Roy Rogers (at the microphone) singing with the Sons Of The Pioneers in Roy’s movie “Idaho,” 1943. From left to right, are: Hugh Farr, Tim Spencer, Bob Nolan, Roy Rogers (at the microphone), Lloyd Perryman, Karl Farr, and Pat Brady on the bass.

"Cool Water" as performed by the Sons of the Pioneers

All day I've faced a barren waste

Without the taste of water, cool water
Old Dan and I with throats burned dry
And souls that cry for water
Cool, clear, water

Keep a-movin, Dan, dontcha listen to him, Dan
He's a devil, not a man
He spreads the burning sand with water
Dan, can ya see that big, green tree?
Where the water's runnin' free
And it's waitin' there for me and you?

The nights are cool and I'm a fool
Each star's a pool of water
Cool water
But with the dawn I'll wake and yawn
And carry on to water
Water, water, water

Keep a-movin, Dan, dontcha listen to him, Dan
He's a devil, not a man
He spreads the burning sand with water
Dan, can ya see that big, green tree?
Where the water's runnin' free
And it's waitin' there for me and you?

Cool, clear, water
Cool, clear, water

SARS-CoV-2 mutates easily and quickly.

• • This cannot go on forever. Israel is reporting good results with the vaccine (click here).
• • 
    
  Steven A. Kemp, 
• Dami A. Collier, 
• […]
• Ravindra K. Gupta

Nature (2021)

SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein (click here) is critical for virus infection via engagement of ACE21, and is a major antibody target. Here we report chronic SARS-CoV-2 with reduced sensitivity to neutralising antibodies in an immune suppressed individual treated with convalescent plasma, generating whole genome ultradeep sequences over 23 time points spanning 101 days. Little change was observed in the overall viral population structure following two courses of remdesivir over the first 57 days. However, following convalescent plasma therapy we observed large, dynamic virus population shifts, with the emergence of a dominant viral strain bearing D796H in S2 and ΔH69/ΔV70 in the S1 N-terminal domain NTD of the Spike protein. As passively transferred serum antibodies diminished, viruses with the escape genotype diminished in frequency, before returning during a final, unsuccessful course of convalescent plasma. In vitro, the Spike escape double mutant bearing ΔH69/ΔV70 and D796H conferred modestly decreased sensitivity to convalescent plasma, whilst maintaining infectivity similar to wild type. D796H appeared to be the main contributor to decreased susceptibility but incurred an infectivity defect. The ΔH69/ΔV70 single mutant had two-fold higher infectivity compared to wild type, possibly compensating for the reduced infectivity of D796H. These data reveal strong selection on SARS-CoV-2 during convalescent plasma therapy associated with emergence of viral variants with evidence of reduced susceptibility to neutralising antibodies.

This is the article about the results in Israel.

Initial real world evidence for lower viral load of individuals who have been vacinated by BNT162b2

February 7, 2021

...Our estimate suggests that vaccination reduces the viral load by 1.6x to 20X (click here) in individuals who are positive for SARS-CoV-2....

Why isn’t there food and water staged for Africa.

 Stop waiting for a vaccine that isn’t coming, invoke the New Zealand Model. Why aren’t the NGOs involved in staging food and water along with masks and education to END THE SPREAD?

This should have been over a long time ago, especially in Africa. Quarantine for 3 weeks to a month. Villages can do this. I realize poverty creates close quarters. Use Masks not excuses.

African leaders have the capacity to save their people.

China has similar poverty among some of their people and used drones to stop people from leaving their homes. It was a verbal reminder that their own best interest is served by staying in the home. 

The people of Africa can do this, I know they can. Waiting for a vaccine will cost more lives.

So, Trumpka doesn’t believe in the future.

Unions have to fall in line with the demands of the climate crisis. They need to be demanding good pay for green jobs, not enforce Republican paradigms of pollution and bigoted polluters.

The KXL should never have begun yet coveted for a few union jobs.

It looks like the unions need new leadership that believes in American ingenuity and the promise to generations they will have good lives and a beautiful country.

The KXL represents the greed guaranteed by big oil not a benevolent future.

The KXL was never going to even carry oil, it was nothing but Canadian tar sand sludge.

2005 was Peak Oil. Get used to hearing the truth. All this mess the petroleum industry drummed up was determined danger a long time ago.

Big Oil wants Americans to believe they will be energy paupers because they aren’t needed nor wanted anymore. LOL! Big Oil are already paupers. Big Oil is exactly the tale of “The Emperor Needs New Clothes.” Live in denial so the status quo is maintained.

Oil isn’t going to be Wall Street’s easy cash flow anymore. The geniuses of Wall Street might actually have to work for a living. Apple isn’t having any cash flow problems, what is wrong with the rest of them?

Wall Street firms, especially Hedge Funds have been handed trillions of dollars since the global economic collapse that began in 2007. Enough is never enough for them. The world needs a future and it ain’t fossil fuels. No more hand holding!

Quarantine hotels

San Diego is quarantining all those that arrive from the southern border for ten days. To date, there seems to be no such effort by Texas. New Mexico, Arizona also need to increase their vigilance of border crossings. These are people in need after hurricanes that devastated their countries.

There must be partnerships put in place to prevent mass migration. A while ago there was a program within the UN called the Millennium Project. It ran until 2015. I think that needs to be revisited to find ways to protect land so people have homes.

Parents are losing their children to Foster Care.

There are many reasons children are taken from impoverished parents to be placed in the adoption industry including religious bigotry. This $3000 per year is about what Foster parents and then adoptive parents (with certain conditions) receive from the government anyway. This $3000 per year will help keep children living with their natural parents in many instances. 

Say good-bye to Foster Care. Bye, bye and good riddance.

65% of foster children will change schools 7 or more times until they graduate high school. At the most 3 percent attend college but 25 percent will be in prison two years after emancipation. It is called the “Foster Care to Prison Pipeline.” Don’t try to deny it. The studies stating the truth of this failed system go back decades.

I am going to leave the previous entries at the top of the blog until later today. 

Thank you.

Yesterday, besides the Super Bowl.

February 7, 2021
By Martin Crutsinger

Secretary Janet Yellen (click here)

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (click here) said Sunday the country was still in a "deep hole" with millions of lost jobs but that President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion relief plan could generate enough growth to restore full employment by next year.

Republican senators argued that Biden's proposal was too expensive and they cited criticism from Larry Summers, a treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, that passage of the measure could run the risk of triggering runaway inflation. Summers also contended that Biden's plan would make less money available for other initiatives such as improving the nation's infrastructure.

Yellen, a former Federal Reserve chair who is the first woman to lead the Treasury Department, said the central bank had the tools to handle any potential inflationary threat. She said the urgent need now was to deal with the problems raised by the pandemic-induced recession: as joblessness, lost small businesses and reopening schools....

First a stop in Flint.

This administration in DC and the majority of Congress, including Mitt Romney who has come out of the dark shadows of the GOP as a real human being, is intent on correcting the course of gone-wrong policies. I think the American public should applaud this effort and continue to support the initiative. This very well may be the "Year of the Child" in the USA and I am all the happier for it. The future. Climate is among those priorities and so is child poverty.2 February 2021

February 2, 2021
By Corey Stern

...For too long (click here) the burden of our crumbling infrastructure has not been equally felt. As of last January, lead in ageing pipes, contaminated soil and old, peeling paint was found in 3.6m homes nationwide – most of which are concentrated in low-income neighborhoods. I’ve ridden the unhurried roads to justice for communities that have been debilitated by public officials allowing infrastructure to fall into disrepair. I’ve represented thousands of children exposed to lead-based paint hazards in New York City public housing, and I currently represent 3,000 young victims of the Flint water crisis and their parents....

Joe Biden is a magnificent father and wonderful grandfather. It seems a natural place for his administration. The future and American children.  Nice and long overdue. They aren't born wealthy and have absolutely no right to decision making in Washington, DC, otherwise, "Flint" would never have happened.

...The Biden administration now has the opportunity – and the obligation – to change that trajectory. He can ensure infrastructure gets modernized while achieving his goals of creating new jobs and holding polluters accountable. Here are three ideas for how he can do it.

First, Biden’s infrastructure plans should include investments to finally deliver clean water and shelter for every American. This is basic stuff, and he doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel to follow through: last year, Senator Cory Booker and the then representative Deb Haaland introduced a proposal to clean up dangerous Superfund sites, replace wastewater systems and lead pipes, and remove lead-based paint in low-income and tribal communities. And of course, Senator Elizabeth Warren has a plan for this too, which mandates that the federal government fully fund drinking water infrastructure and install filtering systems to clean up our drinking water – all while creating 190,000 new jobs. Both of these are good ideas, and they share a common component: putting people to work at a time when jobs are sorely needed, while delivering on a fundamental right for millions of Americans....

Senator Romney first addressed the issue of child poverty a short time ago when he thought a $3000 per year GRANT to every child in the country an appropriate expenditure for the USA government, with income qualifying standards. An amazing proposal, but, considering Mitt's financial well-being and the fact he has many grandchildren I am not surprised his moral side has reflected on how to correct the path for so many children in poverty in the USA. I sincerely believe Mitt Romney to be among the great moral Senators of our time and perhaps all time. I think the US Senate is the perfect place for him and his spouse. May he spend as many years as he likes in that position.

So, in realizing we are just as sick of child poverty as we all can get, this initiative has taken flight and the US House is considering this as a proposal for at least a year and possibly forever. I think it will be successful considering the cost of raising a child in the USA and the fact up to now Congress has mostly cut support for children in the way of food stamps and health care.

The Democrats always had these great programs for impoverished children, but, it has been the mission of the GOP/Plutocrats to cut those programs at every turn. Given the most recent Republican administration that seems to now to not want to go away given Gaetz's stupidity to attack a woman legislator, the entire Affordable Care Act was to be eliminated. So, I really don't want to hear how the GOP loves kids, because they only love money and that is completely clear.

As to Flint, who brings a cannon-type device to a baby shower? Really, America? 

February 6, 2021

...Silva (click here) was an attendee at a baby shower where the homeowner fired a small cannon-type device in the backyard to celebrate the baby’s pending arrival, police said.

The cannon blew up upon firing, spreading metal shrapnel that hit Silva, as well as three parked cars and the garage where the baby shower was held.

Silva was standing 10 to 15 feet from the explosion, police said. He was taken to Hurley Medical Center in Flint where he later died from his injuries.

He was one of about five people outside the residence where the cannon was fired and was the only one hit by shrapnel, police said.

The cannon was designed to fire more like a novelty Signal Cannon, which is intended to emit a big flash, a loud noise and smoke, police said....

As to be expected, there are wrongful statements being made about the enormous financial settlement for Flint. Why is it that money makes people do things and say things that simply are not in the realm of "the truth?"

February 5, 2021
By Ron Fonger

Flint - A federal court judge (click here) has ordered a Flint attorney to stop sharing “misinformation” about a proposed $641-million settlement of Flint water crisis civil lawsuits and says all 200-plus people he contacted by mail must be told the information they received was misleading.

U.S. District Court Judge Judith Levy made her ruling after an hour-long hearing with attorney Loyst Fletcher Jr. on Friday, Feb. 5, after other attorneys involved in the settlement requested a temporary restraining order and asked the court to forbid Fletcher from communicating with residents who are already represented by other attorneys in the settlement....

...Fletcher said he contacted 200 or more residents by mail after they called his law office, upset that the settlement agreement does not provide enough money for adults and does not allow them to receive direct refunds for water bills they paid after the city’s water source was switched from Lake Huron to the Flint River and back to Lake Huron again....

...Fletcher said he mailed those residents information, including a form letter they could mail to Levy, that contained “multiple inaccurate statements” about the settlement agreement, “distorts the opt-out procedures,” and “improperly solicits individuals who have been retained by counsel to represent them for their Flint water crisis claim,” the court filing says....

Prosecutors need to keep going in their review of the Flint Water Crisis. These latest charges still haven't finished the depth of corruption leading to the deaths and maiming of so many people. Add two more to the "Michigan 9."

January 14, 2021

Two former Michigan health officials (click here) were charged Thursday with involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of nine people who got Legionnaires’ disease during the Flint water crisis, as prosecutors revisiting how the city’s water system was contaminated with lead and bacteria also hammered a key adviser to ex-Gov. Rick Snyder with extortion and perjury crimes.

Snyder joined a parade of former state and local officials pleading not guilty in Genesee County courts. He’s facing misdemeanor charges of willful neglect of duty in Flint in a case that was filed Wednesday night, the first governor or former governor in Michigan’s 184-year history to face charges related to time in that office....

Sorry, I am not a big "game ball" fan. From what I saw of the last few minutes of the last quarter, the players looked fairly bored. To me, the Super Bowl is about corporate profits, right? This was 55, yes? So, as a sport, it has been fairly successful in maintaining its viability, at least financially.

Tom Brady has proven himself as the greatest football quarterback in history as of today. So, with that question answered the next one is will people be interested now in seeing him beaten? That is all that is left, right? He is the best, now in order to keep people interested in the game the only question is who is going to beat him?

So, stay tuned to the NFL even though the outcomes will be the same when facing Tom Brady. What other millionaire quarterback will finally beat Brady on a billionaire owner's field?

It wasn't much of a game I take it. The commercials were just about the best part of the game? No? Tom Brady loves to play football. Congratulations to Tampa Bay.

I was just reading an article about a displaced wolf. (click here) I was trying to figure out why she never settled down into a pack. I can't help believe she made the study's approved list because she was healthy. She was probably healthy because she was an alpha in an established pack. So, once an alpha always an alpha. Wolf W003F made unintentional history for the research team.

She doesn't appear to be in any one place long enough to have a pack herself. She may have given birth a couple of times when she settled into a forested area in Canada. It only takes 2 to 2 and a half months to birth pups and another few months to get them eating food rather than milk.]

• 10 - 13 days: the eyes open
• 3 weeks: the milk teeth appear, they start to explore the den
• 4 - 5 weeks: short trips outside the den, begin to eat meat
• 6 weeks: moving up to a mile from the den (with adult wolf)
• 6 - 8 weeks: pups are weaned, traveling to rendezvous site.
• 12 weeks: begin to travel with the pack on hunts (with adult wolves)
• 15 - 28 weeks: milk teeth are replaced
• 7 - 8 months: begin to hunt with the pack

She was in the Canadian forest to welp one litter. But, then she left again for her original home. Females can have their own generational packs whereby the females of several generations become their own pack. She doesn't seem to have done that though. She is a rare find and one that is willing AND ABLE to live on her own. 

Delayed

This is even unbelievable to me, but, my location doesn’t allow for reception of the Super Bowl except for CBS Sports App and my iPhone. A friend has followed the career of Tom Brady since the beginning, hence, my phone. I will have my phone back to use as a hot spot after the game. Until then.

Censure!

Wyoming is radical right? How many members of the lynch mob came from Wyoming?

Matt Gaetz is spreading lies about the election and Liz Cheney. He whipped the Wyoming GOP to censure her. Has he nothing else better to do except hate the truth. Matt Gaetz needs an ethics review in the US House and face censure himself. He flew to Wyoming to censure Liz Cheney when she wasn’t censured in the House. 

Gaetz is a dead ender for Trump.

George Walker Bush was just in Wyoming to visit with his former Vice President Dick Cheney. While he was there he thanked his former Vice President for his daughter that loves the country. 

Gaetz’s hissy fit occurred after “W” visited. It is a shame that people like Gaetz and Flynn don’t love this country as much as most Americans do in placing Joe Biden as the leader of the free world.

Flynn is setting himself up for more investigations.

I apologize to Liz Cheney as a great patriot that never deserved this level of defaming in her life. She doesn’t need the apology I am sure. It just isn’t right.

No one should be under the delusion that Trump and his cohorts are setting up another party. They are setting up a regime to remove democracy from the American people. The attack on the Capital was by a regime. There were military, retired and otherwise among them. There is still a Republican Party, ask Michael Steele. The real GOP is alive and kicking.

The White House isn’t moving away from bipartisanship...

 ...the Republicans are dragging their feet on everything. They forgot rather quickly who did all the damage to the country the last four years.

The entire Trump administration should be permanently suspended from any access to intelligence and national security issues, including Michael Flynn. Former federal Republican Senators and Representatives have to be revised as Trump sympathizers.

You have got to be joking?

After all he has been through with investigations and court dates, he is still willing to be a part of insurrectionist plans. This is a commitment against the USA Constitution. This breach in national security with people looking for power and wealth isn’t over. Trump is count on that.

In the wake of Trump’s dismantling of the rule of law...

 ...Congress must pass enforcement measures along with any law they pass. The agencies can’t possibly do all the enforcement measures and expect to have them consistent across administrations.

The legislature must legislate like it means it.

I am confident as Vice President Harris settled into her responsibilities she will begin a law that provides clear understanding of law enforcement to judges in a bill that ends mass incarceration and takes White Collar Crime seriously, especially when it comes to impacting the Middle Class and the elderly.

What good is upward mobility if it can be taken away because the financial markets said, “Oops.”

Integrity in government doesn’t exist unless it is legislated.

The US Senate made the wrong decision on fracking.

Typical Republican bill, erring on the side of “business knows best,” simply says “go ahead” be as destructive as you want. That isn’t the approach that needs to be taken with natural gas wells. 

THEY LEAK!

They leak a lot. They leak into the air and they leak into the water. Fracking wells break the laws of the Clean Air Act and The Clean Water Act. The petroleum industry was given a lot of freedom from important laws in the 2005 (the year of Peak Oil) Cheney Energy Bill. 

If the country INSISTS on drilling for natural gas it must be done without ANY leaks and through safe pipelines that need repair and replacement.

Energy companies are lavished with new pipelines for the sake of jobs. There aren’t that many jobs in a pipeline. A couple of thousand on long pipelines. There are more jobs created in repairing and replacing existing pipelines. First the old stuff has to come out and then the new pipe gets laid. It is like a double fit for each pipeline replaced and/or repaired.

Additionally, the pipelines to cities and homes are never replaced and gas explosions happen. I am sure the occasional deaths are figured into the companies costs. 

Fracking and pipelines must be heavily regulated to prevent methane into Earth’s atmospheres. The 2005 Cheney Energy Bill needs to be repealed and replaced when taking the climate crisis seriously. There needs to be a national emergency for climate in the USA to rip the corrupt laws out by the roots.

The Supreme Court is incorrect about assemblies.

Church going is an assembly, not a grocery store. The virus exists at higher levels in assemblies where people remain in one spot for a length of time greater than a few minutes.

Indoor air is different than outdoor air. We know that a person infected with the virus will be a polluter rather than a breeze when indoors. In other words a person in an assembly, like church, is a smokestack of the virus. The accumulation indoors will infect others.

That is why indoor activities require better ventilation than in the past and quite possibly UV treatment of the air in HVAC systems. I am sure permitting processes can be instituted if an establishment’s air is proven to be safe. That might be the best way forward for California, a retired testing of air quality to determine fitness, which can be legislated.

The Supreme Court chose to ignore the science and decided a level playing field based on discrimination was in order. They are dead wrong. And for some parishioner that might the outcome.

For God’s sake California is in a state of emergency because of an irreverent president of the science. It is a stupid decision and citizens should be careful. The Catholic Church and it’s scientists as an organization, is more cautious than the US Supreme Court.

California needs vaccine.

I question the insistence of Trump’s testimony.

Since he is a known compulsive liar there isn’t much sense to it. The US Senate can offer him the opportunity to speak on his own behalf with the right to question him on lies accompanied by proof of those lies. Otherwise, go forward with facts, the laws Trump has broken with visual or auditory proof and a substantial sized list on a poster as a visual aide to the Senate members and the public.

The best that can come out of this hearing is conviction. Next to that, the best that can come out of this with corrupted Republicans is a clear demonstration of the facts to the American people.

The American people need to move out of a highly propagandize Republican White House. The same White House that incited the attack on the Capital and with goals to kill members of the Legislature including the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House.

The trial of Donald John Trump is the best chance we have to break down the propaganda and set Americans free to love their Constitution again.

The Republicans are playing a very dangerous political game. They are willing to bring members of their own party under their agenda of lies. In doing so they attempt to impugn other Republicans and instead to act against the USA Constitution by putting party before country.

The challenge going forward is to unleash the truth in everything done over the next two to four years. Basically, Trumpism is an enemy to the USA Constitution as are the people that practice it. I know no other better way to vanquish such an enemy but to disarm it’s premise and expose it’s guilt.

We must present the opportunity to purge enemy paradigms that seek to destroy our Constitution. It would be best to convict but the Republicans seem to be drunk on power.