This is a particulate map of the United States.

Fire and Smoke Map (click here)

The spots can be clicked on to show the level of particulates in the air caused by the fires in the country. I guarantee you there are emergency rooms full of people with lung conditions today. Add to that the fact the pandemic numbers are increasing and the hospitals have their hands full.

It is primarily the national forests that are on fire in Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Canada.

Current Large Incidents (click here) It is going to be very difficult to fight those fires due to their close proximity. The firefighters won't know if the one they are fighting is being contained or not because as one fire might be diminished another is burning right behind it making visibility impossible.

Depending on where the fires and smoke are dangerous (click here), camping is out of the question.

I am proud of her. She is protecting the US Constitution and refuses to allow Republicans a political stage.

Speaker Pelosi has passed some incredibly wonderful legislation that directly benefits this country, with the Child Tax Credit as one. And have to face an extremist agenda from the Minority leader McCarthy is profound disrespect for her, for the country, and the USA Constitution. McCarthy is a political minion for Trump and has no regard for the country. 

No one is supposed to be playing politics with the USA Constitution. It is not a toy to bantered around. The two House members she banned from a bipartisan committee were going to make a circus out of a very serious insurrection they don't even believe was an insurrection, so much as party politics.

PEOPLE DIED ON JANUARY 6, 2021. A Capitol Police Officer gave his life to protect the election process and the future of the USA Constitution. There is no room for Republicans to treat the US Constitution as political fodder. This is not a game!

Those two House Republicans were picked by Trump, not McCarthy. McCarthy was just to visit Trump in Maralago and the choice for the Republicans on the committee was solicited by Trump. Just that simple. 

In the meantime, there are people being indicted in New York (click here), there is an off duty DEA agent that was at the Capitol on January 6th with his gun (click here), and there is the first prison sentence for a participant that day (click here).

Kevin McCarthy should be putting restrictions on the members of his party in the US House unfit to back to represent their constituents because they back Trump's Big Lie (click here). They are not competent to serve. Jordan is still wanted for questioning from his former coaching position that exploited young men for sex (click here). McCarthy should not be pandering to right-wing extremists. They just had CPAC so they are all hyped. CPAC is not the GOP although they would like to think they are and their money is used to back political sellouts that vote for their cronies' demands and not their constituents.

I take it US Rep. Elizabeth Cheney was the farthest from McCarthy's mind when the committee selection took place.

Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats are doing a magnificent job for the country and it is a national shame the Republicans causing such problems in the USA Senate. The obstruction has gone on too long.

July 21, 2021

By Marianna Sotomayor, Jacqueline Alemany, and Karoun Demirjian

Plans for a bipartisan committee (click here) to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection fell apart Wednesday after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) moved to block two controversial Republicans appointed by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from sitting on the panel — paving the way for two separate and largely partisan investigations of the violent attack on the Capitol.

Pelosi called on McCarthy to name two new Republicans to the committee after refusing to appoint conservative Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.), a privilege she has as speaker. As staunch backers of former president Donald Trump, both members voted against his impeachment and pushed to overturn the election results certifying Joe Biden as president.

“With respect for the integrity of the investigation, with an insistence on the truth and with concern about statements made and actions taken by these Members, I must reject the recommendations of Representatives Banks and Jordan to the Select Committee,” Pelosi said in a statement. “The unprecedented nature of January 6th demands this unprecedented decision.”....

I don't speak Polish. I think we get the picture. I believe Poland is a NATO country as well.

This is Głogoczów, Poland on July, 2021.

   

Oh dear, what a shame. Blame the Republicans. They are the ones with the old wives tales about bleach and the NO MASK MANDATE.

July 19, 2021
By Paul R. LaMonica

New York (CNN Business)Investors are getting spooked by the rising numbers of Covid-19 cases as the Delta variant spreads across the globe.

The Dow fell about 725 points Monday, a drop of 2.1%. The S&P 500 ended the day down 1.6% and the Nasdaq was 1.1% lower.

This was the worst day for the Dow since a 943-point drop in late October, and it was the biggest decline this year. But the blue chip market barometer has had several even bigger point plunges since the start of 2020 due to concerns about the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Dow plummeted more than 1,000 points six times last year, with five of those market meltdowns taking place in March at the start of the pandemic in America. The Dow suffered its biggest point slide ever on March 16, 2020, dropping nearly 3,000 points — a 13% freefall....

If Wall Street thinks this is bad, wait to see what happens when the Republicans actually hold an insurrection and it turns the country into opposing warring parties rather than political parties. Isn't that what the generals are REALly afraid of?

The Delta virus is real and dangerous. It will kill. It will do a lot of damage to unvaccinated people. The "Long Haulers" will create a disability class of people that every country will have to cope with. And why all this tragedy? Because the Republicans played a game with the electorate. They actually gave themselves permission to play politics with one of the most deadly viruses on Earth.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson suddenly came out with "Freedom Day." It is the idea that everyone with vaccinations don't have a thing to worry about, but, be cautious when you need to. I think it is obvious what "Freedom Day" was for and it wasn't to celebrate the end of the pandemic, it was to give false hope to Wall Street. The UK will have a "COVID PASSPORT" for everyone vaccinated with two JABS. They use the word JABS instead of injection. The COVID PASSPORT is to recognize the people with complete immunity for nightclubs. Boris is excited about the vaccine for children age 12 to 15.

I was sitting outside Panera Bread in the USA the other day waiting for my curbside pick-up when a mother with two children walked into the shop. She was not wearing a mask, obviously vaccinated, and her two children about the ages of 5 and 7 were wearing their masks to try to protect from any virus in the air.

Delta is real and it is serious. The authorities are saying the vaccine helps PREVENT hospitalizations. The severe symptoms of the disease is far lower and the infection rate is lower. That is all good news. The infection rate is dropping compared to other escalations of the infected. The admission to hospitals is slower and less than any other exposure. We are doing something right.

I read a report that the INCENTIVIZED programs that award a million dollar to the lucky winner of the vaccine drawing; don't work. It did not spur all the unvaccinated to the vaccination sites to get their first JAB and a ticket to being a lucky winner besides being a winner in being vaccinated and IMMUNE to prevent serious disease.

Warning. 

There is another virus variant on the rise and it is not fully understood by scientists. They say this variant has different mutations than any other. There is some worry, although unspoken, as to this might be the level three virus we cannot stop.

July 14, 2021
By Sanjay Mishra

A coronavirus variant known as Lambda, (click here) which has largely slid under the radar for the past nine months, is now causing almost all new infections in Peru.

Lambda (also known as C.37) was first detected in Peru in August 2020 and has spread to 29 countries, many in Latin America. And, since January 20, 2021, 668 Lambda infections have been reported in the United States. In Peru, Lambda is now responsible for more than 90 percent of new COVID-19 cases, a steep rise from less than 0.5 percent in December. The country has already suffered the world’s worst mortality due to COVID-19; the disease has killed about 0.54 percent of the population.

...Peru has revised its official death toll (click here) in the covid-19 pandemic from 69 342 to 185 380, after a scientific review of medical records ordered by the government. The new figure means that Peru has had 5551 covid deaths per million population, proportionally the worst official toll in the world. Hungary, which before this week had the world’s highest official toll per capita, now stands a distant second at 3094 deaths per million....

...Many Peruvian households lack a fridge, necessitating daily trips to crowded food markets. In one acknowledged mis-step Peru became one of the first countries to issue relief cheques to compensate for lost income, but because only 38% of Peruvians have bank accounts they had to crowd into banks to collect cash....

Peruvians need an infrastructure of green energy in wind mills and solar panels to accommodate refrigerators. They also need ONLINE BANKING for those that do not have traditional bank accounts. Let's hope they have Wifi access, too.

The Lambda variant likely caused the high number of infections during the second wave between the end of March and April, Peruvian Minister of Health Óscar Ugarte said in a news conference. In neighboring Chile, where the primary vaccine is China’s CoronaVac, Lambda accounts for 31 percent of sequenced cases in the last 60 days. The high case numbers are occurring even though 58.6 percent of Chile’s population is fully vaccinated and another 10 percent has received a single dose. The poor efficacy of the vaccine maybe partly to blame. A study by the University of Chile found that a single dose of the CoronaVac vaccine was only 3 percent effective, but that rose to 56.5 percent after both doses....

The scientists up to now have not had difficulty deciphering the genetic code of the variants to classify and understand them. Lamda is an outliar. It is not standard virus genetics. Lamda is a worry. If this turns into a level three virus, we are all in a lot of trouble.

STOP THE SPREAD OF THESE VIRUSES. The more OPPORTUNITY they have to sample human DNA, the more of a mutation will occur, and it will over come our immune system.

The Republicans MUST end their politics of virual hubris. This is ridiculous and borders on inhumane and genocidal.

I usually put a rooster at the top of the blog but something serious has happened to a celebrated journalist. This picture was the way Albert Einstein's office looked the day he died.

David Siddiqui is celebrated in India (click here).

July 16, 2021

Danish Siddiqui, (click here) the Reuters journalist killed in crossfire on Friday covering the war in Afghanistan, was a largely self-taught photographer who scaled the heights of his profession while documenting wars, riots and human suffering.

A native of New Delhi, Siddiqui, 38, is survived by his wife Rike and two young children.

He was part of a team that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in 2018 for documenting Myanmar's Rohingya refugee crisis, a series described by the judging committee as "shocking photographs that exposed the world to the violence Rohingya refugees faced in fleeing Myanmar."

Friends and colleagues described a man who cared deeply about the stories he covered, carrying out meticulous research before embarking on assignments and always focusing on the people caught up in the news....

"Good Night, Moon"

The waxing gibbous

9.2 days old

69.2 percent lit

Didn't I say to leave the moon alone. No digging, no transporting moon rock back to Earth that will result in a change in Earth's mass vs. that of the Moon. The Earth and it's moon have a delicate balance. Disturb that balance in a major way and we will all be sorry for being "just that stupid." I don't want to think about what will happen in Europe with the moon and Earth out of balance.

The reason Europe is devastated by floods is that a NORMAL jet stream is not at work anymore. It is there, but, diminished in it's ability to move air due to the heat that expands the air mass. The air mass of Earth now moving by two transport systems, "heat transport systems" that bring flooding rain and the Coriolis effect. The jet stream has little influence to the air masses of Earth compared to the past. The stalled air mass over Europe is what caused those enormous floods. People have to wait for the Coriolis effect of Earth to move the storming clouds away from those flooded areas.

July 16, 2021
By Dan Fastenberg

U.S. coastlines (click here) will face increasing flooding in the mid-2030s thanks to a regular lunar cycle that will magnify rising sea levels caused by climate change, according to research led by NASA scientists.

A key factor identified by the scientists is a regular "wobble" in the moon's orbit - first identified in the 18th century - that takes 18.6 years to complete. The moon's gravitational pull helps drive Earth's tides.

In half of this lunar cycle, Earth's regular daily tides are diminished, with high tides lower than usual and low tides higher than usual. In the cycle's other half, the situation is reversed, with high tides higher and low tides lower.

The expected flooding will result from the combination of the continuing sea level rise associated with climate change and the arrival of an amplification part of the lunar cycle in the mid-2030s, the researchers said....

One has to ask since the stratosphere is shrinking where is it going when it shrinks?

The only progress made regarding health care was by Democrats. They accomplished the Affordable Care Act and Patient Protection Plan on their own without any Republican support while FOX News gamed the legislation for ratings using the old "Hillary Strategy," from the time Gingrich was serving in the USA House.

The issue of the climate has never been addressed by the USA, except to corruptly let Big Oil dictate energy policy in the USA. Basically, the USA Congress has royally failed the entire world when it comes to the Climate Crisis.

This failure cannot continue. It cannot continue on racism, income inequality, healthcare, and the climate crisis. These huge issues change the way Americans live and their quality of life. The actions regarding climate will change the way Americans live today, but, also the way they may survive into the future.

The evidence is in, Earth itself in the way it maintains the upper layers of the atmosphere is in jeopardy. No one can ignore the findings of this past winter in that the MIXING of the troposphere and stratosphere has become more severe and is damaging the stratosphere, as it shrinks due to the mixing.

One has to ask if the stratosphere is shrinking where is it going when it shrinks?

We know all matter is stable. If two air masses interact in a mixing of the two where did the mixed atmosphere go because the stratosphere that is shrinking is giving up it's content to the mixing? Follow that?

The shrinkage of the stratosphere is not normal. It is occurring because it was impacted by the troposphere. The mixing has REMOVED a portion of the stratosphere and those molecules are in the troposphere thinning the amount of oxygen and at the same time, increasing the oxygenation of the ozone layer.

Got that?

The MIXING of the gaseous troposphere and stratosphere is redistributing the gases in those two layers. The oxygen content of the stratosphere is going up while the displaced gases of the mixing are going into the troposphere to think out that layer of Earth's atmosphere.

If the mixing creates an imbalance in the support of the two layers of air as they are today or were at the turn of the century in 1900 before the industrial revolution, there is absolutely nothing to stop the collapse of the troposphere to completely mix with the stratosphere and then what is supporting the rest of the layers of Earth's atmospheres directly into space?

The pollution of every greenhouse gas on Earth must stop now. When the dinosaurs died, they rotted into the oil. That was their burial and it should have been respected and left undisturbed.

As far as Greta's statement about beef and dairy, she is correct in that there is an emission of methane from those sources, however, it is less than 2 percent of actual and anticipated methane emissions on Earth. Americans are already making changes to their choice of milk. I am sure those choices are occurring all over the world, except, Brazil where they burn down lush rainforest to graze beef cattle.

In the USA there is a mission in those industries, beef and dairy, to look to adjust the type of feeds these farm animals are given to reduce the methane emitted. I consider that a serious attitude in those industries and they are taking their small contribution seriously. The petroleum industry should take its disastrous emissions as seriously as the beef and dairy industry does.

On all other counts, as stated by Greta Thurnberg, I have no criticism. She is amazing in her resolve. She is highly moral in her statements. "The money" that the US Supreme Court stated has equal rights with people, doesn't breath, and only exists to be used as a currency. We all know how currency is shaping up these days.

But, the climate crisis is a highly moral issue whereby all the people of Earth are equal in their right to a CLIMATE SAFE life; generation after generation after generation.

I wish the climate crisis solutions were fast-tracked in the way the Alzheimer's drug for profit has been handled. There is a profit to moving quickly on climate. The profit is the repurchase of the future. The bargain of all bargains, we get to keep Earth intact for generations to come. If we do this correctly, Earth will be around and habitable until Sol supernovas.

The time to act on all these issues is now and not two decades from now when there is another reason for war to take precedent of our very existence.

Shazam, there it is. Let's use a vast number of real Americans to study the drug.

 June 7, 2021

Today FDA approved Aduhelm (aducanumab) (click here) to treat patients with Alzheimer’s disease using the Accelerated Approval pathway, under which the FDA approves a drug for a serious or life-threatening illness that may provide meaningful therapeutic benefit over existing treatments when the drug is shown to have an effect on a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict a clinical benefit to patients and there remains some uncertainty about the drug’s clinical benefit.

This approval is significant in many ways. Aduhelm is the first novel therapy approved for Alzheimer’s disease since 2003. Perhaps more significantly, Aduhelm is the first treatment directed at the underlying pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease, the presence of amyloid beta plaques in the brain.  The clinical trials for Aduhelm were the first to show that a reduction in these plaques—a hallmark finding in the brain of patients with Alzheimer’s—is expected to lead to a reduction in the clinical decline of this devastating form of dementia....

This is the initial discussion about the application of Aduhelm

This was in the middle of the vaccine trials for COVID-19 vaccines. The vaccine trials were Emergency Use basis. One of the facts pointed to in this presentation is that deaths from Alzheimer's Disease increased 150 percent from 2000-2018. That has to play on the minds of this panel in an atmosphere of urgency regarding the COVID-19 vaccine.

Friday, November 6, 2020

Page 23 of 325 pages

...Before briefly describing some of the issues (click here) we will ask you to discuss today, I want to stress that we have not made any final decisions on the approvability of this application. With that said, you have had the opportunity to review background materials, including the briefing documents and presentations from the applicant and FDA prior to today's meeting.  Today, following my remarks, you will first hear a summary presentation from the applicant reviewing important aspects of the data presented in support of aducanumab's approval. After that, I will return to discuss the issues involved in consideration of these data. The reason we are here today is to gain your input into some of the issues we have confronted during our review process. Thank you for the substantial efforts you have made in preparing for and attending this meeting, and thank you for the important work you will do today....

This is flooded Germany.

If one looks at the devastated places in Germany where waters destroyed so much and follow the water into Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxemburg; the breadth of the destruction can be appreciated. This is a huge land area where many people lived.

July 16, 2021
By Alissa Higham

Record amounts of rainfall (click here) in Western Europe has caused widespread devastation and death, with at least 80 people confirmed dead and hundreds more left unaccounted for. Germany has been the worst affected, but flooding has also caused many in the Netherlands to flee their homes.

Residents of towns and villages along the Meuse river in the province of Limburg were urgently advised to seek refuge until at least Friday.

Water levels on the Meuse and Rur rivers reached record levels on Thursday, prompting panic among locals and authorities following the devastation that has taken place in Germany over the course of this week.

In Germany, the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia are the worst hit.

Unusually heavy rains from a slow-moving low pressure system have inundated Western Europe, causing rivers to burst their banks and flooding streets in cities, towns and villages, while power was knocked out for hundreds of thousands of households....

The devastation to Germany's infrastructure is catastrophic.

The land is missing. 

I was worried this would occur. The Dutch military was magnificent. They were ready for this nightmare.

July 16, 2021
By Thomas Erdbrink

A breach in the dike along the Juliana Canal (click here) in the southern Netherlands on Friday was closed by the Dutch military by dumping hundreds of sandbags into the growing hole. Hours before, thousands had been told to evacuate after the dike was breached along the canal, a 22-mile waterway that regulates the Meuse River.

The river’s water level is at heights not witnessed since 1911, the Dutch national broadcaster NOS reported.

That is no small thing in a water-logged country where taming water has been a matter of survival for centuries and the imperative to keep levels under control is inextricably bound up with Dutch identity. Much of the country sits below sea level and is gradually sinking. Climate change has also exacerbated the twin threats of storms and rising tides.

Residents of the villages of Brommelen, Bunde, Geulle and Voulwames were ordered to evacuate immediately, after initially being told to move to higher floors in their homes. About 10,000 people live in the area....

There is abject destruction in large areas of the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.

July 18, 2021

This is what Olivier Hamelers, (click here) chief production officer of rail operator Crossrail Benelux told sister publication RailTech Belgium. This was also confirmed by Infrabel.
Fifty trains cancelled.

The Belgian rail operator saw its train traffic to Germany come to a standstill from Wednesday after severe weather in the province of Limburg had damaged the track. Crossrail has about thirty trains daily commuting between Belgium and Germany.

“We have tried to shift trains to the Brabant route through the Netherlands, via Venlo. Because this connection is very busy with traffic from the Betuweroute, where work is underway, the options were limited”, continues Hamelers. Fifty trains were impacted at Crossrail due to the problems with the track.
Liège region still impacted

In the Liège region, where a lot of cargo to and from China departs for Germany via the Montzen route, the problems have not yet been solved. “The damage to the track in the Liège area is much bigger”, says Hamelers, who hopes that this traffic will also start again by Monday.

According to Infrabel, the infrastructure manager, the prospects for the Walloon axis between Charleroi and Liège are positive. “If everything goes according to plan, railway lines 125 and 130 could run again on Monday, 19 July. The railway line between Liège and the Dutch border at Maastricht is closed at the border crossing. The water damage is significant there and the recovery is not in sight until 2 August. Infrabel is in close consultation with its customers and foreign infrastructure managers to seek and offer solutions.”...

These are our allies and they are missing by the thousand. This is directly due to the Climate Crisis.

July 7, 2021

Europe (click here) has been battered by days of torrential rain and floods that have left more than 160 people dead and hundreds more injured.

By Saturday, waters were receding across much of the affected regions, but officials feared that more bodies might be found in cars and trucks that were swept away.

Germany has borne the brunt of the extreme weather, with at least 141 people killed in two states.

Belgium’s national crisis centre said the country's confirmed death toll rose to 27.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier travelled to Erftstadt in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where a massive rescue effort unfolded on Friday.

“A lot of people have lost everything they spent their lives building up — their possessions, their home, the roof over their heads,” Steinmeier said.

“It may only be possible to clear up in weeks how much damage needs to be compensated,” he said....

There is a lot of buzz about this book. There should be a lot of buzz, but, Donald John Trump did not have one catastrophic year, he had four. And, why? Because he thought he alone could fix it.

What is IT, in the title of the book? It is the country? What was so wrong with the USA that wasn't identified decades ago that he had to call the country, IT. That was his personal statement, "I alone can fix it." That is not a title pulled out of thin air.

It is a con. He wants whoever believes he is so important to their future that he and only he can carry out the rehabilitation of the USA. Well. If rehabilitation means removing eons of American thought and policy, then anyone able to write with a crayon can do that.

There were so many things wrong with his time in office. The "signing ceremony" where people gather to receive a pen at the signing of the legislature by the President; turned into a political icon whereby his signature was witnessed with special cameras so his followers could scrutinize every word and every stroke of the pen. Like, what? It made the viewer think there is something to the idea that our government is wrong and only one person is even willing to prove he will correct paths of wayward centuries of abuse of power.

It is all a con, played out in front of the American people as if it really is supposed to have status in history.

"The Fix" definitely was in during the Trump years.

Racism

There is nothing else to call such horrible treatment of Native Americans. Most or all of us never knew this horror existed.

We owe these people sincere means to make up for this horrible destruction of their families.

Between segregation, oppression, blatant racism, and a homogenized culture in the USA, we really aren't the people we believe we are. Diversity and cultural acceptance have to occur. The parts of culture that can enhance the entire country's American experience need to be appreciated and celebrated. 

Juneteenth is a beginning, but, where do we start with the Native American families. This is a horror. Children are dead for taking them and pretending they were an inferior race.

The USA has a lot of penance to do. A lot.

Judy Woodruff is hitting every subject that needs attention. Thank you.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

November 1, 1998
By Nicholas Lemann

I rarely state the title to any article because a sincere reader of the news will move past the attention-getting title quickly to the content. But, the title to this New York Times article is rather compelling and should ring familiar to many liberals in the USA. Today we call it income inequality.

The New American Consensus; Government of, by, and for the Comfortable (click here)

...They huffed and interrupted. Davis made sure to work in a reference to his military service. (Lungren didn't serve.) Lungren made sure to work in a reference to his three children. (Davis is married but childless.) The debate's tonal culmination was Lungren's use of his closing statement to advance a cheerfully out-of-left-field theory about the undetected assonance between the police unions' support of Gray Davis and the notorious incident in which Latrell Sprewell, the basketball player, throttled his coach.

But the larger end to which this fiesta of contempt was directed was the elimination of all meaningful differences between the two candidates. This debate, like the two that had preceded it, conformed to the following structure: Candidate A, with a malicious glint in his eye, accuses Candidate B of taking an unpopular position. Candidate B draws himself up self-righteously and protests that, no, in fact his position is actually almost indistinguishable from Candidate A's. Lungren wants to cut taxes on innovative new businesses. Davis wants to also, in a slightly different way. Lungren is for eliminating the car tax, Davis is for reducing the car tax. Davis supports abortion rights. Lungren insists that during the five terms he served in the House of Representatives, ''we never once voted on denying a woman the right to have an abortion.'' Lungren is for the death penalty. Davis, suspect because he used to be Gov. Jerry Brown's chief of staff, insists, ''I have always believed in the death penalty.'' They are both committed environmentalists. They are both for H.M.O. reform. They are both for establishing tough new standards in public education....

...All over the country, Republicans and Democrats seem to be racing for the center. In New York, the two major-party Senate candidates, Charles Schumer and Alfonse D'Amato, are presenting themselves as pragmatists. Jeb Bush, who lost the Florida Governor's race four years ago, is running again this year as a distinctly more moderate Republican. Even Lauch Faircloth of North Carolina, one of the two or three most conservative members of the United States Senate, is stressing his support for environmentalism and health care reform in his re-election campaign....

I think the New York Times needs to do this type of compare and contrast at least every two years so Americans have a clear measure of where their government is failing them.

This is ridiculous. In the year 1998, the two parties were understanding the need for a national health policy and the confrontation of the climate crisis.

What the heck happened in the decades that followed? Because we were making the right issues front and center. There was no reason to allow the RADICAL shift to the right with such direly important issues before the country. What happened?

Here is my guess. Terrorists that hated The West, rightly or wrongly, caused an enormous catastrophe in Lower Manhattan and Washington, DC and all of a sudden all the benevolent domestic programs were erased from the consensus through trauma and no one came to address them again until the Global Economic Collapse and President Obama was elected.

This vacillation between the extremist right agenda for the USA and the idea we have a right to health care that is affordable and we need to move past the internal combustion engine and natural gas to a clean energy economy with wind and solar a mainstay.

Vacillation on issues only postpones what needs to be done and today we are imperiling our children and our grandchildren's world.

Enough of this. Get rid of the lousy filibuster and pass some real reform to protect the generations of Americans that have the right to health and safety that this country promises them.

It is Sunday Night

To the left is the 1960s actress Brigitte Bardot.

Sexiest Icons of the 1960s (click here)

I remember these women. I was born in 1955. They made an impression on me as I grew up. So did the women marching for equality and asking for an Amendment to the USA Constitution that would bring about equality for women. My value system grew out of the 1960s and the movement to change in the USA. I was thirteen when my mother decided to find her first job. She was 33 years old. She had been married 14 years to my father and wanted more. Imagine that. She was looking at the women marching for equal rights alongside me, and she decided she wanted more out of life than my father's paycheck would bring.

Her first job was ironing clothes at a small factory. She was good at ironing clothes and never thought in her wildest imagination it would bring her a paycheck. It did. She would work from 6 PM to 10 PM, Monday - Friday so she could get dinner ready before she left for work. Being 13 years old, I was expected to see my sisters were in pajamas and with my father's authority would be in bed before she returned home.

My mother's move to work and earn a paycheck was not received well by my father. There were many arguments and as time went by he accepted it because she actually improved the quality of life of the family. Eventually, we would move to a nicer apartment with a really nice neighborhood and from there my parents purchased their first home. I was married by then. My mother was 42 years old when she and my father received Veteran Benefits and bought their first home. 

By the time my parents purchased their first home, my mother had worked in several different jobs, including as a saleswoman in a gift and card store. She blossomed and she eventually would interview for a small company called "Jelco," which would, soon after she was hired into the accounts payable office, become a member of the Johnson and Johnson family of companies.

She retired at the age of 62 from Johnson and Johnson from their accounts payable department with a very nice retirement package of benefits and a pension payment every month.

The women's movement provided a new kind of "female image" to admire with the ideas of a better life with the beginnings of a career became iconic and still pervades most women's understanding of their own ability even today. 

My mother finished high school with a focus on business but wasn't prepared the same as the men in high school. The men in high school never took shorthand and typing as a business major. She was and still is remarkable. She is 86 now. She survived the pandemic because I helped her during that time to adjust to grocery delivery and pick-up, wearing a mask and accepting the fact even though she felt fine all that could end with a slip-up. 

Women do that with each other. We care for each other and our families, even when we have very demanding careers. I marvel at the young women I know. They are dynamic and so are their families.

When it comes to millennials, which my two sons are, they need to accept the idea that even though "The Boomers" were teens or younger in the 1960s, those are the years we bonded with and profoundly defined our values as we grew into adulthood.

When watching the video think of world peace and mutual trust and interest and the climate crisis.