying the flag of those who fought against the United States and claiming they are true patriots.
But that’s okay,
The rights of the others do not count, only theirs do because they have God on their side.
A Black man is killed while jogging and all known facts seem to point at it not being justified. But, the killers are good Christian men so anything negative about the victim is fair game no matter how irrelevant.
Throw “In Jesus’s name” into any defense and it’s bullet proof.
They claim that Trump is sent by God to rule over us, and since the Bible says,
“All of you must obey those who rule over you. There are no authorities except the ones God has chosen. Those who now rule have been chosen by God. So whoever opposes the authorities opposes leaders whom God has appointed.”
And so they march against those elected, and, therefore, God-chosen governors who are doing what science and experts say is best to help safeguard all people, not just those who voted for them because, well, Jesus and U.S.A.
They chant that refusing to allow the haircut, the nail filing, and bowling is a denial of the rights fought for by those in the armed services in a number of wars and then threaten the very democratic process they claim was won for them and protected for them by those others.
They disrupt lawfully assembled legislatures from functioning and threaten those members of them who try to meet in spite of the vocal minorities particular wishes.
And you know that, even as they deny others their rights and label them just a vocal minority who is trying to push their agenda on everyone else, the see no contradiction in their doing just that themselves.
But that would take reflection.
Just as it takes reflection to assess whether or not you are actually following the teaching of He whom they claim they follow.
But that could be work and a little to revealing.
By their fruits you shall know them.