Sunday, February 07, 2021

First a stop in Flint.

This administration in DC and the majority of Congress, including Mitt Romney who has come out of the dark shadows of the GOP as a real human being, is intent on correcting the course of gone-wrong policies. I think the American public should applaud this effort and continue to support the initiative. This very well may be the "Year of the Child" in the USA and I am all the happier for it. The future. Climate is among those priorities and so is child poverty.2 February 2021

February 2, 2021
By Corey Stern

...For too long (click here) the burden of our crumbling infrastructure has not been equally felt. As of last January, lead in ageing pipes, contaminated soil and old, peeling paint was found in 3.6m homes nationwide – most of which are concentrated in low-income neighborhoods. I’ve ridden the unhurried roads to justice for communities that have been debilitated by public officials allowing infrastructure to fall into disrepair. I’ve represented thousands of children exposed to lead-based paint hazards in New York City public housing, and I currently represent 3,000 young victims of the Flint water crisis and their parents....

Joe Biden is a magnificent father and wonderful grandfather. It seems a natural place for his administration. The future and American children.  Nice and long overdue. They aren't born wealthy and have absolutely no right to decision making in Washington, DC, otherwise, "Flint" would never have happened.

...The Biden administration now has the opportunity – and the obligation – to change that trajectory. He can ensure infrastructure gets modernized while achieving his goals of creating new jobs and holding polluters accountable. Here are three ideas for how he can do it.

First, Biden’s infrastructure plans should include investments to finally deliver clean water and shelter for every American. This is basic stuff, and he doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel to follow through: last year, Senator Cory Booker and the then representative Deb Haaland introduced a proposal to clean up dangerous Superfund sites, replace wastewater systems and lead pipes, and remove lead-based paint in low-income and tribal communities. And of course, Senator Elizabeth Warren has a plan for this too, which mandates that the federal government fully fund drinking water infrastructure and install filtering systems to clean up our drinking water – all while creating 190,000 new jobs. Both of these are good ideas, and they share a common component: putting people to work at a time when jobs are sorely needed, while delivering on a fundamental right for millions of Americans....

Senator Romney first addressed the issue of child poverty a short time ago when he thought a $3000 per year GRANT to every child in the country an appropriate expenditure for the USA government, with income qualifying standards. An amazing proposal, but, considering Mitt's financial well-being and the fact he has many grandchildren I am not surprised his moral side has reflected on how to correct the path for so many children in poverty in the USA. I sincerely believe Mitt Romney to be among the great moral Senators of our time and perhaps all time. I think the US Senate is the perfect place for him and his spouse. May he spend as many years as he likes in that position.

So, in realizing we are just as sick of child poverty as we all can get, this initiative has taken flight and the US House is considering this as a proposal for at least a year and possibly forever. I think it will be successful considering the cost of raising a child in the USA and the fact up to now Congress has mostly cut support for children in the way of food stamps and health care.

The Democrats always had these great programs for impoverished children, but, it has been the mission of the GOP/Plutocrats to cut those programs at every turn. Given the most recent Republican administration that seems to now to not want to go away given Gaetz's stupidity to attack a woman legislator, the entire Affordable Care Act was to be eliminated. So, I really don't want to hear how the GOP loves kids, because they only love money and that is completely clear.

As to Flint, who brings a cannon-type device to a baby shower? Really, America? 

February 6, 2021

...Silva (click here) was an attendee at a baby shower where the homeowner fired a small cannon-type device in the backyard to celebrate the baby’s pending arrival, police said.

The cannon blew up upon firing, spreading metal shrapnel that hit Silva, as well as three parked cars and the garage where the baby shower was held.

Silva was standing 10 to 15 feet from the explosion, police said. He was taken to Hurley Medical Center in Flint where he later died from his injuries.

He was one of about five people outside the residence where the cannon was fired and was the only one hit by shrapnel, police said.

The cannon was designed to fire more like a novelty Signal Cannon, which is intended to emit a big flash, a loud noise and smoke, police said....

As to be expected, there are wrongful statements being made about the enormous financial settlement for Flint. Why is it that money makes people do things and say things that simply are not in the realm of "the truth?"

February 5, 2021
By Ron Fonger

Flint - A federal court judge (click here) has ordered a Flint attorney to stop sharing “misinformation” about a proposed $641-million settlement of Flint water crisis civil lawsuits and says all 200-plus people he contacted by mail must be told the information they received was misleading.

U.S. District Court Judge Judith Levy made her ruling after an hour-long hearing with attorney Loyst Fletcher Jr. on Friday, Feb. 5, after other attorneys involved in the settlement requested a temporary restraining order and asked the court to forbid Fletcher from communicating with residents who are already represented by other attorneys in the settlement....

...Fletcher said he contacted 200 or more residents by mail after they called his law office, upset that the settlement agreement does not provide enough money for adults and does not allow them to receive direct refunds for water bills they paid after the city’s water source was switched from Lake Huron to the Flint River and back to Lake Huron again....

...Fletcher said he mailed those residents information, including a form letter they could mail to Levy, that contained “multiple inaccurate statements” about the settlement agreement, “distorts the opt-out procedures,” and “improperly solicits individuals who have been retained by counsel to represent them for their Flint water crisis claim,” the court filing says....

Prosecutors need to keep going in their review of the Flint Water Crisis. These latest charges still haven't finished the depth of corruption leading to the deaths and maiming of so many people. Add two more to the "Michigan 9."

January 14, 2021

Two former Michigan health officials (click here) were charged Thursday with involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of nine people who got Legionnaires’ disease during the Flint water crisis, as prosecutors revisiting how the city’s water system was contaminated with lead and bacteria also hammered a key adviser to ex-Gov. Rick Snyder with extortion and perjury crimes.

Snyder joined a parade of former state and local officials pleading not guilty in Genesee County courts. He’s facing misdemeanor charges of willful neglect of duty in Flint in a case that was filed Wednesday night, the first governor or former governor in Michigan’s 184-year history to face charges related to time in that office....
Sorry, I am not a big "game ball" fan. From what I saw of the last few minutes of the last quarter, the players looked fairly bored. To me, the Super Bowl is about corporate profits, right? This was 55, yes? So, as a sport, it has been fairly successful in maintaining its viability, at least financially.

Tom Brady has proven himself as the greatest football quarterback in history as of today. So, with that question answered the next one is will people be interested now in seeing him beaten? That is all that is left, right? He is the best, now in order to keep people interested in the game the only question is who is going to beat him?

So, stay tuned to the NFL even though the outcomes will be the same when facing Tom Brady. What other millionaire quarterback will finally beat Brady on a billionaire owner's field?
It wasn't much of a game I take it. The commercials were just about the best part of the game? No? Tom Brady loves to play football. Congratulations to Tampa Bay.

I was just reading an article about a displaced wolf. (click here) I was trying to figure out why she never settled down into a pack. I can't help believe she made the study's approved list because she was healthy. She was probably healthy because she was an alpha in an established pack. So, once an alpha always an alpha. Wolf W003F made unintentional history for the research team.

She doesn't appear to be in any one place long enough to have a pack herself. She may have given birth a couple of times when she settled into a forested area in Canada. It only takes 2 to 2 and a half months to birth pups and another few months to get them eating food rather than milk.]
  • 10 - 13 days: the eyes open
  • 3 weeks: the milk teeth appear, they start to explore the den
  • 4 - 5 weeks: short trips outside the den, begin to eat meat
  • 6 weeks: moving up to a mile from the den (with adult wolf)
  • 6 - 8 weeks: pups are weaned, traveling to rendezvous site.
  • 12 weeks: begin to travel with the pack on hunts (with adult wolves)
  • 15 - 28 weeks: milk teeth are replaced
  • 7 - 8 months: begin to hunt with the pack
She was in the Canadian forest to welp one litter. But, then she left again for her original home. Females can have their own generational packs whereby the females of several generations become their own pack. She doesn't seem to have done that though. She is a rare find and one that is willing AND ABLE to live on her own. 

Delayed

This is even unbelievable to me, but, my location doesn’t allow for reception of the Super Bowl except for CBS Sports App and my iPhone. A friend has followed the career of Tom Brady since the beginning, hence, my phone. I will have my phone back to use as a hot spot after the game. Until then.


Censure!

Wyoming is radical right? How many members of the lynch mob came from Wyoming?

Matt Gaetz is spreading lies about the election and Liz Cheney. He whipped the Wyoming GOP to censure her. Has he nothing else better to do except hate the truth. Matt Gaetz needs an ethics review in the US House and face censure himself. He flew to Wyoming to censure Liz Cheney when she wasn’t censured in the House. 

Gaetz is a dead ender for Trump.

George Walker Bush was just in Wyoming to visit with his former Vice President Dick Cheney. While he was there he thanked his former Vice President for his daughter that loves the country. 

Gaetz’s hissy fit occurred after “W” visited. It is a shame that people like Gaetz and Flynn don’t love this country as much as most Americans do in placing Joe Biden as the leader of the free world.

Flynn is setting himself up for more investigations.

I apologize to Liz Cheney as a great patriot that never deserved this level of defaming in her life. She doesn’t need the apology I am sure. It just isn’t right.

No one should be under the delusion that Trump and his cohorts are setting up another party. They are setting up a regime to remove democracy from the American people. The attack on the Capital was by a regime. There were military, retired and otherwise among them. There is still a Republican Party, ask Michael Steele. The real GOP is alive and kicking.

The White House isn’t moving away from bipartisanship...

 ...the Republicans are dragging their feet on everything. They forgot rather quickly who did all the damage to the country the last four years.

The entire Trump administration should be permanently suspended from any access to intelligence and national security issues, including Michael Flynn. Former federal Republican Senators and Representatives have to be revised as Trump sympathizers.