The Climate Crisis must take priority as the President-Elect tackles the SARS virus.

15 November 2020
By Jeff Ernst 

Paddling in a canoe through the flood waters (click here) left by Hurricane Eta in his rural village near the north coast of Honduras, Adán Herrera took stock of the damage.

“Compared with Hurricane Mitch, this caused more damage because the water rose so fast,” said Herrera, 33, a subsistence farmer who is living on top of a nearby levee with his wife and child while they wait for the water to recede. “We’re afraid we might not have anything to eat.”

Hurricane Mitch in 1998 was the most destructive storm to hit Central America. But hundreds of thousands of subsistence farmers across the region have lost everything in flooding caused by Eta, which made landfall in Nicaragua as a category 4 hurricane on 3 November. Now, with a second hurricane projected to make landfall on Monday near where Eta did, even more could find themselves in the same situation....

Climate Crisis 2020 has been devastating to Central America. 

The fires in the USA are still burning (click here). The acreage is less, but, the number is high. 517 new fires for the week from November 13 to the 20th. 

Drought Monitor

Cruise ships are notorious for close quarters of passengers. Perfect for virus transmission.

November 22, 2020
By Bianca Padro Ocasio

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (click here) upgraded the cruise ship travel risk to a level 4, the federal agency’s highest risk level possible for contracting COVID-19.

Amid reports of widespread outbreaks in cruises earlier this year, CDC recommends for travelers to avoid cruise ships, including river cruises, around the world, given the “very high” risk of becoming infected or spreading the novel coronavirus.

If passengers decide to go on cruises, they should get tested three to five days after the trip. Even if they test negative after a trip, cruise ship travelers should stay home for seven days after the trip....

The statistics below is from the "Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association." 

- In 2016, (click here) a record 24.2 million passengers cruised globally.

- The industry estimates that 25.3 million will cruise globally in 2017

- $117 billion in total economic impact and 956,597 jobs paying $38 billion in wages and salaries were generated by the global cruise industry in 2015.

- The cruise industry is the fastest-growing category in the leisure travel market. Since 1980, the industry has experienced an average annual passenger growth rate of approximately 7% per annum.

- Demand for cruising increased 62% between 2005 and 2015.

- The cruise industry is the fastest-growing category in the leisure travel market. Since 1980, the industry has experienced an average annual passenger growth rate of approximately 7% per annum.

- From a capacity standpoint, utilization is consistently over 100%.

- Eight out of 10 CLIA-certified travel agents expect increased cruise sales in 2017.

- Throughout its history, the cruise industry has responded to vacation desires of its guests and embraced innovation to develop new destinations, new ship designs, new and diverse onboard amenities, facilities and services, plus wide-ranging shore side activities. Cruise lines have also offered their guests new cruise themes and voyage lengths to meet the changing vacation patterns of today’s travelers.

This is the Arctic Ocean. North Pole. Polar Bears. No penguins.

November 18, 2020
By Debora Patta

Scientists haul a sample of ice from the Arctic Ocean as part of research into the effects of climate change on the sensitive region as their vessel, the RV Polarstern, waits behind them. 

Johannesburg, South Africa — A massive ship called the RV Polarstern (click here) spent 389 days drifting slowly across the Arctic, trapped in ice. It was a scientific mission on an unprecedented scale, and the people who took part say their findings should serve as a warning that if action isn't taken, humans in every corner of the world will pay the price.

Just before she set sail more than a year ago, Rhode Island native Dr. Alison Fong told CBS News that she and her colleagues on the Polarstern were "looking at creating a whole picture of what the Arctic is going to do in the coming years." 

The picture that emerged from their makeshift labs-on-ice and high-tech equipment is not a pretty one. It is devastating proof, the scientists say, of a dying Arctic Ocean, where ice-free summers could become a reality in just decades due to manmade greenhouse gases warming the planet....

Cuba wants the tourists back? Not without an American embassy that is safe.

Human rights violations span many countries. It sounds like Putin is having a dialogue with these Western Hemisphere countries. Cuba is 90 miles off the USA border and why doesn't the USA has a clear understanding of Cuba and other near border countries. This is ridiculous.

20 November 2020

In response (click here) to reports that members of Cuba’s San Isidro movement have been detained, had their human rights, including the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of movement restricted, and been criminalized simply for peacefully exercising their human rights, Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International said:

“The ongoing harassment and intimidation of members of the San Isidro movement, at the forefront of challenging Decree 349, a dystopian law that stands to censor artists, shows Cuba’s ongoing repression of human rights, including the right to freedom of expression in the country. Authorities can continue to harass, intimidate, detain, and criminalize artists and alternative thinkers, but they can’t keep their minds in prison.”

According to the legal NGO Cubalex, between 9 and 19 November, authorities arbitrarily detained and harassed multiple members of the San Isidro movement, sometimes more than once. Members of the movement, which is composed of artists, poets, LGBTI activists, academics, and independent journalists, have in recent days been protesting the imprisonment of the rapper Denis Solís González....

November 20, 2020
By Katell Abivan

Cuba is reopening its doors (click here) to foreign tourists after an eight-month shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the cash-strapped country faces an uphill struggle to woo back wary travelers.

Tourism chiefs are banking on the island's track record of keeping the virus in check to win back holidaymakers.

"This is a major challenge," said Francisco Camps, deputy general manager of Melia, a Spanish hotel chain that currently is operating only 10 of its 34 locations in Cuba.

The industry is pinning its hopes for the November-April high season on the capital Havana, the country's main tourist draw, which opened its international airport last weekend.

With its old fashioned Caribbean charm, the UNESCO World Heritage city attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.

"Havana is important because it has regular flights, which allows connections with Europe," says Camps....

South Florida was hit hard by SARS-CoV-2 early into the spread. It was allowed to enter Florida out of Brazil for months before Trump closed the airports. There were many reasons for these folks to vote for Democrats, but, they didn't. They are hooked into a lifestyle and relationships more than they are their own health. 

November 19, 2020

By Jackie Sato

A famous Cuban actress was found dead this week (click here) along the shoreline in Miami Beach, Florida, authorities said.

Broselianda Hernández Boudet, 56, was discovered unresponsive by someone walking on the beach near 79th Street and Collins Avenue around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, news station WPLG reported.

The body was later identified as Hernández Boudet, who was well known in Cuba for films such as “Habanera” and “Things I Left in Havana.”

Relatives said Hernández Boudet had gone out Tuesday night to purchase cigarettes, but never returned home, WPLG reported.

The actress was born in Havana, Cuba, but had been living in Miami for five years at the time of her death, the outlet reported....

This is a really excellent use of carbon.

November 19, 2020
By Sara Spary

...diamonds (click here) that are "physically and chemically identical to Earth-mined diamonds,"...

Diamonds might be forever, (click here) but that doesn't mean they have to take eons to form.

The gemstones are usually created after carbon is crushed and heated far beneath the Earth's surface over billions of years -- which is what makes them so coveted.

Now, scientists in Australia say they have sped up the process into just a matter of minutes -- and at room temperature.

An international team of researchers led by the Australian National University (ANU) and RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia said Wednesday they have created two types of diamond at room temperature by using high pressure equivalent to 640 African elephants balancing on the tip of a ballet shoe....

...To form the diamonds, researchers applied immense pressure to create a "twisting or sliding force" that they believe caused the carbon atoms to move into place, said Jodie Bradby, a physics professor at ANU.

"Natural diamonds are usually formed over billions of years, about 150 kilometers (about 93 miles) deep in the Earth where there are high pressures and temperatures above 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 degrees Fahrenheit)," she said. "The twist in the story is how we apply the pressure."...

Maduro now has "death squads."

November 19, 2020
By Isayen Herrera, Anatoly Kurmanaev, Tibisay Romero and Sheyla Urdaneta

The host of a popular radio show (click here), “The People’s Combat,” had always diligently praised Venezuela’s governing Socialist Party, even as millions sank into penury under its rule. But when acute gasoline shortages paralyzed his remote fishing town this summer, he strayed from the party line.

On his show, the host, lifelong Socialist José Carmelo Bislick, accused local party chiefs of siphoning fuel, leaving most people queuing for days outside empty gasoline stations.

Just weeks later, on Aug. 17, four masked, armed men burst into Mr. Bislick’s house and told him he had “run the red light,” before beating him in front of his family and hauling him away into the night. He was found dead with gunshot wounds hours later, dressed in his favorite Che Guevara T-shirt.

Those responsible for Mr. Bislick’s death remain at large in the town of 30,000, where everyone knew of him, and of his lifelong dedication to Venezuela’s Socialist revolution. The Socialist mayor never spoke of the crime or visited the family, who said the killing had been politically motivated....

Brazil has given up its sovereign borders to Maduro. Why does this sound like Putin's advice to the countries in South America. "Just pick him up and get on with it."

A country with a strong constitution and obeys the rule of law would have to hold extradition hearings before anyone can be brought across a border.

November 15, 2020

By Antonio Maria Delgado

...In accordance (click here) with the agreement between Russia and Venezuela dated December 8, 2011, the loan amounts up to US$ 4 billion. The Venezuelan government will pay a loan interest rate of 7.4% per annum.

Undercover agents of the Nicolás Maduro regime (click here) kidnapped an exiled Venezuelan businessman on Saturday in the Brazilian border town of Pacaraima, shooting him in a leg and then forcing him into an SUV to cross clandestinely into Venezuelan territory, in an operation that failed in the end when the truck got stuck in the mud, area residents and the local press reported.

People close to businessman Andrés Antonio Fernández, owner of a Brazilian radio station that is critical of Maduro, said they fear that the frustrated attempt is only the first in a series of similar actions to be perpetrated against people perceived as enemies of the regime on the other side of the border.

“They have orders to take dead or alive people that have been taking actions against that government,” a person close to Fernández told el Nuevo Herald on condition of anonymity. In this case, “they were unable to take him away because the community of Santa Elena de Uairén,” on the Venezuelan side of the border, “came out to save him when the truck got stuck.”...

There is a new economy of work from home that cannot be ignored for it's welcome reduction in GHG.

The Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powell, (click here) has recently stated the economy is not going back to the way it was. The new economy into the future is being welcome within the financial markets.

November 19, 2020
By Steven Mufson

Greenhouse gases generated by the U.S. economy (click here) will slide 9.2 percent this year, tumbling to the lowest level in at least three decades, a new BloombergNEF study says.

Battered by the coronavirus pandemic, the stalled economy is projected to have generated 5.9 billion metric tons of emissions, about the same level as 1983, according to the private research organization.

As a result, the United States has been inadvertently pushed back on track to meet the commitments the Obama administration made at the Paris climate agreement in December 2015, despite the fact the Trump administration pulled the country out of the pact. Before 2020, the United States had fallen badly behind its targets under the accord....

The work ethic.

Cuba has socialized medicine. I don't think the ACA meant all that much to the people in relation to a lifestyle that improves their financial status.

The Democratic party is generous to a fault. The party likes public health to be stable without these ridiculous incidents that we are seeing in the USA today under Trump's indifference. To that end, the Democrats focus on providing help to people, but, with immigrants like those from Cuba, they are more interested in work and wealth. So, while the Dems focus on public health and food insecurity they also have to include job training and ethnic fairness in hiring.

The Dems need to get used to the idea of knowing the people and their dreams, not simply knowing their needs. Culture to Cuban men is very important and being a family provider is a point of respect.

Get to know them, not just their need.

November 19, 2020
By Nora Gamez Torres

...But Trump never really stopped campaigning in Florida. (click here) For years now, the Democrats have not been able to match the strong presence of the Republican Party in the community, which has given many Cuban Americans “an identity,” Florida International University professor Guillermo Grenier wrote in a two-part analysis of the Cuban vote. He is the director of the FIU poll that every two years surveys the opinions of Cuban-American voters residing in Miami-Dade....

...or many years, Democrats assumed that as older Cuban exiles were being replaced by new Cuban arrivals and younger voters, Cuban Americans would become less Republican. The 2020 presidential election was a surprise: The FIU 2020 poll found that many Cuban immigrants coming after 2010 had been registering Republican and becoming strong Trump supporters.

“We ran an innovative grassroots and advertising effort that directly engaged newer Cuban arrivals — who had been largely ignored by both parties — as well as young U.S.-born Cuban Americans in ways that were culturally relevant to them and different than how you’d engage my abuelos’ generation,” said Sopo, a Miami native who was one of the architects of the messaging targeting Hispanics in Florida.

The campaign ran a Spanish video ad featuring popular Cuban actress Susana Pérez, who is better known among Cubans who came to U.S. after 1980. Another radio ad with fictional characters “Marita y Yesenia” mimics the speaking style and slang used by recent arrivals.

Most observers agree that there is no single issue that could explain why most Cuban Americans mobilized so forcefully this year to support the president.

Take Hialeah, a working-class city with the most Obamacare enrollees in the nation and where many recently arrived Cubans live. The Trump administration asked the courts to strike down the entire Affordable Care Act. Yet, the Democratic Party was unable to exploit this to its advantage, and Trump grew his share of the vote by 18 points in the city, compared to 2016, beating Biden 67% to 32.5%, according to Sopo’s analysis....

...“We built a new conservative coalition in South Florida consisting of Cubans, Colombians, Puerto Ricans and other Latinos in Miami-Dade County,” Sopo wrote in a memo obtained by the Miami Herald. ‘This netted approximately 255,657 additional votes for President Trump in Miami-Dade in 2020, which accounted for around 69% of his 371,686-vote victory over Joe Biden in Florida.”...

Why is there no policy being set by NIH? This is ridiculous.

November 22, 2020
By Howard Frumkin and Richard J. Jackson

If there was any lingering doubt (click here) that climate change threatens human health and well-being, this year put it to rest. Wildfire smoke aggravated heart disease and lung disease up and down the West Coast and across the country. A record-breaking hurricane season killed and injured people from North Carolina to Texas, and left tens of thousands homeless and at risk of PTSD and other mental health problems. Oppressive heat across the Southwest imperiled outdoor workers and athletes, the elderly and the poor, and people with underlying health problems, with risks ranging from heatstroke to heart attacks and even death

2020 reinforced another lesson: If we don’t prepare for health disasters and manage them skillfully, informed by the best evidence, then people suffer and die needlessly. In confronting a novel virus, the United States failed in its response, and we continue to have one of the world’s highest COVID-19 death rates.

What is true for COVID is true for climate change. We’re not prepared. Part of the gap is a knowledge gap: We haven’t done the needed research, and we lack critical information....

Eighth greek alphabet storm.

November 11, 2020

By Doyle Rice

The relentless 2020 hurricane season has set another record. (click here)

The record for named storms in a single season was broken overnight with the formation of Subtropical Storm Theta far out in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean. Theta is the 29th named storm of 2020, breaking the record of 28 from 2005, the National Hurricane Center said. Theta transitioned to a "regular" tropical storm Tuesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, closer to home, Tropical Storm Eta continues to spin in the Gulf of Mexico west of Cuba. Although the center of the storm is offshore, heavy rainfall from Eta will continue across South Florida into Tuesday night. "Additional flash and urban flooding, especially across previously inundated areas, will be possible in South Florida," the Hurricane Center warned....

This film loop is about Hurricane Laura on August 26, 2020. After Laura there are 13 more names for the 2020 hurricane season. 

In less than three months there has been 21 named storms in the Gulf-Atlantic. Primarily the Gulf this year. That is an average of 7 named storms per month. The cooling mechanisms of Earth is unable to keep up with the heat of Earth.

I don't know what it is like to have my name reduced to three letters, but, I find it depersonalizing.

Alexandria is a great competitor. She is also a great representative. How does her point of view become demonized by the right-wing media, because, she is an icon in South Florida that represents socialism and a return of Castro-like government while also favoring Maduro.

I don't know how Maduro has become an icon of fear in South Florida, but, he has. The fear of Castro and Maduro superimposed on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is to fear the Democratic party.

These folks in South Florida flock to the ACA/Obamacare, but, when it comes to voting they fear Democrats. Democrats brought them Obamacare. Go figure. Right-wing media manages to disconnect all that and demonize really great people at the same time. Democrats must fight off THE LABELING the right-wing media uses to sell their agenda and candidates.

July 10, 2019

It’s hard to recall (click here) a newly elected freshman representative to Congress who has made a bigger impact than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Her primary victory for New York’s Fourteenth District seat—as a young woman of color beating out a long-established white male incumbent—was big news, and Ocasio-Cortez has been generating headlines almost daily ever since.

Practically the day she took her seat in Congress, Ocasio-Cortez became the hero of the left wing of the Democrats and a favored villain of Fox News and the right. She battled Nancy Pelosi to make the Green New Deal a priority, and has been involved with a movement to launch primary challenges against centrist or right-leaning Democrats. Like Bernie Sanders, she embraces the label of democratic socialism and supports free college education for all Americans. She has called for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement....

Right is Kyle Rittenhouse (click here)

This interview is brave and calls out the ability of people engaged in White Supremacy to leverage their way through the USA Justice System. For Rittenhouse, it begins with a bail of $2 million. Yes, he made bail. There are three unarmed protesters dead and their murderer is out on $2 million bail. I never knew Rittenhouse was out on bail until I read the interview of Alexandria. Her voice with the focus she has is very important in this country. She is able to bring issues forward no one else wanted to talk about and for that she is a victim of right-wing media? The right wing media elevates Rittenhouse when they defame Alexandria. It elevates what he can get away with rather than being a "law and order" media service. 

There is an enormous problem in the USA with White Supremacy recruitment. This is the contribution of the right wing media? Encouragement of violence? There is something very wrong with this. It is like yelling "fire" in a theater and igniting more hatred accompanied by violence.

I thought the above image illustrates the dire straights Earth is now in, hence the living beings calling this planet home. The image to the left is the temperatures across the planet for one month, October 2020. The image on the right is the average temperature for the years1951-1980. The difference is enormous and clearly illustrates how eliminating greenhouse gases is vital.

November 17, 2020
By Brett Anderson

NOAA and NASA (click here) have recently released their October global surface temperature data. Despite a strengthening La Nina, which typically has a cooling influence on the global average temperature, last month ranked as the fourth warmest October on record. Records go back to 1880.

As you can see by both images above, the greatest warming relative to normal was across the Arctic region where an extended period of open water, which allows more heat to be trapped near the surface, kept the region well above normal. Eastern Europe was also unusually warm, while a distinct area of abnormal cold was centered over central Canada.

The last seven years have brought us the seven warmest Octobers on record, according to NOAA.

October 2020 in the 44th consecutive October and the 430th consecutive month where the global average surface temperature was above the 20th century average....

The Democrats fail to show a strong man attitude toward Cuba and Venezuela.

November 5, 2020
By Christine Sexton

Floridians flock to the federal health-insurance exchange (click here) in higher numbers than any other state, but Obamacare-supporting political candidates, including incumbents and hopefuls, got beat in key state and federal races Tuesday.

Florida Democrats during the campaign tried unsuccessfully to paint President Donald Trump as the man who would repeal the Affordable Care Act and place millions of people with pre-existing conditions at risk, but Trump defeated Democratic challenger Joe Biden in the state, capturing more than 51 percent of the vote.

Also, Democratic U.S. House members Donna Shalala and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, both of whom were elected in 2018 mid-term elections following Trump’s attempt to repeal the federal health-care law, were defeated by Republican challengers Tuesday night in South Florida districts....

It's Sunday Night

West Side Story has been loved by the American people for decades. Perhaps it is too ethnic for the year 2020, but, it is still a great performance of dancers and singers.

The storyline is much different than today. Gangs. The Sharks and the Jets. Clashes between two different ethnic gangs. That comes through in the song "America."

Not so different are the appearances of gangs on the streets of the USA. Political gangs. That may be different in Chicago where guns are a real problem that contributes to disruption of life and longevity in all too many instances. But, there are gangs now, and guess what, it is mostly about racism yet in the 21st century. I think the year of the appearance of West Side Story was 1947. More than 70 years has passed by and there are still racial differences in the socio-economic balance of the USA. Half of the time since the end of the USA Civil War in 1865.

There is a lot of man-woman interaction throughout the entire play/movie. It is nearly palpable with plenty of joy thrown into the laughter in the dance scene. Men trying to make their way in a new country and women finding happiness in the freedom of expression. Both genders carry out their new awareness and joy between themselves and not expressing all they are to others.

How can people be a part of the same society and yet be separate? Assimilation is not needed, so much as acceptance and a bridge to understanding, appreciation, and solace this country is the greatest country on Earth.

West Side Story, Back story (click here)

Conceived in 1949, West Side Story has a serious message that pleads for racial tolerance, delivered in unforgettable song and dance. People have been listening to that message, and humming the songs, ever since the show premiered on Broadway in 1957 and debuted on the silver screen in 1961.

Composer Leonard Bernstein and his co-creators, Jerome Robbins (director, choreographer and original idea-man) Arthur Laurents (who wrote the book) and Stephen Sondheim (lyricist) aimed for lofty ideals in the show’s themes and every detail of its production. But West Side Story, winner of two Tony and 10 Academy Awards, has endured because it's also incredibly entertaining....

"I like to be in america" by Leonard Bernstein (click here for artist website) and Stephen Sondheim

Ok by me in america
Everything free in america
For a small fee in america

I like the city of san juan
I know a boat you can get on
Hundreds of flowers in full bloom
Hundreds of people in each room

Automobile in america
Chromium steel in america
Wire spoke wheel in america
Very big deal in america

I'll drive a buick in san juan -
If there's a road you can drive on
I'll give my cousins a free ride -
How you fit all of them inside

Immigrant goes to america
Many helloes in america
Nobody knows in america
Puerto rico's in america

When I will go back to san juan -
When will you shut up and get gone
I'll give them new washing machine -
What have they got there to keep clean

I like the shores of america
Comfort is yours in america
Knobs on the doors in america
Wall to wall floors in america

I'll bring a TV to san juan -
If there's a current to turn on
Everyone there will give big cheer -
Everyone there will have moved here

When a request is this stupid it is time for the Biden campaign to end the recourts.

Georgia has already certified it's election after an extensive hand count. It is time to call it what it is, manipulative infighting in the Republican Party in attempts to undercut democracy.

November 22. 2020
By Steven Fowler

Georgia's nearly 5 million votes (click here) in the presidential race will be counted for a third time, as President Trump's campaign has formally asked for a recount because his loss is within the legal margin for that request.

Of the 4,998,482 ballots cast in the race between Trump and President-elect Joe Biden, the president lost by 12,670 votes, or about 0.26%. State law allows a losing candidate within 0.5% to ask for a recount within two business days of certification.

While thousands of workers spent most of the last week hand-counting every vote as part of a newly required statewide risk-limiting audit, this recount will be different....

Thank you to the former Governor. He is the second Republican to take a real world view of Donald John Trump. It is time the rest of them stop playing games and stand up for the democracy they say they love. The extended crying over a lost election is an assault against the USA national security.

November 22, 2020

By Colin Campbell

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (click here) had harsh words for President Trump’s legal team as it pursues its increasingly quixotic quest to overturn the November election.

“Quite frankly, the conduct of the president’s legal team has been a national embarrassment,” Christie said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

Trump lost the Nov. 3 election to President-elect Joe Biden, but has launched a series of lawsuits seeking to claim victory in states narrowly won by the Democrat. But the cases have been largely dismissed, and judges have consistently rejected Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud....