This is reporting as of 20 July 2020

Global Confirmed Cases : 14,348,858

The Americas still have the greatest number of confirmed cases, 7,584,675. That is 52.8 percent of the global confirmed cases.

The United States of America has 3,685,460 confirmed cases. That is 48.6 percent of all the cases in the Americas and 25.7 percent in the world. The USA is still leading globally in the number of CONFIRMED cases. Not tests, but, confirmed cases. And that is across the board with cases and deaths. Europe has also been leading in treatments for the virus. The steroid treatment and now interferon is out of Europe. I think the CDC encouraged the use of remdesivir.

Global deaths: 603,691
The Americas have 309,309 deaths which is 51.2 percent of the global death.
The United States of America has 139,468 deaths which is 45.1 percent of the Americas' deaths and 23.1 percent of the global deaths. The USA has the largest number of deaths caused by COVID-19 in the world.

It looks like Europe is having the best outcomes by region.

Southeast Asia worries me. Their growth in cases and deaths is still exponential. I am wondering about their ability to actually fight this virus. It is unacceptable for any region of the work to have uncontrolled exponential growth. That places the future in danger.

April 20, 2020
By Amy Searight'

...What is becoming clearer (click here) is that the impact of this pandemic will be hard-hitting and long-lasting in Southeast Asia, along with much of the rest of the world. Countries that earlier stood out as global leaders in “flattening the curve” are now grappling with massive new outbreaks; Singapore, for example, is grappling with a new wave of cases tied to its large migrant worker population. For other countries, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, the slow government response to the crisis and weaknesses in their public health systems are beginning to take a toll. The economic impact, which I wrote about last week, will be massive for a region that is widely under lockdown and heavily dependent on trade and tourism. This commentary provides updates on the public health impact of Covid-19 on Southeast Asia and the steps that governments in the region are taking to deal with it.

Southeast Asia has been hit hard by the novel coronavirus, with a surge of new cases over the past week in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Singapore (for the latest numbers, see our CSIS Southeast Asia Covid-19 tracker). Only Thailand and Vietnam saw the number of daily cases drop....

Vietnam has been interestingly resistant to trends from other countries and on more than the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It has taken its sovereignty very seriously and develops policy without being reactionary. It's economic success to date has been impressive as well. Some really nice resorts that actually value its ecology and species are in Vietnam. Luxurious actually. Perhaps, Vietnam would consider being a leader in policy for the region that needs direction to end their viral spread.

I am sure Vietnam already knows if the region conquers SARS-CoV-2 it will be an accomplishment that will effect the Vietnamese people, too.

end

There is absolutely no reason to violate the rules regarding COVID-19. Scientists are making incredible progress.

The time invested in protecting lives is minor. Scientists are making incredible progress and it is just a matter of having patience.

This potential new treatment is absolutely brilliant.

20 July 2020
By Clare Wildon, Jessica Hamzelou, Adam Vaughen, Conrad Quilty-Harger and Layal Liverpool

...A new nebuliser treatment for covid-19 (click here) reduced the risk of severe cases requiring a ventilator by 79 per cent in a preliminary trial of 101 patients in the UK. The treatment involves inhaling a protein called interferon beta, which is naturally produced in the body as part of the immune response to a viral infection. In the double-blind trial, half of the participants were given the protein and half were given a placebo. Those who received the drug were two to three times more likely to recover sufficiently to resume their everyday activities, according to Synairgen, the company behind the treatment. The coronavirus blocks the natural production of interferon beta in lung cells, according to Tom Wilkinson, professor of respiratory medicine at University Hospital Southampton, who led the trial. Delivering interferon directly to lungs is crucial because it is not possible to inject a high enough dose without serious side effects, he said. Although promising, the results must be treated with caution as the study size is small and the findings have yet to be peer-reviewed. “We accept this is not the largest study. It was an exploratory study,” Wilkinson said....


It is not getting better in the USA. So, let's take a look. I am grateful the world hasn't given up on treatments and vaccines.

...The seven-day average for daily new coronavirus cases in the US has risen for the 41st consecutive day, mostly due to ongoing spikes in the number of cases in Florida, Texas and California. Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti said the county is “on the brink” of shutting down again due to the recent rise in cases....

No right is absolute. One carrier can infect an entire city.

Morning Papers

The Rooster

“Okeydoke”

This is ridiculous and a threat to all people. If religious freedom means breathing poison, then it is a cult and not a religion. No person or organization is allowed to MAKE ILL or KILL any American, actively or passively. It is out of the question!

This is arrogance and not faith.

COVID-19 will never come under control if BOZO religious groups are spreading the virus in the name of God. Church services are one of the super spreaders with only 50 people at a service. The schools will be the same way.

The practice of exempting religious gatherings from COVID-19 restrictions is a national security issue. Spreading a deadly virus is an assault on Americans. Why do we have medical doctors then? To treat errant practices by ministers?

July 20, 2020
By Valerie Strauss

Religious schools in Texas, (click here) where coronavirus rates have been spiking for weeks, do not have to follow any coronavirus-related health restrictions that local governments may impose on educational institutions because, the state’s attorney general said, it could impede the free exercise of religion.

In a July 17 letter, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said that it would be unconstitutional to force religious schools to follow recommendations of health authorities about reopening schools during the pandemic, and he said they may decide for themselves “when it is safe for their communities to resume in-person instruction free from any government mandate or interference.”

“Religious private schools therefore need not comply with local public health orders to the contrary,” he wrote.

Texas in recent weeks has experienced a big spike in coronavirus cases, and many hospitals in the state are running out of space for intensive care patients, as well as ventilators, drugs and some personal protective equipment...

"Good Night, Moon"

The new moon

28.9 days

0.5 percent lit

New Moon is a great time to see the sky, especially if in the Dark Sky Park.

July 19, 2020
By Jamie Carter

With a New Moon on Monday, (click here) the early part of this week is a great time to go looking for both Comet NEOWISE and the Milky Way, both of which should be looking their best as soon as it gets dark.

If you want to see Comet NEOWISE—the best naked-eye comet for 27 years—this week could be you last chance to see it and photograph it. For now it’s possible to see it even from light-polluted cities in the northern hemisphere, but it looks its best through binoculars....

July 20, 2020

The first Arab space mission to Mars (click here) blasted off Monday aboard a rocket from Japan, after weather delays set back the launch of the probe dubbed “Hope.”

A live feed of the launch showed the rocket carrying the unmanned probe, known as “Al-Amal” in Arabic, lifting off from the Tanegashima Space Centre in southern Japan.

“We have launched the H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 42 (H-IIA F42) carrying aboard the Emirates Mars Mission’s (EMM) HOPE spacecraft... at 6:58:14 (JST) (2158GMT),” rocket manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said in a statement shortly after the launch....

Why the police instigated violence?

Why was it so violent? President Kennedy spoke to the organizers of the March on Washington about his fear of violence in the nation's capital.

The people were unarmed. They were standing up for their civil rights. They wanted what every American wants, a better quality of life through work, and good pay.

So, what was it that broke out during these marches? None of the marchers wanted to evoke violence. There is every indication these were church-going folks.

The police in the USA, including those in Oregon right now, are escalating the circumstances of the protests. If violence breaks out it is a direct result of OVER POLICING. There is something very wrong in the way police confront protesters.

June 1, 2020
By Maggie Koerth and Jamiles Lartey

"Disproportionate use of force can turn a peaceful protest violent, research shows." (click here)

Minneapolis - Last Wednesday, Marcell Harris was hit by a rubber bullet. He had joined the second day of protests in this city over the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes while bystanders filmed. Though these protests began with peaceful demonstrations outside the city’s 3rd Precinct, interactions between police and protesters had escalated. Police unleashed pepper spray, projectiles and tear gas. Protesters threw water bottles, built barricades and destroyed nearby property.

Harris said he had used his backpack as a shield and maneuvered close enough to take the baton of the officer who shot him. On Thursday night, he returned to the same spot to watch the precinct burn. With no police presence to be seen, he and other protesters were celebrating a victory. “I’m nonviolent,” he said. “But this feels emotional. George Floyd popped the bubble. It feels like the beginning of the end.” The end of what? “What we’ve been going through,” he said, referring to heavy-handed and often deadly policing of African Americans. “All the bullshit.”

Watching a peaceful protest turn into something much less palatable is hard. There has been a lot of hard the past few days, as people in dozens of cities have released pent-up anger against discriminatory police tactics. Cars and buildings have burned. Store windows have been smashed. Protesters and police have been hurt. When protests take a turn like this we naturally wonder … why? Was this preventable? Does anyone know how to stop it from happening?...

Testimony (click here) of John Lewis from a hearing resulting from the March 7, 1965, march from Selma to Montgomery in support of voting rights, page 288

...With Hosea Williams of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) (click here) leading the demonstration, and John Lewis, Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), at his side, the marchers were stopped as they were leaving Selma, at the end of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, by some 150 Alabama state troopers, sheriff ’s deputies, and possemen, who ordered the demonstrators to disperse.

One minute and five seconds after a two-minute warning was announced, the troops advanced, wielding clubs, bullwhips, and tear gas. John Lewis, who suffered a skull fracture, was one of fifty-eight people treated for injuries at the local hospital. The day is remembered in history as “Bloody Sunday.” Less than one week later, Lewis recounted the attack on the marchers during a Federal hearing at which the demonstrators sought protection for a full-scale march to Montgomery. A transcript of his testimony is presented in the following pages....             

"Bloody Sunday" occurred March 7, 1965 to unarmed peaceful marchers on their way to the state capital over the racist named Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Martin Luther King, Jr. at the March on Washington

...In 1963, (click here) in the wake of violent attacks on civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham, Alabama, momentum built for another mass protest on the nation’s capital.

With Randolph planning a march for jobs, and King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) planning one for freedom, the two groups decided to merge their efforts into one mass protest.

That spring, Randolph and his chief aide, Bayard Rustin, planned a march that would call for fair treatment and equal opportunity for black Americans, as well as advocate for passage of the Civil Rights Act (then stalled in Congress).

President John F. Kennedy met with civil rights leaders before the march, voicing his fears that the event would end in violence. In the meeting on June 22, Kennedy told the organizers that the march was perhaps “ill-timed,” as “We want success in the Congress, not just a big show at the Capitol.”

Randolph, King and the other leaders insisted the march should go forward, with King telling the president: “Frankly, I have never engaged in any direct-action movement which did not seem ill-timed.”...                 

Whitney M. Young, Jr.

July 31, 1921 to  March 11, 1971

Early in 1968, (click here) AIA President Robert Durham, FAIA, extended an invitation to the executive director of the National Urban League, Whitney M. Young, Jr., inviting him to deliver a keynote speech at AIA’s National Convention in Portland, Oregon.

Young (click here) was appointed to head the NUL in 1961, a position he would hold until his untimely death in 1971 at the age of 49. During the decade of Young's leadership the organization experienced pronounced growth, which included a nearly twenty-fold increase in its annual budget from $325,000 to over $6,000,000, and an increase in staffing from three dozen employees to more than a thousand. Young also moved the organization to the forefront of the civil rights movement. Prior to Young's tenure, the NUL held a cautious stance regarding civil rights issues.

Young was one of the most influential leaders of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and a member of the legendary "Big Six" civil rights leadership team. Planners for the March used the NUL headquarters office in New York for their meetings and Young served as a featured speaker. Following the March, Young advocated for federal assistance to cities combating poverty. He developed a 10-point domestic program, the "Domestic Marshall Plan" as a strategy for combating poverty and closing the wealth gap between Black and White Americans. Young's plan was influential to President Johnson's War on Poverty and was partially incorporated into the legislation. In 1968, the Johnson administration awarded Young the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor....

Roy Wilkins 
(August 30, 1901 – September 8, 1981)

Executive Director, (click here) National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

A prominent civil rights activist (click here) in the United States from the 1930s to the 1970s. Wilkins was active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and between 1931 and 1934 was assistant NAACP secretary under Walter Francis White. When W. E. B. Du Bois left the organization in 1934, Wilkins replaced him as editor of Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP....

Bayard Rustin
March 17, 1912 to August 24, 1987

In front of 170 W 130 St., March on Washington, Bayard Rustin, Deputy Director, and Cleveland Robinson, Chairman of Administrative Committee (left to right).

...There was no lonelier man in Washington, D.C., (click here) at 5:30 a.m. August 28, 1963, than Rustin. He had predicted a crowd of 100,000 marchers, and with only four and a half hours to go before the meet-up, he had his doubts. Would everything he had been working toward pan out? Would the coalition hang together? Would the march remain peaceful, thus defying the 4,000 troops President John F. Kennedy had ready in the suburbs, as Taylor Branch reminds us in Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63?

Twenty-two years earlier, A. Phillip Randolph and Rustin had come very close to delivering on their plans for a first march as a way to pressure President Franklin Roosevelt into opening defense-industry hiring to blacks. Roosevelt was so alarmed by the specter of violence and the negative publicity during the “war against fascism” that a deal was reached before the march could even begin. Now, with the 1963 march about to begin, Rustin was forced to wonder, could they really pull this off? And would its impact help to achieve the goals of the movement? In a matter of hours, he would have his answers....      

A labor organizer as well.

Asa Philip Randolph
(April 15, 1889 – May 16, 1979) 

A. Philip Randolph (click here) (seated, center) and other leaders of the 1963 March on Washington. (U.S. National Archives)  

A. Philip Randolph, whom Martin Luther King, Jr., called “truly the Dean of Negro leaders,” played a crucial role in gaining recognition of African Americans in labor organizations (Papers 4:527). A socialist and a pacifist, Randolph founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first successful black trade union, and the Negro American Labor Council (NALC).

The youngest son of a poor preacher deeply committed to racial politics, Randolph was born in Crescent City, Florida, on 15 April 1889. He graduated from Jacksonville’s Cookman Institute in 1911, relocating to New York City soon afterward. In 1917 Randolph and Chandler Owen founded the Messenger, an African American socialist journal critical of American involvement in World War I.

After the 1925 founding of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Randolph succeeded in gaining recognition of the union from the Pullman Palace Car Company in 1937. When the union signed its first contract with the company, membership rose to nearly 15,000. In 1941 Randolph threatened a march on Washington, D.C., if the federal government did not address racial discrimination in the defense industry. In response, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, which banned discrimination in the defense industry and established the Fair Employment Practices Commission. Randolph also helped to form the League for Non-Violent Civil Disobedience against Military Segregation, which influenced President Harry S. Truman’s decision to desegregate the armed services in 1948....

The Late John Lewis was a leader, a friend and an icon of strength. He was loved.

Rep. John Lewis and Tybre Faw in Selma, Alabama, in March 2018.

...We sent him (click here) the original story from March 2018, which showed Tybre not only meeting Lewis, but marching with him across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma and even going to Washington at Lewis' invitation to spend time on the floor of House of Representatives, where Tybre decided he too wants to be a congressman one day...

     

Every one of these men were men of peace and non-violence. All of them. Dr. King was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
(1929–1968)

Martin Luther King, Jr., (click here) (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family’s long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family....

James Leonard Farmer Jr. was a native Texan and one of the organizers of the "Freedom Ride" (click here).

(January 12, 1920 – July 9, 1999)

An American civil rights activist and leader in the Civil Rights Movement "who pushed for nonviolent protest to dismantle segregation, and served alongside Martin Luther King Jr."

Founded: Congress of Racial Equality (click here)

Works written: Lay Bare the Heart  (click here)

It's Sunday Night

"Do not get lost in a sea of despair....

"Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble." – A tweet from (Congressman John Lewis) June 2018

 

John Lewis and Non-Violent Action

(Click here for lyrics and video website - thank you)

Strange fruit hanging from trees in the night,
Swaying in the wind, symbols the ending of life.
Picture your mother dead just for trying to vote.
Inside, you're done; you feel yourself slowly dying of hope.
They saw us being killed; they tightened the rope. 
The more and more we spoke out, the higher we'd go.  
We say this world is better; things happen to bring back time.
They tried to knock us down and thought that we would go run and hide.
Actions are made in life, results: a crying me.
Let me tell you about someone who was willing to die for me. 
Someone who fought for rights to get equality and peace.
They said to preach the word, man, I'mma speak on reality: 
John Lewis, a real figure in this movement.
Black lives matter; to this day, we still use it.
Born in Alabama, 1940, into segregation.
He worked the fields, something we don't know about in this generation.
To make a living in this country, all the problems facing. 
He was a black man who beat the odds with an education.
Such a reason we as blacks can go enjoy vacations. 
To tell a story from his face, his life you start to trace it.
They tried to wipe us out, and that fact, we'll never lose it.
He protests for our rights to eat together as one unit.
He wanted us to be one whole. I see a black and white diverse class
In front of my eyes, so yeah, we've reached that goal.
In that time, blacks and whites, we couldn't ride together.
Lewis decided that that wasn't gonna be life forever.
John Lewis was of the famous 13 
Who rode a bus of black and whites 'cause Dr. King had a dream.
A Freedom Rider, a leader with respect, 
Arrested over 20 times — equity at its best? Equity at its best?
Crazy how our activists get thrown in jail
For some nonviolent acts, we got to hold a cell.
But they can beat us down and shoot us 16 times in the back, 
Go to court, and people barely want to acknowledge that.
I understand people see it from a certain view.
Put you in my shoes — what happens when it's down to you?

We still got to ride for freedom. Let us ride.
John Lewis taught us to fight for our rights.

1965 — Lewis marched for the right to vote.
He led 600 people, an event that makes one clear their throat. 
State troopers just wouldn't let them pass.
On his knees he prayed with others, need y'all to listen, class.
Told them to disperse so when they didn't they put on their masks.
Started attacking protesters with everything they had.
Lewis ran, police caught him, and they beat him down.
Fractured his skull 'cause his skin was brown — Bloody Sunday.
A couple of months later, August 6,
Voting Rights became an act, and I just can't resist 
Thanking John Lewis himself for paying on that day. 
No longer to this system anymore we'll be its slaves.
Because of him, African Americans have more in life. 
He gave a chance to go and score in life.
And I say thanks, thank you for fighting for the future and the lives today.
A man of pride, hero who paved the way: John Lewis.

We still got to ride for freedom. Let us ride.
John Lewis taught us to fight for our rights.

He was against masks until he was for them.

Trump is attempting to seed tension that turns into violence. He is getting more and more detailed about school openings as cities and towns are making plans to cope with SARS-CoV-2. The statement that is NOW Trump's new stance-of-hatred; is that schools holding classes out of doors will get no federal money. Anyone really care about the money? I don't.

Trump is adjusting his message to SQUEEZE the understanding that children/students must be in their CLASSROOMS. He has no power. He is attempting to raise the issue of schools to a political level.

This is a national health emergency. The cities and towns can conduct their efforts to educate students as best they can due to the national emergency. There is no real reason to send students into a classroom and compromise their health with HOPES they will survive the virus.

I haven't seen the funeral plans for the Late Congressman John Lewis. That is why I opened my online connection to begin with, unfortunately, the press is indulging Trump's fantasies. I am assuming he will lay "In-State." Perhaps, Speaker Pelosi will have a schedule for his vigilance soon.

Case in point:

Texas is saturated with SARS-CoV-2. Infants, children and young people are NOT IMMUNE to the virus. The outcomes of these infants are unknown as to the effect of the virus in their future.

Hence,...

July 18, 2020

Corpus Christi - Eighty-five children who are under the age of 1 (click here) have tested positive for COVID-19 in one Texas county, according to a local health official.

"I've been reviewing our statistics, and we currently have 85 babies under the age of one year in Nueces County that have all tested positive for COVID-19," Annette Rodriguez, director of public health for Corpus Christi Nueces County, said during the region's daily COVID-19 update Friday.

"These babies have not even had their first birthday yet," she continued. "Please help us stop the spread of this disease."...

Texas has failed these infants and their families.

It is amazing that the federal government under Trump can harass protesters, but, completely fail in enforcing mask-wearing to save lives such as these innocent babies.