Let's go through this one more time.

July 17, 2021
By Joel Achenbach

Maria Van Kerkhove, (click here) a World Health Organization epidemiologist, was in her Geneva office last weekend preparing for a keynote address when a simple phrase came to mind. She had been pondering the dismaying rise in coronavirus infections globally during the previous three weeks, a reversal of promising trends in late spring. The surge came as people across much of the Northern Hemisphere were moving around again in a suddenly freewheeling summer — as if the pandemic were over.

She wrote in her notebook: “The world needs a reality check.”...

No one including policymakers has any desire to lock down a country. That concept is counterintuitive to the principles of free people. But, there is still danger in not conquering SARS-CoV-2 and it's many variants. These variants are proof of what was said about the nature of viruses when they are allowed to exist among people, they can mutate over and over and become fatal to their hosts. 

Maria Van Kerkhove is talking about exactly that. The virus is deadly. That is a fact. There are more than 608 thousand dead Americans (click here).

Nebraska (click here) no longer reports county-level data. Florida county-level data is displayed when available, but is not always reported by the state.

This is the United States of America where every life is supposed to count and the statistics of deaths and number of cases is not even accurate! Arkansas has not reported one death since the beginning of this pandemic. Other states are ending their reporting. There needs to be a clear understanding that states that do not report will not receive ANY federal dollars. 

I was absolutely astounded that Asa Hutchinson the Governor of Arkansas has not reported one death in that state. Now, that is a lie. Arkansas is not quarantined to prevent the spread, especially considering it has the two highest states for deaths to the north and south of it's borders.

The governors of Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi all need to be replaced. They aren't part of this country if they can't pull in the same direction to end a pandemic. The Republicans are not a party that loves the people, except, in photo ops.

The facts are this, given ANY chance to continue to infect human beings the virus will ultimately achieve a variant that will kill people without a chance of defending themselves from it. A variant of Delta will cause widespread death. At the point where there is a Level 3 variant that is being transmitted easily among people, the only answer will be to shut down the entire country to bring about a quarantine of infected people to end the spread.

THAT IS WHAT WE ARE UP AGAINST, "END THE SPREAD."

It is the nature of viruses to mutate and they do it well because they are mRNA and easily take advantage of human DNA to replicate. The viruses must be brought under control. There WILL BE a variant that is a third-level virus that will kill people. No one should be taking this fact lightly.

The fall and winter of 2021 - 2022 will spawn horrible dynamics again that will cause problems again. The worst is going to be where the worst is now, the cities where minorities are hardest hit.

These viruses are spinning out more than just deaths, there are disabilities and deficits and chronic illness among people because of the tiny blood clots resulting from an infection of SARS-CoV-2. The number of "Long Haulers" is yet to be known. The worst of the outcomes has not been reported yet either. When tiny blood clots call cell death there is always a chance that cell death will ultimately destroy the organ and hence a threat to the human being having contracted a preventable viral infection. 

There will not be a single body system left untouched by these tiny blood clots. People who survived the virus and are having long-haul symptoms will most likely become sicker and sicker as time goes on.

These viruses MUST be contained on a global basis. The USA has had the most infected cases and deaths, it has an enormous moral obligation to end the spread of the virus and the variants. Eventually, the people will be crying for a country-wide shutdown in order to end the spread. It will come too late and more people will die.

DO NOT ALLOW VARIANTS OR THE VIRUS TO MUTATE TO BECOME DEADLY.

AMERICANS MUST PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM THE SPREAD AND BE VACCINATED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. DON'T BE A VICTIM, BE AN ADVOCATE FOR SAFETY.

There was an increase of 8.6 percent fetal deaths during the Flint Water Crisis.

July 16, 2021
By Steve Carmody

A new study finds (click here) there was not a significant increase in fetal deaths in Flint during the city’s drinking water crisis.

Many in Flint have wondered if stillbirths between 2014 and 2016 were due to increased lead levels in the city’s drinking water. A 2017 report suggested Flint had seen a 58% increase in fetal deaths. But the report was criticized by academics and the state health department.

But Virginia Tech researcher Siddhartha Roy says comparing records before, during and after the water crisis shows no evidence of increased fetal deaths or negative fertility rates.

“We have tried to look every which ever way that available models and available data sets could give us signals of possible increase in fetal deaths,” said Roy. “And we found nothing.”...

The study points to other statistics to state there was no increase in fetal deaths less than 20 weeks. That is possible when looking over longer periods of time, but, this increase happened during the poisoning of the water, there is on doubt why the increase occured. Some spontaneous abortions may have happened anyway but not an increase.

A couple of things happen in pregnancy that mitigates the lead in a pregnant woman's body. First there is information from "The March of Dimes." The focus is on the woman because she would have ingested the lead in the water and it would cross the placenta.

...Can lead poisoning affect pregnancy? (click here)

Yes. You can pass lead to your baby through the placenta. The placenta grows in your uterus (womb) and supplies your baby with food and oxygen through the umbilical cord. 

Exposure to high levels of lead before and during pregnancy can cause:

• - Fertility problems, like reduced sperm count or abnormal sperm. Sperm in a man’s semen fertilizes a woman's egg to get her pregnant. Sperm count is the number of sperm in a man’s semen when he ejaculates.
• - High blood pressure (also called hypertension). This is when the force of blood against the walls of your blood vessels is too high. High blood pressure can cause problems during pregnancy.
• - Problems with the development of your baby’s brain and nervous system. The nervous system includes your brain, spinal cord and nerves. Your nervous system helps you move, think and feel. Babies exposed to lead before birth are likely to have learning problems and slow growth.
• - Premature birth. This is birth that happens too early, before 37 weeks of pregnancy.
• - Low birthweight. This is when your baby weighs less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces at birth.
• - Miscarriage. This is when a baby dies in the womb before 20 weeks of pregnancy....

The thing about pregnancy is that women can mitigate the potency of the lead in their bodies by taking vitamins. All pregnant women receiving prenatal vitamins cause competition with lead by those vitamins and the possibility of a woman passing lead to her in utero infant is diminished, but, not completely stopped.

Zinc, selenium and iron are only three of the minerals that will mitigate toxicity of lead to the mother and the baby.

January 14, 2014

By Qixiao Zhai,  Arjan Narbad, and Wei Chen

...In summary, (click here) these essential metals decrease intestinal Cd and Pb absorption, recover the essential metal homeostasis and alleviate the oxidative stress caused by Cd and Pb toxicity. Diet associated essential metal supplementation should be regarded as important for essential metal-deficient people, such as children and pregnant women. Because without sufficient essential metal stores to prevent heavy metal absorption, these people are especially susceptible to heavy metal toxicity [16,21,50,51]. It should also be noted that Cd and Pb exposure cause the loss of essential metals, which leads to complications such as iron-deficiency anaemia and osteoporosis [52,53]. Appropriate concentrations of essential metal supplementation is therefore also beneficial for preventing these complications....

The article goes on to explain that a vitamin-deprived mother is more susceptible to lead poisoning. 

The author of the study at the top openly admits while when looking through the looking glass of statistics this could simply be a cycle of increase over time, but, he cannot conclude through their analysis that the increase was not due to lead in the drinking water. Of course, it was due to the water. It is ridiculous to think otherwise.

The infants conceived and born during the lead poisoning in Flint need to be followed along with their mothers. Any man attempting to conceive a family in Flint but couldn't was due to Flint Water and it's lead content. Lead ingested by men leads to low sperm counts.

Erik Prince was involved in training the Columbian mercenaries.

There is a chance that Trump, though Prince, could have his own assassins. Who paid the Columbian mercenaries and why? This is a year before the 2016 elections were decided and while the campaigns were still raging. Erik Prince and his mercenary army have been working at killing, not security, since the Iraq War.

The assassins are basically hit - men willing to kill national leaders at will. 

May 14, 2015
By Mark Mazetti and Emily B. Hager

Erik Prince’s (click here) residency visa for the UAE, showing that he was, at the time, employed by Assurance Management Consultancy. Some personal information has been redacted for privacy.

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Late one night last November, (click here) a plane carrying dozens of Colombian men touched down in this glittering seaside capital. Whisked through customs by an Emirati intelligence officer, the group boarded an unmarked bus and drove roughly 20 miles to a windswept military complex in the desert sand.

The Colombians had entered the United Arab Emirates posing as construction workers. In fact, they were soldiers for a secret American-led mercenary army being built by Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of Blackwater Worldwide, with $529 million from the oil-soaked sheikdom.

Mr. Prince, who resettled here last year after his security business faced mounting legal problems in the United States, was hired by the crown prince of Abu Dhabi to put together an 800-member battalion of foreign troops for the U.A.E., according to former employees on the project, American officials and corporate documents obtained by The New York Times.

The force is intended to conduct special operations missions inside and outside the country, defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from terrorist attacks and put down internal revolts, the documents show. Such troops could be deployed if the Emirates faced unrest in their crowded labor camps or were challenged by pro-democracy protests like those sweeping the Arab world this year....

November 25, 2015

By Emily B. Hager and Mark Mazetti

Washington — The United Arab Emirates (click here) has secretly dispatched hundreds of Colombian mercenaries to Yemen to fight in that country’s raging conflict, adding a volatile new element in a complex proxy war that has drawn in the United States and Iran.

It is the first combat deployment for a foreign army that the Emirates has quietly built in the desert over the past five years, according to several people currently or formerly involved with the project. The program was once managed by a private company connected to Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater Worldwide, but the people involved in the effort said that his role ended several years ago and that it has since been run by the Emirati military.

The arrival in Yemen of 450 Latin American troops — among them are also Panamanian, Salvadoran and Chilean soldiers — adds to the chaotic stew of government armies, armed tribes, terrorist networks and Yemeni militias currently at war in the country. Earlier this year, a coalition of countries led by Saudi Arabia, including the United States, began a military campaign in Yemen against Houthi rebels who have pushed the Yemeni government out of the capital, Sana.

It is also a glimpse into the future of war. Wealthy Arab nations, particularly Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Emirates, have in recent years embraced a more aggressive military strategy throughout the Middle East, trying to rein in the chaos unleashed by the Arab revolutions that began in late 2010. But these countries wade into the new conflicts — whether in Yemen, Syria or Libya — with militaries that are unused to sustained warfare and populations with generally little interest in military service....

July 12, 2021
By Kelly Beaucar

Suspects in the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, who was shot dead early Wednesday at his home, are shown to the media, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti July 8, 2021.

This weekend we found out that the Colombian men (click here) arrested in connection with the assassination of Haitian president Jovenal Moïse may have been hired by a Florida private security company with Venezuelan connections. Furthermore, they might have been deployed on behalf of an Haitian ex-pat in Miami who wanted to replace Moïse as president.

Why does this sound so familiar?

Maybe because it was only last year that 13 men led an unsuccessful coup attempt — known cheekily as the “Bay of Piglets” — against Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Their alleged leader was a former Navy Seal, who also runs a security company in Florida. Jordan Goudreau was allegedly working with ex-Venezuelan military exiles who wanted to help overthrow Maduro for opposition leader Juan Guaido (he has denied any involvement). They led an elaborate plan to train fellow ex-Venezuelan military soldiers at a training camp in Colombia. Goudreau wasn’t on the boat that day when the May 2020 plot was foiled, but two former Green Berets (ages 34 and 41) were, and they are doing 20 years in a Venezuelan jail right now, convicted on charges of conspiracy, illicit trafficking of weapons, and terrorism....

The USA does not train assassins.

People that believe they are above the law because they have weapons to kill anyone who challenges them are found in any military in the world. The USA has had it's military members come back and take a piece of the USA as a marker of THEIR TRUTH. Timothy McVeigh and the members of the gang that stormed the USA Capitol building are among them.

Columbia was no different than the Northern Triad at one point, including child soldiers. The USA was able to train a Columbian army to end the terrorists of the drug cartels that ran Columbia. That country is no longer polluted with terrorists or gangs of killers for the drug cartels.

What I want to know is if the assassins knew each other and who created the operational group to carry out the assassination. Where did the weapons come from because they didn't come through Customs or Airline Security. Where is the boat harbored in or near Haiti that brought the weapons that killed the Haitian President?

International law prohibits the assassination of any country's leadership. Where is the connection that someone of Western affiliation mastermind this killing? There is none and there won't be. This was done by an organized group of men who believed they were above the law and carried weapons to correct the wayward course of Haiti.

These people are no different than McVeigh and the Michigan militia members that wanted to kidnap and kill a Michigan governor. They are no different than those that carry out terrorists' agendas. They have weapons and they believe they are more powerful than the world order. People like this will be written into every chapter of history. 

No one believes these men were taking orders from Trump. If that connection is ever made that trial will result in prison or worse for the former president of the USA. International Relations need to be stable regardless of its content. Episodes like this disrupt the global understanding of the balance of power. No country will tolerate such individuals to exist.

9 July 2021
By Joe Parkin Daniels and Tom Phillips

The hit squad that killed President Jovenel Moïse (click here) is alleged to be largely drawn from veterans of Colombia’s civil conflicts.

When Manuel Antonio Grosso Guarín jetted into Punta Cana’s tourist-clogged airport early last month on Avianca Flight 252, immigration officials are unlikely to have given the 41-year-old Colombian a second glance. Visitors from around the globe flock to this Dominican resort town each week in search of sun, sea and Caribbean sands.

Grosso appears to have had rather different plans, though: to sneak over the border into neighbouring Haiti and help assassinate that country’s president.

“Colombian mercenaries: trained, cheap, and available,” read a headline in Colombia’s largest newspaper, El Tiempo, on Friday after the Bogotá-based former special forces fighter was identified as one of Jovenel Moïse’s 28 alleged killers....

The country is going to have some serious flooding with some people displaced.

TORNADO WATCH 379 (click here) IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1200 AM CDT FOR THE

FOLLOWING LOCATIONS
WI

. WISCONSIN COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE
COLUMBIA CRAWFORD DANE
...More
Expires in 2 hr.

It is a heat transfer system crossing the Rocky Mountains.

Iowa is a part of that system, too. That big green splotch is the problem. It is a chronic collection of heat and there are some wicked storms there right now. It doesn't pass over the area, it continues to regenerate. That heat is traveling from the West Coast of the USA and Baja Peninsula to the Midwest. In the Midwest, the two systems come together and have an accumulation that has resulted in a sustaining heat storm. It is starting to collect over the southwest, too. A couple of storm systems west coast of Mexico. These storms are dumping an excess of 1 to 2 inches of rain every hour and the storms are not moving. It is not stagnant. The air is moving, but, the heat accumulation is consistent to create a sustained rainstorm.

California is getting some relief from the temperatures because of the wind moving the head east.

Link to system satellite below (click here)

''

Why are Millennials upset ?

Why do I think Whitmer won't see a second term?

She is making a lot of enemies among the electorate. No one wants their water poisoned, but, they don't want to fall into bankruptcy either.

The State of Michigan cannot change the rules of the game at halftime. This is a self-inflicted wound for Whitmer.

There is such a thing as State's Rights and if a state believes it's unemployed need their benefits beyond that of the federal regulations it can take place. All of this money is not federal money either. The State of Michigan sets down rules for unemployment that is in addition to the federal rules and regs. The federal government is not in the Governor's office.

Basically, Whitmer is reverting to the Trump standard for unemployment.

President Joe Biden has expanded the federal standards for unemployment in the country during the pandemic. But, some states like Michigan is using this opportunity to shrink requirements that were originally allowed under States Rights. There should be no recertification necessary. The reasons for rejection of any claim can be reviewed by those in the unemployment agency for certification based on the new standard.

President Biden intended for an expansion of certifications and not an opportunity to redefine claims dating back to January 2020 for rejection. Whitmer’s administration are bullies in redefining state requirements for unemployment and basing decisions only in federal standards. She can’t change the rules at her convenience now that people are back to work.

February 12, 2021

By Rachel Louise Just

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (click here) released a record-setting $67.1 billion budget proposal for fiscal year 2022 on Thursday, but some are wondering if it would pull from Michigan's shrinking rainy day fund.

State Budget Director David Massaron said it wouldn't, because the proposed budget would add $175 million into the state's rainy day fund. Michigan's rainy day fund, or budget stabilization fund as the state refers to it, is its lifeline. It was emptied out to keep Michigan afloat during the 2008 recession, and the last time it was used was to pull Detroit out of bankruptcy in the mid-2010s.

“The idea of a rainy day fund or a stabilization fund is they give government the ability to continue to deliver those services as it gradually changes its operating costs to meet what the new revenue reality is,” Massaron said.

The fund was down $350 million from early 2020. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the state dipped into the rainy day fund, as Massaron explains, "to keep government operating."...

The Michigan Unemployment Agency has been playing political games with the federal monies that were supposed to go to the people. They wanted to first rack up the political idea that all is well and the Michigan Rainy Day Fund is back. Well, there is a lot wrong and a recent letter to unemployment recipients is the last straw.\

First, the state claims there is a mass number of people registering that is actually identity theft.

WRONG!

Those were Michigan residents attempting to pass along their ID after three months of unemployment, but, the computer system in Michigan was so foreign to most people they registered as thieves. Even after soliciting the state's unemployment agency via phone or internet the benefits were not returned to those previously qualifying for them.

If that wasn't enough, along comes letters making it known there are no more benefits for those attempting to rightfully receive them. Now, a new letter that wants to change ALL THE QUALIFICATIONS for Michigan Unemployment, but, this one goes a little further, in placing a new reality in front of the Michigan workers, PAY IT BACK!!!!!!

The State of Michigan unemployment agency has been seeking to keep every penny of federal monies for the state treasury by demonizing PUA. People have been forced into poverty by the state seeking help with private housing agencies to pay rent, mortgages, and utilities to keep people housed during a pandemic. As one agency supervisor said, "She is doing no one any favors, that's for sure." 

This administration is victimizing every person that ever applied for unemployment during the pandemic because it is profitable for the state to do so. After the most recent letter takes hold and demands repayment the rest of the unemployment recipients will receive their letters, too.

July 13, 2021
By Paula Gardner

Nearly one-fifth of the Michigan residents (click here) who received unemployment payments during the pandemic are now learning their eligibility for jobless benefits didn’t meet federal standards.

Michigan officials will reevaluate claims filed by 690,092 people. The vast majority — 648,000 — will have to confirm their jobless status from a different set of criteria and may learn they weren’t eligible for funds they already received....

The man that would be king in Ukraine, Arsen Avakov, resigns his power.

From left, (click here) Ukraine's Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov, acting Prosecutor General of Ukraine Oleh Makhnitskyi and Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Valentyn Nalyvaichenko hold a news conference in Kiev, Ukraine, on Thursday. 

Arsen Avakov is not a Putin Pundit. As a matter of fact, he appears to be a Putin watcher to the extent he is able to understand the Russian dictator's next move. Former Internal Prime Minister Arsen Avakov (click here) openly accused exiled former president Yanukovych for the deaths of peaceful protesters.

Ukraine's special police (click here) were behind the killings of dozens of anti-government protesters in Kiev in February, a government inquiry says.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov told reporters that 12 members of the Berkut police had been identified as snipers and arrested.

He presented what he said was new evidence from the shootings on 18-20 February, when 76 people were killed.

Months of mass protests led to the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych.

More than 100 people - including police officers - are now known to have died in Ukraine since the unrest began in November over Mr Yanukovych's last-minute rejection of a landmark deal with the European Union in favour with closer Russian ties....

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov (click here) says the whole world has been convinced that the Putin regime is a dangerous anomaly on the other side of civilizational values, therefore the Russian leader will hit on brakes brake or raise the stakes once more pressure is imposed on Russia....

Speaking (click here) exclusively to the Daily Beast, Ukraine’s interior minister says revolutionaries must accept the internal battle is over and help to face down Russia.

The change of government in Ukraine in 2019 (click here) has boosted the political position of Arsen Avakov, the longest-serving interior minister in the history of independent Ukraine (he has been in five consecutive governments since February 2014). He was the only member of Volodymyr Hroysman’s cabinet to remain in office following Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s presidential victory. Zelenskiy came to power demanding that the political class should be renewed and the ‘old politicians’ removed, among other things. According to some Ukrainian politicians and media outlets, Avakov is an essential and highly influential politician, a guarantor of internal stability and a possible candidate for prime minister. Over the last six years, the interior minister has built up a strong position for himself in the internal security sector (for example, he supervises the National Police and the National Guard) and has successfully neutralised attempts by other politicians to limit his power. Moreover, any talk of his dismissal is frequently viewed as a threat to the country’s stability. Avakov has a big media presence and positions himself as an experienced official, a statesman and a guardian of justice and order above the divisions that run along party lines. While maintaining control of the Interior Ministry agencies, he has become politically independent and has built up an exceptionally strong position for himself. However, it seems that his media image as an omnipotent and increasingly influential politician does not correspond completely to his actual status. His attempts so far to extend his influence beyond the Interior Ministry (in politics in general, as well as in numerous institutions of the judiciary) have had less impressive results than he had expected. Alongside this, Avakov is among Ukraine’s least popular politicians; he has no political party base, no sufficient funds and no media assets that could enable him to have any effective influence on the work of the government and parliament.

A businessman turned minister: what is Avakov’s background?

Avakov is a typical representative of his generation, an individual who started his business career in the perestroika period and then made a smooth transition to politics in a newly created state....

Trump supporters as well as those that organized and particpated in January 6th plot against the USA Constitution...

...have the same if not the very same personality disorders that Trump exhibits including Toxic Narcissism. This reality check to this Trump Die Hard probably won't change his point of view. He would have to admit he acted wrongly against the USA Constitution. He won't.

Let me make this clear. The events of January 6th had a very clear definition besides the "Big Lie." The organizers and participants had one very, very clear goal, to stop the process of seating a freely elected President. There is no doubt in that. That was the goal and they were successful in that they delayed and traumatized the freely elected government officials, including the highest levels of Congressional leadership and their families visiting that day.

That is an act against the USA Constitution. I don't care if there were other ideas floating around as to the reason or outcome, there was a common thread that ran between all that day, STOP THE SEATING OF A FREELY ELECTED USA PRESIDENT.

That is treason. Treason is often confined to military movements. Well, there was plenty of that by Trump during his 4 years including his first day at work and the arrival of Russians to the Oval Office. January 6th action was to end the authority of the USA Constitution. If that doesn't affect the status of our military, then I don't know what does.

July 2, 2021
By Marshall Cohen

A Trump-appointed federal judge (click here) on Friday rejected claims from a US Capitol riot defendant that he had been "selectively charged" because he is a supporter of former President Donald Trump.

Federal Judge Trevor McFadden shot down that accusation and upheld the criminal charges against Couy Griffin, a county commissioner from New Mexico who founded the "Cowboys for Trump" group and was featured in a recent CNN documentary about the January 6 insurrection.

The judge also rejected Griffin's technical arguments about the federal trespassing statutes that the Justice Department used to prosecute him and hundreds of other riot suspects. The ruling could influence other judges who are considering similar challenges regarding the trespassing law....

I agree with the New York Times, we need to perfect this capacity throughout our hospital systems.

July 12, 2021
By Sheri Fink

The latest miracle machine (click here) in modern medicine — whose use has skyrocketed in recent years — is saving people from the brink of death: adults whose lungs have been ravaged by the flu; a trucker who was trapped underwater in a crash; a man whose heart had stopped working for an astonishing seven hours....

During a surge of coronavirus cases (click here) at Houston Methodist Hospital last summer, a patient in his 40s on a ventilator was declining. There was one more option, a last-resort treatment that can mechanically substitute for badly damaged lungs.

But that day, the slots designated for the intensive treatment, called ECMO, were filled. One patient, a man a decade older, had been receiving the therapy for over a month. Doctors had concluded he had almost no chance of recovery, and had recommended several times stopping the treatment, but his relatives were not ready to let him go.

“We have to push some more,” said Dr. Sarah Beshay, a critical care physician, because the younger patient “needs a chance too.”

That afternoon, she called the older man’s daughter, who had not been allowed to visit because of Covid restrictions. Explaining that the therapy was in scarce supply, the physician said, “It’s a matter of using the available resources in the wisest way possible.”...

Remember this? Vaping? It is still a problem. ECMO maintained the lives of young people while they awaited a lung transplant. This technology and it's use is vital to maintaining lives that are attacked by lung disease. This miracle machine is not an excuse for incompetent government or exploitive commercial ventures.

June 29, 2021

By Drs, Norbert Herzog and David Niesel

Vaping Lung (click here)

In 2019, a national poll (click here) revealed that 8 percent of people in the United States had used a vaping product in the previous week.

Some argue that vaping is a safe alternative to tobacco products, but the safety is still being determined. A recent study reported that a third of people who vape experience symptoms of damage to lungs or the respiratory tract.

EVALI, or electronic cigarette- or vaping-associated lung injury, includes symptoms such as cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, nausea, diarrhea and sometimes fever or chills. Some have reported symptoms after only a few days, and for others, they appear after weeks of vaping.

E-cigarettes also are called vapes, e-hookahs, vape pens, tank systems, mods and electronic nicotine delivery systems. They’re battery-powered devices that heat a liquid to produce an aerosol that’s inhaled. The vaping liquid can contain nicotine or tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive component of marijuana, flavorings and other additives.

In a recent study, 1,400 people who vaped were asked to list the devices and products they used and report any symptoms they experienced. More than half of them had one or more symptoms, and one-third reported EVALI symptoms, especially cough or nausea. People who used refillable devices or cartridges and people who used flavored liquids had a higher likelihood of showing symptoms....

It is time to change the lens in which we see Cuban leadership.

The USA media is not covering the changes in government-tilt as much as it used to. Whatever happened to the International Herald Tribune? Every day on Page 2 and 3 was a bird's eye view of other countries, other people, and their relationship to The West. I miss that. 

Cuba at one time had a representative constitutional government like the USA. Then came the revolution and Castro came into power and communism was instilled. Cuba has mostly affiliated itself with Russia, previously it was the USSR. 90 miles from the shore of the USA was a communist state closely allied with Russia or at the time of the Cuban missile crisis, the USSR.

My understanding is that Cuba has returned a new government order that includes a Prime Minister and President. This is at least a rolling back of communism in the way leadership is established. The people voted for the current president of Cuba, President Miguel Díaz-Canel. The demonstrations in the past few days may be a resurgence of a democracy that was plowed under a long time ago.

President Diaz-Canel was elected and even Raul Castro seemed to like the decision of the Cuban people. I think it is time the USA State Department reassesses Cuba and it's new path. It might be a burgeoning democracy again that will be once again plowed under because the USA didn't take interest.

Part of the problem is that when President Obama attempted to reengage Cuba with embassy staff, the staff was bombarded by Chinese radio waves that caused damage to the human body. That type of hostile action is an act of war. I am quite sure the Geneva Conventions provide for criminal definitions of such aggressive technology that assaults and degrades the health of the human body.

That said, the USA only in March 2021 defined better the understanding the USA Department of Defenses has of the electromagnetic spectrum (click here).

We know for a fact the presidency and administration of Trump disassembled decades of USA policy that worked effectively for the peaceful national defense we as Americans have enjoyed for decades if not centuries. That type of domestic stability is not a toy of democracy, it is the spine of this democracy. The USA was known globally as a peaceful power that propagated democracy as a sound principle for governance. That definition has to return to a global understanding once again.

I think it is time the USA takes a look at the rapid descent of democratic principles lost during the Trump years. Near border wars have never been part of the USA national security, yet here we are with Haiti bordering on communism and Cuba being unrecognized for the people's desire for a return of the old ways.

Neither of these countries need chaos as governance, neither does Venezuela. I trust President Joe Biden. I think he needs to take an honest look at the borders near the USA and make decisions to secure the Western Hemisphere once again.

Does anyone know who Cuba faired in the global pandemic? Or Haiti for that matter? 

10 April 2018
By Geoff Thale and Teresa Garcia Castro

Cuba's new president (click here) Miguel Diaz-Canel, left, and former president Raul Castro, salutes, after Diaz-Canel was elected as the island nation's new president, at the National Assembly in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, April 19, 2018. Castro left the presidency after 12 years in office when the National Assembly approved Diaz-Canel's nomination as the candidate for the top government position. 

On February 24, Cubans (click here) went to the polls to vote on the ratification of a new constitution, one that makes significant changes to the country’s political, social, and economic order. This was the first time in 43 years that the Cuban people had the opportunity to express either support or opposition to a proposal that fundamentally restructures aspects of the Cuban economy and political system.

According to the Cuban electoral commission, voter turnout reached 84 percent (slightly higher than in Cuba’s last election cycle in April 2018), with 87 percent of the votes in favor. The size of the vote suggests that, whatever misgivings or frustrations Cubans had with the new Constitutional proposal, they saw it as a step in the right direction.

The new Cuban Constitution retains language that proclaims the Communist Party’s guiding role in Cuban society and socialism as being irreversible. At the same time, the document includes several major changes to Cuba’s traditional economic and political model. Additionally, the drafting process that yielded the final text that was approved in the February 24 referendum involved a citizen consultation process that was relatively inclusive and even resulted in changes to the final document, an important indication that the Cuban government’s gradual process of reform is continuing....

The failed state that is now Venezuela started with the collapse of oil prices and hunger. The USA can do something about hunger.

July 12, 2021

By Oscar Lopez and Ernesto Londono

Hospitals and pharmacies (click here) have run out of medicines as basic as penicillin and aspirin. Blackouts have become maddeningly frequent and agonizingly long. Cubans lucky enough to have foreign currency wait in line for hours for staples like beans and rice.

A searing economic decline, leading to hardships Cubans have rarely seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union devastated their country in the 1990s, has stirred the island’s largest protest movement in decades, eliciting a chorus of support from American politicians and angry threats from Cuba’s government.

“We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom,” President Biden said in a statement on Monday, citing what he called “decades of repression and economic suffering to which they have been subjected by Cuba’s authoritarian regime.”

His comments followed an astonishing wave of demonstrations on Sunday, when thousands took to the streets around the nation, shouting phrases like “freedom” and “Homeland and life,” a twist on the governing Communist Party’s motto: “Homeland or death.”...

"Good Night, Moon"

Waxing crescent

2.0 day old moon

4.5 percent lit

Visit, but do not, develop the moon. It is in balance with Earth as a satellite. Visit the moon and then take the development ideas to Mars or interstellar space. Leave the moon alone!

July 6, 2021
By David A. Taylor

Scientists (click here) have long tested solar energy in space, but it may soon arrive on the Moon — in the form of rovers equipped with solar panels. On unmanned moon missions, these petite robotic vehicles will test the limits of how humans power their explorations, navigate the moon’s surface, and create potential human habitats far from home.

Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander will carry the solar-powered CubeRover onto the moon's surface.

When is NASA going to stop naming their vehicles after my dead dog, Rover?

The team behind them include Mike Provenzano, director of planetary mobility for Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic. Under a NASA contract, the robotics company has scheduled unmanned missions to the Moon with the rover in tow for the next year. The first mission, Peregrine 1, is slated for late 2021.

These journeys will represent a significant space milestone: They will mark the first U.S. visit to the Moon in 50 years....

The death of the Beaufort Gyre will ultimately happen if it hasn't begun already.

The warm tropic water mentioned here is the Gulf Stream. If the Gulf Stream ends it's travels up the east coast of the USA that will cause enormous changes in the water temperature along with all the fisheries that count on it, including the Sargasso Sea. The Sargasso Sea is an entire ecosystem that will be lost if the temperatures of the Atlantic Ocean change.

Arctic Ocean Circulation (click here)

...Another concern among scientists (click here) is that melting sea-ice is affecting a major ocean current in the Arctic - the Beaufort Gyre.

Freshwater is less dense than salty seawater. The researchers said a sudden influx of freshwater from the Arctic Ocean into the northern Atlantic Ocean could alter the strength of the current.

This is because the force pushing water down the eastern coast of continental North America will be reduced, resulting in a smaller volume of warmer tropic waters from equatorial regions being displaced towards western Europe.

Models suggest the reduction in warmer waters heading towards western Europe will result in lower temperatures in the region. This, in turn, would also affect weather patterns in the global climate system.

Both sharks and whales are endankgered. The subtlety of climate science. Everything matters.

...How do sharks affect atmospheric carbon? (click here)

Coastal predators such as sharks protect and enhance blue carbon (carbon stored in coastal and marine ecosystems) by limiting grazing on seagrass meadows and kelp forests. These ecosystems are precious not only to the plethora of species they support but also in the role they play in the absorption of carbon due to photosynthesis. For example, tiger sharks frequent shallow seagrass meadows. They prevent overgrazing in concentrated areas from turtles and other prey species, resulting in increased and more evenly distributed seagrass. The increase in meadow mass directly helps rising carbon levels, as seagrass captures carbon from the atmosphere 35 times faster than tropical rainforests.

Large fish such as shark, tuna, mackerel and swordfish are comprised of ~10 to 15% carbon. When they die naturally, their bodies act as direct carbon sinks through 'carcass deadfall'. The carbon held in their bodies is sequestered into the sediment. Put simply, if a carcass is removed from the sea its corresponding carbon is released into the atmosphere but if left to die at sea that carbon is buried. Luckily, these animals are also useful to the climate crisis when they stay alive!

Whaling and Sharks?

The global biomass of whales is less than 25% of pre-whaling times. A study by Pershing et al. shows the implications of removing large marine species on the oceans ability to store carbon. If efforts were increased to restore populations, whales could remove 8,700,000 tonnes of carbon from the environment. That's the equivalent of 110,000 hectares of forest, an area the same size as the Rocky Mountain National Park. If blue whale populations alone were restored they could sequester 3,600,000 tonnes of carbon. The same amount achieved by 43,000 hectares of forest, an area the same size as Los Angeles. But this isn’t the end of the story...

Trump did everything wrong and ended policies that worked well for the national security of the USA.

Now we are left to pick up the pieces of some of the best-developed policies for the safety of the USA and it's neighbors.

It might give people a bad taste for democracy and turn to other global powers for help and leadership.

November 20, 2017
By Miriam Jordan

The Trump administration (click here) is ending a humanitarian program that has allowed some 59,000 Haitians to live and work in the United States since an earthquake ravaged their country in 2010, Homeland Security officials said on Monday.

Haitians with what is known as Temporary Protected Status will be expected to leave the United States by July 2019 or face deportation....

...Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, is still struggling to recover from the earthquake and relies heavily on money its expatriates send to relatives back home. The Haitian government had asked the Trump administration to extend the protected status.

“I received a shock right now,” Gerald Michaud, 45, a Haitian who lives in Brooklyn, said when he heard the news. He has been working at La Guardia Airport as a wheelchair attendant, sending money to family and friends back home. He said he feared for his welfare and safety back in Haiti now that his permission to remain in the United States was ending.

“The situation is not good in my country,” he said. “I don’t know where I am able to go.”

Haitians are the second-largest group of foreigners with temporary status. The protection is extended to people already in the United States who have come from countries crippled by natural disasters or armed conflict that prevents their citizens from returning or prevents their country from adequately receiving them. The government periodically reviews each group’s status and decides whether to continue the protections....

Then there is the anti-narcotic monies.

...The NAS provides assistance to enable the Government of Haiti (click here) to establish a visible and legitimate police and security presence, one that is based on justice and the rule of law, that engenders a culture of lawfulness and respect for human rights, and that provides protection for vulnerable populations, such as abused women and children.  Specific NAS projects target the Haitian National Police (HNP), specialized counter-narcotics and anti-money laundering units, justice sector reforms, and the corrections sector.

Police

NAS funds general training for police officers – including the 22nd class of 903 HNP cadets, which began its seven-month long training program in September 2010, and specialized training – such as the 24-person counter-drug/counter-kidnap class the U.S. government co-sponsored with the Colombian National Police in Bogota.

Through the State Department’s INL Bureau, NAS oversees a year-long program bringing six Haitian-American New York Police Department (NYPD) officers for 90-day rotations with the HNP.  The NYPD offer technical assistance and mentoring to the HNP’s judicial/investigative bureau....

How much do Americans want to correct the wayward policies of Donald John Trump? This is what happens when the USA abandons democratic efforts in countries friendly to the USA. We saw the collapse of the Northern Triad and now we are seeing the pain of what occurs when democracy fails a people that have embraced it for so long. The USA has always been the big sister and brother to Haiti.

Through not fault of their own, Haitians found themselves facing enormous tragedy when a horrible earthquake hit the country. Rightfully, the USA came to assist Haiti to try and save the country from death, disease, and absolute destruction. A country like Haiti cannot handle the world alone. That holds true for the countries of the Northern Triad. Either there is no viable economy and/or there are worldly forces such as drug cartels that devastate the land, the people, and any attempt of governance. These countries are in the Western Hemisphere. The Western Hemisphere is the place where the USA exists. It is our responsibility to assist in the national security of marginal countries, otherwise, Russia plants nuclear capacity jets in places like a failed country such as Venezuela.

July 7, 2021
By Benjamin Hart and Nia Prater

Jovenel Moïse, (click here) the president of Haiti, was assassinated by unknown assailants in a brazen assault on his home early Wednesday morning. Moïse’s wife was shot and has been hospitalized.

According to a tweet from Haiti’s communications secretary Frantz Exantus, police had arrested the “presumed assassins” by Wednesday night. Haiti’s police chief Léon Charles added that four of the suspected assassins had been fatally shot by officers, while two more were arrested in what appeared to be a hostage situation; three police officers that were held hostage were also freed.

The Miami Herald reported that the assassins claimed to be Drug Enforcement Administration agents. In videos recorded by residents of the neighborhood, a man with an American accent can be heard shouting via a megaphone, “DEA operation. Everybody stand down. DEA operation. Everybody back up, stand down.” A Haitian government official told the Herald that these assailants weren’t DEA. “These were mercenaries,” they said....

July 11, 2021
By Dalton Bennett, Sarah Cahlan, Elyse Samuels, and Anthony Faiola

Several weeks before they were arrested in the July 7 assassination (click here) of the Haitian president, 13 Colombian nationals — some of them former military — traveled to the Dominican Republic, the country that shares an island with Haiti, according to Colombian police.

The men arrived in two groups. A group of two traveled through Panama in early May, and a group of 11 traveled directly from Bogota on June 4, according to flight records released by the Colombian police.

At least two of the men visited a popular tourist destination in the capital city Santo Domingo, according to images the police released. Those photos, along with images of the same location from one of the suspect’s social media accounts, are the earliest known images showing the alleged mercenaries were in the same location before the attack.

The Washington Post gathered photos and videos of the suspects and of the hours before and after the assassination to assemble a timeline of how the brazen attack unfolded....

...It remains unclear who organized the attack on the Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse. The detained suspects include two U.S. citizens of Haitian descent, identified as Florida residents James Solages, 35, and Joseph Vincent, 55, according to Mathias Pierre, Haiti’s minister of elections and interparty relations. An official who interrogated the pair said Solages claimed he was hired as an interpreter for “foreigners” after applying for the job online. The men and some of their family members claim that they didn’t know the president was going to be assassinated.

Solages told the official they were acting on an order to arrest the president authorized by a judge. He admitted to meeting with the foreigners for about a month, eating at the restaurant inside the Royal Oasis Hotel, 10 minutes from the president’s residence where the assassination took place....

Sure, China builds wind mills, BUT,...

05 July 2021

The graph to the left is from 2020.

China is both the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal. (click here) Methane can continue leaking long after mines have been closed or abandoned.

A massive plume of methane, the potent greenhouse gas that’s a key contributor to global warming, has been identified in China’s biggest coal production region.

The release in northeast Shanxi province is one of the largest that geoanalytics company Kayrros SAS has so far attributed to the global coal sector and likely emanated from multiple mining operations.

Details captured in European Space Agency satellite data show the plume about 90 kilometers (56 miles) east of Shanxi’s capital Taiyuan, in Yangquan City. The area has 34 coals mines, according to the Shanxi Energy Bureau.

Shanxi’s Department of Ecology and Environmental, the province’s Energy Bureau and China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The emissions rate needed to produce the plume observed in the June 18 satellite image would be several hundred metric tons an hour, according to Kayrros. For comparison, a 200-ton per hour release would have roughly an equivalent climate warming in the first two decades as 800,000 cars driving at 60 miles an hour, according to the Environmental Defense Fund....

Coal mine methane is emitted from five sources:(click here)

• Degasification systems at underground coal mines (also commonly referred to as drainage systems). These systems may employ vertical and/or horizontal wells to recover methane in advance of mining (known as "pre-mine drainage") or after mining (called "gob" or "goaf" wells)
• Ventilation air from underground mines, which contains dilute concentrations of methane
• Abandoned or closed mines, from which methane may seep out through vent holes or through fissures or cracks in the ground
• Surface mines, from which methane in the coal seams is directly exposed to the atmosphere
• Fugitive emissions from post-mining operations, in which coal continues to emit methane as it is stored in piles and transported