By Madeline Holcombe
This Blog is created to stress the importance of Peace as an environmental directive. “I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.” – Harry Truman (I receive no compensation from any entry on this blog.)
Monday, September 06, 2021
Are Governors of dangerously infected states racist in their opening of their economy and forcing labor rather than unemployment?
By Madeline Holcombe
The Rooster
"Okeydoke"
The Capitol Police were exposed to many types of chemicals on January 6, 2021. The USA EPA needs to recapture the content of those chemicals. Perhaps some of the uniforms they were wearing can be tested regardless of being cleaned. We know the cleaning agents used.
The CHEMICAL INVESTIGATION of January 6, 2021, must be looked at as a SOUP of chemicals that acted on the body of any Capitol Police.
The Capitol Police are going to need excellent health insurance and NIH investigation to any illness they manifest going forward. Congress needs to pass legislation to protect their well-being and that of their families for the rest of their lives. The families were exposed to the chemicals when their Capitol Policeperson came home.
If the United States Congress can't protect the Americans that protect them, they aren't worthy of the seat they occupy.
We need to remember on this Labor Day the importance of protecting the Americans that do all the hard work in their jobs.
Sunday, September 05, 2021
The infrastructure of this community is destroyed. There is no sense to rebuild it.
Put people in new developments at higher elevations where there are functioning hospitals, schools, and groceries. The Greenland Ice Sheet is causing sea-level rise that will result in chronic flooding and the return of storms that will devastate these areas of the Gulf Coast.
These people are now climate refugees and must be relocated to where they are safe. It is unacceptable to allow people back into their homes if the public infrastructure around them is gone.
September 3, 2021
City utility workers Fredrick Patrick, left, and Ron Fletcher look for a water meter to help stop a water leak around a destroyed building as residents try to recover from the effects of Hurricane Ida Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021, in Houma, La.
Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana - The Terrebonne Parish President (click here) provided an update on damage across the parish from Hurricane Ida.Communications are still strained due to widespread damage from the category four storm.
The parish said although utility providers and communication companies are working to restore water, sewer service, electricity, phone and internet service, damage assessment and recovery efforts in Terrebonne in the wake of Hurricane Ida are proceeding much slower than hoped as a result.
Damage assessment reports that have been filed in the Emergency Operations Center Friday indicate substantial and widespread structural damage throughout the parish, particularly in Terrebonne’s bayou communities.
In these areas, damage to residences rendered about 60% of them unsafe for human habitation. In these areas, road clearing efforts are underway, according to the parish.
Children have to be tested no diffferently than adults.
Br J Anaesth. 2020 Sep; 125(3): e330–e332.
Rita Assaker, Anne-Emmanuelle Colas, Florence, Julien-Marsollier, Beatrice Bruneau, Lucile Marsac, Bruno Greff, Nathalie Tri, Charlotte Fait, Christopher Brasher and Souhayl Dahmani
...Fever and cough (click here) were the most common signs of COVID-19 after SARS-CoV-2 infection in children. Our study conclusively confirmed the clinical impression that COVID-19 in children typically presents as a mild (37%) or moderate (45%) upper respiratory tract infection and is rarely severe or critical. This result is of great significance with respect to the planning of healthcare resource use over the coming months worldwide. Given that the pandemic will continue across seasons and overlap with peak influenza periods, it will be difficult to distinguish symptomatic paediatric COVID-19 patients from patients with influenza....
Teachers need to walk out and send the children home. Now, is not the time for DENIAL
Chicago teachers (click here) are threatening to "step up resistance" if safety measures aren't heightened at city schools after the new year began in-person this week.
Classes started Monday with no agreement in place between the union and Chicago Public Schools district.
"Reports of safety failures at public schools have been pouring in from across the city since students started returning on Monday," the union said in a release Thursday morning.
According to data from CPS, at least 39 schools have reported at least one COVID case in the last week....
Heck, there are 73 million children in the USA, this virus hasn't even gotten started yet.
By Travis Caldwell
Cadillac goes electric.
By Sam Abuelsamid
As Cadillac creeps ever closer (click here) to finally launching its first battery electric vehicle, GM’s premium brand continues to trickle out more details about the 2023 Lyriq. This week, Cadillac is showing off the production version of the Lyriq with minimal changes from the show car that was revealed in August 2020 along with basic specifications and pricing.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic over the past 12 months with thousands of engineers and designers working remotely, GM actually managed to pull ahead the U.S. launch of the Lyriq by nine months. The electric crossover was originally scheduled to start production in China in mid-2022 with U.S. production beginning late in the year. Instead, GM’s Spring Hill, Tennessee assembly plant will start turning out Lyriqs in the first quarter of 2022 with deliveries to begin sometime in the spring....
Where is it headed? Here we go again. We need to end the petroleum disasterous industry.
There has been a report of one other death in New Zealand today. Six months between deaths.
Sept 5 (Reuters) - New Zealand (click here) reported 20 local COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the same as in previous day, giving authorities more confidence that they are gaining a winning hand over the current outbreak of the highly transmissible Delta variant.
Officials said all the new cases were in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city and the epicentre of the outbreak. Daily case numbers have been declining over the past week, with the community outbreak now standing at 801 infections.
"The ongoing fall in numbers is proving that alert level 4 in Auckland and our public health measures are rapidly slowing the spread of the virus, however it is not through yet and we need to remain extra vigilant," Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told a televised briefing....
When is this virus going to be taken seriously?
...Variants are categorized as "variants of interest," (click here) "variants of concern" and "variants of high consequence."
The CDC states that a variant is classified as a variant of interest if it shows "specific genetic markers that have been associated with changes to receptor binding, reduced neutralization by antibodies generated against previous infection or vaccination, reduced efficacy of treatments, potential diagnostic impact, or predicted increase in transmissibility or disease severity."
"We will probably have a variant of what we call a variant of interest identified every few weeks," Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said Tuesday. "Like that's how this virus works. Variants of interest just mean we've seen a number of the same genetic mutations emerge and scientists around the world are on the lookout for it every single time. A virus anywhere in the world gets this genetic sequence, it gets updated into a database that's shared internationally, so we can really see what's emerging. When a variant of interest emerges, it says, 'Oh, this is something we should watch a little bit.'"
A variant of concern is one in which "there is evidence of an increase in transmissibility, more severe disease (e.g., increased hospitalizations or deaths), significant reduction in neutralization by antibodies generated during previous infection or vaccination, reduced effectiveness of treatments or vaccines, or diagnostic detection failures," according to the CDC.
"Once we see a variant of interest clearly have an impact, meaning it is more contagious, it might be evading a treatment, it's clearly making people sicker - that makes it into a variant of concern," Arwady said.
Finally, a variant of high consequence "has clear evidence that prevention measures or medical countermeasures have significantly reduced effectiveness relative to previously circulating variants." Or, as Chicago's top doctor put it, a variant in which "the vaccine was not working very well."
Currently there are no variants of high consequence.
"I would say if something became a variant of high consequence that would be a big deal," Arwady said, adding that such variants are ones in which "the vaccine was not working very well."
So which variants are being tracked so far? Here's what we know:
In the U.S. and around the globe, there are currently four variants labeled "variants of concern" by the CDC and the World Health Organization.
Alpha Variant
Also known as B.1.1.7, the alpha variant was first identified in the United Kingdom and quickly spread to the most prevalent variant in the US, before the delta variant took hold....
Mu
By Tom Tapp
Dr. Anthony Fauci (click here) on Thursday said U.S. public health officials are “keeping a very close eye” on a new variant of Covid-19 that was first detected in Colombia.
Known as B.1.621 or the “Mu variant” according to the World Health Organization nomenclature, it has “a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape,” according to a WHO report released on Monday. “Preliminary data presented to the Virus Evolution Working Group show a reduction in neutralization capacity of convalescent and vaccine era similar to that seen for the Beta variant, but this needs to be confirmed by further studies.”
Today, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced the Mu variant, for the first time, has been identified in the region. The numbers are still small; Only 167 Mu variants have been identified in L.A. County thus far. “These specimens were sequenced between June 19 and Augusts 21, with the majority of Mu specimens sequenced in July,” according to a statement from county public health officials....
Someone needs to explain the deaths in Lake Travis, Texas.
Just a bad year. Not much anyone can do about bad years, except, to wait for the bodies to roll up on the beach.
September 3, 2021
By Jaclyn Ramkissoon
The body of a swimmer who went missing in Lake Travis (click here) last weekend was recovered, according to the Travis County Sheriff’s Office.
TCSO said the man’s body was found at about 2 p.m. using sonar, at a depth of 144 feet. The man was one of two who were last seen in the Hurst Creek area on August 28. Deputies are still looking for the second man’s body.Of nine people who TCSO has searched for on the lake this year, seven of them have been recovered. Deputies are continuing to look for the bodies of the other two:
Swimmer reported missing on August 7 between Starnes Island and North Shore
Second swimmer reported missing on August 28 near Hurst Creek
The sheriff’s office said while nine is a high number, it has seen similar numbers of disappearances on the lake before. In 2011, eight bodies were recovered from the lake, and seven were recovered in 2018.
Over the last 10 years, four people last seen swimming in Lake Travis are still missing, TCSO said:
2014: 1
2018: 1
2021: 2
As Labor Day weekend is upon us, TCSO reminds swimmers to wear a life jacket. Deputies said “without exception, missing persons recovered from Lake Travis by TCSO were not wearing a life jacket.”
People are losing their homes. Ida has left people of Lourisiana growing number homeless.
By Shay O'Connor
The Belmere Luxury Apartments near South Hollywood Road and Corporate Drive was one of the complexes where residents were told to clear out. Residents there said they feel let down.
The people who live at Belmere apartments said they have nowhere to go at this point. Many have sustained damage to their units, but finding out they now have to leave because their apartments are "uninhabitable" is causing a huge inconvenience.
Now, they're scrambling to find shelter just days after Hurricane Ida hit the region.
According to emails sent by Fairfield Property Management to residents, officials said they are no longer able to ensure the safety of their residents given the amount of damage sustained to the complex....
Shot and killed over gasoline. Wow. There are too many guns on the street. This is no way to end an argument.
A New Orleans man (click here) has now been arrested in connection to a fatal shooting Friday at a Metairie gas station.
It happened just before 6 p.m. Friday at the Chevron gas station on Clearview Parkway near West Napoleon Avenue.
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto said 20-year-old Walter Sippio, of New Orleans, shot and killed Dwayne Nosacka, 30, of Metairie, following an altercation over gasoline.
Nosacka was shot once in the chest and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Gasoline is in short supply in much of hurricane-ravaged southeast Louisiana. The sheriff said the argument stemmed from Sippio cutting a line in an attempt to get gasoline.
Witnesses tell police that Sippio cut in line with his white minivan, directly in front of Nosacka’s car.
A line of cars stretched several blocks, all attempting to get gasoline at the Chevron station.
Officials said Nosacka got out of his car and began arguing with Sippio.
Sippio then grabbed a gun, shot Nosacka once, then fled the scene in the minivan, officials said....
Were the evacuation plans of these nursing homes pre-approved by the state health department?
There are seven nursing homes involved. Either they are all part of the same chain of health care organization with management making decisions on evacuation or they were all told where to take their residents to a warehouse. The evacuation plan was very faulty.
September 4, 2021
The state of Louisiana (click here) has ordered the "immediate closure" of seven nursing homes that evacuated residents to a warehouse in Tangipahoa Parish to ride out Hurricane Ida.
State health officials confirm seven of the residents have since died. Several others were hospitalized after officials said they faced squalid conditions in the Independence warehouse after the Category 4 hurricane moved through.
News of the nursing home closures broke Saturday in tweets sent out by the Louisiana Department of Health, citing state health officer Dr. Joseph Kanter and LDH Secretary Dr. Courtney N. Phillips.
"What happened in Independence is reprehensible, and I know there are many families hurting as a result," Phillips said.
Kanter said that the state is "taking immediate action" to protect public health. He called what happened to the residents and the lack of regard for their wellbeing an "affront to human dignity."...
A Republican is leaking classified information. For real? He only cares about his politics? For real?
Friday, September 03, 2021
Flint's water projects should be concluding to provide clean, affordable water.
Flint— Officials from the City of Flint Department of Public Works (click here) have started the next steps before the incremental increase to use the Genesee County Drain Commission delivery system as the secondary water supply. The estimated date of the 95-5 water increments has now been pushed back to early next week to allow for more monitoring and review of the pipeline connection work.
All protocols with the State of Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act and the City’s agreement with its primary water supplier, the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) will continue to be followed. Residents will continue to be updated regarding the progress of this infrastructure project.
As a reminder:
Additional monitoring will take place during the incremental increase, valve replacement work on the primary water delivery system (GLWA) and during all other major infrastructure projects. Monitoring results are posted on the EPA’s “Taking Action on Flint Water” website at www.michigan.gov/flintwater....
Flint officials (click here) are setting a final deadline of July 23 for residents to get their lead pipes replaced for free as a court-ordered program nears its end.
Below is an interesting trend.
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/18/761753866/u-s-abortion-rate-continues-long-term-decline
The trend with abortion in the USA is declining. It is gradual and it is due to the fact the Democratic Party has pushed to empower women to have birth control, education and opportunities to earn income. Those rights that belong to women were hard fought.
Looking back to the 1960s and before there was no birth control pill. Marriages suffered and women were primarily chattel to their husbands. The empowerment of women during those decades has resulted in very strong women that put up with nothing, including sexual assault.
Empowerment of women is the answer to minimize abortion. Abortion is a tool to protect women’s lives, their choices and when they choose to become a parent when it is the right time.
This past year the Democrats looked at socioeconomic problems for parents living in poverty and created the child tax credit. That is empowerment for men and women. The Democrats are not approaching abortion through oppression, but, through empowerment. Women will CHOOSE to give birth because the poverty they once faced is lifted.
There is absolutely no reason to regulate and/or ban abortion. This country will always need abortion as a tool to protect women’s lives regardless the reason. The challenge to MINIMIZE the decision to have abortions is through women’s empowerment.
The USA federal legislature needs to complete the priorities to reduce the choice of abortion and put these decisions back in the hands of doctors and women. Anyone voting for oppression of women is a human rights violator.
Republicans do not believe in quality of life, they believe in fearing life in Libya it’s rawest form. The country knows today they have to look at the accomplishments of Democrats and vote in the future to protect health, empowered families to achieve the American Dream and the very democracy that provided the quality of life more and more of us are enjoying.
Thursday, September 02, 2021
The Republican POWERGRAB compliments of Moscow Mitch is working.
The U.S. Supreme Court (click here) late Wednesday night refused to block a Texas law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The vote was 5-to-4, with three Trump-appointed justices joining two other conservative justices. Dissenting were conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, and the court's three liberal justices.
The decision left open the option for abortion providers to challenge the Texas law in other ways in the future, leaving open the possibility--even likelihood-- that the case will return to the Supreme Court, though not for months or longer.
The opinion was unsigned. It said the abortion providers didn't properly address "complex and novel antecedent procedural questions" in their case.
"In reaching this conclusion, we stress that we do not purport to resolve definitively any jurisdictional or substantive claim in the applicants' lawsuit," the decision said. "In particular, this order is not based on any conclusion about the constitutionality of Texas's law, and in no way limits other procedurally proper challenges to the Texas law, including in Texas state courts."...














