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KY_EnviroGuy

KY_EnviroGuy's Journal
KY_EnviroGuy's Journal
October 24, 2020

Trump gets away with it because no one is officially doing contact tracking.

One doctor in Virginia has done some good partial research though:

Community outbreaks of Covid-19 often emerge after Trump’s campaign rallies
By Zach Nayer
StatNews.com
October 16, 2020

Link: https://www.statnews.com/2020/10/16/trump-campaign-rallies-leave-a-trail-of-community-outbreaks/

Excerpt:

As the death toll of Covid-19 heads toward 220,000 in the United States alone, more deaths than in any other country in the world, the president, who is currently convalescing from Covid-19 himself, has spent the past several months crisscrossing a pandemic-ravaged country in his bid for reelection. The crowds he draws are fertile breeding grounds for transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, followed by community outbreaks.

The president has repeatedly held these gatherings not only in defiance of public health guidelines, but seemingly to spite them: downplaying the threat of the virus, eschewing basic public health principles such as wearing face coverings and packing his supporters shoulder to shoulder for political optics. Several early campaign events were indoors, such as in Tulsa, where there was a reported surge in cases afterwards. Former presidential candidate Herman Cain, who was co-chair of Black Voices for Trump and who attended the Tulsa rally without wearing a mask, tested positive for Covid-19 two days after the rally and died less than two weeks later.
+++
What we found was sobering yet not surprising. Spikes in Covid-19 cases occurred in seven of the 14 cities and townships where these rallies were held: Tulsa; Phoenix; Old Forge, Penn.; Bemidji, Minn.; Mankato, Minn.; Oshkosh, Wis.; and Weston, Wis.

Studies like this need to be headlined in the MSM news.

Never thought I would live to see a U.S. president have total disregard for his constituent's health and well-being.

KY
October 24, 2020

Interesting coronavirus map from Johns Hopkins University....

courtesy of BBC:



-----------------------------------------------

As experts predicted and other parts of the world with lower population density have proven, this disease will eventually find you if proper precautions are not taken.

These folks had the very best opportunity to beat this pandemic and are blowing it through complacency, ignorance and denial......and perhaps listening far too much to Republican politicians and/or right-wing media.

KY...........

October 23, 2020

Check out this email I received yesterday re the Turtle.....

From a Democratic PAC.........

Friends —

Mitch McConnell just disclosed that his Super PAC raised a record-setting $92 million last month alone.

Trump just announced that one of his Super PACs will receive an additional $75 million from GOP billionaire Sheldon Adelson — Only after Adelson gifts McConnell’s PAC $60 million.

This comes as Republicans refuse to give back millions of dollars in donations made by GOP megadonors found guilty of foreign lobbying, accused of sexual assault, and under investigation for corruption.

Democrats are about to be outspent and drowned out by a tidal wave of GOP dark money spending in the next 12 days unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.


It should be no surprise GOP minders are keeping tRump and McTurtle - both with obvious serious health problems - propped up with 2X4s, lies and the press just to squeak through 'till after Nov. 3 and shove through the SC nomination.

How can anyone but a bunch of amoral psychopaths justify one wealthy individual being able to impact an election to this degree? It adds to the misery of those of us struggling to make ends meet in that we feel obligated to counter-weigh those super PACs with our small contributions that could otherwise go to charities or fix a leaking roof.

Until we rid our political system of the influence of big money, our battles for justice, equality and fairness in our society will continue to be uphill and economic and social inequality will worsen.

KY rant done..........
October 20, 2020

Coronavirus: 'India must cut pollution to avoid Covid disaster'

Coronavirus: 'India must cut pollution to avoid Covid disaster'
By Vikas Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

Read here: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54596245

(snips)
India's dreaded pollution season has returned as air quality in the capital Delhi and other northern cities rapidly deteriorated in the last two weeks.

This is bad news for India's fight against coronavirus because several studies around the world have linked air pollution to higher Covid-19 case numbers and deaths.

A Harvard University study shows that an increase of only one microgram per cubic metre in PM 2.5 - dangerous tiny pollutants in the air - is associated with an 8% increase in the Covid-19 death rate. Another study by scientists at the UK's University of Cambridge also found a link between the severity of Covid-19 infection and long-term exposure to air pollutants, including nitrogen oxides and ground-level ozone from car exhaust fumes or burning of fossil fuels.

"Such pollutants can also cause a persistent inflammatory response and increase the risk of infection by viruses that target the respiratory tract," Marco Travaglio, one of the co-authors of the study, told the BBC.


another very interesting point.....

"In addition to air pollution decreasing immune defences, it is thought that particulate and nitrogen dioxide found in air pollution can act as vectors for the spread and survival of airborne particles such as Covid [virus]," Ms Prunicki said.

"One study of mice found that nitrogen dioxide increases the number of receptors to which the virus binds 100 fold."

Not good news for people living near power plants or other facilities emitting lots of NOx and/or particulate.

KY........
October 19, 2020

Joe Biden's coronavirus test today has come back negative and other news...

From The Guardian's rolling coronavirus coverage.....

Read it here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2020/oct/19/donald-trump-joe-biden-coronavirus-covid-19-us-election-live-updates

Excerpt:

2h ago 16:08

Joe Biden’s coronavirus test today has come back negative, the Democrat’s campaign announced moments ago.

“Vice President Biden underwent PCR testing for COVID-19 today and COVID-19 was not detected,” the campaign said in a statement. Biden has been regularly releasing the results of his coronavirus tests since Trump tested positive earlier this month.

The Biden campaign announced last week that an aviation company administrator who recently flew with the nominee had tested positive, but the two did not have close contact, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Biden is off the campaign trail today, instead focusing on preparing for his Thursday debate against Trump.


Trump the murderous idiot gets nasty and criticizes Dr. Fauci:

Trump attacks Fauci as a 'disaster' in campaign staff call

Speaking to his campaign staff on a conference call, Trump attacked Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert.

“People are tired of coronavirus,” the president said, according to reporters who listened in on the call. “People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots.”


On the economic relief package....

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Mark Meadows claimed Mitch McConnell has committed to putting any negotiated coronavirus relief deal on the Senate floor for a vote.

“The Senate Republicans have been very vocal in terms of their lack of support of a number that’s even close to what the president has already supported,” the White House chief of staff said. “Whether there’s enough votes to get to the 60-vote threshold, that’s up to Leader McConnell.”

But McConnell has not committed to putting any deal negotiated between House speaker Nancy Pelosi and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin on the floor.


However....

Congress is running out of time to pass another coronavirus relief bill before the election, much to the chagrin of the president, who has called on Congress to “go big or go home” on the relief package.

The AP reports:

Trump’s GOP allies are reconvening the Senate this week for a revote on a virus proposal that about one-third the size of a measure being negotiated by [House speaker Nancy] Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. But the Senate GOP bill has failed once before, and that Trump himself now says is too puny. The debate promises to bring a hefty dose of posturing and political gamesmanship, but little more. A procedural vote on a stand-alone renewal of bipartisan Paycheck Protection Program business subsidies is slated for Tuesday.


And, on American workers and their jobs:

Alexandra Olsen reports for Associated Press on a new survey that has been carried out asking American workers about the impact coronavirus has had on their working lives. As well as putting millions out of work, the pandemic has left many of those still working fearful, distressed and stretched thin.

A quarter of US workers say they have even considered quitting their jobs as worries related to the pandemic weigh on them, according to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in collaboration with software company SAP. A fifth say they have taken leave.

About 7 in 10 workers cited juggling their jobs and other responsibilities as a source of stress. Fears of contracting the virus also was a top concern for those working outside the home.

Congratulations to Joe for a negative test result and I hope he can somehow defend Dr. Fauci against these attacks.

KY.........
October 18, 2020

Thanks for sharing, Wawannabe. Big Sunday DU hugs out to you.

Many of us here also have lost loved ones during or just prior to the pandemic and it's a struggle. I lost three very big ones in my life just in the past year or so, and now suffering again through their birthdays and anniversaries of their deaths. Thank goodness for my two adult kids, my bird feeders, music, stuff to fix around the house, meditation and for DU.

I hope you find a path to peace and closure, perhaps through meditation or Mother Nature, or through other friends.

KY...... ...... .......

October 18, 2020

Thanks, MM....good advice. Here are the laws relating to polling places....

for all states per the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS):

State Laws on Electioneering Boundaries:

Link to PDF: https://www.nass.org/resources/2018-election-information/electioneering-boundaries

State Laws on Authorized Poll Watchers & Voter Challenges:

Link to PDF: https://www.nass.org/resources/2018-election-information/Poll-Watchers-Voter-Challenges

Those pages clarify who and what is allowed in and around polling places in most states. They even provide reference to the exact statutes that apply to those issues.

Agree that voters must put their mule blinders on and just focus on voting, yet collect photographic evidence where we suspect laws are being broken.

KY

October 17, 2020

Winter pandemic outdoor recreation.....

https://twitter.com/DavBatz/status/1317458836417118208

Hope you can see the video clip. If not, it's a guy doing very good artwork on on dirty SUV rear window using just art brushes and a Q-tip.

Screenshot.....



KY..........
October 17, 2020

The Trumpist Death Cult

The Trumpist Death Cult
The president is an egotistical, narcissistic shaman who promises his adoring worshipers that he will right all wrongs.
by Brian Karem
October 10, 2020 5:30 am

Link: https://thebulwark.com/the-trumpist-death-cult/

(snips)
H.L. Mencken, unflinchingly clear-eyed, said that every great religion was susceptible to cults. Mystics, he wrote, drive many cults and the “essence of mysticism is that it breaks down all barriers between the devotee and his god, and thereby makes the act of worship a direct and personal matter.”

David Koresh did that. Jim Jones did that. So does Donald Trump.

Trump is, in his own perverse way, one of the greatest mystics of the 21st century. He is a masterful manipulator who told everyone from the beginning of his political career how he could shoot someone in front of witnesses and not lose a voter. He also explained that he calls the news media liars so people won’t believe us and will believe him.

Like every mystic, Trump adheres to magic over science. When pressed about climate change, he said the scientists don’t know. When pressed about the pandemic he said it would magically disappear. He often refuses to wear a mask and may be responsible for as many as 40 people in and around the White House becoming infected by the coronavirus. Like the huckster selling snake oil or the phony shaman dancing around a fire, Trump proclaimed himself feeling “great” in a video he tweeted to his millions of adoring fans. His magic is that of the wizard in the Wizard of Oz, and few who love him would dare pull back the curtain.

The article goes on to say....
Like every cult leader, his outsized ego and narcissism fuel the rage he has against those who think or act differently than he. His closest disciples and believers have gone all in—because they see a path to glory and power they would otherwise not have. Stephen Miller, a man perpetually picked last for kickball, would never reach such heights without Trump, the mystic, as his mentor. Trump is a sedulous fly-catcher and he is among the best.

I see Trump's behavior as representative of the entire GOP with him as their ultimate carnival barker.

GOP personality types require a charismatic, white macho-man to top off the structured authoritarian system they instinctively crave for their lives.

KY...........
October 17, 2020

20 cases of Covid-19 traced back to a Minnesota rally held by Trump

https://twitter.com/gelles/status/1317236055209279489
Text:
David P Gelles @gelles

The Minnesota Department of Health says it has so far traced 20 cases of Covid-19 back to a rally held by President Donald Trump in Bemidji last month. Two people are now hospitalized. The state is describing it as an “outbreak.”

6:48 PM · Oct 16, 2020


Confirmed here:

Minnesota health officials connect COVID-19 cases to Trump, Biden campaign events
By Zack Budryk - 10/13/20 01:37 PM EDT

Link: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/520801-minnesota-health-officials-connect-covid-19-cases-to-trump-biden-campaign

Snip....
Minnesota health officials said Monday that they have connected more than two dozen coronavirus cases to Trump and Biden campaign events in the state.

Sixteen cases have been tied to a Bemidji outdoor airport rally the president hosted Sept. 18, according to state health officials. Of these, four were reported by protesters at the event, according to state infectious disease director Kris Ehresmann. Ehresmann added that not all of the cases were necessarily contracted at the event.

Officials said three more cases involved people who attended a Sept. 30 Duluth Trump rally, as well as another three tied to attendees of a Sept. 24 Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport event where Vice President Pence appeared.


Cool response on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/ozaed/status/1317333033142419466
Text:
Mugwump @ozaed
Replying to @gelles

This starts to resemble a death cult more and more
+++
The Trumpist Death Cult
The president is an egotistical, narcissistic shaman who promises his adoring worshipers that he will right all wrongs.


Apparently, Rethugs now consider it a badge of honor to contract COVID-19 at a Trump campaign event.

KY........

Profile Information

Gender: Male
Hometown: TN, KY
Home country: USA
Current location: KY
Member since: Thu Jul 6, 2017, 07:43 PM
Number of posts: 14,489
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