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steve2470

steve2470's Journal
steve2470's Journal
December 6, 2020

Sincere question about SD Gov. Noem and current ICU/COVID-19 crisis

Some COVID-19 patients flown out of state as S.D. hospital ICU capacity dwindles

South Dakota’s largest hospitals are at or above their capacity to care for critically ill COVID-19 patients, forcing some of the sickest patients to be flown out of state to receive care.

The strain of a months-long surge in coronavirus cases has reduced hospital capacity to care for those with severe symptoms, making it increasingly uncertain whether the sickest South Dakotans will be able to get treatment in the state, health providers say. Meanwhile, ICU space is quickly evaporating in neighboring states as well.

Both the Sanford USD Medical Center and Monument Health Rapid City Hospital have reported that their Intensive Care Units are out of space. On Dec. 2, Avera McKennan reported that 6.7% of its ICU beds were available for use. Statewide, the number of available ICU beds has been steadily declining as coronavirus cases have continued to climb.

Major hospitals are still taking patients when they can, but some sick South Dakotans are being sent out of state, forced to use expensive urgent transportation systems to get care hundreds of miles away from their families.


https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2020/12/04/south-dakota-covid-19-patients-flown-out-of-state/3834939001/

Does anyone have an idea when Gov. Noem will finally relent, with ICU capacity almost totally used up and the virus rampaging the way it is in her state ? Is she really that much of a rigid "libertarian-ish" ideologue ? Thanks in advance.

Steve
December 5, 2020

In 1869, for Grant's inauguration, Grant refused to ride with President Johnson...

On March 3, the President hosted a large public reception at the White House on his final full day in office. Grant had made it known that he was unwilling to ride in the same carriage as Johnson, as was customary, and Johnson refused to go to the inauguration at all. Despite an effort by Seward to prompt a change of mind, he spent the morning of March 4 finishing last-minute business, and then shortly after noon rode from the White House to the home of a friend.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Johnson#Completion_of_term

From what I've read of Johnson and Grant, I cannot really blame Grant. Johnson pulled a Trump, which was inexcusable to me.

Do the President and President-elect ride to the ceremony in the same vehicle these days ? Does anyone know ?
December 5, 2020

"(T)he president barely shows up to work, ignoring the health and economic crises afflicting the.."

WASHINGTON — Over the past week, President Trump posted or reposted more than 130 messages on Twitter lashing out at the results of an election he lost. He mentioned the coronavirus pandemic now reaching its darkest hours four times — and even then just to assert that he was right about the outbreak and the experts were wrong.

Moody and by accounts of his advisers sometimes depressed, the president barely shows up to work, ignoring the health and economic crises afflicting the nation and largely clearing his public schedule of meetings unrelated to his desperate bid to rewrite the election results. He has fixated on rewarding friends, purging the disloyal and punishing a growing list of perceived enemies that now includes Republican governors, his own attorney general and even Fox News.

The final days of the Trump presidency have taken on the stormy elements of a drama more common to history or literature than a modern White House. His rage and detached-from-reality refusal to concede defeat evoke images of a besieged overlord in some distant dictatorship defiantly clinging to power rather than going into exile or an erratic English monarch imposing his version of reality on his cowed court.

And while he will leave office in 46 days, the last few weeks may only foreshadow what he will be like after he departs. Mr. Trump will almost certainly try to shape the national conversation from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and his relentless campaign to discredit the election could undercut his successor, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. Although many Republicans would like to move on, he appears intent on forcing them to remain in thrall to his need for vindication and vilification even after his term expires.


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/05/us/politics/trump-presidency-election-loss.html?referringSource=articleShare

I cannot WAIT until this fascist asshole is out of office. I hope he is thrown in the face of the Fascist Party (GOP) forever or whoever takes their place.
December 5, 2020

Useless trivia: Did you know there is an Apple Store on South Georgia Island (owned by UK) ?

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Apple+Store/@-54.2807698,-36.5086261,21z/data=!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0xb93db6e252a87925:0x7ee37cda884db0bd!2sSouth+Georgia+and+the+South+Sandwich+Islands!3b1!8m2!3d-54.429579!4d-36.587909!3m4!1s0xbecb65459a495e73:0x3c707db51e26595f!8m2!3d-54.2807781!4d-36.5085641

Unnamed Road, Grytviken, Grytviken, SIQQ 1ZZ, South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands


(will fix broken link, try copying and pasting in your browser)

Also a TGI Friday's ? A Taco Bell ? a Pizza Hut ?

For reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Georgia_and_the_South_Sandwich_Islands

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) is a British Overseas Territory in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote and inhospitable collection of islands, consisting of South Georgia and a chain of smaller islands known as the South Sandwich Islands. South Georgia is 165 kilometres (103 mi) long and 35 kilometres (22 mi) wide and is by far the largest island in the territory. The South Sandwich Islands lie about 700 kilometres (430 mi) southeast of South Georgia. The territory's total land area is 3,903 km2 (1,507 sq mi).[1] The Falkland Islands are about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) west from its nearest point.

No permanent native population lives in the South Sandwich Islands, and a very small non-permanent population resides on South Georgia.[2] There are no scheduled passenger flights or ferries to or from the territory, although visits by cruise liners to South Georgia are increasingly popular, with several thousand visitors each summer.

The United Kingdom claimed sovereignty over South Georgia in 1775 and the South Sandwich Islands in 1908. The territory of "South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands" was formed in 1985; previously, it had been governed as part of the Falkland Islands Dependencies. Argentina claimed South Georgia in 1927 and claimed the South Sandwich Islands in 1938.


I ran into this useless trivia while reading this story: https://www.npr.org/2020/12/05/943488926/photos-capture-worlds-largest-iceberg-as-it-heads-toward-south-atlantic-island

December 4, 2020

Adolf Hitler Wins Election in Namibia, Has No Plans for World Domination

(yes, for real, not the Onion, actual headline)

https://www.newsweek.com/adolf-hitler-germany-namibia-elections-1552056

A politician named Adolf Hitler has won a regional election in Namibia.

Adolf Hitler Uunona has been elected with 85 percent of the vote for a seat on the regional council in the former German colony, where street names, people and places still have German names. However, Adolf Uunona as he prefers himself to be known, says he wants to assure people that he has no plans for world domination.

He told German tabloid paper Bild: "My father named me after this man. He probably didn't understand what Adolf Hitler stood for. As a child I saw it as a totally normal name. Only as a teenager did I understand that this man wanted to conquer the whole world."

He appears on the election nomination list as Adolf H. Uunona. He won the seat on the ticket of the ruling SWAPO party which has ruled Namibia since independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990. He also said that while his wife calls him Adolf, it would be too late for him to change his name officially.

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