Saturday, February 27, 2021

Thank you to the US House...

 ...for keeping a promise. It is important to keep the $15.00 per hour minimum wage in sight. The real power of the minimum wage will ultimately come from unions. We need to roll back the draconian legislation called “The Right to Work” because is agenda is not to IMPROVE the ability of workers to acquire upward movement to achieve home ownership, but instead, to destroy unions.

There is too much momentum out of misinformation to achieve economic-religious impoverishment with the illusion of keeping with God’s holy order to make it into heaven. This is the case because wealth is very unattainable for too many Americans and religion is a solace. Economic wealth needs to be defined and made common place with only “the ambition” and not the genius as its marker in the timeline of life. Walking in the light of God does not require surrendering to poverty simply because upward economic movement is out of reach.

That economic marker to common wealth has always been home ownership. Today, I read a millennium survey where a strong opinion is that home ownership is and will be out of reach for the rest of their lives. This is so much a reality that “IKEA” now sells an assembly kit for the new movement of our younger generations into a “tiny house” culture defined as ecofriendly.

There is no house today that isn’t ecofriendly if it is on a grid using alternative sources of fuel. ie: hydroelectricity. Hydroelectric power has been ecofriendly for decades. So, the marketing surrounding the “tiny house” culture has validity in the use of building materials that require less electrical power to create the components and choices of materials protecting important carbon sinks. But, to believe the house itself and its demand for electrical use is ecofriendly is wrongful thinking. The grid needs to be addressed and it’s source of power. Achieving zero carbon is not about tiny houses.

Unions must be strengthened, need to demand achievements by companies their members work for leaning into zero carbon goals and the Right to Work legislation erased from history, today and the future. The Right to Work is a return to slavery as if we aren’t already there.

Why is $15 per hour important? Because it creates that Middle Class and not the two tiered Wealthy and Poor. I consider Lower Middle Class the Poor as well because their children’s educational opportunities are victimized.

Examples of the two-tiered economic system exists in states such as Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina where residents laughingly will say, “We know how to do poverty real well.” That means they can eek out the appearance of the Middle Class but living paycheck to paycheck and having heavy debt balances. THAT is not wealth!

In looking to states such as the Northeast the people have accumulated real wealth with comfortable savings and retirements that are truly The Golden Years or as Senator Sanders would say, “A time of rest and grandchildren.” Not, a time of rest and grandchildren after I finish my Greeter Job at Walmart.

According to the Millenniums that had to create their own economy because, “ Oops” the Congress left them out of the budget in planning for their future opportunities, they will not own a home and might be destined more to look like the Chinese rather than Americans. There is no real opportunity for our children and grandchildren if we surrender our economy to China or Russia, isn’t that right Moscow Mitch?

It makes me chuckle when people hate the political Progressives. The Progressives live for the future. They live change. They believe all Americans have the right to representation including generations to come. Therein lies the opportunities of children and young adults. An American future imagined with enough change to create opportunities, ecofriendly and allow for a comfortable life throughout life is where the USA was at one time and should be again but just tweaked enough to improve the quality of life for generations to come.

$15 per hour is not a luxury, it is a necessity and it is a necessity now and not a part of a dreamscape FOREVER as the climate has been for over half a century.

As if poisoned water wasn't enough, the Governor has a right to poison a town.

February 22, 2021
By Ron Fonger

Flint - Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley (click here) is taking issue with arguments made by attorneys for Rick Snyder as they prepare to return to court Tuesday, Feb. 23, for the former governor’s criminal case related to the Flint water crisis.

In a filing in Genesee District Court Monday, Feb. 22, Snyder attorney Brian P. Lennon argues that the charges against his client should be dismissed, in part because, “Neglecting a city is not a crime -- certainly not one with which Governor Snyder has been charged.”...

Give an attorney enough money while Snyder's passport is still good and they will say ANYTHING, even things never allowed by law.

Lead is forever. All the evidence isn't in yet. The Michigan Attorney General needs to request all information the public has to come forward, including media services.

February 26, 2021
By Ron Fonger

Flint -  A bone test (click here) designed to measure long-term exposure to lead and that could be crucial evidence in making successful claims for a portion of the proposed Flint water crisis settlement is being made available.

But less than one day after a link to a website that’s being used to schedule appointments for the bone scans was posted online, every available time slot has been taken and it’s unclear when or how many more will be available....

November 2018
Harvard Health

Lead is a metal (click here) that is poisonous (toxic) when inhaled or eaten. Lead gets into the bloodstream. It is stored in the organs, tissues, bones and teeth.

  • With increasing or prolonged exposure, lead can cause:
  • Permanent damage to the central nervous system, especially the brain
  • Delayed development in children
  • Behavioral changes in children
  • Decreased production of red blood cells (anemia)
  • Hearing problems
  • Damage to the reproductive systems of men and women
  • Kidney disease
  • Convulsions (seizures)
  • Coma

The leading source of exposure to lead is lead-based paint. This was outlawed for residential use in 1978....

I told you and I told you to stop this stupid Trump paradigm of sending the kids to school.

Did I not tell anyone reading this blog to KEEP THE KIDS AT HOME! Now, schools are becoming hot spots of infection. You mean to tell me that sending children to school to socialize or receive special services ONLY TO TURN AROUND two weeks later and have to shut down the schools is WORTH IT?

THIS IS NOT WORTH IT!

February 27, 2021

Greensboro - Caldwell Academy and Oak View Elementary (click here) are included in a state report released Friday that identifies COVID-19 clusters in schools.

Five staff members and six students at Caldwell Academy have had COVID-19, according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

The report does not provide dates of positive cases or other information such as grade level — or say whether any of the cases are still active.....

Southern legislators always put the almighty dollar ahead of the quality of life. They are following the Republican Idiot Paradigm of demanding children go back to school. Roy Cooper stands against the tide and I hope his veto holds up because he is doing the right thing.

February 27, 2021
By Bryon Anderson 

Raleigh - Gov. Roy Cooper on Friday (click here) rejected a bill that would compel the state's 115 K-12 public school districts to reopen with at least partial in-person instruction, while also allowing parents the option of keeping their kids learning remotely.

The plan introduced by Republican state lawmakers could still become law if enough of the handful of Democrats who supported the bill decide to override the governor's veto.

“As written, the bill threatens public health just as North Carolina strives to emerge from the pandemic. Therefore, I veto the bill,” Cooper wrote in a message....

Parents have keep them home and safe all this time only to have them return to school with the danger still lurking only to get sick and have to keep them home ANYWAY!

Trump's year of mixed messages about the safety of being social has created false faces to hope. There is skepticism because people died when they were told there was no need to wear masks and the virus was no worse than the flu. SARS-Cov-2 is not a simple virus and it does kill.

Now, if the government wants to win over the people again, STOP LYING, admit the danger of this virus and its variants and ask faith leaders to help in returning trust to the government and the efforts to vaccinate. DO NOT LIE ABOUT THE VARIANTS. There are still outbreaks of dangerous viruses that may never have vaccines that work. Mask wearing, social distancing, hand washing, and all the other protections put in place may be necessary for a while until the incidents of these viruses are down to ZERO.

February 27, 2021
By Kenwyn Caranna

After news broke that COVID-19 vaccines (click here) would become available, community outreach workers began getting people on a waiting list in January.

They wanted to get those most at risk from the coronavirus to be among the first to get the shot.

But when appointments became available — after delays because of a vaccine shortage and shifts to mass vaccination sites in Charlotte — some people had changed their minds. Fear, generated by false information and conspiracy theories, overtook them.

“We scheduled 20 people, 16 people got the shot. The other four people got scared and texted me in the last minute and said they didn’t want to go anymore,” said Liana Adrong, administrative coordinator of the Montagnard Dega Association.

MDA is a nonprofit that assists refugees in Greensboro, mostly from the Central Highlands of Vietnam....

I am damn tired of Americans and their children being hurt by idiocy and politicians that play with lives so long as it is not their own.