"The Global Consciousness Project, also known as the EGG Project, is an international multidisciplinary collaboration of scientists, engineers, artists and others continuously collecting data from a global network of physical random number generators located in 65 host sites worldwide. The archive contains over 10 years of random data in parallel sequences of synchronized 200-bit trials every second."
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, April 23, 2021
Houston Methodist Hospital, a not-for-profit 8-hospital system – 4 of which are ANCC Nursing Magnet status accredited – and academic medical center, with over 2502 beds in the Houston, Texas metro area, has publicly announced that they will fire any employee who refuses to get a COVID-19 vaccination.
The Houston Press and Houston Chronicle reported today, Thursday, 22 April 2021, that Bob Nevens, the hospital chain’s Director of Corporate Risk and Insurance, and Jennifer Bridges, a Houston Methodist Registered Nurse at the system’s Baytown facility, are on schedule to be fired soon if they don’t comply by obtaining a COVID-19 vaccine within the hospital system’s deadline of June 7, 2021.
Dr. Marc L. Boom, MD, the hospital system’s CEO, had the idea to require all employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to keep their jobs, and offered $500 incentive bonuses to any employee who demonstrated proof of vaccination. Houston Methodist was the first hospital system nationally to make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for employees.
Houston Methodist Hospital
And to this point, a clear majority – 84% – of the hospital system’s 26,000 employees have received at least 1 COVID-19 vaccine dose as of Tuesday this week, according to Houston Methodist’s Director of Public Relations Stefanie Asin.
Houston Methodist’s Human Resources Department has stated that the hospital system will consider requests from employees who don’t want to be vaccinated for medical or for religious reasons.
However, neither Mr. Nevens nor Nurse Bridges are refusing COVID vaccination on those grounds. And neither Mr. Nevens, who is a 10-year hospital system employee, nor Nurse Bridges, who is a 7-year employee, consider themselves “anti-vaxxers,” and both have for many years received the annual influenza vaccine.
Mr. Nevens and Nurse Bridges have both said that their reluctance to receive COVID-19 vaccinations arises fromtheir concerns with the vaccines’ emergency approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, rather than the more well-known and much lengthier standard, traditional, and much more well-known approval process.
Nurse Bridges said that as a Registered Nurse, “I’ve taken every vaccine you’re ever supposed to take. We just want more Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Yes, we all know that they’re jerkwads.
They also believe that the moon is made of green cheese, and that POS45 won re-election. That’s why he’s not in the White House – he’s on permanent vacation pooping into one of his golden toilets at his Palm Beach, FL resort, and playing golf. Because that’s what winners do, right?
And lie about practically everything. He’s a liar, so that almost goes without saying.
He deceived the American public – or, at least attempted to deceive the American public – about getting a vaccination against COVID-19 before leaving the White House.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, March 4, 2021
Welcome to the “new” reality.
But, just for a moment, let’s play “What if?”
What if the United States’ failed response (because of the inactions and deliberate failures of the previous administration) was the primary cause of the mutated, more virulent variants?
It’s entirely plausible.
Otherwise, how to explain that the United States, with the world’s 3rd most populous nation – China and India each have WELL OVER 1 BILLION MORE – has ABSOLUTELY THE WORLD’S WORST COVID-19 INFECTION RATE?
Other nations, most notably New Zealand, have had phenomenal success in keeping the disease at bay, relatively speaking, as have a few other nations, including China, India, Greenland, Australia, other Scandinavian nations, and… well, you get the picture.
Perhaps there should’ve been a sign:
Choose One: Your Life, or Your Freedom.
“When Will It End?” : How A Changing Virus Is Reshaping Scientists’ Views On COVID-19
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Chris Murray, a University of Washington disease expert whose projections on COVID-19 infections and deaths are closely followed worldwide, is changing his assumptions about the course of the pandemic.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, March 1, 2021
This morning, bright and early around 0300 (that was the timestamp upon it, I was blissfully asleep then), I received an email from a friend and his better half whom are expats in Kitahiroshima on the island prefecture of Hokkaido, in northernmost Japan, near where her parents reside.
He wrote in part that “Vaccinations for coronavirus have started here but only for those with the highest priority (which makes sense).”
In that message, he also included a copy of an email communique from the United States Department of State which read in part, “The United States Government does not plan to provide COVID-19 vaccinations to private U.S. citizens overseas.”
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Saturday, January 16, 2021
Dr. Robert R. Redfield, MD – 18th Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
But allow me to be more explicit.
Dr. Robert R. Redfield, MD is a goddamn moron for whom I have no professional respect.
Why do I write that?
Like his soon-to-be former boss – the outgoing 45th President – he is, and remains, an ineffectual (mis)leader, under whose oversight the agency, like America, has languished, and suffered significant loss. Furthermore, also like his soon-to-be former boss – the outgoing 45th President – he refuses to accept responsibility for any of it.
The outgoing President, himself an utterly incompetent goddamn know-it-all moron, has a knack and penchant for identifying and naming the most utterly incompetent boobs to important positions within the administration.
Does that mean Redfield is a “most utterly incompetent boob”?
Not necessarily.
Of course, if you’ve been paying the least bit of attention for the past year, or so, you’d know the moronic and utterly idiotic things he’s done, and the equally moronic and contradictory things he’s said to justify, in response to the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.
Outgoing CDC Director Warns Of Pandemic’s Peak:
“We’re About To Be In The Worst Of It”
January 15, 20216:07 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
by Mary Louise Kelly
Mary Louise Kelly: “Why has the U.S. done so much worse than the rest of the world?”
Robert Redfield: “I think this virus has a unique ability to have differential pathogenesis in different people. And what it really does is it exploits the underlying health condition of the individual it infects. And so, I would argue one of the reasons we’re having more significant death in this country than, say, Sweden is because unfortunately, the underlying health conditions — with obesity, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease and the significant health disparities that we have in these illnesses in our nation — haven’t been effectively addressed.”
• [Pass the buck, please. There is EXACTLY ONE research paper in the entire National Library of Medicine with the subject “differential pathogenesis” in its title which is about COVID-19: Molecular Aspects of COVID-19 Differential Pathogenesis. The gist of the paper’s findings is that a type of the female hormone estradiol increases the levels of Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2), and that ACE2 apparently has some role in preventing severity of symptoms associated with COVID-19 infection, although, “ACE2 expression is dramatically reduced with aging in both genders. The levels of ACE2 expression, which could be sex- and age-dependent, have a protective role against lung and kidney injuries that could impact the severity of COVID-19 illness in male vs. females and old vs. young individuals.” As well, TMPRSS2, a cellular transmembrane protease, has a role in the severity of the disease, insofar as the “expression levels of TMPRSS2 protein are regulated by levels of androgen and androgen receptors … women and children have a lower level of androgen and androgen receptors than men, and therefore, TMPRSS2 could play a potential role in the severity of COVID-19 pathogenesis in men.” The study’s authors also write that, “it could be possible that the expression levels of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 impact virus infectivity and pathogenesis among different groups of individuals, considering the variation in the expression levels in older men compared to the women and children.” It is well known that individuals with comorbidities of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, heart diseases, and cerebrovascular disease, are at increased risk for poor outcomes, and increased risk of mortality, if infected with COVID-19, and the authors specifically state that the treatments for such conditions may very well place such individuals at increased risk for poor outcomes by writing that they “could be linked to the ACE2 function during SARS-CoV-2 infection and the cardio-metabolic treatments that may interfere withACE2–virus interaction.” The study’s authors conclude that, “variations in the expression levels of SARS-CoV-2 receptors and co-receptors, due to physiological and co-morbidity conditions, could impact the differential pathogenesis of COVID-19.” Contrary to what Dr. Redfield says, the virus does NOT have “a unique ability to have differential pathogenesis in different people.”]
Kelly: “But in terms of how the U.S. has responded, in terms of how the CDC has responded … are you able to defend the Trump administration’s record on this as anything other than a catastrophic failure?”
Redfield: “Well, I’m actually very proud of the response that CDC has done. I think if I have one criticism that Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, January 13, 2021
380,821
Bet you never thought you’d be seeing this, did you?
And yet, here we are.
Because of the Loser in Chief/Liar in Chief, America is f**ked.
India, which has over 1 BILLION MORE people than the United States (which has 330 Million+), has 10,495,147 cases of COVID-19 while America has OVER TWICE as many – 22,849,962.
Let that sink in for a moment.
India, which has 300% MORE people than the United States, has LESS THAN HALF the number of cases America does.
America has OVER 117% MORE cases than India.
Because of his, and his administration’s utter ineptitude and incompetence, our nation is closing in on 400,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19… all unnecessarily.
When ebola popped up on the global public health radar, the Obama administration didn’t allow it to spread globally. And yet, what did the Loser in Chief/Liar in Chief do when faced with a possible Public Health crisis?
He cut practically ALL monies allocated for biological terrorism, and pandemic response, and eliminated practically ALL the offices, agencies and departments charged with protecting the American people.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, December 23, 2020
Newt Gingrich, Georgia’s original nutty buddy, all-around hypocrite, liar, and one of the original Banana Republicans, recently used his quill to conjure up an OpEd to the right-wing newspaper Washington Times in which he falsely claimed in part that, “The entire elite liberal media lied about the timeline of the COVID-19 vaccine. They blamed President Trump for the global pandemic even as he did literally everything top scientists instructed. In multiple debates, the moderators outright stated that he was lying about the U.S. having a vaccine before the end of the year (note Vice President Mike Pence received it this week). If Americans had known the pandemic was almost over, that too was likely the difference in the election.”
Moderna’s vaccine design only took one weekend to develop at their Massachusetts facilities.
In fact, Moderna had completed development of their COVID-19 vaccine mRNA-1273 before the Chinese government had acknowledged the disease was transmitted by human-to-human means, and more than a week before the first confirmed coronavirus case in the United States – January 21.
And by the time the first American coronavirus death was reported a month later, on February 29, Moderna’s mRNA-1273 coronavirus vaccine had already been manufactured and shipped to the National Institutes of Health to begin its Phase I clinical trial.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, December 20, 2020
If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait until ALL those with COVID-19 start getting sick as they age, after the Banana Republicans trash the “preexisting condition” healthcare provision in the PPACA, and insurance companies return to “cherry picking” and denials.
Won’t that be more fun than a barrelful of monkeys?!
COVID-19’s Long-Term Harms: What We Don’t Know Yet Could Hurt Us
Infectious diseases have afflicted humans for hundreds of thousands of years, shaping communities and cultures. The ways pathogens affect human health have been studied extensively for decades. We have learned that any given microorganism can be protean, or capable of changing, in its manifestations — from patients who experience no symptoms at all, to those who become acutely ill yet recover fully, to those who suffer chronic infection and live with the ever-present threat of deteriorating health.
In stark contrast, we have coexisted only one year with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and are still learning the diverse ways this novel virus affects human health. During the first week of December, the National Institutes of Health convened a two-day workshop involving public health officials, medical researchers, and patients dedicated to discussing the post-acute health consequences of COVID-19. One of the primary goals of the meeting — to provide a definition for the long-term sequelae, or health consequences and symptoms, following acute COVID-19 — proved elusive. Variably termed “chronic COVID,” “long haulers” and “long COVID” by physicians, patients and the media, whatever you call it, the protracted symptom complex following COVID-19, seemingly affecting all organ systems, has emerged as an unanticipated, devastating outcome of the pandemic.
The earliest data out of Europe and the United States painted a concerning picture: The majority of hospitalized patients remained symptomatic weeks or months after their acute illness, the most common symptoms being fatigue and shortness of breath in approximately half of patients studied. Even patients who were never hospitalized had persistent symptoms several weeks later. Over ensuing months, the full gamut of persistent symptoms emerged, ranging from chronic fatigue, sleep disturbance, cognitive impairment, fast heart rates and exercise intolerance. The exact incidence of these symptoms and their time-course Read the rest of this entry »
With the COVID-19 vaccine in short supply, hospital pharmacists found themselves in the unexpected position of throwing away one in every six doses of the first Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines distributed this week in the United States.
The confusion came over labeling: The vaccine comes in vials labeled as containing enough for five doses. But pharmacists discovered that, after thawing and mixing the contents with a dilutent, each vial contained enough vaccine for six doses. Without explicit approval from the manufacturer, that final dose had to be discarded.
“It was overtly clear early on there’s some extra volume,” said Russell Findlay, Pharmacy Manager at University of Utah Health. His colleagues called Pfizer on Tuesday to ask if they could use the extra dose, said Findlay, but the company wouldn’t give a definitive answer.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Saturday, December 5, 2020
Ah-yoh-gah (aka Little Foot) – Cherokee – 1875
The Cherokees are original residents of the American southeast region, particularly Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
Nearly half of Oklahoma rests on land of five tribes whose members were forced west along the Trail of Tears in the 1800s — an expanse with nearly 2 million residents. Eastern Oklahoma’s other tribes are the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole and Cherokee nations.
The Cherokee Nation is a sovereign tribal government. Upon settling in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) after the Indian Removal Act, the Cherokee people established a new government in what is now the city of Tahlequah, Oklahoma. A constitution was adopted on September 6, 1839, 68 years prior to Oklahoma’s statehood.
Today, the Cherokee Nation is the largest tribe in the United States with more than 380,000 tribal citizens worldwide. More than 141,000 Cherokee Nation citizens reside within the tribe’s reservation boundaries in
Cherokee group preparing for a Stickball Game at Qualla Reservation in North Carolina – 1888
northeastern Oklahoma. Services provided include health and human services, education, employment, housing, economic and infrastructure development, environmental protection and more. With approximately 11,000 employees, Cherokee Nation and its subsidiaries are one of the largest employers in northeastern Oklahoma. The tribe had a more than $2.16 billion economic impact on the Oklahoma economy in fiscal year 2018.
The federally recognized tribes include the Cherokee Nation and the United Keetoowah Band, both in Oklahoma, and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation in North Carolina. The Cherokee were one of the five “Civilized Tribes” of the east who were removed in the 1830s to land in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma.
The federally recognized Cherokee Nation has a 7,000 square mile jurisdictional area in fourteen counties of Northeastern Oklahoma. It is not a reservation. The Eastern Band of Cherokee, also recognized by the federal government, holds 56,000 acres within the Qualla Boundary of western North Carolina.
Headquartered in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the Cherokee Nation has a tribal jurisdictional area spanning 14 counties in the northeastern corner of Oklahoma.
The Cherokee Nation is the federally recognized government of the Cherokee people and has inherent sovereign status recognized by treaty and law. The seat of tribal government is the W.W. Keeler Complex near Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the capital of the Cherokee Nation. With more than 300,000 citizens, 9,000 employees and a variety of tribal enterprises ranging from aerospace and defense contracts to entertainment venues, Cherokee Nation is one of the largest employers in northeastern Oklahoma and the largest tribal nation in the United States.
While the United States flounders in its response to the coronavirus, another nation — one within our own borders — is faring much better.
With a mask mandate in place since spring, free drive-through testing, hospitals well-stocked with PPE, and a small army of public health officers fully supported by their chief, the Cherokee Nation has been able to curtail its Covid-19 case and death rates even as those numbers surge in surrounding Oklahoma, where the White House coronavirus task force says spread is unyielding.
Elsewhere in the U.S., tribal areas have been hit hard by the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that American Indian and Alaskan Native populations have case rates 3.5 times higher than that of white individuals. The Navajo Nation, where Covid testing, PPE, and sometimes even running water are in short supply, has seen nearly 13,000 cases and 602 deaths among its roughly 170,000 citizens. The Cherokee Nation, with about 140,000 citizens on its reservation in northeastern Oklahoma, has reported just over 4,000 cases and 33 deaths.
“It’s dire, but what in the world would it look like if we weren’t doing this work?’” said Lisa Pivec, senior director of public health for Cherokee Nation Health Services. Pivec leads a team that jumped into action in late February, holding coronavirus task force meetings twice a day, instituting procedures to screen thousands of employees, stockpiling PPE, protecting elders, ensuring food security, and educating residents in both English and Cherokee language. With no guidance on contact tracing available from the CDC early in the pandemic, Pivec researched the World Health Organization’s Ebola response to set up tracing protocols; after the first case appeared on the reservation March 24, she made many of the contact tracing calls herself.
She said the Cherokee Nation has seen no cases of workplace transmission; Sequoyah High School, with rapid testing and masks, reopened for in-person learning this fall; and elective medical and dental procedures have been widely restored.
The tribe’s Covid response meets the approval of global health leaders. “It’s very impressive. It’s a reminder of how much leadership matters and how even under difficult circumstances, with limited resources, you can make a huge difference,” said Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. “It fits with what I’ve seen in the world. You see countries like Vietnam. They’re not a wealthy country, but they’ve been following the science and doing a great job.”
If the U.S. had acted as the Cherokee Nation did, “we would be doing so much better,” Jha added, “with tens of thousands of fewer deaths, and probably a much more robust economy.”
The Cherokee Nation mounted an earlier and more aggressive response than neighboring states that have waited months — and are still waiting — for a national response. Pivec and other Cherokee leaders remain incredulous at the continued lack of federal leadership.
“It’s as if Russia had invaded the U.S. and the federal government said, ‘Every county should fend for itself,’”Pivec said.
A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Pivec has stewarded the tribe’s public health program for nearly 30 years; in 2016, she helped the tribe become the first to be Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, November 30, 2020
Laws punishing drunk, or impaired driving are based upon principles of public health and public safety. That is to say, laws forbidding and punishing drunk driving are based historically upon the damages, injuries, and deaths caused by those who have driven while intoxicated.
At some point, The People refused to be abused and victimized any longer, stood up, and resoundingly said ‘NO MORE!‘, and passed legislation making such behavior and associated acts a serious crime. In some states, it’s not uncommon to read of individuals charged with DUI, who are also charged with the felonies of either murder, or criminally negligent homicide in cases where their actions resulted in the death of another.
Have laws against DUI stopped the offense or eliminated the injuries, damages, and deaths associated with the same?
No, but they have so significantly reduced them to the extent that such offenses and their associated damages are now the exception, rather than the rule.
The same principle applies to tobacco use, and smoking. It is a known carcinogen, and its consumption and use is a well-documented cause of numerous types of cancers, associated diseases, suffering, and early death – most notably recently, renown guitarist Eddie Van Halen, who died of metastatic oral cancer contracted from smoking aged 65.
Consequently, taxes upon tobacco have been increased in many areas, and places where its consumption is permitted is severely limited.
And so, now, we have COVID to deal with. Fundamentally, as far as the net effect – death, damage, and destruction – how is that any different? Seriously. Well over 250,000 lives unnecessarily lost in LESS THAN THE SPACE OF A YEAR, and with well over 13,000,000 cases, the good ol’ USA is the world’s NUMBER 1 repository of COVID-19… by far!
Yaay!
Thanks (for nothing) Trump!
COVID-19, Masks and the Freedom to Drive Drunk
By Andrew Koppelman, Opinion Contributor
11/29/20 03:00 PM EST
Does freedom mean the right to refuse to wear a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic? Many Americans think so. It is President Trump’s most important legacy. Here’s one implication that is too little noticed: If that is what freedom means, then we owe drunk drivers an apology.
The idea is shaping our world. Ignoring urgent expert advice, an Idaho health board recently rescinded its mask mandate, while 100 new cases were reported in one day and the local hospital was running out of beds. (A couple of weeks later, it reversed itself and imposed the mandate.) The board member who led the change explained, “I agree we have a problem with this virus, but at the same time I object to the mandate the board passed because it restricts people’s right of choice and ability to comply or not comply under penalty of law.” Another member said, “I personally do not care whether anybody wears a mask or not. If they want to be dumb enough to walk out there and expose themselves or others to it, they can.” The story was reported in the Daily Beast under the headline, “This really happened.”
This is a new and unfamiliar conception of freedom. Some people, notably New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, have blamed libertarianism for this stuff, but the standard libertarian story is that people have the right to do what they want as long as they don’t hurt anyone else. Now we are told that they have a right of choice even if they do hurt other people.
But, if you’re concerned about masks’ infringement on individual liberty, then why endure DWI (driving while intoxicated) laws? Masks are a lot cheaper than the cabfare home from the tavern, and then there’s the Read the rest of this entry »
In this past year of change, my mind and heart have overflowed with people. People I think of and pray for, and sometimes cry with, people with names and faces, people who died without saying goodbye to those they loved, families in difficulty, even going hungry, because there’s no work.
Sometimes, when you think globally, you can be paralyzed: There are so many places of apparently ceaseless conflict; there’s so much suffering and need. I find it helps to focus on concrete situations: You see faces looking for life and love in the reality of each person, of each people. You see hope written in the story of every nation, glorious because it’s a story of daily struggle, of lives broken in self-sacrifice. So rather than overwhelm you, it invites you to ponder and to respond with hope.
Papa Francesco (It.), Pope Francis
These are moments in life that can be ripe for change and conversion. Each of us has had our own “stoppage,” or if we haven’t yet, we will someday: illness, the failure of a marriage or a business, some great disappointment or betrayal. As in the Covid-19 lockdown, those moments generate a tension, a crisis that reveals what is in our hearts.
In every personal “Covid,” so to speak, in every “stoppage,” what is revealed is what needs to change: our lack of internal freedom, the idols we have been serving, the ideologies we have tried to live by, the relationships we have neglected.
When I got really sick at the age of 21, I had my first experience of limit, of pain and loneliness. It changed the way I saw life. For months, I didn’t know who I was or whether I would live or die. The doctors had no idea whether I’d make it either. I remember hugging my mother and saying, “Just tell me if I’m going to die.” I was in the second year of training for the priesthood in the diocesan seminary of Buenos Aires.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, November 25, 2020
Dorothea Lange. “Nipomo, Calif. March 1936. Migrant agricultural worker’s family. Seven hungry children and their mother, aged 32. The father is a native Californian.” Gelatin silver print, 7 3/8 × 9 5/16″ (18.8 × 23.6cm). Farm Security Administration–Office of War Information Photograph Collection, Library of Congress
Hourly Wages
Dollar General: $8
Kroger: $10
Walmart: $11
CVS: $11
Home Depot: $11
Lowe’s: $12
Federal Study: Millions of Full-Time Workers Rely on Federal Health Care and Food Assistance Programs – Walmart’s and McDonald’s Employees Lead the Way
by Eli Rosenberg
November 18, 2020 at 5:02 p.m. CST
Some of the biggest and most profitable companies in the United States, including Walmart and McDonald’s, pay their employees such low wages that significant numbers of them must turn to Federal food and medical assistance.
According to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan Congressional watchdog agency, made at the behest of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) there is a direct relationship between employers paying low wages and employees receiving the Federal assistance. The report examined February data from agencies in 11 states that administer the Federal programs Medicaid, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Walmart was one of the top four employers of SNAP and Medicaid beneficiaries in every state. McDonald’s was in the top 5 of employers with employees receiving federal benefits in at least 9 states.
The GAO research found that in the 9 states that responded about SNAP benefits — Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, North Carolina, Tennessee and Washington — Walmart was found to have employed about 14,500 people who were receiving benefits, followed by McDonald’s with 8,780. In six states that reported Medicaid enrollees, Walmart again topped the list, with 10,350 employees, followed by McDonald’s with 4,600.
In Georgia, for example, Walmart employed an estimated 3,959 workers who were on Medicaid — comprising an estimated 2.1% of the total of non-elderly, non-disabled people in the state who were receiving the benefit. McDonald’s was next on the list, employing 1,480 who received Medicaid, or 0.8% of the total of non-elderly, non-disabled people on the program.
In Oklahoma, 1,059 Walmart workers on Medicaid made up 2.8% of the state’s total, and McDonald’s was next, with 536 workers, or 1.4%.
In Arkansas, where Walmart was founded and maintains its global headquarters, 1,318 employees were receiving SNAP benefits — comprising 3.1% of the state’s total. McDonald’s was next on the list with 865 workers, which made for 2% of the state’s total. And in Georgia, another 3% of SNAP recipients worked for Walmart.
The GAO report found that the next companies with large numbers of workers receiving federal benefits included Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Amazon, Burger King and FedEx. (Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, November 22, 2020
The article should instead be headlined:
“Former Hong Kong University Post-Doctoral Student And Chinese YouTuber Start False Coronavirus Rumor, Steven Bannon And Fugitive Chinese Billionaire Amplify Message”
How Steve Bannon and a Chinese Billionaire Created a Right-Wing Coronavirus Media Sensation
by Amy Qin, Vivian Wang and Danny Hakim
Friday, November 20, 2020, 7:10 AM CST
Dr. Li-Meng Yan wanted to remain anonymous. It was mid-January, and Yan, a researcher in Hong Kong, had been hearing rumors about a dangerous new virus in mainland China that the government was playing down. Terrified for her personal safety and career, she reached out to her favorite Chinese YouTube host, known for criticizing the Chinese government.
Within days, the host was telling his 100,000 followers that the coronavirus had been deliberately released by the Chinese Communist Party. He wouldn’t name the whistleblower, he said, because officials could make the person “disappear.”
By September, Yan had abandoned caution. She appeared in the United States on Fox News, making the unsubstantiated claim to millions that the coronavirus was a bioweapon manufactured by China.
Overnight, Yan became a right-wing media sensation, with top advisers to President Donald Trump and conservative pundits hailing her as a hero. Nearly as quickly, her interview was labeled on social media as containing “false information,” while scientists rejected her research as a polemic dressed up in jargon.
Her evolution was the product of a collaboration between two separate but increasingly allied groups that peddle misinformation: a small but active corner of the Chinese diaspora and the highly influential far right in the United States.
Each saw an opportunity in the pandemic to push its agenda. For the diaspora, Yan and her unfounded claims provided a cudgel for those intent on bringing down China’s government. For American conservatives, they played to rising anti-Chinese sentiment and distracted from the Trump administration’s bungled handling of the outbreak.
Both sides took advantage of the dearth of information coming out of China, where the government has refused to share samples of the virus and has resisted a transparent, independent investigation. Its initial cover-up of the outbreak has further fueled suspicion about the origins of the virus.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Saturday, October 17, 2020
Scottie Alton Johnson, a 45-year old Alabama resident, and ward of the state’s prison system, died from complications from COVID-19 on August 1, 2020, according to autopsy results.
Records show that on July 31, authorities took him to a hospital nearest the Bullock Correctional Facility which is located in Union Springs, in Bullock County. Though authorities did not specify, Bullock County Hospital at 104 Bullock Drive, Union Springs, Alabama is less than 3 miles straight down the road, West from the prison.
He died August 1.
At the time of his admission to hospital, he was not thought to be infected with the novel coronavirus, and a COVID-19 test conducted upon his admission resulted negative.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, October 16, 2020
Trump Lost.
Joe Biden and ABC were the BIG WINNERS in Thursday night’s “split screen America” debate.
Biden’s Q & A Town Hall meeting Thursday, October 15, 2020 with voters was held in Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center with George Stephanopoulos moderating. Both men, and all attendees were more than adequately distanced for public health reasons.
Meanwhile, Trump’s Town Hall was conducted outdoors at the Perez Art Museum in Miami, and was moderated by NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, a Georgetown Law graduate who was distanced at least 12 feet from the President.
But it turns out NBC was played for a fool by the Manipulator in Chief.
Trump lost.
NBC lost.
After initially rejecting the Commission on Presidential Debates offer to conduct a “virtual” town hall, Trump reached out to NBC to hold the town hall style meeting on the same day and time slot as Joe Biden’s appearance in Philadelphia in a direct head-to-head viewership challenge to feed his fragile ego.
Yashar Ali, a contributor to New York Magazine and HuffPost wrote that several NBC employees were angered, and that “over a dozen NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC sources (talent and staff) and the frustration with and anger toward their employer for scheduling a town hall against Biden is palpable.”
Trump lost.
NBC lost.
NBC News agreed to put Trump before voters in a town hall style event on Thursday, October 15 – the same day as Biden’s scheduled town hall in Philadelphia – stipulating that beforehand, he must have submitted to an independent coronavirus test with the results reviewed by Dr. Anthony Fauci.
NBC said that Trump was administered a coronavirus test Tuesday by the National Institutes of Health, the results of which were reviewed by NIH Clinical Director Dr. Clifford Lane and Dr. Anthony Fauci, both who stated after reviewing the President’s medical records, that they had a high degree of confidence that the president was “not shedding infectious virus.”
But Trump’s COVID-19 test wasn’t the only thing reviewed.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, October 11, 2020
This death count brought to you by: The once Grand Old Party, who reminds you, Vote for Biden!
The GOP reminds you: VOTE FOR BIDEN!
There are at least 214, 367 reasons to NOT vote for Trump. Those are dead reasons. There are 7,717,392 living reasons to NOT vote for the Liar in Chief.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Tuesday, October 6, 2020
Alternate headline: Trump Fucks Over America
“I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business,” Tweeted his highness, the Twitterer in Chief, and Chief Twidiot on Twitter the day after returning from a weekend hospital stay at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he was treated for COVID-19.
His hypocrisy marks a 180° reversal from the weekend when Trump pushed for negotiators to reach an agreement, telling them to “GET IT DONE.”
The SOB in Chief just cut his own throat -and- that of every other GOPer in every down-ballot race in America.
He CONTINUES to shoot himself in the feet, and America in the head and back – execution style.
Expect a🌊BLUE🌊TSUNAMI🌊in November!!
By his intransigence, he has now set America on a guaranteed one-way course to GREAT DEPRESSION II.
And that EVEN AFTER Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned of PERMANENT economic damage if additional support was not forthcoming.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, October 5, 2020
I have maintained from Day One of the emergence of this pandemic back in late December 2019, early January 2020, that there will be a “golden thread” running through it all, and that being, is that we are unwittingly marching into the veritable “promised land” of health, which is longevity, through improved well-being. The lessons learned in this coronavirus pandemic are teaching us, by experience, what we need to know to improve human health, and by extension, longevity.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, MD, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
It will, of course, emerge as a secondary by-product of treatment, and prevention, at the tertiary level. And for that, we can all be grateful.
So, while at present, we (at least the wise ones) are taking every conceivable precaution to prevent contracting the disease, there remain stubbornly stupid individuals whom insist on ignoring science (like the President and many Republicans) and the expert recommendations of those whose life work has revolved around studying infectious disease, the most notable among which is Dr. Anthony Fauci, MD, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Maryland.
Why Do Some People Weather Coronavirus Infection Unscathed?
One of the reasons Covid-19 has spread so swiftly around the globe is that for the first days after infection, people feel healthy. Instead of staying home in bed, they may be out and about, unknowingly passing the virus along. But in addition to these pre-symptomatic patients, the relentless silent spread of this pandemic is also facilitated by a more mysterious group of people: the so-called asymptomatics.
According to various estimates, between 20 and 45 percent of the people who get Covid-19 — and possibly more, according to a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — sail through a coronavirus infection without realizing they ever had it. No fever or chills. No loss of smell or taste. No breathing difficulties. They don’t feel a thing.
Asymptomatic cases are not unique to Covid-19. They occur with the regular flu, and probably also featured in the 1918 pandemic, according to epidemiologist Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London. But scientists aren’t sure why certain people weather Covid-19 unscathed. “That is a tremendous mystery at this point,” says Donald Thea, an infectious disease expert at Boston University’s School of Public Health.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, October 2, 2020
🎯BULLSEYE!!🦠☠️
The “October Surprise” is right on time!
Not to worry… a cup of bleach oughta’ clear it right up!🤣 Or some hydroxychloroquine.🏴☠️ Sarcasm purposely intended.
Why does this NOT surprise anyone – not even one iota?
When it comes to the matter of the eventuality of his infection, for quite some time numerous individuals have maintained that “the booms are getting closer,” a colloquialism meaning that sooner, or later, the “booms” will find their target.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, September 24, 2020
I hate to admit this, but I am practically at the point of saying, when it comes to so-called “anti-maskers” (who are most often Trump supporters and GOP types), and others who proudly flout and steadfastly refuse to wear any type of face mask thereby endangering the lives of others, and who deny that COVID-19 is a pernicious health threat to our nation’s people, and by extension to our national security, I am just about ready to say to them all – FUCK YOU. I hope you get it, and die. It would serve you right.
Their maliciously malignant behavior is not merely stupid, it is cruel, and inhumane.
Michael L. Parson is the 57th Governor of Missouri.
Yet, there comes a time when good will is exhausted, and there is nothing remaining for those who would otherwise need it the most. The dregs having been long drained from the bottom of the barrel of the milk of human kindness, it has become bone dry, and utterly bereft of anything but empty space – a yawning void, a catastrophic chasm of unimaginable vacuousness. Yet it was them who gleefully rejected all sound advice, and threw caution to the wind.
That’s how utterly FED UP I am with the ignorance-promoting, anti-science nut jobs who loudly bray their ignorance like a donkey does its presence. Perhaps even more so.
And just yesterday, when I read the news that Missouri’s Republican Governor Mike Parson, a virulent anti-masker, along with his wife Teresa, tested POSITIVE for COVID-19, I thought that it serves him right. There is poetic justice in this world, and it’s often tragically ironic.
However, I hasten to add this:
The sowing of confusion and chaos in this matter is the work of America’s enemies, most notably, Russia.
And sadly, the American president (yes, like it, or not, he’s America’s President), has long played friendly with totalitarian regimes, again, most notably, Russia, long before he became the Misleader of the Free World, and Liar in Chief.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, September 20, 2020
199,474 – TOTAL U.S.A. COVID-19 Deaths
197,544 – TOTAL number of casualties – deaths, injuries, POWs, MIAs – from the Top Ten Major Civil War Battles of:
Gettyburg Chickamauga Spotsylvania Courthouse Shiloh Stones River Antietam First Battle of Bull Run Second Battle of Bull Run Fredricksburg Cold Harbor
Civil War Battlefield Deaths – 204,100
Only 4,626 to go.
196,103 deaths on 9/16/20.
199,474 deaths on 9/20/20.
That’s an average of 843/day.
At that rate, we’ll surpass that figure in 5.48 days – by September 26.
At the current rate, Trumpvirus Deaths will ECLIPSE Civil War Battlefield Deaths
Photo of the Chickamauga Battlefield from the Mathew Brady Photographs series, The Battle of Chickamauga, September 19 – 20, 1863, National Achives; https://catalog.archives.gov/id/524418 Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s Army of the Tennessee defeated forces from the Union’s Army of the Cumberland under Major General William Rosecrans in the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia on September 19-20, 1863. However, Rosecrans’ forces were able to slip away to Chattanooga, and later relieved by forces under Ulysses S. Grant.
Worse than the Battle of Chickamauga, with 34,000 casualties in the Civil War in 1863.
And even much worse than the Battle of Gettysburg, with 51,000 casualties in 3 days of fighting.
And the Iraq War, with only 4576 deaths is but a mere pittance.
And the War in Afghanistan, where 2216 lives were lost, is exceedingly eclipsed.
• FIVE major Civil War Battles
• A Notorious World War II war crime
• Two modern wars
ALL COMBINED, it’s only 191,792.
And Trump has beat ’em all.
That’s because he always does the most in everything he’s ever done – so he says.
196,103.
That’s the cumulative total number of COVID-19 related deaths in the United States, as reported by Johns Hopkins University, as of 1023, Wednesday, 16 September 2020 .
3000.
That’s the number of people who died in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center twin towers, and the Pentagon.
6436.76% more have died under Trump’s watch,
than under Bush’s.
And only 16,832 more to go before we eclipse the total deaths in World War I (116,516), Vietnam War (58,209), and Korean War (36,574) combined – 211,299.
Here’s another number:
197,544.
The TOTAL number of casualties – deaths, injuries, POWs, MIAs – from the Top Ten Major Civil War Battles of:
Gettyburg Chickamauga Spotsylvania Courthouse Shiloh Stones River Antietam First Battle of Bull Run Second Battle of Bull Run Fredricksburg Cold Harbor
196,103 is today’s Trump Death Count – Wednesday, 16 September 2020,
as of the 1023 update.
Only 1441 to go.
The next macabre marker for the Trump virus is Civil War Battlefield Deaths – 204,100.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, September 14, 2020
This now-iconic image of late country music legend Johnny Cash was made at his San Quentin Prison, California concert in 1969 by photographer Jim Marshall, who had said, “John, let’s do a shot for the warden.” The photo was relatively obscure until 1998 when Cash began working with legendary producer Rick Rubin to create Cash’s American Recordings album series, which revitalized his career shortly before his death, and introduced him to a new generation of fans in several musical genres. Rubin, who produced acts such as The Beastie Boys, Slayer, Metallica, and Tom Petty, had never produced a country artist, and quickly called it a “trendy scene” after being snubbed by Nashville. So he paid $20,000 for a full page ad in Billboard magazine which featured this image, and sarcastically read “American Recordings and Johnny Cash would like to acknowledge the Nashville music establishment and country radio for your support.”
Part of the tragic irony of this coronavirus ordeal is that in addition to the modest bailouts that have been given to Americans, and small businesses, they were also to the corporate community.
The need was tremendously underestimated, and much of the benefits, such as a boost to the unemployment compensation, concluded at the end of July… but the needs and the bills just kept coming. There was no reprieve for them, including the rent, and mortgage payments.
Banksters, you know… they love to tell you how much they love mama, babies, apple pie, and the girl next door, but when it comes time for the rubber to meet the road, suddenly, they’re the enemy who’d rather give you a shiv, than the time of day. After all, they have the money – and LOTS OF IT – and you don’t, so they call the tunes. So, pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
Now, if you think about it, that’s just a bizarre, and nonsensical maxim, because well… you’re standing in your boots, and pulling on the straps is a totally useless exercise. It’s like looking for a mythological sky hook, or a snuffleupagus.
But grit, and determination, you know. That’s the American way – and all sung to Frank Sinatra’s version of “(I did it) My Way.”
The reader should infer significant sarcasm in the remarks above.
However, there is no sarcasm in the following commentary.
In this present situation in which we find ourselves, BIG BUSINESS has, once again, made out like a bandit with the handouts given to them by Congress.
In their earnest desire to make things good for the American people, Congress has seen fit to include families and individuals this go ’round in the latest state-funded bailout of the failed economic system. And, that’s a good thing.
I purposely use the word “failed,” precisely because had it not failed, it would not have exposed the weaknesses inherent in it the way it was. But now that masses of people have “suddenly” discovered that they’re just a paycheck, or two, away from total financial ruin, and homelessness, it signifies that Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Friday, September 4, 2020
Well… they did it!
Russian coronavirus vaccine – A coronavirus vaccine developed in Russia shows safety, nad causes an antibody response in small human trials, according to research published in Lancet Friday, September 4, 2020.
They have developed TWO different versions of the vaccine.
Here are pertinent excerpts from the research published in The Lancet, the world’s leading, and among the oldest, scientific and medical journal.
“We developed a heterologous COVID-19 vaccine consisting of two components, a recombinant adenovirus type 26 (rAd26) vector and a recombinant adenovirus type 5 (rAd5) vector, both carrying the gene for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike glycoprotein (rAd26-S and rAd5-S). We aimed to assess the safety and immunogenicity of two formulations (frozen and lyophilised) of this vaccine.”
“In conclusion, these data collectively show that the heterologous vaccine based on rAd26-S and rAd5-S is safe, well tolerated, and does not cause serious adverse events in healthy adult volunteers. The vaccine is highly immunogenic and induces strong humoral and cellular immune responses in 100% of healthy adult volunteers, with antibody titres in vaccinated participants higher than those in convalescent plasma. Unprecedented measures have been taken to develop a COVID-19 vaccine in Russia. Based on our own experience in developing vaccines against Ebola virus disease and MERS, the COVID-19 vaccine has been developed in a short time. Preclinical and clinical studies have been done, which has made it possible to provisionally approve the vaccine under the current Read the rest of this entry »
It’s good to occasionally get a check up on oneself, or to perform – as much as possible – a self-checkup, or as some call it, “a check-up from the neck up.”
Today, the Congressional Budget Office released a report entitled “The Outlook for Major Federal Trust Funds: 2020 to 2030.”
Yet, it’s not as if we didn’t know it was coming… sooner, or later.
Kind of like the COVID-19 pandemic.
We’d been warned for years about the very real, and distinct possibilities of an outbreak of disease, and this POS45 President and his henchmen administration unwisely decided to heed bad advice given to them (most likely, issued at his heavy-handed, micromanaging god-like “expert-in-all-things” direction) and dismantled the offices and organizations, and their budgets, that were designed specifically to effectively mange such problems.
Remember: Unlike the novel coronavirus pademic, the SARS-CoV-2 which causes COVID-19, Ebola was NOT a problem in this nation, nor in the world at large, and its outbreak was contained to the immediate area precisely because of the wise actions of the previous administration. That’d be the Obama administration, in case you’ve developed amnesia, early-onset Alzheimer’s, or old-age dementia in the last 4 years… take your pick.
Just imagine if the coronavirus had been Ebola.
On second thought, don’t.
Be thankful it’s not worse… though it will likely get worse before it gets better.
The CBO report first methodically laid out an explanation about Federal Trust Funds, and then, began to discuss them one-by-one.
Fortunately, the report is easy to read, and to understand.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, August 24, 2020
A friend seeking my opinion had sent to me an anonymous post which I rather suspect is “making the rounds” on social media, which most likely is FaceBook. The following is my reply.
NOTE TO THE READER: For ease of reading, and for convenience sake, the anonymous author’s remarks are found in red, and my response is found [emboldened in black within brackets].
—//—
I did not write this but it’s exactly what i’ve been questioning. This is what i want answers too. We need to push “leaders” to give answers and make decisions that make sense long term. When does quality of life out weights the risk of a disease you have a 99.97% of getting?
Thank you to whoever wrote this.
******
What is the end game with the ‘rona? Anyone? 🦠
[NOTE: The basis for the practical entirely of the argument made in the author’s “rant” is hopelessness, helplessness, quitting in exasperation, and not even trying.]
What is the magic formula that is going to allow us to sound the “all clear?” [There is NO “magic formula.”]Is it zero cases? For a while, the goal was to simply “flatten the curve,” but now that we are disconnecting utilities for gatherings in California, setting up check points in New York, and recommending goggles (what’s next?), it seems as if there is, in fact, no end game. And, truthfully, the only way that we will see numbers drop is if we cease testing and stop reporting. [That is a blatantly asinine, and ignorant remark. It’s like telling people if we stop testing for pregnancies, and counting births, the population will decline.]Keep in mind that hundreds of thousands have shown up to be tested, registered, left due to long waits, and still come up positive when they received their results.🤷🏼♀️[That remark suggests that tests are fabricated then falsified – that the results are fraudulent – and that a wholesale deceptive criminal enterprise exists throughout the entire testing chain, everywhere in all locations nationwide.]
This young girl in Bangladesh was infected with smallpox in 1973. Freedom from smallpox was declared in Bangladesh in December, 1977 when a WHO International Commission officially certified that smallpox had been eradicated from that country.
Is it a vaccine💉? It took 25 years for a chicken pox vaccine to be developed.[It seems as if the writer is beginning to understand the complexity and magnitude of the problem of vaccine development. The first varicella zoster vaccine was tested in Japan in 1974, and approved by the Japanese government in 1986 – a span of 12 years. The FDA approved a varicella vaccine in 1995, and in 1996 the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to formally approve the vaccine for widespread use.] The smallpox inoculation was discovered in 1776 [Dr. Edward Jenner, MD, developed the first smallpox vaccine (using cowpox) in 1796.] and the last known natural case was in 1977.[SEE EXTENDED COMMENTS FOLLOWING THIS PARAGRAPH]We have a flu vaccine that is only 40 to 60% effective (that’s generous- the last two years it was more like 20-25%)[Influenza vaccines are developed in advance of the annual “flu season” using statistical inferences (prediction), and from 2004/2005 to 2018/2019 vaccine effectiveness (VE) estimates have ranged on average from 10% to 60%. For the 2018/2019 season, the overall VE rate was 29%.], less than half of the US population chooses to get one[The remark presumes that all people would get an influenza vaccine if they could – however, many cannot, typically either for reasons of lack of access, availability, or cost. In the Armed Services, vaccines are mandatory. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) to estimate flu vaccination coverage for the U.S. population of adults aged ≥18 years during the 2017–18 flu season. Flu vaccination coverage among adults was 37.1%, a decrease of 6.2 percentage points from the previous flu season.], and roughly 20,000 Americans still die annually due to flu or flu complications.[From 2010/2011 through 2018/2019 influenza-related deaths have ranged from 12,000 to 61,000. The 2017/2018 year saw 61,000 influenza-related deaths, while the 2018/2019 year saw 34,157.] [EXTENDED COMMENTS: In late 1975, Rahima Banu, a three-year-old girl from Bangladesh, was the last person in the world to have naturally acquired variola major and the last person in Asia to have active smallpox. She was Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, August 23, 2020
Remember: It’ll “miraculously disappear” when the weather gets warmer, and “we totally have it under control.”
Of course, none of this is real.
It’s all just “fake news,” folks.
Nothing to see here.
Move along.
And what if, and when, it mutates?
When folks get COVID-19 -and- the seasonal influenza?
Because IT WILL HAPPEN.
There’s not just a HIGH likelihood that it will.
IT WILL HAPPEN.
Then what?
Remember ebola?
What if SARS-CoV, aka coronavirus or COVID-19, had been Ebola?
We and the world would’ve REALLY been fucked.
Given that the Current White House Occupant POS45 obliterated and practically eliminated the entire organizational infrastructure for biological terrorism and other biothreats to national security, it could happen.
It’s poised and ready to happen.
NOTE:
On July 20, 2017 Reuters reported that White House Homeland Security Adviser Thomas Bossert told the annual Aspen Security Forum that “We have not had as a country a comprehensive bio-defense strategy ever. It’s high time we had a bio-defense strategy,” and noted that retired Navy Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer was contributing to the development of the strategy as Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biothreats, National Security Council, and served in office April 2017 – May 8, 2018.
Tom Bossert, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism January 20, 2017 – April 10, 2018
Bossert noted that the Bush and Obama administrations took steps to address biological threats to National Security after Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, August 13, 2020
This is about the 2nd, or 3rd time POTUS has stated that he is specifically denying funding for the Constitutionally-mandated United States Postal Service in order to delay the tallying of ballots sent through the USPS.
This is blatantly – as he has so stated this time, and others – an attempt to thwart the will of The People by interfering with the election.
Furthermore, it would make perfectly good, and logical sense for the USPS to have the money they need to resolve any problems, just as much as it would for states and municipalities to have the money they need in the matter of balloting.
Frankly, it’s nonsensical to assert that a problem exists and to refuse to provide the resources, financial, or otherwise, necessary to remedy the problem.
Trump calls in on Maria Bartiromo’s “Maria in the Morning” show on Fox Business News
Thursday, 13 August 2020
Trump: Coronavirus stimulus negotiations sticking point is mail-in voting
Aug. 13, 2020 – 40:46 – President Trump speaks exclusively to FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo in a wide-ranging interview on Kamala Harris, what the economy will do if Joe Biden wins the presidential election, Read the rest of this entry »
Because frankly, it’s practically too late for any of that.
That is to say, it’s too late for any effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by limiting travel, or immigration.
We’ve had our opportunity, and like many other opportunities, it was handed to us on a proverbial silver platter.
Now, we’ve the POTUS and his minions have squandered it.
Consider that as much as President Trump blows his own horn on the matter (as he does on almost everything, which according to him, he’s the best, the smartest, the greatest, the _insert_your_superlative_of_choice_here_ on anything and everything), claiming that his actions to limit its spread to the United States by limiting travelers from certain nations were effective, and helped prevent further spread of the infection, in light of what has happened in the days since as we all watched in horror at what unfolded.
They were not!
On January 22, while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, POTUS was asked by CNBC Squawk Box host Joe Kernan if he was worried about a pandemic. Here’s the pertinent exchange.
JOE KERNEN: It was a couple of years ago. Before we get started– with- we’re going talk about the economy and a lot of other things–the CDC– has identified a case of coronavirus– in Washington state. The Wuhan strain of this. If you remember SARS, that affected GDP. Travel-related effects. Do you– have you been briefed by the CDC? And–
PRESIDENT TRUMP:I have, and–
JOE KERNEN: –are there worries about a pandemic at this point?
In a secret intelligence report prepared (yet denied) by the Army’s National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) located on Fort Detrick, in Frederick, Maryland, which was based upon analysis of wire and computer intercepts, and satellite images, concerns that Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Thursday, July 30, 2020
Herman Cain, former Godfather’s Pizza CEO & GOP presidential candidate, has died from COVID-19.
So in memory of him, let’s pause from our pizzas for a moment to remember and reflect upon what he said shortly before he died — “famous last words,” if you will.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Monday, July 20, 2020
As of this date today, July 20, 2020, 183 days have passed since January 20, 2020 – when COVID-19 was discovered in the United States.
As of this date at 09:35:04 have been 140,563 (and counting) deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, aka COVID-19, in the United States. (Death totals in the US include confirmed and probable, in accordance with CDC guidelines as of April 14.)
Before proceeding further, we need to obtain some history for clarity, and perspective – because, you know… it’s all in how you look at things.
• January 20
First U.S. case of COVID-19 reported, a 35-year-old man in Snohomish County, Washington, who had traveled with his family to Wuhan, capital city of the Hubei Province, China.
• January 30
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the first person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 in the United States from a woman who had traveled to Wuhan, China, and returned to the USA on 13 January, whose spouse became the 6th known positive case of COVID-19 in the United States, and 1st case in Chicago, and the 2nd case in IL. Dr. Ngozi O. Ezike, MD, Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health made the announcement.
(https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-coronavirus-patient-infected-spouse-in-1st-human-to-human-case-in-us-cdc/2210301/)
The second known COVID-19 related death occurred in Santa Clara County California. Following autopsy results in mid-to-late April, the Santa Clara County California Medical Examiner’s office reported on April 21 that the second known COVID-19 related death occurred in United States, the first COVID-19 related death was previously thought to have occurred in Kirkland, Washington on February 29. The NYT reported that, “The virus has an incubation period of 14 days and people who die of it are often sick for at least three weeks, so the individual who died on Feb. 6 could have been infected — and transmitting the infection to others — in early January, experts said.”
(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/us/coronavirus-updates.html)
(https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-21/autopsies-reveal-first-confirmed-u-s-coronavirus-deaths-occurred-in-bay-area-in-early-february)
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Saturday, June 27, 2020
Based upon the peculiarities which we were observing – a high rate of asymptomatic infected carriers, loss of senses of taste and smell, etc. – I STRONGLY suspected that this virus was a VERY BAD “player,” and NOT one to be trifled with.
Turns out, my suspicions were warranted.
I have ALSO said that, when we find a treatment and/or cure and/or vaccination, and have emerged on the “other side” of this universal, global health crisis, we will have unknowingly embarked upon a journey into healthcare’s “holy grail” and begun to journey into the “promised land” of longevity and a greater understanding of life itself – at the “granular” molecular level.
Yesterday also, I was considering the peculiar, and characteristic, identifying hallmark of the associated phenomenon of loss of senses of taste and smell.
Where does that occur?
On Old Olympus’ Towering Tops A Finn And German Viewed Some Hops
Remind me again, please…
Where do viruses reside?
Varicella, herpes (zoster, etc.), and other select viruses – including HIV – DO NOT “go away.” They’re the gifts that keep on giving… REGARDLESS of the ability to detect viral load, or not.
It’s in the nerve root.
Chicken pox, when it “goes away” really doesn’t “go away.”
It just takes up residence in the nerve root.
And, when it decides to show up again (express itself), we call it “shingles,” for which we also have a vaccination.
I’m putting money on this one, that it’s much the same way. That it’s a permanent “gift.”
There’s no other rational explanation for WHY the loss of senses of taste and smell occur, is there?
Inside the body, the coronavirus is even more sinister than scientists had realized
An electron microscopy image of a cell infected by the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. (UC San Francisco)
By Melissa Healy, Staff Writer
Friday, June 26, 2020
The new coronavirus’ reputation for messing with scientists’ assumptions has taken a truly creepy turn.
Researchers exploring the interaction between the coronavirus and its hosts have discovered that when the SARS-CoV-2 virus infects a human cell, it sets off a ghoulish transformation. Obeying instructions from the virus, the newly infected cell sprouts multi-pronged tentacles studded with viral particles.
These disfigured zombie cells appear to be using those streaming filaments, or filopodia, to reach still-healthy neighboring cells. The protuberances appear to bore into the cells’ bodies and inject their viral venom directly into those cells’ genetic command centers — thus creating another zombie.
The authors of the new study, an international team led by researchers at UC San Francisco, say the coronavirus appears to be using these newly sprouted dendrites to boost its efficiency in capturing new cells and establishing infection in its human victims.
Their research was published Friday in the journal Cell.
I’ve not yet seen any images – still, or video – of Black folks out protesting that their (or any) barbershops oughta’ be forced to reopen, that their (or any) restaurants oughta’ be forced to reopen, that their (or any) favorite (_fill_in_the_blank_) ought to be forced to reopen, etc.
But I’ve sure seen a whole lotta’ images of White folks doing stupid stuff like that… and very publicly making general asses of themselves in the process – including openly brandishing loaded assault rifles and other dangerous weapons in state’s capitols and in other headquarters of civil governance.
I mean, there SERIOUSLY doesn’t seem to be any Democrats, or Independent voters doing stuff like that.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, June 7, 2020
If the workers who
were recorded
as
employed but
absent from work due to “other reasons” (over and above the number absent for other reasons in a typical May) had been classified
as unemployed on temporary layoff, the overall unemployment rate
would have been about 3 percentage points higher than reported (on a not seasonally adjusted basis). However, according to usual practice, the data from the household survey
are
accepted as recorded. To maintain data integrity, no ad hoc actions are taken to reclassify survey responses.
Below is the full image of their addendum on the report “THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION — MAY 2020,” which may be found on the BLS website as linked here.
The pertinent part is the final paragraph, which is pasted above, and appears in red.There you have it.
The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics has OFFICIALLY STATED that the Present Unemployment Rate is THREE POINTS HIGHER than officially stated.
They noted also that in the three preceding months of March, April, and May 2020, that responses to the monthly survey were down -9.5%, -12.6%, and -15.1% correspondingly to the month, from last year for the preceding 12 months, and averaged.
Th agency noted also that “BLS and our partners at the Census Bureau take the misclassification error very seriously, and we’re taking additional steps to address the problem.”
Part of the problem, as they note, is with classification.
In a lengthy explainer, the agency wrote that, “In May, 8.4 million workers were classified as employed with a job but not at work during the survey reference week (not seasonally adjusted). Although lower than the 11.5 million not at work in April, this measure remains about twice the typical level at this time of the year. This likely reflects the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.”
Their explanation of “with a job but not at work” is apparently integrated into the idea of going to a central, or common location to work (such as at an office building, or factory site), and of that they wrote in part that, “BLS tabulates data on Read the rest of this entry »
MORE COVID-19 Deaths than all deaths in WWI – 116,516.
Last week, we eclipsed all deaths from the Korean and Vietnam Wars combined.
We are in a very Public Health war.
And so far, testing continues to lag with only 4.6037% of the entire American public tested – 15,192,481.
Meanwhile, South Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan, Vietnam – along with their economies – are returning to normal with no new cases reported, while stupid Americans cry, whine, moan, groan, gripe, bitch, and complain about not being able to get haircuts, their nails done, eat out, or go to the gym.
As usual with many reporting outlets, whether official, governmental, or news, there are often important underlying figures omitted, either through carelessness, or willfulness, which give understanding to the greater picture. In this instance, state population, and population percentages were missing.
According to the latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, as of July 1, 2019, Alabama has an estimated population of 4,903,185, and the Black or African American percentage of that population is 26.8%. Thus, when observing item numbers 1, 6, and 9 citing the percentage of Alabamians tested, and distribution of the disease as being “practically equally affected,” the reality is that because of their minority population status, the Black or African American community is affected more significantly, and disproportionately affected with respect for the total population.
As well, residents aged >65+ constitute 16.9% of the population.
Alabama has a total of 15,330 staffed beds, in 89 hospitals statewide.
1.) Only 3.789% (almost 4%) of all Alabamians have been tested for COVID-19.
2.) Of the 551 related deaths in the state, 34.2448% were hospitalized.
3.) The majority of COVID-19 cases (39.75%, or very nearly 40%), were aged 25-49 – the “prime” of life.
4.) Those aged 65, or over, constituted only 23.67% (almost 24%) of all cases.
Starving Rats Are Reportedly Turning Into Cannibals And Attacking One Other As Their Restaurant Food Supply Disappears
By TPorter@businessinsider.com (Tom Porter)
• The CDC has warned that rats are growing increasingly aggressive amid the coronavirus epidemic, and advised on what people can do to stop infestations in their neighborhoods.
• The rodents usually feed on rubbish in restaurant bins, but with many outlets closed or only offering takeout they are empty.
• Videos have been posted on social media of rats swarming deserted streets in New Orleans and New York streets.
• Pest control officials say that some rats are resorting to cannibalism and infanticide to survive.
Rats are growing increasingly aggressive in their hunt for food as restaurants across the US Read the rest of this entry »
Thus far, 1,354,664 American lives have been lost in the total 78 armed conflicts in our nation’s 244 year history.
That averages out to very nearly 5,552 per year.
In the past 127 days since COVID-19 disease was discovered to have invaded our nation on January 20 this year, over 97,811 deaths – that we now know of – have occurred.
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Saturday, May 16, 2020
Good news, America!
As of today, we’re only 6,069 body bags, and 3 days away from our goal!
Let’s review:
Yesterday, Friday, 15 May 2020, we closed out the day with 85,884 COVID-19 Deaths in America.
Today, we close out the day with a total of 88,754 COVID-19 Deaths – a 3.3417% increase, only slightly above our projected 2% daily increase.
As we had earlier written, “Again, a friendly reminder that by June 2, at the current rate, we’ll have a total of 115,781 COVID-19 related deaths. In fact, at the fairly constant increase of 2% per day, in 5ive days (May 19), we’ll have MORE COVID-19 related deaths than ALL the DEATHS from the Vietnam War & Korean War COMBINED – 94,823!!”
If we continue to keep up what we’re doing (and there’s no indication that we’ll do anything any differently – why mess with success, eh?), at our projected approximate 2% Daily Death Rate increase, we’ll be Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Sunday, May 10, 2020
8,709,630
That’s how many Americas have been tested for COVID-19.
(As of Saturday, 9May2020; as of Sunday, 10May2020 the figure is 8,987,524 – an increase of 277,894, or 3.1906%. At that rate, it’d take 1,187.5031 days, or 3.25 years, to test every American.)
330,000,000
That’s how many Americans there are.
(The U.S. Census Bureau’s Population Clock reports 1 birth every 9 seconds, and 1 death every 12 seconds, and 1 immigrant every 47 seconds, with a net gain of 1 person every 19 seconds, making the rolling total 329,632,650… and counting).
0.026392818181818
That’s the percentage of Americans who have been tested.
(As of Saturday, 9May2020; as of Sunday, 10May2020 the figure is 0.027234921212121, or 2.72349% – an increase of 0.0842103030303%, or almost 1/10th of 1%.)
2.6392%.
United States
1,329,203 ÷ 330,000,000 = 0.004027887878788
Reported Infections ÷ Population = per capita Infection Rate
0.004027887878788 × 100,000 = 402.7887, or 403 per 100,000.
