This is a long read. The footnotes are in depth and should be read alongside the decision itself. It is a statement on why the Black Lives Matter movement exists and should alert every thoughtful human being to a dangerous precedent that was legislated by the Bench. It basically allows law enforcement to violate our Constitutional rights and destroy our personal property with impunity. This affects all of us regardless of race. It is a call for the Supreme Court to strengthen ALL of the Bill of Rights to the level of the Second Amendment.

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Well, yeah...I was off in the woods this weekend and didn't have internet tubes with which to post the Friday toon link. I was thinking about letting it go but they are just too good to miss so here:

With Trump's GOP working their evil deeds Toonists have way too much to work with. Here you go:

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One way or another...

The claim by the "police" is that protesters were assaulting them with lasers.

"When they got me in the garage they said I was assaulting an officer with lasers. I absolutely did not and told them this. They told me they had evidence of me doing so which I knew was a blatant lie," she said.

Morgan also said that federal agents had been brutal with arrested protesters, saying they had been told to face a cement wall while they were searched and handcuffed.

"Repeatedly, we were told to 'face the wall' and then an officer would put his hand on the back of our heads and slam our face into it," she said.

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“Just step back and consider how insane this is,” he added. “The president can’t be bothered to focus on the things that actually work, like testing, contact tracing, isolation or mask-wearing, but if a crazy person posts a video claiming lizard people are making alien vaccines, his response is: ‘That’s interesting!’”

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A nurse has died and a doctor is infected with the coronavirus in Rhea County. The Tennessee Department of Health says this is the first coronavirus death in Rhea County.

The county executive told Channel 3 both worked at the Rhea County Primary Care Center.

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The rest of the toons

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Online learning or attending classes at school. As I read the plan you will be putting your child at risk if you send them to school.

Students will not be required but are encouraged to wear masks in common areas in the school building (hallways, restrooms, etc.) and when social distancing cannot be maintained.

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This is irresponsible!

"The calendar should be flexible."

What they are saying is that schools shouldn't be opened until safety measures and training are in place. I wish they had been more direct but this is a good statement from a large group of teachers, parents, and professionals.

The future of all Knox County is at stake. Failure to rise to the occasion will lead to extensive loss of lives, education loss for tens of thousands of children, and vast loss to the local economy. Now is the time for courageous leadership," the group states in its "open letter...

All students, teachers, and staff should wear face coverings or masks on buses and inside buildings, except in situations expressly approved by the Knox County’s Senior Director and Public Health Officer.

*KCS must provide sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) for staff and students. The schools must provide plentiful cleaning solutions, disinfectant wipes and hand cleaning supplies for classrooms. Neither teachers nor parents should be asked to provide these essential supplies.

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Opening Roane County schools as currently proposed will result in sickened and dead children, teachers, parents, and others. The only question is how many? Interesting that the so called pro-life crowd seems to care little for our children's lives. The CDC's own statistics show a 0.0011 fatality rate for children under 18. That equates to about 4 dead children in Roane County.

In their opening paragraph, the former directors noted that “public health experts face two opponents” when it comes to trying to determine whether schools should reopen or not, and how to safely do so: “COVID-19, but also political leaders and others attempting to undermine the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” they said.

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Both Mexico and New York State want Tennesseans to stay away.

Travelers from viral hotspot states landing at New York airports starting Tuesday must fill out a form that state officials will use to ensure they're abiding by the quarantine advisory, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's newest emergency health order.

Failure to fill out the form, which asks for contact information, before leaving the airport could result in a $2,000 fine and mandatory quarantine. Airlines will provide the forms to passengers prior to or upon disembarking flights to New York. Enforcement teams will be stationed at airports statewide to meet arriving aircraft at gates and request proof of the form's completion, Cuomo said.

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Signaling that bigotry and hate is the new norm for the Republican party, the TN Senate race on the Republican side has devolved into some sort of liars poker game. Gone is any discussion of real issues or pretense of bringing our state together. The social media operatives for the various GOP factions have fired up the slime machines for anybody who attempts to bring facts or reason into the debate.

"Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bill Hagerty has resigned from the board of R.J. O’Brien & Associates over social media posts sent by the futures brokerage firm voicing support for the African American community and Black Lives Matter."

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More Toons at Juanita's place

And read this if you have time. Dr. Larry Brilliant in the Covid-19 pandemic

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More

Opinion: Will Biden Win Tennessee in November?

It's going to either be real close or a blow out for Biden.

In January Mason Dixon polling had Trump up over 20 points against Joe Biden. At the end of May Trump had lost 11 points but still held a 9 point lead. Then the killing of George Floyd by police came to the forefront. Trump's "law and order" head busting, tear gassing, violations of the right to peaceful protest was roundly criticized by most everybody and his "Let them all die" handling of the covid-19 pandemic made the USA a pariah in international travel as hospital ICU's are being overrun with the critically ill victims of Trump's incompetence and...Yes...meanness.

We need to work harder than ever to defeat the fascist who occupies the White House. We were complacent in 2016 while Vladimir Putin gamed our system and put the deeply corrupt Trump and his flying monkeys in the White House even though a strong majority of Americans opposed him. We can't let that happen again! His followers are either gullible and deceived, ignorant, racist or corrupt in their own right. We have to stay in their faces and call them out nicely as possible.

“You look at the polls and think ‘he can’t win’,” tweeted Bill Kristol, who served in two Republican administrations. “But Trump’s path to victory doesn’t depend on persuading Americans. It depends on voter suppression, mass disinformation, foreign interference, and unabashed use of executive branch power to shape events, and perceptions, this fall.”

Read the full article and be worried enough to save our democracy!

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Only this is real.

Dr. Michael Osterholm, a prominent U.S. epidemiologist, said, “I don’t think we’re going to see one, two and three waves — I think we’re just going to see one very, very difficult forest fire of cases.”

Wear your Damned Mask!

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More Toons

From State Representative Gloria Johnson:

It’s 1:30 am and we are still on the house floor waiting for a bill to come over from the senate that most of my colleagues will vote for. It is too broad and will likely make it difficult for those who have been harmed to get justice.

In the dead of night, they’ve stolen reproductive rights and choices from every woman in the state. The House and Senate disagreed on the budget. In order for the Senate/Gov to get what they wanted, the House said they had to take up the heartbeat bill (which they did not plan to do) and also passed a dangerous bill allowing reversal of the morning after pill.

A medical procedure that has not been approved, as they had to stop the trials because it caused women to hemorrhage. Bill Dunn actually said on the floor that it didn’t matter if it was dangerous for the mom, as it saved the fetus.

I don’t mind the late nights, I’m a night owl. What I mind is our reproductive rights being used as a bargaining chip for a budget about tax breaks for Wall Street and taking $70 million from teachers.