Black activist jailed for his Facebook posts speaks out about secret FBI surveillance

Black activist jailed for his Facebook posts speaks out about secret FBI surveillance

"Rakem Balogun thought he was dreaming when armed agents in tactical gear stormed his apartment. Startled awake by a large crash and officers screaming commands, he soon realized his nightmare was real, and he and his 15-year-old son were forced outside of their Dallas home, wearing only underwear. Handcuffed and shaking in the cold wind, Balogun thought a misunderstanding must have led the FBI to his door on 12 December 2017. The father of three said he was shocked to later learn that agents investigating β€œdomestic terrorism” had been monitoring him for years and were arresting him that day in part because of his Facebook posts criticizing police."

May 12, 2018 Morning

Good morning! Happy Saturday. Seems kind of like a regular work day 💼 as I have to go into the office today at least for a while and I wasn’t going to drive in with the tulip festival going on. 🌷 don’t really mind, it’s not a nice day and letting the professionals drive beats fighting for a parking spot. Rain and 46 degrees in Delmar, NY. β˜” Calm wind.The skies will clear around 8 pm.

Today will have showers likely, mainly between 10am and 2pm. Cloudy 💦, with a high of 50 degrees at 4pm. 14 degrees below normal. Southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. A year ago, we had mostly sunny skies with more clouds in the afternoon. The high last year was 70 degrees. The record high of 91 was set in 1881. There was a dusting of snow in 1996.❄

The sun will set at 8:08 pm with dusk around 8:40 pm, which is one minute and 4 seconds later than yesterday. 🌇 At sunset, look for mostly cloudy skies ☁ and 50 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Today will have 14 hours and 32 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 9 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have a chance of showers, mainly before 7pm. Cloudy, then gradually becoming partly cloudy ☁, with a low of 44 degrees at 2am. Two degrees below normal. Calm wind becoming north around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible. In 2017, we had partly cloudy skies with more clouds in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 47 degrees. The record low of 30 occurred back in 2005.

It’s nice how green things are now on the city and the gentle rain will make spring continue progress. 🌾 I’m hoping that it will be nice come Memorial Day Weekend and that I can get out of town. That’s not a definite thing this year. I’ve just been so busy with work.

Tomorrow still looks nice with a quick clearing over night and warmth for Sunday. Depending when I get home from work, I want to get the one inch M6 bolts and lock washers I need for mounting the solar panel to the Yakima racks on my truck.🔩 I’m going to see if I can borrow my dad’s power drill so I can cut the aluminum bar that will help steady it on the racks and then get the wire ran into the solar controller. It will be great when it’s fully installed after all these years.

Last night I got called back to work and ended up staying late. Then on the way home I realized that I had to send an email with a big attachment that I couldn’t do from my phone so I ended up stopping at the library. 📖 The air conditioning unit is being replaced at the library so they have no air conditioning there right now. It looks like they’ve also upgraded their wifi which continues to be somewhat problematic with my Linux kernel driver. 📡 It should be fixed by Memorial Day per their sign but I don’t go there much this time of year, instead preferring to spend my evenings at the park.

There are 6 months until Veterans Day Observed (Monday) 🇺🇸 when the sun will be setting at 4:35 pm with dusk at 5:05 pm (Standard Time). The average high temperature is 32 degrees, with a record high of 61 in 1895.

Well folks, the bus runs quicker on a Saturday so I’m almost to work. Have a great day, stay dry!