Friday, March 02, 2018

There is a new film out about Flint and it's police department.

The body of sixteen year old Shaun LaBelle was found lying in the snow outside of his house in South Flint on December 11, 2016.

According to some reviews, (click here) the film illustrates a police department stretched to it's limit with poor relationships with the people of Flint. I think I will trust others to speak to the film before I have a chance to see it.

To me, the water crisis is still yet another way Flint has learned it has no value to those that should be putting citizens first. Lesson after lesson has caused fractions between the community and authorities. Where has society gone wrong? Look at Flint, Michigan and realize the extent no one really cared.

The circumstances Flint has faced with deaths and poisoning was recognized by a really decent person, Rachel Maddow. She didn't recognize the crisis in Flint because it was going to be an award winning expose on Governor Snyder's emergency manger priorities; she did it out of human decency.

A Flint resident shows his scars from a recent shooting. The police found him asleep in his car, high on painkillers. July, 2016.


So, while the latest buzz is about a film on Flint's police and people; the crisis is still more important then ever. Will the people of Flint ever feel like they are part of the USA?

Rachel Maddow's efforts to bring attention to the Flint water crisis have earned her an Emmy. (click here)

February 27, 2018
By Kay LeFond

...Most of the data comes from the first half of 2016, (click here) just after the crisis became national news. Testing has slowed down significantly since then, but it’s still going: more than 350 samples have been tested this year so far.

When you remember that every data point represents somebody sending off a sample bottle of their water and waiting to hear back about whether or not it was safe, it really hammers home what the city went through.

When you look at the full range of measurements (top panel of the graphic), it's hard not to notice the sheer ridiculous amount of lead in some of the samples. Dozens have measured more than 1,000 parts per billion (ppb) - the highest was almost 23,000, from a sample taken in April of 2016. Those numbers are outliers: less than one percent of all the samples collected, but they're still shocking. While there’s no safe level of lead, the federal standard is just 15 parts per billion.

That said, most of the measurements (more than 90%) taken during this time period were less than 45 parts per billion, so the bottom panel of the graphic zooms in on that range to show more individual points and the overall progression of water quality.

From a regulatory standpoint, the water quality of a city is defined by its 90th percentile; that’s the lead level that 90% of samples test below for a given time period. The samples used to calculate this number, called "Tier 1" samples, come from the highest risk homes....   

The backlash on Trump tariffs could be eliminated if there is a timeline to implementation included.

If President Obama initiated tariffs with investments at home in green energy would have Solyndra left the USA?

Yesterday, President Trump levied tariffs on US steel and aluminum. (click here) Other countries will seek to regain the market in the USA by challenging all these tariffs within the WTO. It will take years if not more than a decade, but, the USA legitimately has economic dynamics that require tariffs to protect USA interests within it's sovereign markets.


The economy of the USA is driven by middle class wages. In that is the understanding as to the quality of the products available and the price paid for them. The USA has been quickly becoming a Third World economy in that it is dominated by far cheaper products than can be produced in the USA.

I have no doubt the BRIC countries will work hard to build their middle classes, but, until they do they are dependant on buyers outside their borders. It is not wrong to say the advances in Chinese weapon systems are paid for by American consumers. That will not be the case forever as China is appreciating a better quality of life for the Chinese people with increased numbers of paid work and being middle class.

The tariffs serve several purposes. Ultimately, it will increase the jobs in the USA, but, it is uncertain as to when. US companies have to gear up for larger manufacturing facilities. I don't remember US grants to spur that transition, but, eventually, it will happen. Investors will come forward to regain market share and confidence and the growth will occur.

The tariffs will also increase the growth of the middle class in other countries that currently have no real incentives to conduct education, training or investment. 

So, are the Trump tariffs wrong? Not exactly. What is wrong is the way in which they are implemented. There is no lead time to implementation and businesses abroad and domestic have no way of compensating the depth of the change of a USA tariff. This is the same implementation that occurred with the US Tax Code and it is a mess without many confusing errors within the text.

Real people will lose their jobs, real people will lose on investments, but, in the long run these tariffs will be effective in the way they were meant to be effective. There are right and wrong ways of implementing a policy that effects lives both domestic and foreign.

President Obama may have considered tariffs on solar panels imported from abroad, but, living within the WTO strucutre he would have decided there was no reason to carry out tariffs that would ultimately be overrident by the international organization. It is anyone's guess how this all shakes out once the tariffs make their way into international tribunals and courts; but, I guarantee the WTO decisions will come just as the markets and manufacturers have fully compensated for their parts in the economics dictated by Trump tariffs.

Welcome to Trump World.

March 1, 2018
By Mythili Sampathkumar

US President Donald Trump's tarrif (click here) on imported solar panels has caused one American company to sack hundreds of its workers, according to its CEO.

Tom Werner of SunPower said the company has started the process to let go 150 to 250 people due to an expected loss of $50m this year alone due to the 30 per cent tariffs.

The publicly traded company will ultimately be able to save 10 per cent in operational costs through the cuts, Mr Werner told The Hill newspaper.

Mr Trump approved the tariff in January 2018 executive order, claiming: "You're going to have people getting jobs again and we're going to make our own product again. It's been a long time”.

The problem: only 14 per cent of the 260,000 people who spend “a majority of their time on solar projects” are in panel manufacturing - most are involved in the installation of panels and associated products and services, according to the New York Times.

The tariff is designed to help US manufacturers of solar panels to compete with lower-priced Chinese imports.

The tariff angered the $28b solar power industry in the US, which gets about 80 per cent of its products through imports.... 

Death by surgery.

The simple fact anesthesia can cause such a deep sleep there needs to be monitoring that a layperson cannot carry out places every patient at these centers at risk for death.

It happened to a friend.

She did everything right, except, have a trained professional at the house to oversee her first 24 hours after surgery. I don't know what it feels like to be her guardian for the night, but, I am sure it haunts him.

The anesthesia set her into a deep sleep at bedtime. It caused anoxia and only after a few hours did she completely stop breathing. By that time it was too late; her brain was dead and reviving her yielded a person without a mind. The average person does not understand anesthesia, it's potential deadly effects even after initially aroused or what full breaths are of a person considered asleep.

The medical professionals and surgery center still get paid regardless of the final outcome of their patients.

That is an absolutely true story about a dear friend from high school. The only people benefitting from that surgery are professionals; doctors, administrators and now lawyers.

March 2, 2018
By Christina Jewett 


...If Tam had been operated on at a hospital, (click here) a few simple steps could have saved her life.

But like hundreds of thousands of other patients each year, Tam went to one of the nation’s 5,600-plus surgery centers.

Such centers started nearly 50 years ago as low-cost alternatives for minor surgeries. They now outnumber hospitals as federal regulators have signed off on an ever-widening array of outpatient procedures in an effort to cut federal health care costs.

Thousands of times each year, these centers call 911 as patients experience complications ranging from minor to fatal. Yet no one knows how many people die as a result, because no national authority tracks the tragic outcomes. An investigation by Kaiser Health News and the USA TODAY Network has discovered that more than 260 patients have died since 2013 after in-and-out procedures at surgery centers across the country. Dozens — some as young as 2 — have perished after routine operations, such as colonoscopies and tonsillectomies.

 Reporters examined autopsy records, legal filings and more than 12,000 state and Medicare inspection records, and interviewed dozens of doctors, health policy experts and patients throughout the industry, in the most extensive examination of these records to date....                   

Shut down the US Olympic Committee and begin to build speciality committees for each sport answerable to the IOC.

Each sport the USA participates in needs to begin today to build their own committee to pay expenses for the athletes. These committees are to be autonomous and answer only to the IOC. They can be lead by family and professionals elected by the athletes. The committees will set their own policies, raise their own monies, participate in qualifying events and will maintain their own training facilities.

Every town in the USA has sports teams in junior and high school athletes. There is no reason the national teams cannot be organized in the same way. This is an outrage and completely ridiculous to even think the US Olympic Committee is a hierarchy that cannot be dismantled. 

March 2, 2018
By Joe Deutsch

..."My highest priority (click here) has been to push for change, so future generations of athletes will be safer," Raisman said in a statement released to multiple media outlets. "It has become painfully clear that these organizations have no intention of properly addressing this problem.

"After all this time, they remain unwilling to conduct a full investigation, and without a solid understanding of how this happened, it is delusional to think sufficient changes can be implemented. Meanwhile, thousands of young athletes continue to train and compete every day in this same broken system.

"I refuse to wait any longer for these organizations to do the right thing. It is my hope that the legal process will hold them accountable and enable the change that is so desperately needed."

The lawsuit alleges that the USOC, "at the highest levels of its organization," was aware of Nassar's abuse and harassment of female gymnasts in his role as team doctor, according to ESPN....