COVID-19 is not the flu and it's deaths are unique to this virus.

THIS IS NOT A POLITICAL ARTICLE.

The death rate of the flu this year so far is 0.038 percent. The death rate of COVID-19 virus is 3.5 percent. The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling COVID-19 a pandemic.

This is very serious. 

In the article below there is a reporting of 120,000 people infected and 4300 deaths. That is a death rate of 3.5%, actually it is closer to 3.6%. That death rate is 94 percent more deadly than the annual flu.

March 11, 2020

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...“Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly,” (click here) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, chief of the W.H.O., said at a news conference in Geneva.

“We cannot say this loudly enough or clearly enough or often enough,” he added. “All countries can still change the course of this pandemic.”

But now there is evidence on six continents of sustained transmission of the virus, which has infected more than 120,000 people and killed more than 4,300, and by most scientific measures the spread qualifies as a pandemic. The designation itself is largely symbolic, but public health officials know that the public will hear in the word elements of danger and risk.

According to the W.H.O., an epidemic is defined as a regional outbreak of an illness that spreads unexpectedly. In 2010, it defined a pandemic as “the worldwide spread of a new disease” that affects large numbers of people.

The C.D.C. says it is “an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people.”

The W.H.O. had not declared a pandemic since 2009, when it gave that designation to a new strain of H1N1 influenza....

Even with higher numbers infected with the flu causing larger number of deaths, the COVID-19 virus is causing a higher percentage of deaths in people. If one wants to only contain COVID-19 to the USA against the statistics of flu below, the percentage of deaths per infected is much higher than the global statistic.

February 11, 2020
by Claire Gillespie

...Flu season (click here) is hitting its stride right now in the US. So far, the CDC has estimated (based on weekly influenza surveillance data) that at least 12,000 people have died from influenza between Oct. 1, 2019 through Feb. 1, 2020, and the number of deaths may be as high as 30,000. 

The CDC also estimates that up to 31 million Americans have caught the flu this season, with 210,000 to 370,000 flu sufferers hospitalized because of the virus....

The seriousness of COVID-19 is a fact and not a matter of hysteria. This virus is very deadly and should not be taken lightly. People that normally would stay in work and recover from the flu are having a very difficult time surviving through this infection of COVID-19. They are hospitalized. There are not 31 million Americans hospitalized for the flu.

Saying COVID-19 is not that serious and less serious than the flu is highly inaccurate.

It is called justice.

No one wishes Harvey Weinstein ill health even though he wished Jennifer Anniston (click here) death. I am sure there will be appeals. The sentence will be challenged. But, the facts are plain, over a very lengthy and lucrative career Harvey Weinstein assaulted many women. He expected compliance with his wishes over a far longer period of time than the initial sexual assault.

Women in the USA clearly understand they have a right to their bodies which means, "No means, no." Hollywood has no exemption and the industry needs to clean up it's act. Every talent agent needs to clearly make it known that any sexual harassment and/or abuse of a client (female or male) will receive quick notice to the person followed by legal action and civil lawsuits for damages. There also needs to be clear understanding that there will be no false reporting to take hostage of producers or directors. While the arts tend to yield passion as a quality of it's work, that does not include taking hostage the free will of any person.

Harvey Weinstein's crimes were a surprise to this culture in the USA. Some within the industry knew of Weinstein's bad habits and nothing was done. That is called being complicit. That is a crime as well and could mean enablers will also find themselves having to answer questions and facing charges.

The culture of silence regarding crime against human beings will stop. There will be no secret understanding that success lies in living outside the law and being paid for silence. While these crimes are about Harvey Weinstein there is a culture of silence in the USA that even enabled the deaths of people in Flint, Michigan. No more. Jeffery Epstein is another unbelievable code of silence that went on for decades. This is the end of it.

Women will be respected and empowered during their careers to live a wholesome life within the arts. Nudity on the screen is not illegal. In every High School and College, people are to be taught the value of their lives and the right to demand respect for their bodies. People are never to be a commodity that power can use to a wicked and illegal end.

I wish the women involved in the Weinstein crimes healing and I sincerely wish they can now put this behind them and have a happy life and successful career.

March 11, 2020
By Colin Dwyer

Harvey Weinstein (click here) has been sentenced to 23 years in prison. Judge James Burke handed down the decision in a Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday as the disgraced movie mogul watched, flanked by his legal team.

His 20-year sentence for a criminal sexual act, the more serious of the two counts he was convicted of last month, is on the higher end of New York state's guidelines. For the other count, rape in the third degree, Weinstein was sentenced to three years in prison.

"We thank the survivors for their remarkable statements today and indescribable courage over the last two years," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement released Wednesday.

"Harvey Weinstein deployed nothing less than an army of spies to keep them silent," he added. "But they refused to be silent, and they were heard. Their words took down a predator and put him behind bars and gave hope to survivors of sexual violence all across the world."

The sentencing Wednesday caps Weinstein's precipitous fall from the heights of Hollywood, where, for decades, he brandished his power and influence like a blunt instrument — and allegedly sexually assaulted dozens of young women, intimidating them and others into silence.

Ronan Farrow describes how his Harvey Weinstein reporting unfolded | Nig...(click here for Ronan Farrow's credentials - thank you)

The population numbers I referred to yesterday came from this website. It looks credible to me.

This is the graph (click here) the graph of the China cases. It is easy to see the rapid spread of the disease, but, it also is easy to see the actions China took were effective and there is a leveling off of COVID-19 cases. The other graph is below and it shows the OUTCOME of the cases recorded in the amount of cases graph to the left. The virus took many lives in the beginning, but, as China became aware of the virus and began quarantine and treatment the outcomes began to change.

Both these graphs are current as of yesterday and that is the best anyone can hope for as the conclusion of today has not occurred yet.

The graph below is the number of cases in the USA. It is far more troubling than that of China's trend as of today. The USA graph of the number of cases shows a very slow increase. It is the opposite of China. The USA's effected population has not leveled off yet. The USA exhibits the trend of lacking a comprehensive policy that is being applied to all occurrences. In other words, as one state assesses it's outbreak it formulates a strategy to contain and end the virus' attack. As one state grows it's expertise, another state is experiencing new onsets. There is a continued number of growing cases because there is no central strategy out of US Homeland Security.

The strength of the USA's First World status isn't really showing in the "Recovery vs. Death" rate. I would expect the survival and recovery rate to be far better than China's, but, according to this graph, it isn't. It shows a death rate that exceeds a recovery rate at this point in time. The fact the USA is depending on the state Governors to assess and mandate a strategy shows through this graph. The "initial phase" of assessment is being repeated and people are falling through the cracks. There is no method of containment and the president continues to deny the severity of the outbreak.

What is sincerely troubling is this graph of the USA statistics. There is a growing number of cases in the USA, but, the recovery rate is flat. It reflects the growing death rate in the "death vs recovery" graph above. The USA is struggling to even admit it has a problem and governors are working with a handicap as they lack a central authority or strategy.

The one aspect that applies here as well is the inherent spread of the virus. In other words, China was the initial exposure to the virus and its statistics will become mature (statistics depends on numbers) earlier than that of the USA. The first case in the USA was some time after China's first reporting and even longer from China's first case. So, to say that the USA's trend is mature to the strategy it holds to end the spread and foster recovery of those exposed is inaccurate, however, I did expect a good response even at this point and it simply is not showing up.

The USA had a much longer "lead in" about the virus and China had none. My expectations is not wrong.

Worldometer (click here) is run by an international team of developers, researchers, and volunteers with the goal of making world statistics available in a thought-provoking and time relevant format to a wide audience around the world. Worldometer is owned by Dadax, an independent company. We have no political, governmental, or corporate affiliation.

Trusted Authority

Worldometer was voted as one of the best free reference websites by the American Library Association (ALA), the oldest and largest library association in the world.

We have licensed our counters at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), to BBC News, and to the U2 concert, among others.

Worldometer is cited as a source in over 10,000 published books, in more than 6,000 professional journal articles, and in over 1000 Wikipedia pages....

Filter masks alert!

Trump is headed to Capital Hill without an invitation!

Genetics don't stand alone as the sole reason for immunity and wellness.

There is no such thing as bad genetics, either. The "wellness" of the human body is dependent on many things, such as food, vaccines, cognitive understanding of life and the very experiences and EXPOSURE humans have to everyday life makes each one of us unique. There is no bad or good body, there is just OUR OWN BODY.

This is not a minor illness. Never, never, ever take it with a grain of salt. Always seek treatment as soon as possible.

Viruses use the patient's own genetics against him or her. That makes for a very difficult infection. The worst of the virus can become deadly when the patient is weak OR weakened during the course of the virus.

Always take it seriously and seek treatment which may very well mean hospitalization to attempt to maintain OPTIMAL WELLNESS during the course of the disease. There is no removing the infection from the human body yet. The idea is to make it to the other side of the COURSE OF THE INFECTION as a survivor.

It is easy to understand why the Third World has such profound problems with illnesses that are this difficult to live through. The people of the Third World are under heavy stress everyday. Stress compromises the immune system. They are up against the odds as soon as they are infected.

March 9, 2020

Hackensack - A New Jersey man (click here) is speaking out from the hospital about his coronavirus diagnosis and treatment.

James Cai believes he contracted COVID-19 while attending a medical meeting at the Westin Hotel in Times Square.

He told ABC News that he was feeling sick a few days later and went to urgent care, but they didn't see anything and suggested a pulmonary embolism. He went to the emergency room and they did a chest CT and they found a small lesion on his lung. That led the hospital to request a presumptive coronavirus test, and it came up positive.

"The CDC never confirmed it, not even now," he said. Cai added that doctors are surprised by his condition.

"They are surprised it can be so bad and I'm so young," Cai said. "I don't drink, I don't smoke."

He's currently being treated at Hackensack Hospital in New Jersey.

Cai is in his early 30's and works as a physician's assistant. His cousin is a cardiologist at Mount Sinai....

Contagion of COVID-19 may depend on viral load and not an arbitrary 14 day period.

Viruses are RNA. They need DNA to infect their host. If the DNA has a minor difference that is not opportunistic to the virus a person can be a carrier of the infective virus without having deadly or severe illness. In this case, the baby was immune to the worst part of the coronavirus COVID-19, but, maintained a colony of it in the nose. Every breath out would expel some degree of the virus while a sneeze would expel a larger number of virus.

A common cold is a coronavirus. This infant had the symptoms of a common cold for an extended period of time while being asymptomatic for the COVID-19 virus.

"A Well Infant with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID - 19) with High Viral Load"

Kai-qian Kam, Chee Fu Yung, Lin Cui, Raymond Lin Tzer Pin, Tze Minn Mak, Matthias Maiwald, Jiahui Li, Chia Yin Chong, Karen Nadua, Natalie Woon Hui Tan, Koh Cheng Thoon

Clinical Infectious Disease, February 28, 2020

A well 6-month-old infant with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (click here) had persistently positive nasopharyngeal swabs to day 16 of admission. This case highlights the difficulties in establishing the true incidence of COVID-19 as asymptomatic individuals can excrete the virus. These patients may play important roles in human-to-human transmission in the community....

PDF (click here)

Trump wants to give those Americans grieving and suffering from the coronavirus a payroll tax cut to help with doctor, hospital and funeral expenses. 

In looking at some population statistics, the spread in China seems to have leveled off now that it understands the nature of Covid-19. However, the West is seeing an increase in cases. That is fairly typical of any spread of disease.

So, I will look at those statistics again tomorrow, but, the USA had a very poor response to the disease even though enormous amounts of funding is spent on emergency preparedness. It would seem as though all the preparedness from previous administrations was squandered on a false emergency at the southern border by this one.

There is no reason to believe anything is going to get better overnight. There are still outbreaks in Asia, Europe and North America. Caution is still at play.

Distance from Wuhan to Guangdong, China
Guangdong is stated to be an industrial region in China.
10 h 29 min 

(996.7 km) (619.3 miles)

The province of Guangdong is estimating the timeline of Covid-19 to end it's threat is June 2020 . The province is seeking to limit any influx of the virus as a strategy to reduce it's risk.

March 9, 2020

The global outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia (click here) will last at least until June, according to an expert, and the emphasis of China's fight will shift toward preventing the imported infections in the months to come.

Renowned respiratory expert Zhong Nanshan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, urged Guangdong province, a major manufacturing center, to introduce more effective measures to prevent the deadly disease from being imported into the province in the months ahead.

"Guangdong has a large number of international events and exchanges and therefore should strengthen border inspection measures and introduce necessary isolation measures for people who arrive from the countries and regions hit by the epidemic," Zhong said during an online forum on Monday.

"Meanwhile Guangdong may provide support to the foreign countries and regions where the epidemic has struck hardest, including offering them protection, reagents and treatment technologies in the future."

As of Sunday, Guangdong's population of more than 115 million has had a total of 1,352 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Of those, 1,260 have recovered and have been discharged from hospitals.

China is concentrating on it's people and limiting the virus from infecting anymore. There is a remarkable story out of Henen province about 492.7 km (306.1 miles) north of Wuhan of a days old infant infected with Covid-19 recovered with a month's treatment. I can only assume the infant is doing well.

These are great victories for China. The worst may have been prevented if the government was more trusting of it's own people, especially those that have higher education and the best for China at the heart of their work. These are doctors and nurses. They love the people. At times the caregivers have sacrificed their own lives and contracting the virus to care for the people.

These are magnificent stories of China can be proud of and should foster to increase the trusting nature of its government to its people.

March 9, 2020

The youngest novel coronavirus patient (click here) in Henan province, just five days old at the onset of symptoms, recovers and is discharged from the hospital on March 6, 2020, after undergoing a month of treatments. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The youngest novel coronavirus patient in central China's Henan province - just five days old at the onset of symptoms - recovered and was discharged from the hospital on Friday after a month of treatment.

The infant tested positive for the novel coronavirus and was sent to the hospital with severe respiratory conditions.

"The hospital assembled a special team that provided multidisciplinary treatment every day," said Cheng Yibing, vice-director of Henan Children's Hospital.

"We also paid great attention to the baby's nursing and feeding. So far, the CT shows the lungs are in good condition and negative for the coronavirus. His weight has increased and can drink 65 milliliters of milk at a time, which meets the standard for discharge."

During its monthlong fight against the virus, the medical personnel in the hospital acted as surrogate parents and took good care of the infant day and night.

This is not surprising. One of the first statements I made about Covid-19 was that it will be first found in major cities. Mr. Cotton is typical of people in government on the front lines of these emergencies. He takes risks that he believes he can handle. He couldn't. It is not sincerely his fault. He does the unthinkable because of his dedication to leadership. 

While Mr. Cotton is a leader and very brave to assist with the assessment of how best to protect the public, HE SHOULD HAVE PROCEEDED with his job AFTER BEING ADVISED by emergency management personnel from US Homeland Security. That didn't happen, so Mr. Cotton went forward with the knowledge at hand and this was the result.

The USA government managed by Trump is incapable of leading and providing the best way forward with any emergency. The first question is "Who is in charge?" Denying the seriousness of this virus and calling it no more dangerous than the flu is opening the country and it's people to danger.

State Governors have no one to turn to at this point. The CDC, NIH, WHO and major hospitals like the Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, John Hopkins in Baltimore and the New York Presbyterian Hospital along with University of California hospitals should be tapped for advice and BEST PRACTICES.

March 9, 2020
By Bernadette Hogan and Kato Sheenly

The head of the Port Authority (click here) — who has been visiting local airports — has the coronavirus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday, as the state’s infection toll rose by 37, to now 142 patients.

Cuomo said he himself “could have been in contact” with infected PA Executive Director Rick Cotton but hasn’t been tested because he’s an “improbable positive,” meaning he isn’t likely to have the virus.

The governor didn’t say how Cotton may have contracted the potentially deadly bug but noted that the executive director “has been at the airports, obviously, when many people were coming back with the virus.

Cuomo specifically mentioned JFK Airport in Queens.

Cotton “will be working from home, and now the senior team that works with Rick will also be tested so several of them may be on quarantine and they’ll be working from home,” Cuomo said.

The PA chief and his “senior leadership team” are under a 14-day quarantine, officials later added....

It is not safe to travel at this time! Remember the words "STAYCATION."

March 8, 2020
By Tanya Snyder and Brianna Gurcillo

New guidance from the CDC (click here) urges travelers, especially the elderly and those with compromised health, to avoid long plane trips “and especially” cruises — a stark shift in rhetoric from an administration that had previously appeared reluctant to discourage Americans from moving around the globe.

The CDC now recommends that travelers “defer all cruise ship travel worldwide” and notes that “cruise ship passengers are at increased risk of person-to-person spread of infectious diseases, including COVID-19.” The State Department on Sunday also recommended against cruise travel, citing an increased risk of coronavirus infection, and issued a warning that citizens should not rely on repatriation flights "as an option for U.S. citizens under the potential risk of quarantine by local authorities.”...

Trump is lame. Sorry for the analogy to the sincerely physically lame.

This is called TRAINING (click here).

To the left is a BIO-CONTAINMENT Unit. I would be confident a unit like this would handily protect the care givers as well as the air around the containment unit. It is a unit that is easily used in transport.

This is the kind of containment unit that can be placed on ships and used when people are tested for positive or they develop symptoms of the virus. It is highly effective and very mobile. There is no reason for all this mess going on with the cruise ships.

THIS IS NOT NEW or REVOLUTIONARY TECHNOLOGY. IT IS TRIED AND TRUE.

For these biocontainment units to work and guarantee containment of the virus it requires QUALIFIED STAFF familiar with it's operation. The team of professionals wear special biocontainment suits to protect them from ACCIDENTS with any unit. They are also protecting the COMPROMISED patient from any potential infection with a weakened body condition.

I don't know what kind of medical professionals line the Board of Directors Room at these cruise ships, but, they should be required to have a Board Certified Physician/Surgeon as a part of their high level management team. Also, there needs to be well staffed and equipped "Hospital Unit" on these ships.

My mother, currently 85 years old has been traveling a lot over the past ten years after outliving my father by ten years. He passed in 2010 and travel helps her find her own identity separate from the woman that mourned her loving husband of 66 years. I am asking her to now stay at home and not make anymore travel plans until this health emergency passes. I love my mother and her mother and my grandmother lived well into her 90s, so, I expect my mother to be in this world for at the very least 10 more years. She would be one of the causalities if exposed to this virus.

I cannot tell you how disillusioned I am by the loss of expertise and prompt action by the federal government. Trump has gutted the experts because he claims to know everything. HE DOES NOT KNOW ANYTHING!

The existence of this biocontainment unit alone PROVES that Trump is not doing anything to help those suffering from the virus.

A cruise ships MUST have an evacuation agreement with every port they visit regardless the country. No seriously ill passenger should be maintained with the same ventilation system as the state rooms or the captain's bridge or any other room of the ship. The hospital unit on the ships have to maintain an independent ventilation system from the rest of the ship. The unit has to be equipped with filters that act on the air as it enters the unit and expelled to the outside air.

The cruise ships have been the source of many infected passengers before Covid-19. Norovirus is know to be a problem on these ships. (click here) This is not a new problem. The regulation of these ships are necessary for many reasons.

December 18, 2018

One of the worst Ebola outbreaks in history (click here) is happening right now with hundreds of confirmed cases of the deadly virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The biocontainment unit (BCU) at The Johns Hopkins Hospital is a state-of-the-art facility designed to care for patients with high consequence pathogens, such as Ebola. Since its opening in 2015, the BCU, one of 10 regional centers in the U.S., has served as a site of research and training for highly infectious diseases. Staff members are now passing on that knowledge to other Maryland hospitals.

Through the support of an $800,000 grant from the Maryland Department of Health, the BCU team has begun a statewide program aimed at supporting and providing resources to special pathogen assessment hospitals. These hospitals can safely isolate and care for a suspected Ebola patient until a diagnosis is confirmed or ruled out, and the patient is transferred or discharged. As part of the grant, the BCU team is able to travel to each of the five assessment hospitals in Maryland to understand each facility’s successes and challenges in preparing for patients with Ebola.... 

This is ridiculous. There is nothing that troubling to allow the people off board from the ship. Hospitals and the NIH can provide the STANDARD used by them to handle infectious disease.

Morning Papers

The Rooster

"Okeydoke"

Donald “Kompromat” Trump’s advice to our senior citizens to fly and travel will cause them illness and quite possibly death. Listen to Pope Francis. The Pope has excellent advisors and covets the health of people of all nations and religions. Pope Francis loves people, not their money. People give to the Catholic Church because it cares for them. I swear, Trump loves to cause people misery because it makes him feel powerful. Don’t listen to Donald “Grim Reaper” Trump.

Full Moon

13.8 days old

99.0 percent lit

March 8, 2020

Lynchburg - The last full moon (click here) of winter will light up the sky this weekend.

According to Old Farmer's Almanac, March’s supermoon is called the Super Worm Moon.

The Old Farmer's Almanac says the moon will appear full from Sunday night, March 8 but will officially peak Monday, March 9 at 1:48 p.m....

"A plan" can't be distorted by more than one source. A plan that is in writing and reflects READINESS isn't dependent on a solitary source. Covid-19 erupted in China on 30 December 2019 (click here). There should be no more questions by the federal government as to how to test for, diagnose and handle Americans infected with the virus.

March 8, 2020
By Catherine Kim

The Grand Princess (click here) — a cruise ship containing at least 21 people infected with the novel coronavirus — is scheduled to dock in Oakland, California on Monday, but the Trump administration does not yet have a fully-fleshed-out plan for dealing with the ship’s more than 3,500 passengers, according to top administration officials.

US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson appeared on ABC’s This Week on Sunday to give updates on the administration’s handling of Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus first observed in China. When pressed by the show’s host, George Stephanopoulos, on how the administration planned to deal with the Grand Princess, it became clear that the federal government is still working to create a transportation, testing, and treatment plan for the ship’s passengers.

“I don’t want to preview the plan right now,” Carson said, when Stephanopoulos asked if he could outline the administration’s strategy. “I think it needs to all come from a solitary source. We shouldn’t have 16 people saying what the plan is — particularly when it hasn’t been fully formulated.”...

The USA is not safe anymore because of Donald "Kompromat" Trump. There are more sincere evil doers that call Trump a friend than I thought any USA president could accumulate. I would think for all the evil doers in his "Friend List" he would wake up to the fact they are playing him for a fool. But, that would mean Americans might have a sympathetic view of him. That would be inaccurate.

When a president's intelligence agency can't produce a Worldwide Threat Assessment on time, that endangers the USA. I can only imagine, as well as most everyone else, what is going on in the intelligent departments of the USA. Maybe Putin is running them.

Trump is a fraud to the public. His politics are not politics at all, but, a belief system that threatens the stability of the USA. He wants to turn the USA's intelligence agencies into his personal enemies. That is nonsense. Trump hops from one foot to the other whenever he has to answer direct questions about any fact. I don't believe he likes being pinned to facts, so much as propaganda.

It is time for the people of the USA to end this charade called a presidency. It is not at all a presidency. As a matter of fact it is more like regime change. It can be said through sincere apathy by Republicans of the US Constitution the bad guys in the world have carried out regime change with Trump. Most responsible is Putin.

Trump has dismantled the USA federal government and replaced it with weak and pandering incompetents. Those leading agencies today have not been in their positions more than a year and most less than a year. That is actively dismantling the federal authority and I guarantee it that Putin’s plans are Trump’s plans. If the financial information that Russia holds dear about Trump, his tax filings and his relationship with marginal banks like Deutsche Bank, he would be found to be inappropriately involved with enemies to the USA. 

Just as a point of interest, Deutsche Bank was instrumental to the Nazis. 

It is time for Americans to get serious about leadership that is making the USA far less safe.

February 19, 2020
By Julian E. Barnes

President Trump (click here) on Wednesday named Richard Grenell, the ambassador to Germany who quickly antagonized the establishment after arriving in Berlin in 2018, to be the acting director of national intelligence overseeing the nation’s 17 spy agencies.

By choosing Mr. Grenell, who has little experience in intelligence or in running a large bureaucracy, the president signaled that he wants a trusted, aggressive leader atop an intelligence community that he has long viewed with suspicion and at times gone to war against.

As ambassador, Mr. Grenell made public statements that some German officials took as expressing opposition to the government there, an extraordinary intervention into domestic affairs that diplomats typically avoid. He attacked what he called “failed” open-border policies in Germany, which has resettled hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, and criticized Berlin’s stances on Iran, military spending and Chinese investment in global telephone networks. He also expressed an eagerness to empower conservatives throughout Europe.

“I absolutely want to empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders,” Mr. Grenell told Breitbart, a far-right website, in an interview shortly after his arrival in Germany. “I think there is a groundswell of conservative policies that are taking hold because of the failed policies of the left.”...

The US Department of Justice needs deconfliction of Ukraine actions, though?

This is unbelievable and maybe it does show that Trump's tweets are reeking havoc in the US Justice Department. But, this intervention by Donoghue is concerning as well as inappropriate. If there are many US Attorney offices finding criminal activity with "Trump Players" that is what should be upsetting, not that there needs to be coordination. I don't believe it does need coordination at all, as a matter of fact, crossing state lines to bring together criminal charges under one process is unconstitutional.

I do believe Mr. Donoghue's authority as well as Durham's will be found to be very inappropriate and politically motivated when this mess ends. Throw in unconstitutional because there are issues of States Rights in the attempts by Donoghue to minimize any proceedings regarding Ukraine. There better not be any watered down investigations that are carried out to protect Trump by Barr either.

February 18, 2020
By Josh Gerstein

The top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, (click here) Richard Donoghue, is now vetting and managing all Ukraine-related efforts by the Justice Department in the wake of President Donald Trump's impeachment over his actions toward the former Soviet republic.

Donoghue will "coordinate" these activities in the interest of deconfliction and efficiency, Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs Stephen Boyd said in a letter sent Tuesday to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler and his Republican counterpart, Doug Collins. But the letter is vague about the specific Ukraine-linked issues that might require review.

In a Jan. 17 memo, Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, who picked Donoghue for the role, simply referred to "several distinct open investigations being handled by different U.S. Attorney's Offices and/or Department components that in some way potentially relate to Ukraine."

Last October, federal prosecutors in Manhattan obtained the indictments of two associates of Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on campaign finance charges allegedly related to an effort to influence U.S. officials on behalf of a Ukrainian government official. The scheme also involved efforts to oust the U.S. ambassador to Kyiv at the time, Marie Yovanovitch....

I am STILL waiting for the 2020 Worldwide Threat Assessment (click here).


January 15, 2020

A year ago, (click here) very few Americans had ever heard of the U.S. intelligence community’s annual worldwide threats assessment and briefing to Congress. This year, the country should be paying close attention to them. We outline three areas of special interest and concern.

But first, some background.

Each year, generally in January or February, the intelligence community provides an overarching look at global threats to American interests, including in an unfamiliar manner for the intelligence community: in unclassified form. The leaders of the community, including the Director of National Intelligence and CIA Director, then brief Congress on that assessment—again, in an uncharacteristically unclassified and public setting. In 2019, this annual tradition received more attention than usual, as the intelligence community leaders provided candid assessments of Iran, North Korea, and ISIS that departed from the characterizations of those threats by the President to support his preferred policies. Trump dramatically summoned to the Oval Office his intel chiefs, snapped a photo with them for Twitter, and claimed that any apparent divergence was the result of media mischaracterizations, not actual disagreement....

It isn't Shifty Schiff, it is however Shifty and Shady Trump. 

February 8, 2020
By Marty Johnson

A House Intelligence Committee (click here) public hearing scheduled for next week has been canceled, pushing back the U.S. intelligence community's presentation on the top threats facing America.

"We are still having productive discussions with the committees on the timing of the Worldwide Threat Assessment hearings," a spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told CBS News on Friday.

Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) had initially requested both public and closed-door hearings for Wednesday, Feb. 12, but a committee member confirmed to the network that the proceedings had been put on hold....

All too often American politicians, correction Republican politicians (I never know what country the Republicans identify with, USA, Russia, Ukraine?) present the idea, the climate is not or is responsible for their particular point of view. That is an extremist excuse for not addressing the climate crisis.

In this reporting from the BBC, they responsibly assigned the climate 30 % responsible for the inferno that was Australia.

It is not all or nothing. It never has been. The TRENDS for decades have pointed to a hotter troposphere. The weather manifestations are those normally seen in climate, however, the extreme events that are taking place are catastrophic. The weather due to climate is not always catastrophic.

As an example:

Traditional weather in the USA only three decades ago saw tornadoes in the USA from March through June. Then the tornado season would end only to realize the Atlantic hurricane season began from June 1st to November 30, while the Pacific hurricane season began May 15th and end November 30th.

All that SEASONAL weather has changed. Tornadoes are no longer just those few months but occur year round. We now have seen a very strong in March that killed Americans. (click here) It was a tornado, yes. But, it was not a normal tornado during a normal tornado season. Not only this as an example, but, the normal tornado season now spawns tornado outbreaks of multiple vortexes. That was once a rare occurrence, now it happens frequently every tornado season.

The climate crisis has changed Earth's climate and it is showing up in catastrophic weather. Australia even lost it's beautiful Great Barrier Reef because of ocean temperatures. It is long past time to take this seriously.

4 March 2020
By Pallab Ghosh

Global warming boosted the risk of the hot, dry weather (click here) that's likely to cause bushfires by at least 30%, they say.

But the study suggests the figure is likely to be much greater.

It says that if global temperatures rise by 2C, as seems likely, such conditions would occur at least four times more often.

The analysis has been carried out by the World Weather Attribution consortium....

February 11, 2020
Bu Bob Berwyn

Rural Fire Service crews engage in property protection during wildfires along the Old Hume Highway near the town of Tahmoor, Australia, outside Sydney, Dec. 19, 2019. Wildfires have been burning since August and have destroyed an area comparable to the combined region of the Netherlands and Belgium.

As extreme wildfires (click here) burn across large swaths of Australia, scientists say we're witnessing how global warming can push forest ecosystems past a point of no return.

Some of those forests won't recover in today's warmer climate, scientists say. They expect the same in other regions scarred by flames in recent years; in semi-arid areas like parts of the American West, the Mediterranean Basin and Australia, some post-fire forest landscapes will shift to brush or grassland.

More than 17 million acres have burned in Australia over the last three months amid record heat that has dried vegetation and pulled moisture from the land. Hundreds of millions of animals, including a large number of koalas, are believed to have perished in the infernos. The survivors will face drastically changed habitats. Water flows and vegetation will change, and carbon emissions will rise as burning trees release carbon and fewer living trees are left to pull CO2 out of the air and store it.

In many ways, it's the definition of a tipping point, as ecosystems transform from one type into another....