Monday, March 30, 2020

COVID-19 Laughs


Art credit: keefknight for Comics, 24 Mar 2020.

For my Trumpist friends in Florida, Ohio and Michigan... At least we are now No. 1 at something!

And, for my Libertarian/Tea Party/Trumpist friends everywhere... Cash that check!

Art Credit: Mike Thompson, Detroit Free Press, USA Today, 28 Mar 2020.

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Overcoming Our BullSh**t Virus Infection

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus

Disinformation, gaslighting and outright lying has infected us all.

If we do not find a way to determine truth from disinformation we will soon find ourselves on our deathbeds.

But, sadly, we no longer have even the weakest grasp on truth. And, even worse, we don't know who to go to for the leadership qualities we must have to help extricate our nation from the quicksand we have willfully walked into.

How will we disinfect ourselves and inoculate ourselves from our BullSh**t Virus infection?

We don't know what leadership is because most of us have never seen a leader in our lifetimes.

So, what are the personal characteristics of a good leader?

Mr. Trump does not live in the "good leader" universe. Why? because he has needlessly put all of us at risk of losing our lives. Please read this to understand why I make this statement.

The missing six week:How Trump failed the biggest test of his life, Ed Pilkington, Tom McCarthy, the guardian.com, 28 Mar 2020.

And, even more sadly, neither do the rest of our political leaders. Who, then, is the leader we need? Will that person emerge from our political rabble? And, if he/she does, how will we know him/her?

Let's take a look at who the undisputed leader of our nation, George Washington, believed was a great leader, Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. While I admire his leadership skills and personal life code, I am not calling for a modern day U.S. dictator.

Cincinnatus - A Leader Geo. Washington Respected

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus  (519 BC – 430 BC) a Roman aristocrat and statesman whose service as consul in 460 BC and dictator in 458 BC and 439 BC made him a model of civic virtue. Twice granted supreme power, Cincinnatus held onto it for not a day longer than absolutely necessary. Early in his life, due to the actions of his son, Caeso Quinctius, Cincinnatus was forced to pay an immense fine, to sell most of his lands and compelled to live in humble circumstances on a small farm, where he and his family were able to subsist on the work of his hands. George Washington admired Cincinnatus. Today, would we value or denigrate Cincinnatus for placing public service above personal gain? (Wikipedia)


Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Bet Your Life


The other day Mr. Trump announced, against the recommendation of his own medical “experts”, that he wants you to go back to work because staying at home in self-quarantine is, “worse than the virus.” “We have to get the economy working,” he continued.

Go back to work, without being tested and clear of the virus, without a face mask, without, maintaining "six feet of social distance", and without hospitals throughout the nation capable of dealing with the influx of COVID-19 victims. And, knowing that COVID-19 not only kills older people, but younger, seemingly healthy ones, too.

Are you willing to let him bet your life to stimulate his economy?

Monday, March 23, 2020

First Steps to Beginning Again



Here are the first three steps we must take to move forward toward "beginning again":
  1. Provide Free COVID-19, mandatory testing kits for every person to use while at home and at work on a regular basis until this pandemic has run its course. All of us must take the tests and results must be reported to a local, public healthcare authority. Those who are ill must be monitored and provided free healthcare.
  2. Unlimited, free face masks for every person to wear while away from home. Face masks must be worn while away from home in order to help stem the pandemic while people return to their pre-COVID-19 daily activities.
  3. We must expand Medicare and the Affordable Care Act to cover every citizen. Americans must have medical care, free from financial burden, in order to encourage them to seek healthcare if they are ill.
Taylor Swift - Begin Again - 2012

Wednesday, March 18, 2020

U.S. Army Humanitarian Corps

"Helping Hand" insignia, US Army Humanitarian Corps.
The United States created the worldwide humanitarian crises, otherwise infamously labeled, “the refugee / illegal immigrant” problem, by displacing millions of people after illegally invading and destroying Iraq, Afghanistan and a multitude of other nations, plus fostering and supporting a slew of regime changes in South America and elsewhere throughout the world.

As a result, the nations of Europe have been forced to accommodate millions of refugees, while the U.S. for the most part, has chosen to ignore the problem. Instead of dealing with the “mess” we created, we have decided to build a wall to stem the tide of displaced people.

Obviously, that fix is not working. So, we need a new plan.

Let’s try this: create, the Humanitarian Corps, place it under command of the U.S. Army, with the mission of providing humanitarian relief, education and training, in situ, to the millions of people displaced through our never-ending wars.

As a past service person, I have faith that our military command will get the job done forthwith, in an efficient and evenhanded manner, using the equipment, personnel and material, as approved by Congress.

Through the Humanitarian Corps, using a few of the trillions of dollars meant for killing, we may steer the course of mankind away from unending inhumanity to itself and toward a more humane, kinder world – for all of us – and stem the refugee, illegal immigrant tide along the way, too.

Using military resources for humanitarian purposes is not a new concept. Often during times of natural disasters, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc., political people mobilize military units to evacuate victims, provide medical care, transport emergency relief supplies as well as security.

The military, after all, has the logistical wherewithal – the ships, planes, manpower, and the command structure at the ready. All that is required is the order to spring into action and get the job done.

Let’s walk a path no one else in history has taken. Let’s try to use the military for humanitarian purposes.

We may never be able to defeat the "powers that be".

Still, we can help some of those left in misery due to our national crimes against humanity. For me, "No one left behind", includes the civilians we displace, leave to starve and die of their wounds - wounds we caused. We have the means to change the course of history by allowing our "better angels" to come forward and do what needs to be done.

Better Angels - Lesley Gore - 2005


Lyrics
It's not like I haven't tried and tried
It isn't where I look but what I find
I've been keeping clear of stepping on the cracks
I miss just enough to keep me coming back
I'm waiting for better angels
I'm waiting for any lead
And though my case looks fatal
I'm still hoping better angels come to me
Better late than not at all
Better to make the break than take the fall
I wouldn't mind hanging on
If I could find out what I'm hanging from
I'm waiting for better angels
I'm waiting for any lead
And though my case looks fatal
I'm still hoping better angels come to me

Monday, March 16, 2020

Not Vaporware

Avi Schiffmann Photo Credit: screen grab, democracynow.org
Question: What can a seventeen-year-old high school kid do that the President of the United States can't?

Answer: Build a fact-based, not-vaporware website.

Here's the story about Avi Schiffmann and his website: https://ncov2019.live/data.

Meet the 17-Year-Old Behind a Website Tracking Coronavirus Cases That Is Now a Vital Global Resource, Amy Goodman, democracynow.org, 13 Mar 2020.

17-year-old high school junior in Seattle, Washington, who developed the coronavirus tracker.
A teenager’s website tracking coronavirus has become one of the most vital resources for people seeking accurate and updated numbers on the pandemic. The URL is nCoV2019.live. We speak with 17-year-old Avi Schiffmann, a high school junior from Mercer Island outside Seattle, who started the site in late December, when coronavirus had not yet been detected outside of China. Now the site has been visited by tens of millions from every country on Earth. It tracks deaths, numbers of cases locally and globally, and provides an interactive map, information on the disease, and a Twitter feed. The resource updates every minute or so, and pulls information from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and elsewhere.



Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, as we go now to Seattle, Washington, where one teenager’s website tracking the coronavirus has become one of the most vital resources for people seeking accurate and updated numbers on the pandemic. The URL is nCoV2019.live. That’s nCoV2019.live. Seventeen-year-old Avi Schiffmann started the site in late December when the coronavirus had not yet been detected outside China. Now the site’s been visited by tens of millions of people from all over the planet. The site tracks deaths, numbers of cases locally and globally, and it talks about the number of people who have recovered. It also provides an interactive map, information on the disease, and a Twitter feed. The resource, which updates every minute or so, pulls information from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and elsewhere.

Well, 17-year-old Avi Schiffmann joins us now from Seattle, Washington.

Welcome to Democracy Now! First off, Avi, is your school still in session?

AVI SCHIFFMANN: No, my school closed today for about a month and a half or two. It’s kind of crazy.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, it only leaves you more time, I guess, to continue this unbelievable global resource.

AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Tell us about your website. And what? You started it in December?

AVI SCHIFFMANN: Yeah, I started this website around Christmas of last year. And I mean, the main goal of it was to provide just an easy way to see the straight facts and the data, you know, without having to make a website that was biased or, you know, full of ads or anything like that. So, I mean, you can, like, go on a phone and just instantly see like the quick facts. You can see the total amount of cases, the total deaths and, you know, all that kind of information. And you can get that for individual countries, and now U.S. states, too, and all kinds of things. So, I didn’t want to make it hard. You know, you shouldn’t have to go through government websites and download like a daily PDF that’s probably out of date by the time you read it, and, you know, have to go through all kinds of complicated things, just to see, you know, the straight facts. So, that was the main reason why I wanted to make this website.

Please go here for the rest of the story...

Sunday, March 15, 2020

Looking, Listening


Well, I gave up looking for toilet paper this afternoon and decided to listen to someone intelligent and aware about all this COVID-19 pandemic stuff. It's a good thing to do while in self-quarantine instead of watching FOX not-the-news for the next White House announcement.

Here’s the scoop:

Michigan Medicine's infectious disease specialist Sandro Cinti, M.D.  COVID-19


Michigan Medicine

Michigan Medicine's live online Q&A with infectious disease specialist Sandro Cinti, M.D. on the novel coronavirus COVID-19.





Vaporware Virus


The other day Mr. Trump held a press conference and introduced his Coronavirus Testing plan to Americans. At the top of the plan, Mr. Trump claimed “Google was working on a website that would help worried Americans figure out if they needed to be tested for the novel coronavirus.”

The only problem? According to Google, there is no website.

Why would he claim a nonexistent website, one not even “on the drawing board”?

Mr. Trump must have been a victim of the notorious Vaporware Virus, known to have afflicted many a Silicon Valley investor in the past.

He certainly wouldn’t have made the whole thing up. Would he?

Yes, he would. After all, he does have a tendency to sell snake oil, too.

Here’s the story…

Trump’s Google coronavirus website lie may be the ultimate in simply making stuff up, Mark Sumner, Stephen Wolf, Daily Kos, alternet.org, March 14, 2020.

During his Friday afternoon press event—an event that seemed focused entirely on pumping up the stock market by name dropping as many corporations as possible—Donald Trump claimed that Google was working on a website that would help worried Americans figure out if they needed to be tested for the novel coronavirus. The website, according to Trump would be done soon, and would not only provide information on whether a test was called for, but advise on where to go for a test. Trump was not only very specific, noting that Google had “1,700 engineers working on this right now,” but took the time to make a backhanded swipe at the initial difficulties of the web site connected to the Affordable Care Act.

The only problem is … everything. Google is not building the website Trump described. Not with 1,700 engineers. Not at all. Another company owned by the same parent company as Google is working on a site connected to the coronavirus, but it is absolutely nothing like what Trump described. In a press event that was entirely designed to make Trump’s disastrous handling of this crisis look better, Donald Trump decided the best approach was to simply lie his ass off.

Please go here for the rest of the story.

Friday, March 13, 2020

Somethin' To Do While in Quarantine



Regarding the COVID-19 crisis currently sweeping across the U.S. ... one thing seems certain to me: All the mess-ups by the Trump administration can be explained.

Really.

Mr. Trump does not care about the 99.9%.

Due to his obvious lack of concern for Americans, Mr. Trump seems to fall into one or two categories. He’s either a malignant narcissist or a psychopath.

But since both types care little or nothing for other people, it really doesn’t matter much. Still, trying to figure out which best fits Mr. Trump is a great exercise to conduct while you’re in quarantine.

Dr. Rhonda Freeman, PhD, explains…

Malignant Narcissism or Psychopathy? [Narcissistic Personality]


Rhonda Freeman, PhD | Neuropsychologist | Memory Evaluations

Malignant narcissist - People might describe them as immature, vindictive, liars, petty, thin skinned, hateful, insecure, jealous, paranoid, moody, angry, and draining. And although they encompass those traits, they are completely dependent on their world to feed to them the message that they are superior and the best of the best.

Otis Redding - (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay (Official Music Video) - 1967

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

The One Choice Party Has Emerged


The obvious seems to be upon us following the “Super Tuesday” Democratic Party primary. That would be former VP Biden looks to emerge as the party’s candidate over Sen. Sanders.

That is a nightmare come true because it spells the continuation of corporate Democrats control of the Democratic party and little to no hope that we will see the progressive changes we must make to correct societal inequities and save American Predatory Capitalism from itself. It is more than likely that it will be the same-old-same-old if Mr. Biden were to be elected, that is to say, nothing will change for us, the average Joes and Janes of America.

Even worse, it is more than likely, barring some miracle, Mr. Biden will be defeated by Mr. Trump in November. Clearly, that will be a disaster for the people of the United States.

Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and New York Times best-selling author, explains why in the article below.

Here are three revealing excerpts:

"Biden represents the old neoliberal order. He personifies the betrayal by the Democratic Party of working men and women that sparked the deep hatred of the ruling elites across the political spectrum. He is a gift to a demagogue and con artist like Trump, who at least understands that these elites are detested. Biden cannot plausibly offer change. He can only offer more of the same. And most Americans do not want more of the same. The country’s largest voting-age bloc, the 100 million-plus citizens who out of apathy or disgust do not vote, will once again stay home. This demoralization of the electorate is by design. It will, I expect, give Trump another term in office."

"We need to reintegrate those who have been pushed aside back into the society, to heal the ruptured social bonds, to give workers dignity, empowerment and protection. We need a universal health care system, especially as we barrel toward a global pandemic. We need programs that provide employment with sustainable wages, job protection and pensions. We need quality public education for all Americans. We need to rebuild our infrastructure and end the squandering of our resources on war. We need to halt corporate pillage and regulate Wall Street and corporations. We need to respond with radical and immediate measures to curb carbon emissions and save ourselves from ecocide and extinction. We don’t need a “Punch and Judy” show between Trump and Biden. But that, along with corporate tyranny, is what we seem fated to get, unless we take to the streets and tear the house down."

"There are no substantial political differences between the Democrats and Republicans. We have only the illusion of participatory democracy. The Democrats and their liberal apologists adopt tolerant positions on issues regarding race, religion, immigration, women’s rights and sexual identity and pretend this is politics. The right wing uses those on the margins of society as scapegoats. The culture wars mask the reality. Both parties are full partners in the reconfiguration of American society into a form of neofeudalism. It only depends on how you want it dressed up."

The One-Choice Election, Chris Hedges, truthdig.com, 9 Mar 2020.

There is only one choice in this election. The consolidation of oligarchic power under Donald Trump or the consolidation of oligarchic power under Joe Biden. The oligarchs, with Trump or Biden, will win again. We will lose. The oligarchs made it abundantly clear, should Bernie Sanders miraculously become the Democratic Party nominee, they would join forces with the Republicans to crush him. Trump would, if Sanders was the nominee, instantly be shorn by the Democratic Party elites of his demons and his propensity for tyranny. Sanders would be red-baited — as he was viciously Friday in The New York Times’ “As Bernie Sanders Pushed for Closer Ties, Soviet Union Spotted Opportunity” — and turned into a figure of derision and ridicule. The oligarchs preach the sermon of the least-worst to us when they attempt to ram a Hillary Clinton or a Biden down our throats but ignore it for themselves. They prefer Biden over Trump, but they can live with either.

Only one thing matters to the oligarchs. It is not democracy. It is not truth. It is not the consent of the governed. It is not income inequality. It is not the surveillance state. It is not endless war. It is not jobs. It is not the climate. It is the primacy of corporate power — which has extinguished our democracy and left most of the working class in misery — and the continued increase and consolidation of their wealth. It is impossible working within the system to shatter the hegemony of oligarchic power or institute meaningful reform. Change, real change, will only come by sustained acts of civil disobedience and mass mobilization, as with the yellow vests movement in France and the British-based Extinction Rebellion. The longer we are fooled by the electoral burlesque, the more disempowered we will become.

Please go here for the whole story.

ERA - Looking For Something -2003


Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Trumpizing our Institutions

Mount Trumpmore
Art Credit: artist/creator unknown

Mr. Trump's "delegitimization of the Democratic Party or anyone who doesn't think like him is similar to the Nazi program to "reconstruct or reorder" various German institutions. The Nazis got rid of, “unreliable Nazis and replaced them with reliable Nazis.” They didn't tear down the universities, the judicial system, the press. They Nazified them. “The German institutions then became sources of Nazi concepts and behavior.”

Interesting, isn’t it?

Who would have thought about doing such a thing?

Well, whether Mr. Trump – Trump zealots, Trump evangelicals, or the Trump Republicans, e.g. Sen. Mitch McConnell – have or have not, the net result is we are witnessing the Trumpization of our institutions... weakening them, getting rid of those people not deemed loyal to him and replacing them with Trump Loyalists... right before our eyes.

Here is the story…

Losing Reality: Can We Get the Truth Back?


This being the Trump era, we find ourselves once again engulfed in two realities. There’s the reality of a spiraling global challenge from coronavirus, and there’s the ALTERNATE reality created by the president and his political and propaganda empire. They are spreading a virus of their own, lulling true believers into complacent ignorance with lies and misinformation.

In this conversation, Bill Moyers talks with psychiatrist and author Robert Jay Lifton about the dueling realities in today's America.


Why Are They Killing Us?


Where did coronavirus COVID-19 come from?

Trump Republicans argue: “The Chinese eat raw food and bats. It came from that.”

Obviously, there is much more to the story. It is fact, however, that “27 of 41 infected patients were found to have contact with the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan (China).*

Dig around a little and you discover that this virus demonstrates DNA from at least three sources.

Why is that? Is that “normal”?
The answer is, “No it is rare”. So, how does it happen?
The answer: “It was created in a lab.”

While no bats were traded in the Wauhan Seafood Market and no bats are found within some, 900 kilometers from Wauhan, “the Wuhan Center for Disease Control & Prevention (WHCDC) (one of two labs in Wuhan), is located ~280 meters from the market”*.

According to Professor Francis Boyle**, arguably, the “Ralph Nader” of biological warfare, the Wuhan Coronavirus known as COVID-19 may have leaked from, “Wuhan City’s Biosafety Level 4 facility and a designated WHO research lab, which was specifically set up to research coronaviruses and SARS”.

Further, Boyle said, “The COVID-19 virus is a chimera. It includes SARS, an already weaponized coronavirus, along with HIV genetic material and possibly flu virus."

"COVID-19 may also have a flu virus mixed in, along with gain of function properties that allow it to spread a greater distance than normal”

Boyle continued, “They (Wuhan lab) had already developed SARS. SARS had leaked out two to three times before this, and it seems they were turbocharging SARS, which is what [COVID-19] looks to be. This is a brand-new generation of biowarfare weapons we haven't seen before.

In the interview below he references his sources. In my view, here are a few excerpts from one of the real “smoking guns” sources*.

The greater, remaining question is: Why are the governments of the world trying to kill us? And, since the Wuhan lab bought or otherwise obtained it’s coronaviruses and SARS “seed stock” from the U.S.A., why are we letting our government create them, as well as unknown numbers of other biowarfare weapons, with our tax dollars?

*The possible origins of 2019-nCoV coronavirus, Botao Xiao (1,2*) and Lei Xiao (3)

1 Joint International Research Laboratory of Synthetic Biology and Medicine, School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China 
2 School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
3 Tian You Hospital, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430064, China
* Corresponding author: xiaob@scut.edu.cn Tel / Fax: 86-20-3938-0631           

Abstract
"The 2019-nCoV has caused an epidemic of 28,060 laboratory-confirmed infections in human including 564 deaths in China by February 6, 2020. Two descriptions of the virus published on Nature this week indicated that the genome sequences from patients were almost identical to the Bat CoV ZC45 coronavirus. It was critical to study where the pathogen came from and how it passed onto human. An article published on The Lancet reported that 27 of 41 infected patients were found to have contact with the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan. We noted two laboratories conducting research on bat coronavirus in Wuhan, one of which was only 280 meters from the seafood market. We briefly examined the histories of the laboratories and proposed that the coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory. Our proposal provided an alternative origin of the coronavirus in addition to natural recombination and intermediate host."

"The 2019-nCoV coronavirus has caused an epidemic of 28,060 laboratory-confirmed infections in human including 564 deaths in China by February 6, 2020. Two descriptions of  the  virus published  on  Nature  this week  indicated that  the  genome  sequences  from patients were  96%  or 89% identical to the  Bat  CoV ZC45 coronavirus originally found in Rhinolophus affinis 1,2. It was critical to study where the pathogen came  from and how it passed onto human."

"An article published on The Lancet reported that 41 people in Wuhan were found to have the acute respiratory syndrome and 27 of them had contact with Huanan  Seafood Market 3. The 2019-nCoV was found in 33 out of 585 samples collected in the market after the outbreak. The market was suspicious to be the origin of the epidemic, and was shut down according to the rule of quarantine the source during an epidemic."

"The bats carrying CoV ZC45 were originally found in Yunnan or Zhejiang province, both of which were more than 900 kilometers away from the seafood market. Bats were normally found to live in caves and trees. But the seafood market is in a densely-populated district of Wuhan, a metropolitan of ~15 million people. The probability was very low for the bats to fly to the market. According to municipal reports and the testimonies of 31 residents and 28 visitors, the bat was never a food source in the city, and no bat was traded in the market. There was possible natural recombination or intermediate host of the coronavirus, yet little proof has been reported." 

"Was there any other possible pathway? We screened the area around the seafood market and identified two laboratories conducting research on bat coronavirus. Within ~280 meters from the market, here was the Wuhan Center for Disease Control & Prevention (WHCDC) (Figure 1) from Baidu and Google maps). WHCDC hosted animals in laboratories for research purpose, one of which was specialized in pathogens collection and identification 4-6.  In one of their studies, 155 bats including Rhinolophus affinis were  captured  in  Hubei province, and other 450 bats were captured in Zhejiang province 4. The expert in collection was noted in the Author Contributions (JHT). Moreover, he was broadcasted for collecting viruses on nation-wide newspapers and websites in 2017 and 2019 7,8. He described that he was once by attacked by bats and the blood of a bat shot on his skin. He knew  the extreme danger of the infection so he quarantined himself for 14 days 7. In another accident, he quarantined himself again because bats peed on him. He was once thrilled for capturing a bat carrying a live tick 8.

See video of Dr. Mercola’s interview of Prof. Boyle,

Go here is a PDF transcript, Is the Wuhan Coronavirus a Form of Biowarfare?:
A Special Interview With Francis Boyle, By: Dr. Joseph Mercola.

**Dr. Francis A. Boyle, author: U.S. Biowarfare Act (1989)Biowarfare and Terrorism.

US Biowarfare Act Author: Studies Confirm Coronavirus Weaponized!, Spiro Skouras, 22 Feb 2020

In this interview, the Author of the US Biowarfare Act, Professor Francis Boyle uncovers four separate studies which he claims confirm as ‘smoking gun’ evidence the Wuhan Coronavirus known as COVID19 was in fact weaponized.

Professor Boyle also discloses where he believes the true origin of the virus originated and the extent that the US government was involved.

Note: This video has been deleted by YouTube. Please click here to go to BitCHUTE to view it.



Source Links
Study: The spike glycoprotein of the new coronavirus 2019-nCoV contains a furin-like cleavage site absent in CoV of the same clade
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0166354220300528

Study: SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronavirus pose threat for human emergence
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4797993/

Study: Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) proteins of different bat species confer variable susceptibility to SARS-CoV entry
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00705-010-0729-6?fbclid=IwAR3yNfuHykjJbuDGMNqfo6eEFAZ5IqJ_KE9dgcrspGn4xdRQDFBYR8y4MP4

Study: The possible origins of 2019-nCoV coronavirus
https://web.archive.org/web/20200214144447/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339070128_The_possible_origins_of_2019-nCoV_coronavirus

Study: Clinical characteristics of 2019 novel coronavirus infection in China
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.06.20020974v1

SMOKING GUN: China Bought Weaponized Wuhan Virus From U.S.
https://banned.video/watch?id=5e4d9a96ceaa970024aa6fbf

Full transcript of “smoking gun” bombshell interview: Prof. Francis Boyle exposes the bioweapons origins of the CoVid-19 coronavirus
https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-02-20-full-transcript-smoking-gun-interview-prof-frances-boyle-coronavirus-bioweapons.html

Friday, March 6, 2020

Mr. McConnell’s Swamp

Uh… let me see. One of the best outcomes of the coming Nov. elections could be the defeat of Mitch McConnell (R-KY) the chief swamp monster himself.

He is The Heartless, Soulless Reptilian-Like Swamp Thing who, in my opinion, has managed to do more harm to the people of the U.S. than Mr. Trump - the one person who happens to be the modern-day Genghis Khan of harm-doing.

In case you missed it, just the other day Mr. McConnell announced, that he would obstruct whatever a Democratic president might try to accomplish, saying: “If I’m still the majority leader in the Senate think of me as the Grim Reaper. None of that stuff is going to pass…”.

Too bad the Democrats haven’t learned to practice Mr. McConnell’s greatest skills… double-dealing-lie to your face, stomp-‘em-into-the-ground-heartless-soulless-contempt for the 99.9%... but applied to Republicans and most of all, Mr. Trump.

While I disdain it, someone’s got to drive a stake into the heart of the matter so the nation can extricate itself from the Trumpist’s garbage dump (a.k.a. The Swamp) called the U.S. Senate and most of all its leader, Mr. McConnell.

Mitch McConnell’s Do Nothing Republicans - Robert Reich – 3 Mar 2020


Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich discusses Mitch McConnell’s Do-Nothing Senate Republicans, who have refused to serve as a check on Donald Trump's power or take up the nearly 400 bills passed by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. Fortunately, voters can send many of them packing come November.

Thursday, March 5, 2020

Your Crumb of Pie

CBS This Morning, America's Economic Pie
While the CBS This Morning's Economic Pie thing is hackneyed, it does make crystal clear an outrageous truth about our world - we are out of whack messed up.

CBS This Morning
America's Economic Pie
CBS Mall



Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Dem Leaders Refuse to See

Good ol' safe Joe greases slide toward the end of American-style capitalism.
As Democratic Party leaders madly, arms and legs akimbo, scramble to make Joe Biden, the "moderate centrist", their candidate over social-democrat Bernie Sanders, our fundamental problem remains unaddressed: American-style capitalism has failed in delivering its "American Dream" promise.

Everybody knows tremendous inequities live in the USA and, in fact, wherever capitalism is practiced. Examples abound, including income stagnation, wealth accumulation, worker/management wage disparity. The list is endless. A quick review of French economist, Thomas Piketty's, Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2013) (please see his TED Talk) clearly lays bare our world-wide wealth and income inequality challenges.

The Democratic Party leadership will never address these issues. It never has. By picking Good Ol' Safe Joe to challenge Mr. Trump, the Dem leaders will ensure we travel further down the path to more and more economic inequities.

Why?

Economist Richard Wolff* knows…

Prof. Richard Wolff: Will Bernie Save Capitalism? 25 Feb 2020



More from Dr. Wolff

Economist Richard Wolff on Capitalism Run Wild
Moyers & Company, Feb 22, 2013



*Richard D. Wolff is professor of economics emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a visiting professor in the graduate program in international affairs of the New School University, New York City. Richard also teaches classes regularly at the Brecht Forum in Manhattan. His books include: Capitalism's Crisis Deepens: Essays on the Global Economic Meltdown(2016); Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism (2012); Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism(2012); Contending Economic Theories: Neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian (2012); and Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It (2009). A full archive of Richard's work, including videos and podcasts, can be found on his site.

Monday, March 2, 2020

Will Dem Party Leadership Find Their Courage?



When it comes to failure to recognize change or emerging innovative ideas, the books are crammed with corporate leadership’s failure to grasp onto the coattails of impending change and make the leap forward. Management of companies like Kodak, IBM, Xerox, Sears, etc., are emblematic of failed leadership, blunders, and outright ineptness.

You may even remember some of those companies when they were powerhouse behemoths. The leadership of each made decisions that seemed logically correct to them at the time when they were on top of the heap in their respective business areas – no doubt decisions to “stay the course” selling technology, products or services that made them millions of dollars in previous years. The only problem: times changed. And, management failed to perceive that change and failed to react accordingly, to provide their companies with courageous leadership when it was required.

Lack of courageous leadership is a classic failure of management and is repeated in countless ways each day.

Lack of courage, or cowardice, can also infect political leaders.

For example, the Democratic Party leaders are clearly showing a courage deficit when it comes to Bernie Sanders as their potential candidate.

It’s sad isn’t it when leaders disregard the wishes of their own people. For instance, “Polling consistently shows that most Democrats approve of key parts of Sanders’ economic agenda, including single-payer health care, the Green New Deal, tuition-free college, student debt forgiveness, a $15 minimum wage, breaking up big banks, and paid family leave.”

“For each of those issues except single-payer health care, a more modest percentage of all Americans — but still a majority — signal their support.”

“That said, support levels among all Americans drop significantly once voters are informed about the policies’ costs.”

I, for one, am looking for an epiphany of sorts, or the proverbial “bravery pill” that the Dem leaders can swallow to help them find their spines, recognize that the nation is calling for a clear change of leadership in the White House and the U.S. Congress, get out of the way, and smooth the path for the person who will make that change happen. Additionally, it’s clearly up to the Dem leadership to find a way to secure what their people are demanding.

Source Links:

50 Examples of Corporations that Failed to Innovate, Katrina Aaslaid, valuer.ai, 22 Nov 2018.

Democratic Leaders Willing to Risk Party Damage to Stop Bernie Sanders, Lisa Lerer and Reid J. Epstein, nytimes.com, 28 Feb 2020

Trump lashes out at Fox News for new poll showing him losing to all the Democratic candidates, Aaron Rupar, vox.com, 28 Feb 2020.

Polls show most Democrats, many Americans back key Bernie Sanders' policies, Louis Jacobson, politifacts.com, 25 Feb 2020.

Dem Leader Sanders Freak-out is Not About Politics. It's About Power, Rob Kall, opednews, 2 Mar 2020.

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Reducing Misery Is Not Socialism

Paul Krugman
"Reducing misery is not socialism," explained Paul Krugman, Nobel prize-winning economist, in this interview.

Paul Krugman is my hero because his insight about our nation is right on target.
"Real Americans" identity politics, American racism and more... "people don't now what they are voting for"...please watch.

'Brexit is a mistake but it is not a catastrophe' - Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman


12 Feb 2020 - Channel 4 News

Paul Krugman is a Nobel prize-winning liberal economist, author and New York Times columnist.