Today a Special Ops told China to end the tensions with Tiawan.

These are the acts of the men and women of the USA military. They are vital to international balance of power. They are unheralded, but, they are there when it matters.

2020/10/8
By Keoni Everington

Taipei — China's declaration the median line (click here) in the Taiwan Strait does not exist was upended when Taiwanese aviation enthusiasts saw an American warplane appear to "draw" the exact location of the unofficial boundary.

On Sept. 21, Beijing suddenly decided to deny the existence of the median line in the Taiwan Strait, despite the fact there has been a tacit agreement in place not to cross the line since 1955. Since September, People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) aircraft have repeatedly crossed the median line and breached Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

The Facebook page of Taiwanese aircraft spotter "Southwest Airspace of TW" (台灣西南空域) at 11:19 a.m. on Thursday morning stated that an MC-130J was flying north to south along the median line. The administrator of the Facebook page, surnamed Hsu (許), made a comment below noting the placement of the flight path in between Taiwan and China and wrote "this is a little weird."

At 11:24 a.m. on Thursday, aircraft spotter CANUK78 posted a tweet stated that a US Air Force Lockheed MC-130J Commando II was flying over the Taiwan Strait. The flight path included in the tweet showed the aircraft flying right down the middle of the Taiwan Strait from north to south.

At 11:54 a.m., aircraft spotter JW Wiese posted a tweet also stating that an MC-130J had flown over the Taiwan Strait and listed it as a "Multimission combat transport/special operations tanker, assigned to the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC)." The route shown on JW Wiese's tweet showed the plane first flying down the middle of the Taiwan Strait, before making a sharp turn to the east, taking it briefly over western Taiwan, and later heading west over the Taiwan Strait.

After the plane had made perfect "L" shape, Hsu at 12:27 p.m. wrote, "The median line has been drawn, mission completed." Another Taiwanese aviation fan then joked, "Did the chief judge come today to draw the line?"

On Thursday afternoon, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) stated that it was aware of all flights that morning and "the situation is normal." The MND had previously reported a similar mission by the same type of aircraft on Aug. 29 last year.

The plane's airframe identifier is AE596A and it is special mission aircraft operated by the United States Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). According to the aircraft's maker Lockheed Martin, the MC-130J is “capable of worldwide employment for missions requiring clandestine single- or multi-ship low-level aerial refueling of Special Operation Force vertical and tilt-rotor aircraft and/or infiltration, resupply and exfiltration by airdrop, or landing on remote airfields.”

There is no greater honor.

Humayan Kahn was a talented and brilliant man. He was exceptionally compassionate. He could not look at the disabled without feeling a need to help their lives to be better.

This brilliant man loved his country. As war unfolded following the attacks on USA soil on September 11, 2001, he felt compelled to take up the protection of the country. He went to fight for all of us. We lost him because of his heroic acts.

Today, facing a global pandemic we call many people heroes and they are. But, without men such as Captain Humayun Khan, we would not have a country to provide for heroes to save lives from a very vicious virus.

The greatest sacrifice an American can make is to give their life in war. Captain Khan was one of those men and his family is embraced for their loss to remind them exactly who he was and who they are.

I am sorry for the Kahn family loss, but, he fought to protect us all and we won't forget the sacrifice of a true hero and his love of this country where his immigrant family found peace and happiness.

1 August 2016

Capt Humayun Khan (click here) - a US soldier who died fending off a suicide bomber in 2004 - has become an unlikely player in the 2016 election.

But who was the Army officer whose parents are now locked in public battle with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump?

Khan was born in 1976 and his Pakistani family immigrated to the US two years later.

They settled in Silver Spring, Maryland, where Humayun grew up with two brothers.

His father has described him as a patriotic child with a fascination for Thomas Jefferson, one of America's founders.

While in secondary school, Humayun volunteered to give swimming lessons to disabled children.

After joining the University of Virginia, he signed up for the Reserve Officers' Training Corps, which prepares university students to become officers in the US military.

His father, who is a lawyer, was opposed to the move. But the younger Khan persisted.

"He wanted to give back. That's what he wanted to do," his father told the Washington Post.

After graduating from university in 2000, he served in the Army for four years and rose to the rank of captain.

What is a political crime?

There is fraud, and misdirecting the USMail, but, what the heck is a political crime?

Oh, yeah, sedition and treason. There is espionage like the Russian hacking of the Clinton campaign and then publish it to undermine an election.

An act or omission prejudicial to the interests of the state or government. 

An attack on the political order. Hm. That must be like the attack Trump is currently engaged in premeditated election ballot disarray. Right, DeJoy? Those sorting machines repaired and reassembled yet?

There is no formal statute that defines "political crime." There is no formal statute that defines political crime in any state or territory of the USA either.

This is an academic video and definition.

Political crime (click here) is an offense committed with the intent to harm a federal, state, or local government under certain conditions. This lesson discusses political crimes, what differentiates them from other crimes, and some examples of political crime over the years....

This is what I call political crime. Trump's son in law volunteers his time in the Oval Office. Right. It was all self-serving. Kushner even admitted the diplomatic efforts by countries in the Middle East is not called a peace process. Palestine? Palestine who?

October 1, 2020
by Heather Vogell

Despite a history of underperforming properties, (click here) Kushner Companies received a near-record sum from a government-backed lender. Should it default, taxpayers could be forced to foot much of the bill. The agency says politics played no role....

Basically, Kushner extorted the federal government for every dime he could find.

The legal definition for "Shake Down" would be interesting in this case.

Kushner got LOAN GUARANTEES. Guess what happens next BECAUSE OF THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC?

"Heil Trump"

 

Joe Biden and audience MUST be completely protected from the air Donald John Trump breaths.

I don't think anyone cares about these debates anyway, there is too much risk.

The only way to protect everyone from Typhoid Donald is to place him in a hermetically sealed booth that has negative pressure to vent the booth's air to the outside.

The entire Trump campaign is infected with SARS-CoV-2 and they don't care. Please understand that THEY DON'T CARE.

INFECTING JOE BIDEN and the audience in the room is an agenda item for Trump. 

Trump PRACTICES "Herd Immunity" every day of his life. He does not care about infecting anyone else. "It is what it is."

Joe Biden has to make it clear he will uphold his standard. There is no other solution. If Joe decides to cave on this, it will jeopardize his promise to America.

Yesterday Kamala Harris was in the room with Pence that was exposed to SARS-CoV-2 within the previous week. She could be at risk as well. There is absolutely no compromise on this issue going forward.

A Virtual Debate is perfectly fine and if Trump refuses, then we don't need to hear from him. 

Chris Christie (click here) is still hospitalized after being exposed to the virus while coaching Trump for the first debate. This is outrageous. There is just no way Joe Biden and the audience should be in the same room with Trump and unprotected.

I congratulate Chris Christie on staying in a hospital room receiving treatment and protecting others from this virus. He needs to stay in the hospital until he is completely well. This is a very bad virus and he needs to be careful.

By all rights, Trump should still be in the hospital. He isn't because he believes he knows more than his physicians do and refused to follow their orders. Sure he was discharged, but, he is the president and there really wasn't another path for the doctors or hospital, short of taking him to court to enforce a quarantine. They should have done that.

Donald Trump is risking it all. There is no reason for anyone else to do the same thing.

There is a reason why indoor air is more dangerous and why restaurants and bars are super spreader events.

October 5, 2020
By Apoorva Mandavilli

Two weeks (click here) after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took down a statement about airborne transmission of the coronavirus, the agency on Monday replaced it with language citing new evidence that the virus can spread beyond six feet indoors.

“These transmissions occurred within enclosed spaces that had inadequate ventilation,” the new guidance said. “Sometimes the infected person was breathing heavily, for example while singing or exercising.”...

Mike Pence carries Trump's lies. He is therefore as untrustworthy as his boss.

Last night Kamala Harris stated she would be first in line to take a vaccine if recommended by the public health authorities, but, not if dictated by Donald John Trump. Mike Pence took offense by that statement and said it was not the best idea to stand against the public health of the USA. That statement to Camala Harris indicated that Mike Pence carries Trump's lies to the public health. Kamala Harris is correct in that clearing a vaccine for use in the requires the recommendation of the public health authorities. Neither Trump nor Pence have credentials that allow them to insist on a vaccine that is not backed by the public health authorities.

The WHO Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (click here) has stated he expects a vaccine by the end of the year.

That said, Donald John Trump states he wants the same treatment he is receiving to fight COVID-19 for all the people of the USA when needed.

Fine.

Where is the money?

Donald John Trump has a team of seven doctors, a multidisciplinary team that includes nurses, RESPIRATORY THERAPISTS, and ancillary help that provided personal care, including linen changes and providing towels as well as a dietitian and the kitchen attendants that bring helpful and healthy food.

I want the cost of care to Donald John Trump known to the public and then the Congress and the Executive Branch must allocate that amount of money for every American in the country should they need it. That allotment of monies needs to go to the hospitals in the country ON ADMISSION OF COVID-19 PATIENTS.

Now.

October 6, 2020
By Siladitya Ray

 

“There is hope” (click here) that a vaccine against Covid-19 may be ready by the end of this year, the World Health Organisation’s Director-General said in his closing remarks to the global agency’s executive board on Tuesday without offering any additional details, according to a Reuters report...

Trump wants the USA National Parks to make profits for the USA Treasury. Squirrels don't pay taxes.

The management of Public Lands of the USA is being changed SECRETLY without notice to the American people.

1 September 2020
By Emily Holden

The Trump administration (click here) is proposing to make it easier for oil and gas companies to drill on US forest service lands.

A proposed rule would eliminate key environmental reviews and public notice requirements, according to environmental advocates.

Currently, 2.7 % of the acreage of the national forest system has been leased by energy industries. An analysis by The Wilderness Society finds that the changes would make drilling more likely on more than 9m acres of land with high, medium or moderate development potential in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. Many of the forests are near tribal lands or include the traditional territories of indigenous peoples, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Western US forests could see the biggest changes, but the rule could also affect the east coast, where there is far less forest service land....



Drilling within forests would require clearing trees for well pads and disrupting the ecosystem for roads and pipelines....

The damage to the USA by the Trump administration is so profound it requires a new approach.

There is not going to be RECOVERY. In order to recover an economy, there has to be something there to recover. The recovery period was over in April 2020.

7,380,326 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the USA .

208.787  deaths due to COVID-19 in the USA.

Unemployment (click here)

Household Survey Data In September, the unemployment rate declined by 0.5 percentage point to 7.9 percent, and the number of unemployed persons fell by 1.0 million to 12.6 million. Both measures have declined for 5 consecutive months but are higher than in February, by 4.4 percentage points and 6.8 million, respectively.

The USA economy cannot return to previous years because of permanent damage by the failure of leadership of Donald John Trump.

U.S. Bankrupties at 10-year high as pandemic takes its toll.

August 13, 2020
By Felix Richter

As the coronavirus pandemic (click here) continues to wreak havoc on the U.S. economy, bankruptcies are on track to hit the highest level in at least 10 years according to figures compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

According to the analysis, which only includes public companies and private companies with public debt and/or assets/liabilities over $2 million or $10 million, respectively, 424 companies announced their bankruptcy through August 9 this year, up 22 percent from the same period last year and the highest level since 2010.

Consumer-focused companies were most affected by the pandemic, with more than 100 of them filing for bankruptcy this year. Due to the lockdown, the already battered retail sector was hit by a wave of bankruptcies that swept away household names such as J.Crew, Ascena Retail and J.C. Penney.

The national GDP of the USA is being depleted day after day. 

GDP (click here)

Trump never put the American people first and still doesn't.

Pence is defending the fact containment was never achieved nor was it a priority to this administration at any point of this pandemic.

The George W. Bush and the Barak H. Obama administrations never had to close borders because SARS and Eboli was contained and never effect the health of the American people and never disrupted the American economy.

The CDC and NIH were IGNORED by the Trump administration were ignored for an entire week during the most critical time in this exposure to SARS-CoV-2 THE BEGINNING.

The disaster took hold and the USA borders were closed to China. They are open now, there is freight coming and going between China and the USA. It was later that the borders were closed to Europe and SARS-CoV-2 migrated into New York without barriers. It was more than a month after that the southern borders were closed to South America and long after Miami was inundated by the virus.

This is a remarkable accomplishment and going forward it will make a huge difference in people afflicted with illness.

7 October 2020

Heidi Ledford & Ewen Callaway

It’s CRISPR. (click here) Two scientists who pioneered the revolutionary gene-editing technology are the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

The Nobel Committee’s selection of Emmanuelle Charpentier, now at the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens in Berlin, and Jennifer Doudna, at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, puts to rest years of speculation about who would be recognized for their work developing the CRISPR–Cas9 gene-editing tools. The technology allows precise edits to the genome and has swept through labs worldwide since its inception in the 2010s. It has countless applications: researchers hope to use it to alter human genes to eliminate diseases, create hardier plants, wipe out pathogens and more....

Most people respect reality.

Cal Cunningham needs to make amends to his wife for a weakness in their marriage.  Unfortunately, a woman that was supposed to help the campaign became a liability as she indulged her loneliness with a separation from her husband. Publishing any naked pictures on public forums by anyone is considered revenge porn.

Cunningham needs to provide an interview with a trusted journalist and if his wife will appear with him then all the better if she forgives him. If not, then she needs to decide about her marriage. He still needs to talk to North Carolinians. He has votes. He can't simply step out of the picture. Voting has already begun in North Carolina.

Cunningham will bring better outcomes to North Carolinians. Tom Tillis has a strong track record that sells out the best interests of North Carolinians for big money from cronies. North Carolinians deserve better and Cal Cunningham needs to respect that, too.

I believe Franklin Graham's March in Washington was a super spreader event.

I think the California Pastor contracted the virus at the march and then took it to the Rose Garden. There is a better than 50 percent chance Pence was exposed to COVID-19 at the Graham March.

Graham advocates prayer, church, and god as the way to survive an onslaught of a deadly virus. He DOES NOT advocate masks, distancing, or hand hygiene. I think Mr. Graham needs to be reviewed as a mass spreader.

These folks need to be called out when they don't follow the recommendations of doctors and authorities like the CDC, FDA, NIH, and WHO. Evangelicals are a global force on Earth. They could be causing some of the rise in COVID-19 cases globally. They are known for religious prejudice that causes harm to people.

March 28, 2020

Charlotte - Thousands of Americans (click here) have called a 24/7 COVID-19 prayer line started by the Charlotte-based Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, president and CEO Franklin Graham said Saturday.

“Early this week, we began airing a 60-second evangelistic message on TV across the entire United States, and we have had thousands of people call,” the evangelist posted in a coronavirus ministry update.

“Maybe your heart has been gripped by fear as millions of others have because of the coronavirus pandemic,” Graham posted on Facebook on March 21 when he announced the prayer line, 888-388-2683.

“But I want you to know that God loves you, He made you, He created you, He knows everything about your life,” Graham continued. “You don’t need to be afraid. Jesus said I’ll never leave you nor forsake you.”

The March 21 post has drawn 56,000 likes and 26,000 shares.

On Saturday, Graham urged people who “are struggling with worry in the midst of this crisis” to call the line.

“Maybe your heart has been gripped by fear as millions of others have because of the coronavirus pandemic,” Graham posted on Facebook on March 21 when he announced the prayer line, 888-388-2683.

This reporting that included this picture of Greg Laurie states he became infected with SARS-CoV-2 at the Rose Garden Ceremony.

'My symptoms have been mild so far, and I expect to make a full recovery,' Laurie tells his followers

There needs to be a change in the Vice President debate to virtual. VP Pence cannot reassure anyone that he is not infected. Pence was with this California pastor after the Rose Garden ceremony in a parade. That was Saturday. We know as a fact that a positive result can take as long as 14-16 days from the date of exposure.

The Democrats had a great virtual convention. I am sure the DNC Chair Tom Perez could recommend people that could put a virtual debate together. The Republicans are not reliable in their reporting about anything. It is time to say it and handle the danger that could effect Senator Kamala Harris. This is not casual or amusing. This is a serious issue that needs to be addressed now.

October 5, 2020

By Steven Nelson

Greg Laurie (click here) addresses the controversy surrounding the billboards depicting himself holding a bible that were taken down during the run up to SoCal Harvest with Greg Laurie at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on Friday, August 17, 2018 in Anaheim, Calif.

A pastor who joined Vice President Mike Pence (click here) at a “prayer march” before the Rose Garden event to announce Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett has tested positive for COVID-19.

Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, Calif., joined Pence at the Rev. Franklin Graham-led Prayer March 2020 near the Lincoln Memorial, which drew thousands of participants.

Laurie is the latest participant in the Rose Garden event later that day to contract the serious respiratory illness, New York magazine reported.

Pence’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

President Trump tested positive for the virus on Thursday evening and was hospitalized the next day at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Trump is expected to return to the White House on Monday night to continue his recovery....

There is a chance that Laurie did not have contact with Vice President Pence after his exposure at the Rose Garden Ceremony.

WAIT A MINUTE. WAS THERE EXPOSURE OF PEOPLE AT THE MARCH on September 26th?

Just because Laurie is testing positive after the Rose Garden ceremony doesn't mean he wasn't exposed in the March. Are there people from the March testing positive?

October 6, 2020

By Carla Marinucci 

...A week earlier, (click here) he attended the Sept. 26 Prayer March on the National Mall with Vice President Mike Pence and evangelist Franklin Graham. Laurie also was on hand for the White House Rose Garden ceremony for the nomination of Barrett....

The reason there is confusion over this issue is that there is no communication from the White House. The media is left to piece together the facts that are available to them.

There need to be reassurances Senator Kamala Harris is safe beyond a reasonable doubt. Virtual is better. It makes no sense this has to take place with risk from the White House and it's staff.

Debates going forward should be virtual.

If the candidates are to be on the same stage there cannot be mingling of air between the two nor the audience. If Pence doesn't want a plexiglass barrier, then he MUST wear a mask. The debate stage has to be assessed for "air circulation" to be sure the air is vented out of the building from where the candidates and the audience are seated. That means there is a high rate of air exchange pushing the air to the floor and out of vents to the outside. 

October 6, 2020

By Michael Scherer and Josh Dawsey

Vice President Mike Pence (click here) is requesting that no plexiglass dividers be placed on his side of the stage at Wednesday night’s vice-presidential debate, after an announcement Monday by the Commission on Presidential Debates that dividers had been agreed to as a safety measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Marc Short, the vice president’s chief of staff, said the vice president’s team does not view plexiglass dividers as medically necessary, given other safety measures at the debate, including a 12-foot distance between Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and daily testing of both candidates.

The commission and the Biden campaign both said Tuesday they understood that the Pence team was in agreement with the notion of plexiglass barriers. But the Pence team suggested they did not want any such dividers around the vice president, regardless of what Harris does....

The USA Gulf Coast needs to pay attention. This is another Katrina.

Hurricane Delta is currently a category 4 and will fuel higher once it hits the Gulf. 

This is the latest image of Delta. It is currently straddling the Yucatan Peninsula between the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. That is what gives it the "dual eye" storm. Those two eyes will become one large storm once it hits the Gulf of Mexico.

There is no doubt this storm needs a wide berth. I kindly ask the Gulf States to reflect on recent rains and flooding. The people will need to MOVE AWAY from those flooded and coastal areas. There is more flooding in the interior of these states than ever before. The people are important and their awareness is not enough, they have to be told it is mandatory to evacuate.

Currently, Hurricane Delta has a central pressure of 954 millibars of pressure. Katrina's central pressure was 920 at landfall in 2005. Delta has a huge potential to cause a threat to life.

There is no "maybe" about this storm. It is coming and it is a very dangerous storm. The width of this storm will bring danger to most of the Gulf Coast. Do not just concentrate on the eye of this storm. It will have enough diameter to reach other areas causing significant flooding, winds, and danger.

...The devastation left in Katrina’s wake (click here) over southeast Louisiana and coastal Mississippi was immense. The storm surge ravaged coastal Mississippi, and several levee breaches occurred in and around New Orleans. The levee breaches and overtopping resulted in floodwaters of 15 to 20 feet covering about 80 percent of the city. The catastrophic damage and loss of life inflicted by this hurricane is staggering, with an estimated 1,353 direct fatalities1 and 275,000 homes damaged or destroyed....

The width of Katrina's landfalling damage covered the coast of two states. The eye is a very dangerous part of the storm, but, the peripheral bands and the rains that come with these storms are just as dangerous and IMMEDIATE.

Katrina was an August storm.

...Delta, (click here) which was just a tropical depression at 5 a.m. EDT Monday, has put on a rare feat of rapid intensification, increasing its winds by 70 mph (from 40 mph to 110 mph) in its first 24 hours since becoming a named storm at 8 a.m. EDT Monday. According to Dr. Phil Klotzbach, this is the most intensification in a 24-hour period for an October Atlantic named storm since Hurricane Wilma in 2005. According to Tomer Berg, Delta did the fastest intensification from a 35-mph tropical depression to a 130-mph category 4 hurricane in modern Atlantic records, accomplishing the feat in just 30 hours. The previous record was Keith in 2000 (42 hours)....

The USA is failing in large measure. The first two to three weeks of the national emergency in the USA was squandered for Republican politics. This could be over by now.

Global Situation (click here)

Globally, as of 3:07pm CEST, 6 October 2020, there have been 35,347,404 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 1,039,406 deaths, reported to WHO.

The USA hasn't learned a darn thing and is still leading the world in confirmed cases and deaths.

Situation by Country, Territory or Area by Confirmed Cases

United States of America 7,341,406

India 6,685,082

Brazil 4,915,289

Russia Federation 1,237,504

Columbia 855,052

Peru 828,169

When it comes to deaths there is no other country in our class. We lead the world in deaths by TWICE that of the next highest country, India. Graphs to the right is the trajectory of the two countries. (click here)

United States of America  208.433

India  103,569

Those numbers are stunning. The population of India is 1.35 billion with a B. The population of the USA is 328.2 million with an M. Those numbers reflect a far higher death rate per capita by the USA than any other country on Earth.

The response by the USA federal government is failing the people in large measure. Deaths are not acceptable and should be fought at every turn.

The USA passed legislation to benefit the hospitals and make them stronger, it paid businesses into a program that was to provide paychecks to keep the population going until the end of July. When the denial of the severity of this virus was squandered by the Republican political circus, deaths were not the only vital statistic of failure, the economy of the USA is failing as well. The entire Republican circus must be opposed as it opens the USA to failing national security.

These observations are based on FACT.

I MEAN EVERY WORD IN THIS ENTRY!

The rest of the world is NOT carrying out opposition to reality by holding "COVID Parties." They are finding ways to carry important messages such as brilliant works of art where people can find it.

Video (click here)

What is Australia doing to reduce wildfires?

Australia believes Earth actually knows how to maintain a safe environment. The Tasmanian devils were brought back to the wildlands of Australia. It is a similar story as the Grey Wolf in Yellowstone. Nature actually knows what balance is and maintains it.

October 5, 2020

By Jack Guy

Eleven Tasmanian devils (click here) have been reintroduced to mainland Australia, more than 3,000 years after they died out there.

The carnivorous marsupials have been released into a 400-hectare (988-acre) wildlife sanctuary north of Sydney, New South Wales, Australian NGO Aussie Ark said in a statement.

"In 100 years, we are going to be looking back at this day as the day that set in motion the ecological restoration of an entire country," said Tim Faulkner, president of Aussie Ark.

"Not only is this the reintroduction of one of Australia's beloved animals, but of an animal that will engineer the entire environment around it, restoring and rebalancing our forest ecology after centuries of devastation from introduced foxes and cats and other invasive predators."...

August 6, 2020

Pullman, Washington - A rare, transmissible tumor (click here) has brought the iconic Tasmanian devil to the brink of extinction, but new research by scientists at Washington State University and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle indicates hope for the animals’ survival and possibly new treatment for human cancers.

The study, published in Genetics on Aug. 1, found a single genetic mutation that leads to reduced growth of a transmissible cancer in Tasmanian devils in the wild.

“This gene is implicated in human prostate and colon cancers,” said Andrew Storfer, professor of biological sciences at WSU. “While the findings hold the most immediate promise to help save the world’s few remaining Tasmanian devils, these results could also someday translate to human health.”

The research team, led by Storfer and  and Mark Margres, now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, studied the genomes of cases of devil facial tumor disease, or DFTD, that regressed spontaneously — that is, the cancer began disappearing on its own....

August 21, 2020 

By Mark J. Margres,  View ORCID ProfileManuel Ruiz-Aravena, Rodrigo Hamede, Kusum Chawla,

Austin H. Patton, Matthew F. Lawrance, Alexandra K. Fraik, Amanda R. Stahlke,

Brian W. Davis,  View ORCID ProfileElaine A. Ostrander, Menna E. Jones, Hamish McCallum,

Patrick J. Paddison, Paul A. Hohenlohe, David Hockenbery and Andrew Storfer

Abstract

Spontaneous tumor regression (click here) has been documented in a small proportion of human cancer patients, but the specific mechanisms underlying tumor regression without treatment are not well understood. Tasmanian devils are threatened with extinction from a transmissible cancer due to universal susceptibility and a near 100% case fatality rate. In over 10,000 cases, <20 instances of natural tumor regression have been detected. Previous work in this system has focused on Tasmanian devil genetic variation associated with the regression phenotype. Here, we used comparative and functional genomics to identify tumor genetic variation associated with tumor regression. We show that a single point mutation in the 5′ untranslated region of the putative tumor suppressor RASL11A significantly contributes to tumor regression. RASL11A was expressed in regressed tumors but silenced in wild-type, nonregressed tumors, consistent with RASL11A downregulation in human cancers. Induced RASL11A expression significantly reduced tumor cell proliferation in vitro. The RAS pathway is frequently altered in human cancers, and RASL11A activation may provide a therapeutic treatment option for Tasmanian devils as well as a general mechanism for tumor inhibition....

Please Support Jamie Harrison for Senate in South Carolina.

 Jamie Harrison for US Senate (click here) 

South Carolina deserves a Senator that sincerely cares about them and that is Jamie Harrison.

I think the plexiglass booth was very smart. Up to now, Senator Graham has tested negative, but, he was in contact with Mike Lee who tested positive. The CDC has stated;"

You should stay home for 14 days after your last contact with a person who has COVID-19. For all of the following scenarios, even if you test negative for COVID-19 or feel healthy, you should stay home (quarantine) since symptoms may appear 2 to 14 days after exposure to the virus." (click here)

Rather than putting safety first and postponing the debate, Graham attended a debate where he could be spreading the virus. Jamie Harrison had every right to be safe and the booth was a perfect solution. There was danger in the air and Lindsay Graham didn't care.

October 3, 2020
By Lillia Callum-Penso

...Sen. Lindsey Graham (click here) said he was tested Friday and found to be negative — though a negative test means only that the person was not infected at the time of testing and the coronavirus' incubation period can be up to 14 days.

According to the Associated Press, Graham said he had been tested for COVID-19 following his interaction with fellow Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. Mike Lee, who's among a number of Republican officials in Washington, D.C., to have tested positive for the virus this week.

"After being informed of his positive test, and out of an abundance of caution, I was tested for COVID-19 in South Carolina. I was informed I was negative," Graham wrote in a message posted on Twitter....

White House Tours

 If there are still White House Tours they need to be suspended to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 to the public.

There are absolutely no health precautions about COVID-19 on the White House Tour Website.

Pediatric testing

There are no pediatric tests for SARS-CoV-2. 

One of the reasons children are first discovered to have COVID-19 is when they are in dire distress with MIS-C (Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome - Child) because the viral load is high. 

The tests for children to discover COVID-19 at first onset don’t exist. Children need far more intense  investigation and investment in funding for early diagnosis and treatment.

Children develop at different rates at different ages, that is why pediatrics is a specialty. That difference needs to be respected by the research being conducted in testing and treatment. That specialized research needs funding now.