Hey everyone, I hope all is well with all of you today! As you see, I have written a new snippets article for all of you to read, but I must note that most topics for this snippets article will be politics. There will be other topics that have nothing to do with politics; if you are tired of reading about politics, then please look in the topics list below and select whichever you would like to read so that it would take you to them instead of reading through them before getting to the topic that you would like to read. I am looking forward to hearing from you if you want to discuss these topics by leaving a comment or tagging me on social media to engage in.
1-22-2021 Snippets
Here is the list of the topics for this snippets article to know what it will be about in this snippets article. You can click to open the topics list to pick which topic that you would be interested in reading so you can go to that topic instead of reading the entire snippets article to save your time, or if you are not busy and have some free time, then you can ignore this to read the entire snippets article!
Having An Account On Social Media Is A Privilege
I see that many people have been complaining that social media is censoring them or breaking the first amendment of the United States constitution by either removing their posts, limiting their posts, suspending their accounts for a limited time, or outright banning them indefinitely. Many people do not realize that when they register an account with social media, they legally agree with their terms of service (TOS), which many people ignore or would not take the time to read them. Having an account with social media is a privilege; yes, you hear that right, signing up for an account with social media is a privilege. They can take that away at any time they please because when you sign up for an account with them, you agree with their terms of service, which is legally binding between you both. This is why most social media signups/registration page would have that checkbox where it says that you agree to their policy/TOS (terms of service) before you would be able to register an account. If you did not put a check in that checkbox to agree with their policy/TOS (Terms of Service), then they would not let you get by their sign-up/registration process until you check that box. It is no different than someone is giving you permission to enter their home by opening the door and greet you to welcome in which you are acknowledging that by entering their property that it is a privilege that is being given to you to enter their premise and if you disobey that they would be kicking you off their premise in a nice way or by force with calling the police which would have you arrested for refusing to obey that privilege they given you in the first place of being at their premise. That is the same concept with social media and as well as many other websites. The constitution is greatly limited to the internet overall; the constitution does not give you the right to say whatever or do whatever you want on their social media, and that the freedom of speech or the right to assemble is only applied to the public or anywhere that belongs to no one or belongs to the governments (public).
Any website you visit automatically says that you agree to their terms of service or policy that they have set up. Yes, this includes visiting a news website or blogs if they have them set up. If you open a website looking at them, you have just agreed to follow their terms of service or their policy, and that if they find out that you do not follow them, they can ban your internet IP address in their system where you cannot access to their website again. Every time you visit their website of any, it registers your internet IP address in their system so that their system (server or a man-built software) track what you do while you are surfing their website to make sure that you don’t do anything that would break their terms of service or policy. The idea of that is ancient, pretty much ever since the booming of the internet, which was in the late 1990s. Think of it as your internet IP address is your signature that has been automatically signed as you visit their website within’ the first second you visit them. My point here is that your rights within’ the United States constitution or any other country’s constitution do not apply to any websites you visit because they are a privilege given to you, which can easily be taken from you legally. Again, think of this no different from visiting someone’s house but on the internet as all websites belong to individuals or companies. This is why any time you uncheck that agreement on the social media sign-up/registration page, you cannot get through unless you check that box saying that you agree to their terms of service or their policy. By doing so, it will be assumed that you signed them legally.
I share that with you because I have been seeing some people complaining about being censored on social media such as Facebook or Twitter or the fact that they suspended Donald Trump along with many other users. They checked that box before having an account; if they violated that, then their privileges would be taken away, and that would be up to the people who control these social media to do what they want with them legally, such as banning, suspending, or limiting for a period of time or indefinitely with or with no answer.
If any of you wonder what you agreed with on Facebook or Twitter when you signed up a long time ago, you should have read it at the sign-up/registration page! But here it is: Click here for Facebook TOS or click here for Twitter TOS. For others, they often can be found at the bottom of a website or sometimes in their navigation menu, such as at the top of the website. On Facebook, you can find it at the bottom on the left side saying “terms,” and on Twitter, you can find it at the bottom on the right side under “who to follow,” said Terms of Service.
Domestic Terrorists Invaded U.S. Capitol
Domestic terrorists invaded the United States’ capitol, a sacred place of democracy in the United States of America and the place that keeps the country going. It was an insurrection. It was shocking and heartbreaking for me to watch when the United States’ outgoing president’s supporters have invaded the United States’ capitol. These people have a few names; one of them is proud boys, recognized as a hate group and domestic terrorists who thrive on hate, especially against BIPOC (black, ingenious, people of colors). These people swarmed the United States capitol intending to interfere with the democracy in the United States, one of the oldest. No, you cannot deny that they did not do that because they did so, as many videos show they did. They will be recorded as one of the darkest moment in the history of the United States of American in America’s history, and that is not something for us to be proud of because that it is going to be in the history, the people in several ahead of our generations will think fools of us. Some people said that it is no different from the black lives matter movement or others are plainly wrong. It is a huge difference; the black lives matter movement is a movement group of the black community who were frustrated with the law enforcement brutality against them for several decades and protested for justice. What about riots and looting? No, it was a small group who claimed to be part of the black lives matter movement, and the black lives matter often condemned them, saying that it was not them. In fact, a few videos and images are showing that a secret police officer was breaking a window at the Auto Advance store, which black lives matter confronted him about that but that person who broke the window started running off because he was caught. But fine, let’s say that the black lives matter movement group did it is still a big difference. They rioted and looted business while white supremacists groups like proud boys or others INVADED the United States’ capitol. BIG DIFFERENCE, business, and the United States capitol. White supremacists and Trump supporters were trying to overthrow the United States of America government but thankfully failed. You cannot compare them because it is wholly different, especially you have a group who invaded America’s capitol and tried to overthrow the United States government. In contrast, the others protested for justice against law enforcement’s brutality. Full stop! What is more even bothersome is that the response between these two was a big difference, we had police officers doing everything that they could to stop the black lives matter movement group protest by shooting them with bean bags, pepper grenades, hitting them with batons, and whatnot to counter these protesters. At the same time, the law enforcement at the United States capitol pretty much gave them a welcome with big open arms to the domestic terrorists to come in.
We maybe expect the invasion of a country’s capitol, the attempts to overthrow the country’s government in a third country like Syria, Libya, Chile, Turkey, Thai, Madagascar, Honduras, Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, or others. But in one of the richest and first-class countries like the United States of America? No, but the insurrection happened on January 6th, 2021. There will be a lot of things that the outgoing United States of America President Donald Trump will be known as, and one of them is going to be a failed coup d’état attempt because he incited his supporters to violence and to overthrow the government throughout his first term of four years including telling his supporters to “liberate” a few states such as Virginia, Michigan, and Minnesota. Don’t even get me to start with the first year of his presidency. He said that the white supremacists’ group is “fine people” after killing a woman named Heather Heyer in the Unite The Right protest in Charlottesville, Virginia. What had happened on January 6th, 2021, is horrific, and it is something that everyone should condemn because no matter what your ideology or political party affiliation is – it’s wrong! It is the home to the United States’s democracy, and not condemning shows that it was acceptable for invaders to attack America’s democracy, which elected you in the first place whether you are a republican or a democrat. I am glad that at least a few republican congresspeople condemned the invaders who attacked the United States capitol and tried to overthrow the government, such as Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska or Mitt Romney of Utah.
The 9/11 attack was one of the darkest moments in the United States of America’s history. Now that the United States capitol attack by Trump supporters will be added to the list as one of the two darkest moments in the United States of America history. I will look forward to history teachers teach their students about one of these darkest moments in the United States. These students will look at these invaders as America’s domestic terrorists as Iraq or Syria would with their domestic terrorists – ISIS/ISIL. It doesn’t matter if you are a Republican or a Democrat or an independent. It will forever be in America’s history, just as ISIS/ISIL for Iraq or Syria.
The Enablers Of Chaos And Harmful To Democracy
Ever since the few remaining days in Donald Trump’s presidency, some people decided to distance themselves from Trump and try to do no longer anything that a Trump supporter would usually do. There are some, including some Republicans who are officials of the United States government, whether it be a former, the incumbent (current), outgoing, and new elects have decided to distance themselves from their political party outgoing president. For whatever reasons, they did so, mostly when we all witnessed the invasion of the United States capitol and or it is because that their president no longer weld any power – shame on them! The other day I read a tweet stating that there are close to five thousand people in Arizona who switched from the republican party. In contrast, 900 from the democratic party and close to one thousand and a half on the day that the United States capitol was attacked. When I saw that, my thought was that they are cowards even that they have switched from the republican party or distanced themselves from Donald Trump. Where were they four years ago when the majority of Americans needed them to do that? They allowed Donald Trump to do everything it can to weak or destroy democracy, they allowed Donald Trump to sign several executive orders that have harmed the people in minority communities, they allowed Donald Trump to do everything to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which is a law that takes care of the people who struggle financially on day to day basis, they allowed Donald Trump to divide the Americans, they allowed Donald Trump to be a racist, they allowed Donald Trump to get away with crimes when he was impeached. They allowed Donald Trump to incite the attack on the United States capitol. So, republicans and trump supporters, no, you let all kinds of awful things happened through your president. You don’t get to escape from being accountable because you enabled your president to do all of these dreadful things to several people in minority communities. You are enablers, you helped the chaos that Donald Trump sowed, and you enabled the harms to the democracy by allowing your outgoing Donald Trump to weak democracy by spewing thousands of lies about fraud election just when you know it wasn’t because all of the securities in the election along with how you created election runs. Including the dominions machine used in the election, you republicans were the ones who recommended them and purchased them for the election.
You enabled everything that harms the life of people from the minority communities; there is a very long list that you allowed happening that harms the citizens from the minority communities such as BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of colors), disabled people, Deaf people, senior citizens, LGBTQIA, and others. You know the tax reform bill done by Donald Trump takes more from these people while at the same time giving benefits to the wealthy people. You know Donald Trump mocks us, the people from minority communities, you know Donald Trump degrade many of us and more. Still, you continued to enable him to keep doing that even after winning the election in 2016. Ever since the day when these people who supported Donald Trump happened to be the domestic terrorists who invaded the United States capitol, some of you quickly distanced yourselves from him, or some of you condemned them. Okay, but too late, where were you when we needed all of you to do that in his first year when he said that the white supremacists group who killed a woman named Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Virginia were very fine people? Where were you when Donald Trump have these police officers doing harmful things to the black lives matter group when they were peacefully protested for justice? Again, I could go on as I said there is a long list, but you enabled them – you are the enablers of the chaos and harms to democracy!
What is even worse that you cheered for many Republican senators, and now that some of them decided to face the truth that Joe Biden did indeed won the election fair and square, you suddenly call them traitors – saying that they betray you all and Trump? Honey, Trump and his people have betrayed the Americans for four years. Even though they decided to distance themselves, they still enabled Trump to create that chaos in America and weaken the very democracy they work for. You all were cheering for them for four years, so don’t stop cheering them anymore just because they betrayed Trump and are called traitors for it – you enabled them by supporting them since day one.
Now that we finally have a president and vice president coming in who does not do any of those. You all have the chance to prove to us that all of you are not enablers by doing the right thing by making sure that it does not happen again, such as electing a president who would say awful things about the citizens, who would try to weaken the democracy and who have the goal to divide because it is not what America is all about as it is the very opposite! The only thing that you all can do now is learn what you all enabled in the first place and change them for the better, but sadly I doubt that will ever happen.
Political Polarization Causes Division
Politics have become polarized so severely that it divides people because of two different political parties, such as democratic and republican. Ever since Trump became United States president in 2016, it gets so ugly to the point where everyone would have the audacity to unfriend their friends or their family members on social media just because they don’t like or disagree with that president. Suppose anyone finds out that they do not support Donald Trump. In that case, they will try to argue with them, but that was not the problem; the problem was that every time they did argue, they would often revert to insulting them personally because they could not come up with anything factual to back their arguments which that often happens. I went through that; I have a few family members who unfriended me on social media because I disagree with most of the things that Donald Trump did and when they were cornered with no facts after they were repeatedly asked for, they unfriended me then blocked me right away while we were in the middle of a conversation. Even there was one woman who I had on my friends’ list for a few years ago, that woman was a sweet lady, but after Donald Trump becoming the president, she would start disagreeing with my disagreements with Donald Trump so I kindly asked her to be civil where I would be willing to listen to her reasons why she like him and then I was hoping that she would return the favor by listening to why I dislike Donald Trump – when it was for her to listen to my reasons as I did for hers I was immediately put on a block list. She wasn’t the only one, in fact, almost every time I would give the supporters of Trump a listen, and I actually would push myself out as a person who is aligned with Democratic beliefs so that I could make it comfortable for them and then when that person has said everything that person wanted to so I decided while still ignoring the fact that I am more aligned to democrat beliefs I started sharing my opinions why I don’t agree with Donald Trump I am immediately blocked. Rarely there would be finally someone who gives me the time to share my reasons why I can’t entirely agree with Donald Trump, by asking them for facts to back them up if they said that Trump did do that or whatnot (not their opinions but what they said that Trump did or did not do that) they immediately revert to insults my looks, my disability or others.
Chill out! But that is one of many examples of the polarization in politics thanks to Donald Trump. During Barack Obama’s terms, George W. Bush terms, Bill Clinton terms, George H. W. Bush terms, and others I do not recall that ever happens to where people would revert to insulting others when they were asked for the sources so that they can read about them or when they disagree with one of these presidents that they like. They never blocked anyone on Myspace back in the old days when Myspace was the Facebook that it is today. It happened when Donald Trump became president, and that was the evidence that it caused the polarization in politics, especially between these two political parties. Social media do have its parts in causing that, obviously, but they are in control of these social media; therefore, this is on them and not social media. Yes, during Barack Obama, it was the starting point of the political polarization, and I will not deny that. However, back then, the people could still tolerate each other even though they would share their opinions without becoming a baby with tantrums. People would see me as a moderate democrat and respect my views and still want to have a BBQ out with me. With that division caused by Donald Trump, social media do a great job at polarizing politics because everyone now has access to news that spew misinformation like Fox News or QAnon. If it wasn’t for these social media, then maybe that the politics would not be so polarized to the point where it would cause us to be divided. I can’t believe that they allowed Donald Trump to be the reason to divide themselves from others just because they disagree with what Donald Trump did. It’s not only that, but it is also with republicans as before they were more tolerable and still be able to hang around with, but now it is hard to do so because whenever a person who is democrat try to hang out with that person who is a republican would insult them the first thing as the conversation starter just because they don’t like how Donald Trump do to the minority communities.
We need to cool down, stop reverting to insulting them when there are no facts to back us, and if there is nothing that would back up what we say, then it is always ok for us to admit that there is nothing that would back up what we said. If I said something, asked for the source to back up what I said, and then I see that there is nothing that would back up what I said, then I would admit that I thought wrong. Accepting is always right! It was that case with everyone back then, and it should still be today for everyone. Allowing division due to political disagreement is never a good thing because it is a silly thing to do, mainly because one person is a republican and that other person is a democrat. Politics should not be something that we should be talking about every day. It should not be a conversation starter every time as there is always something else to talk about. There is still something that we can agree with that has nothing to do with politics. Politics is so polarized because we allowed it to be, and even worse, we will enable it to divide us. We shouldn’t have allowed it in the first place when Donald Trump became the president back in 2016. I mean, you ever thought that you would lose a friend or having a family member blocking you just because that person like Donald Trump and you don’t? If you do, my point is to push yourself out of that and think you would realize that it is silly.
Democrats and Republicans politicians usually compromise, which happened often, but since Donald Trump became the president, Republicans refused to work with Democrats. When Democrats had the senate and the white house back then, they always work with republicans to compromise to pass the laws with both sides’ liking. An excellent example of a recent law that was overridden Trump’s veto on the defense funding where both democrats and republicans worked together to override Trump’s veto. That is one example, but unfortunately, it’s a rare one during Donald Trump’s term. Nonetheless, I think that it is time that we should stop bickering with each other just because we both are democrats and republicans. We are better than that. If not, we will make politics even more polarized to the point where – that point, I do not want to guess! Enough, this is the perfect opportunity to heal ourselves and look at each other to apologize for what they did with choosing Donald Trump over their friends or family members. We are better than that and so let’s be!
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Has Been Sworn In
As I am writing this, Joe Biden has been sworn in to be the president, and Kamala Harris has been sworn in to be the vice president of the United States of America. It is a lovely change to see because we have been seeing evil and chaos for four years, which I am sure many people get tired of seeing. I know I am; I think that this year I will finally have some nights sleep without worrying about what will happen to my country tomorrow and as well what would happen to myself or my family if Donald Trump did any executive orders signing or signing bills that would impact any of us. Of course, this does not mean that all of these four years for Joe Biden’s first term will not be any impactful because it could be as we have to remember that half of Biden’s term we will have another election for the house and the senate to keep in control or losing one or both then this would pretty much make things difficult for Joe Biden to accomplish anything for the rest of his first term. Nonetheless, Democrats have all of the branches except for the supreme court in control. However, the senate is very narrow, and all it would take one democrat to take the Republicans’ side to shoot down anything that Joe Biden would want to pass. As for Kamala Harris became the first female to be the vice president of the United States of America, I say finally that it is about time, but it should have already happened a few decades ago, and we almost had a first female for president in 2016 but lost due to electoral colleges. I am hoping that where Kamala Harris to be the first woman for vice president that will at least open up many of people’s minds about allowing a woman to be the president either after Joe Biden’s term or so but very soon instead of several more decades because that isn’t right as we Americans are all about diversity.
Joe Biden’s inauguration speech was beautiful. So was his inauguration, especially when Amanda Gorman shared a poem that was one of the most powerful poems we have ever heard of in a president’s inauguration. Joe Biden’s speech was all about Americans, us the people, instead of himself like Donald Trump did in his speech about winning the election and whatnot. I am looking forward to what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will do for this country, but it will be a difficult path for them, especially when dealing with the division. When Joe Biden’s presidential limo came upon the Pennsylvania ave, I admit that I had a feeling that he would not get out of the vehicle and do the walk like many other presidents did because thanks to the violent Trump supporters has shown in the past four years. But I then should have known that it would not scare Joe Biden that easily, especially all of the tough things that he had endured all of his life losing his family, went through a couple of major surgeries, I believe, and ran for president third time. It was good to see him getting out of the president’s limo and walk down that Pennsylvania ave to the white house just as many other presidents did because symbols mean a lot to Joe Biden.
Congratulations, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris! I wish both of them nothing but the best and looking forward to being a proud American once again finally.
What Is The Update On Felix Garcia?
I doubt that many of you hearing people will know who I am talking about, and I am sure that many of you in the Deaf community know who I am talking about. I have been trying to get in touch with Felix Garcia’s people to get an update on his status as he is still imprisoned due to a charge that he did not do. The last update I had was that the conviction review unit was reviewing him to determine if that false charge against Felix Garcia would be dismissed so that Felix Garcia could be released from the prison but denied his application for a review. That it was not over, that they would continue to work on Felix Garcia’s case in the summer and that summer has been long gone as we are now in the middle of winter, but no one has made any update or news about them, so I assume that there was nothing that they could do due to COVID-19. While we were waiting for whatever update they would give, they encouraged us to send a letter to his parole officers in Florida. This is the latest update I am aware of:
So if you know any update on Felix Garcia, please contact me or find me on social media and let me know because I would love to know what is happening with Felix Garcia. I would appreciate it! For any of you hearing who don’t know anything about Felix Garcia but would like to know about Felix Garcia and what has happened, I encourage you to read this article by Mother Jones. Felix Garcia is a Deaf man who has been in prison for a few decades because he was framed by his brother, who later admitted that he did the crime and not Felix Garcia. However, still, they continue keeping Felix Garcia imprisoned.
The Silent Treatment – Mother Jones written by James Ridgeway.
Now That Biden And Harris Sworn In Will I Look Other Way?
Now that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been sworn in, now we are under their administration, and it is what I am rooted for. Does that mean that I will move my focus away from them? Absolutely not. My focus will always be on the government, just as I had on Trump, especially regarding disability-related issues and equal accessibility, which I advocate for the most. I was one of the people who pressured the Trump/Pence administration to give in and provide the closed captions for the Deaf Americans back in 2017 when Trump/Pence were sworn in. I have sent them a public letter which you can read it here: President Trump and White House; Captions.
It does not matter what political party the president is; the same goes for the congress, mayor, councils, and others. I will always advocate for them to provide an American Sign Language interpreter or closed captions if they are the least they would go for. As soon as a Democrat candidate won the executive judge in Pike County, Ky named Ray Jones II became the executive judge, I took action by sending e-mail and wrote a private message to the courthouse asking them to provide closed captions in all of the videos done by Ray Jones II because at the beginning of his term there were no closed captions or anything so there was no accessibility at all. Starting in February, I believe that suddenly there started providing closed captions at the courthouse where Ray Jones II is often at, and many others, whenever Ray Jones II gives a press, it has closed captions. Feel free to ask him yourself, and I am sure that he will point out that. But yes, as for Trump’s administration, I actually had to pressure him to do so for a very long time as they were refusing to do so, and finally, they started providing closed captions. Still, the problem is that they will not provide closed captions for every video that they made. Only important ones at the white house will have it, but it is not there for Trump’s own videos. In fact, many deaf people have been asking the Trump administration to please provide American Sign Language for his COVID-19 press because it is so important that we are not to be left out because it is also our lives that are in danger, so we must have access to the information about COVID-19, but they refused to do so to the point where it had to take National Association of the Deaf to file a lawsuit against the white house for the first time and won the lawsuit, so Trump had no choice but to start to provide American Sign Language interpreter but only for the COVID-19 press but nothing else.
Since when Joe Biden was projected to be the next president of the United States of America, I hoped they know that it is crucial to provide access to deaf people. In the end, they go further than I’d thought they would. I felt that they at least will provide closed captions for all of their videos. They went further and had an American Sign Language interpreter in PIP (picture in picture), full-blown accessibility for the Deaf community. You can see his President-Elect Office videos; many of these videos have closed captions and American Sign Language interpreter to translate whatever President Biden said or whatever other people in that video says. We didn’t have to pressure Biden/Harris administration to provide one. They already know to do it beforehand. His first COVID-19 press has an American Sign Language interpreter in PIP, which I will share below.
https://www.facebook.com/TheHill/videos/320954302572037
Even they provide for the press! WHAT! No, seriously, they did. Trump only would do for COVID-19 press later, but because they were sued but still none for Trump/Pence’s administration press. It should not take a lawsuit to get them to do so, but they had to because they stubbornly refused. But for Biden/Harris, there sure is! Look below:
Awesome. The big difference between Trump/Pence administration and Biden/Harris administration on accessibility. Thanks, Joe Biden and the staff over at the white house to make sure they are accessible to the Deaf community. It is important that Deaf people also have access to any information equally via audio! I am aware that other videos do not have it, which is unfortunate but note that most of these videos are from news and not from the white house or Biden/Harris administration themselves. I guess that means my time can be wasted somewhere else instead of on the white house like I did when I advocated for closed captions under Trump/Pence administration.
Winter 2020-2021
Some of you know that I am a huge fan of winter, we are now in the middle of winter, and there is at least about a couple of months or so before the winter leaves us, which will suck for me. For several years here in eastern Kentucky, we barely get any snow, but if we do, it would be flaky snow that only lasts for a couple of hours before disappearing. This year is a bit different; for the first time, I recall we had a white Christmas here and that it was about the time that we did because I always said that Christmas is not a Christmas without the snow. We have seen just a few more snow days than we did a few years in the past for half of the winter so far but only two, I believe so far, actually stuck to the ground for the entire day. Both of these two times, the snows were thick and came at full speed as it should be, so it was a pleasing sight for me. I hope that we will see a few of them more the winter leaves us. I would love to experience another blizzard here, but as long as it happens a good week or so before one has doctor appointments, we would not be stuck here and not making it to the doctor appointments. So, I welcome any blizzard on the days except on that week of an important appointment for something, whether it be a doctor or an important meeting. Have you seen any snow in your areas that make you happy yet? If any one of you in the northern states often receives large snow and blizzards, I am jealous!
Asking For Donation
Unlike many news and other blogs that would charge you for membership before you could access their articles or other materials, I am only asking for a donation instead of doing that. Even if you do not want to donate, you will still have access to all materials such as articles, reviews, videos, images, polls, or whatever else that JoshiesWorld has. To donate is only optional, and the amount to donate is entirely up to you. Running websites is not cheap, and JoshiesWorld is the largest out of all websites that I run. Also, I would like to try to come up with some funding for JoshiesWorld so that I can use it to purchase something to review for all of you to read to determine if these are the things you still want to buy or not. JoshiesWorld has an account with a few services you can use to donate, such as PayPal, Square, and Venmo. To donate, please click here to go to the donate page and do so, which would be much appreciated! If you prefer to use a different service or choose to mail a check or cash, click here to contact me and let me know to provide you an address for you to donate. If you donate, thank you so much, and if you do not want to, I still thank you for your time reading JoshiesWorld!
Endgame For JoshiesWorld
Not many know this, probably not anyone know about this because the only two people who know about this are my mother and me. I do have an endgame, for when I passed away, there is an article I have been working on and will continue for several years until that day comes. No, they are not on here, but they do have a connection to here so that if anything happens to me, then the ongoing article I have been working on will be published on here via somewhere secured. I call it my going-out-with-a-bang. No, I will not share or hint at what I have been writing about in that article because that would defeat the meaning of going out with a bang. But I can say that it will expose many things that no one will like; yes, I would likely have repercussions, but I would not be here for anyone to try to do so. Now you know what to look for whenever I have passed away, and when I do, there is a timer set that I will not share either, but it is sometimes less than a year after my passing. Anyway, I talk about this because I wonder if any of you journalists or bloggers are doing the same? After thinking about that, it gets me curious if any of you I have a connection with, especially as journalists or bloggers, is doing the same. If you are, please let me know, and are you nervous about the impacts you would inflict? I do someway, especially against my family or friends, because it will not be good. I wonder how you will protect them from that after it happens because you would not be here to defend them? Leave a comment below, let me know, or find me on social media to let me know!
Bad News For COVID-19 Vaccines
There is unfortunately bad news about the vaccines for COVID-19, such as PFIZER and Moderna. We now have a new strain of COVID-19 that actually curbs them, meaning that these vaccines that we have out are nearly ineffective against the new COVID-19 strain discovered in Africa, Brazil, and the United Kingdom so far. So far, there are none reported in the United States, but again bad news is that the new COVID-19 strain is way more transmission and spreads quicker than the COVID-19 that we have been protecting ourselves from. There are already a few strains; really, they call it variants, which is the correct word for it, but this was just discovered in United Kingdom, Africa, and Brazil is nearly ineffective against the vaccines that we have going around. It is good that Joe Biden wrote an executive order stating that anyone who comes from outside of the country must be quarantined. Still, we know that we have some people who have personal airplanes or fly over privately maybe could come through here without being detected as you would with commercial flights. I hope that these people who have private planes or paid someone who has a private plane follow Joe Biden’s executive order about quarantining themselves after making land in the United States. Private and personal owned planes often land on the private or owned lands with no rules or anything that would stop them from coming through to be forced quarantined as the people would through commercial passenger flights. You know how it goes, someone exposed to COVID-19 in one country then to the next, and it became the pandemic. We got to keep an eye on that and keep up with the news about COVID-19 variants.
Here’s the link that is talking about this; it tells you more than I could, which is something for us to worry about. Just as we were on our way to fighting against COVID-19, then comes the new variants that our weapons (vaccines) cannot effectively stop.
https://theweek.com/speedreads/962339/new-coronavirus-variants-may-cut-vaccine-effectiveness
Pledge Of Allegiance In Sign Language At Biden-Harris Inauguration
Every new president elected in the presidential election has their inauguration a few months after the election. They would be sworn in and symbolize the power’s transferral from the outgoing president to the newly elected president. Not only that, if a president won the election again to be reelected as a president, there would still be an inauguration where that reelected president will have to be sworn in again to continue for the second and final term. Every presidential inauguration they usually would have an event happening at the United States capitol right after they were sworn in, at that inauguration event would usually have some people come out to sing the nation’s anthem, pledge of allegiance, and whatnot, which is expected but a very few will add a poet to read a poem. As you know, on January 20th, 2021, which was just a few days ago, it was Biden-Harris’s inauguration, and the outgoing administration was Trump-Pence. This inauguration of Biden-Harris had something different that surprised many of us Deaf people because we would usually see singers or other people walk up to the podium where the microphone is or grab a microphone, and they would start singing the national anthem then the pledge of allegiance. Why was us Deaf community were surprised? Because for the first time in history, they made it inclusion by bringing in someone to sing the pledge of allegiance at an inauguration (Biden-Harris one), and that was Andrea Hall, who is a captain of South Fulton’s Fire & Rescue Department in Georgia. Andrea Hall is the first black woman promoted to captain in South Fulton’s Fire & Rescue Department. So, when she came up to the podium in a uniform with a hat tilting downward her face and we Deaf people were looking for her singing by looking at the closed captions at the bottom of our screen, but suddenly she put her hand toward her chest saying “I” and then she started singing Pledge of Allegiance in sign language.
After she finished singing Pledge Of Allegiance, my thought immediately said to myself, “did I just witnessed Pledge Of Allegiance in sign language at an inauguration for the first time?!” and I rushed to my mother, telling her that someone had just for the first time sang Pledge Of Allegiance at an inauguration while still being shocked. I then hurried myself to the internet to see the reaction in the Deaf community, and I have seen many were inspired by it while at the same time feeling the pride in seeing someone who for the first time using our language in an inauguration for the United States president and vice president. So, I decided to research that woman a few minutes after the inauguration to see who she is and saw Andrea Hill, the first black woman promoted to captain in South Fulton’s Fire & Rescue in Georgia. She is known as CODA (Child Of Deaf Adults), which means that she is a child of a parent (one or both) who was Deaf, and Andrea Hill’s late father was Deaf who attended Georgia School For The Deaf.
When she was asked why she did that, she responded:
I really just wanted to pay homage to the deaf and hard of hearing community. The words of the pledge are significant not just for us, but for them as well.
Firefighter’s Sign Language Pledge Of Allegiance Was Homage To Her Late Father | CBS News Written By Adriana Diaz
It’s very intimate.
It’s just like if I spoke another language, like Spanish or French, when you have a native language that you speak. It’s like comfort food, you know. It’s like mashed potatoes and gravy.
I think that Andrea Hill did a fantastic job; she only told a very few people that she was planning on signing the Pledge Of Allegiance because she said that she wanted it to be a surprise, and that sure did surprise us Deaf community! Also, I want to say thank you, Andrea Hill! Unfortunately, there are a few people who complained that she did not sign them correctly. Many do not realize that there are many different accents and cultures, including Black American Sign Language (BASL). Maybe it was at Biden-Harris instead of the outgoing president they like, which I know would never invite her there. I ask that everyone look past that and recognize that this was a historic moment for the Deaf community. She did a great job and wanted to do it for us Deaf community; as she said, she could easily not do it and use her voice instead, but she did not because she wanted to give us the Deaf community something we can be part of!
The End!
This is the end, at least for the time being! I am always in need of more ideas on topics, so if you think there is a good topic for me to have in the next snippets article, please let me know by leaving a comment below. Thank you for all of your time reading this snippet’s article, and I hope that there is at least one topic here that interests you. If you would like to talk about some of these topics, please leave a comment below or tag me on social media! If you have any tips or an exclusive story that you would be willing to share with JoshiesWorld, please contact me! Please stay safe and see you the next time!
Joshua “Joshie” Sullivan.
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