Whenever Americans see videos of police brutality against black men and women, the first thing they do is assume they deserved their executionWhat skin color are the bad guys in America’s fantasies of vigilantism? When the proverbial “fellas” get together to drink beers and talk about their newest guns and who they’d take down, what race are the “criminals” in the theater of their minds?When Greg McMichael and his son, Travis, got the call from their neighbor that a “burglar” was running through their Brunswick, Georgia neighborhood that chilly February day, what color man do you think they imagined as they locked, loaded, and embarked on their “mission”?Ahmaud Arbery is dead today because when Americans dream of vigilante justice, black men are the villains of their imaginations.We as a nation are so comfortable with this baseline bigotry that our first assumption whenever we see videos of police brutality against or shootings of black men and women, the first thing we do is assume that the victims must have done something wrong to earn their own public execution.This assumption is both a function of white America having a completely different experience with police officers than black America as well as the hundreds of years of vilifying blackness in media and American culture.I will never forget the biggest and most uproarious applause during the theater debut of the lackluster 2007 vigilante film, Brave One, came when the protagonist Jodi Foster got her first vigilante kills of the movie – two threatening and scary black men. That theater filled with men the same age range as Greg and Travis McMichael erupted as if at that moment, all that they had ever imagined had been fulfilled on the big screen. Needless to say, I left that theater before the credits rolled.Across the country, our political leaders hold these same bigoted beliefs which inevitably lead to policies that directly assume criminality based on skin color.During his tenure as mayor of New York City, billionaire Michael Bloomberg made it explicitly clear why it was that he sent police officers into black and brown communities to “throw them” up against the wall. In his 2015 Aspen Institute speech he stated:“People say, ‘Oh my God, you are arresting kids for marijuana who are all minorities.’ Yes, that’s true. Why? Because we put all the cops in the minority neighborhoods. Yes, that’s true. Why’d we do it? Because that’s where all the crime is. And the way you should get the guns out of the kids’ hands is throw them against the wall and frisk them.”And it is for this reason that I do not distinguish between the violence committed by American citizens acting as vigilantes and the violence committed by so-called officers of the law when, in both cases, the working assumption and driving force behind that violence is the deeply bigoted and firmly American association between blackness and criminality.For Ahmaud, that association not only led to his brutal killing, but it also initially meant his killer not being arrested. It took more than two months for the father and son duo to be arrested. When explaining why they were not charged immediately the district attorney, George Barnhill, immediately stated that the victim, Ahmaud Arbery, was, in fact, the “criminal suspect”.“It appears that [Greg and Travis McMichael’s] intent was to stop and hold this criminal suspect until law enforcement arrived. Under Georgia Law [sic] this is perfectly legal.”Even after viewing the video and with no evidence beyond Ahmaud’s skin color, the top cop in the institution designed to bring equal justice under the law concluded that Ahmaud was a criminal suspect when he was simply a black man taking a jog.What are black Americans to do when justice is delayed or outright denied because of the assignment of innocence to vigilantes and police officers?What are black Americans to do when the assumption of guilt because of our skin color is as American as the guns they use to kill us?What are we to do when in our neighbors’ dreams and fantasies of cop-and-robber, the skin color of the bad guy matches our own?The very first thing we are going to do is defend ourselves as if our lives depend on it because when Americans fantasize about killing, those fantasies become our living nightmares. * Benjamin Dixon is the host of the Benjamin Dixon show.

Extracytoplasmic sugar decoration of glycopolymer components of the bacterial cell wall contributes to their structural diversity. Typically, the molecular mechanism that underpins such a decoration process involves a three-component glycosylation system (TGS) represented by an undecaprenyl-phosphate (Und-P) sugar-activating glycosyltransferase (Und-P GT), a flippase, and a polytopic glycosyltransferase (PolM GT) dedicated to attaching sugar residues to a specific glycopolymer. Here, using bioinformatic analyses, CRISPR-assisted recombineering, structural analysis of cell wall–associated polysaccharides (CWPS) through MALDI-TOF MS and methylation analysis, we report on three such systems in the bacterium Lactococcus lactis. On the basis of sequence similarities, we first identified three gene pairs, csdAB, csdCD, and csdEF, each encoding an Und-P GT and a PolM GT, as potential TGS component candidates. Our experimental results show that csdAB and csdCD are involved in Glc side-chain addition on the CWPS components rhamnan and polysaccharide pellicle (PSP), respectively, whereas csdEF plays a role in galactosylation of lipoteichoic acid (LTA). We also identified a potential flippase encoded in the L. lactis genome (llnz_02975, cflA) and confirmed that it participates in the glycosylation of the three cell wall glycopolymers rhamnan, PSP, and LTA, thus indicating that its function is shared by the three TGSs. Finally, we observed that glucosylation of both rhamnan and PSP can increase resistance to bacteriophage predation and that LTA galactosylation alters L. lactis resistance to bacteriocin.

Immigration is a prominent part of the United States’ DNA, despite concerns about immigrants’ ability to integrate. An examination of recent immigrant inflows shows newcomers to the United States are integrating well, based on language proficiency, socioeconomic attainment, political participation, residential locale, and social interaction indicators.

This final report summarizes and reflects upon the key findings of the Improving EU and U.S. Immigration Systems: Learning from Experience comparative research project undertaken by MPI and the European University Institute through a grant from the European Commission.

For drummer Conroy Gordon, the hardest part of being locked away day after day in the narrow confines of a stranded cruise ship is his inability to tell his two daughters when Daddy will be home. For the past month, he has been battling this...

To say Judith-Miranda Townsend has a special love for children would not even begin to capture the essence of the Westmoreland supermom. Affectionately called ‘Mama Sweetie’ by foster children and members of the Holly Hill community in Darliston,...

This report focuses on the development of children of Black immigrants in the United States, comparing against the outcomes for their peers in native-born and other immigrant families. It also compares these U.S. children to those in the United Kingdom, where there is a large Black immigrant population but a notably different policy context of reception.

This edited volume rigorously assesses the 1996 U.S. welfare reform law, questions whether its immigrant provisions were ever really necessary, and examines its impact on legal immigrants’ ability to integrate into American society.

The number of U.S. residents deemed Limited English Proficient (LEP) has increased substantially in recent decades, consistent with the growth of the U.S. foreign-born population. This brief offers analysis on the number, share, growth, and linguistic diversity of LEP individuals in the United States from 1990 to 2010 at the national, state, and metropolitan-area levels.

I say - Lock everything down, as we are, and keep everything locked down for years  This way, what every these people are complaining about will be long gone 

Examples being: XTro (UK), Oldboy (S.Korea), Girl With a Dragon Tattoo (Sweden), Predestination (Australia) ... something like these

....GOING TO DO WHEN THEY BELIEVE THEY APPLY TO THEM BUT THEY HAVEN'T BEEN HOLY SPIRIT BAPTIZED? TODAY'S CHRISTIANS HAVEN'T BEEN "QUICKENED BACK TO LIFE" (EPHESIANS 2:1)  BY HIS "POWER THAT CAME UPON THEM" (ACTS 1:8) WITH HOLY SPIRIT BAPTISM (ACTS 1:5) AS THEY WERE "BORN AGAIN OF THE SPIRIT" (JOHN 3:5-7) FROM THEIR "DEAD SPIRITS" (ROMANS 5:12-14) AND WERE "RESURRECTED" (I COR 15) FROM THEIR GRAVES" (EZEKIEL 37:12-14). WHAT ARE THESE "DEAD SPIRITS" GOING TO DO? 

Part of a series exploring recommendations likely to be addressed by the new National Integration Plan, this webinar, with perspectives from MPI, the WE Global Network, and Lutheran Immigrant and Refugee Services, examines the role of economic development initiatives and refugee resettlement programs/infrastructure in immigrant integration. 

This webinar, with perspectives from MPI, the WE Global Network, and Lutheran Immigrant and Refugee Service, examines the role of economic development initiatives and refugee resettlement programs/infrastructure in immigrant integration.

The Halifax & Region Military Family Resource Centre assembled boxes filled with goodies and keepsakes from Nova Scotia this week to send to each crew member. The gesture comes after six crew members were killed in a helicopter crash in late April.

On the last day of its week-long promotion, Super Lube Auto Centre's McPhillips Street location had dozens of health-care workers lining the streets in their vehicles as they waited for an oil change on the house.

For only the second time in its near 80-year history, the American Geriatrics Society will award one of its highest honors typically reserved for individuals to West Health, a family of nonprofit organizations dedicated to lowering healthcare costs to enable older adults to successfully age in place.

There has been a surge in demand for spots in most regions as businesses reopen and parents go back to work. Daycare operators need to figure out how to shuffle around the children of essential workers. 

New Brunswick's chief medical officer of health, said the province will introduce a new policy that's independent of the phase two recovery stage announced Friday.

Filmfare recommends: Bollywood films revolving around journalism  Filmfare

On Mother’s Day, be inspired by these mother-daughter duos who are going places  YourStory

Mother's Day Special: Experts reveal what kids can do to take care of their moms and their health  PINKVILLA

Taina Moisander, a 26-year-old student from Finland shares some of the lessons she learnt while serving with a Transform team in Sicily, Italy.

The AIDS Hope team encourages children in their afterschool program in Mamelodi to share the gospel with the community.

OM Philippines partners with the local church to provide water and food in areas hit by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake on 15 October.

OM responded to the needs of people affected by Typhoon Vinta, relying on military accompaniment to reach the location and deliver aid.

OM in Greece with other organizations and locals are trying to do something to help the gypsies.

Relationships form and opportunities to share Christ follow as OM workers minister to those seeking refuge in Athens and beyond.

Bloody feet. Blisters. That wasn’t the expectation of eager Transform participants who left the conference in Rome to join OM Spain on a unique journey.

Since 2005, Rachel Chua (22) has been involved in TeenStreet Malaysia and she attended OCZ for the 2nd time this year. Her passion is contagious.

“…to many host ministries, short-term outreaches can be a blessing or a curse,” shares OMer Ivy. “Here I would like to share some tips that help me feel less like a tour guide and more like I’m helping facilitate an exposure trip for the Kingdom.”

Short-term workers are inspired to share the good news after experiencing opportunities on outreach in Turkey.

Sixty teenagers participate in a Teens in Mission outreach over the holiday season to grow in relationship with God and share about Him with others.

The OM Near East Field church planting school prepares students to cross cultural and religious boundaries.

Eighty Arab believers attend training to learn how to share the Bible with their Muslim neighbours.

THE Treasury has bombarded us all week with facts, figures and forecasts making the case for the UK to remain in the European Union. Its big report, on Monday, warned Brexit would tip the country into a year-long recession, resulting in up to 820,000 job losses within two years.

RUTH Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader, will take on Boris Johnson in the BBC's final EU debate, grandly entitled The Great Debate, which will be broadcast at 8pm tonight.

It didn't take long for the list of warnings about Brexit to start coming true.

By Deborah Anderson

Grief

What if the lockdown was lifted and nobody came? A lot of people seem quite happy with life under Covid, especially educated middle-class people on social media who are happily swapping Spotify playlists and recipes for sourdough bread.

One size fits all? How wrong you are

Source: boxden.com - Sunday, May 10, 2020
via Remember when KD had Lebron scared to fight? @ sports