News Factoids for Second & Third Quarter 2020

LABOR NEWS

The Labor Department on Friday May 8th said that 20.5 million jobs were lost in April, and the unemployment rate climbed to 14.7 percent.

The Department of Labor released the most recent unemployment insurance (UI) claims data on May 26th, showing that another 2.2 million people filed for regular UI benefits in the week ending May 16 (not seasonally adjusted) and 1.2 million for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), the new program for workers who aren’t eligible for regular UI, such as gig workers.

The U.S. Department of labor reported on August 8th that 29.7 million American workers are either on Unemplyment Insurance benefits or have applied and are waiting a decision. The U.S. labor force reached a high of 164.6 million persons in February 2020, so that means that the official unemployment rate is really 18%, and that actual unemployment is probably at least 25% - the official unemployment rate during the Great Depression was 23%. http://www.genordell.com/stores/spirit/GreatDepression.htm

TRUMPVIRUS NEWS

More than half of the COVID-19 cases in New Mexico are Native Americans even though Native Americans only make up roughly 10% of our population. -- tom udall, mid-may 2020

on Saturday August 22nd, data collected by Johns Hopkins University showed that the global death toll from the coronavirus surpassed 800,000, while the number of confirmed cases across the world shot past 23 million.

A new internet distinction/meme has shown up: today's kids are part of Generation C, those whose education (K-college) was messed up by the coronavirus epidemic.

ELECTION NEWS

538 women are running for Congress this year, breaking 2018's record While the 2018 midterm elections saw a historic number of women run for Congress, 2020 has already broken that record. In 2018, 529 women filed to run for the House or the Senate, with 117 ultimately elected or appointed. This year, some 538 female congressional candidates have filed their paperwork so far. Among them are 490 women vying for House seats, according to data from Rutgers University's Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP), up from 476 in 2018. So far, 48 women have filed to run for Senate in 2020, just behind 2018's record of 53.

RUSSIAGATE NEWS

The Democrats did indeed find dirt on Trump (easy: Trump is dirty): Trump was impeached but Moscow Mitch prevented an actual trial in the Senate; as to the Mueller report and all that, Republican Senators released Volume 5 of their report in August, concluding that "the Trump campaign had regular contact with Russians and welcomed their help" in the 2016 election. http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf

The Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday released its fifth and final report on Russia's 2016 election interference, concluding that the Trump campaign had regular contact with Russians and welcomed their help. The Senate panel said former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort posed a 'grave counterintelligence threat' due to his 'willingness to share information' with associates of Russian agents. The investigation supported many of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's conclusions, including that Trump associates tried to get information hacked from Democrats and released by WikiLeaks in a bid to damage then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign. Trump has called the Russia investigations a hoax, but the Senate report rejects Trump's claim that the F.B.I. had no reason to investigate his campaign's contacts with Russia.

the Bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report about Trump and his role in Russian Interference in our presidential 2016 election: http://www.heinrich.senate.gov/download/additional_views_volume5pdf http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/report_volume5.pdf

"The report ... describes how Russia launched an aggressive, wide-ranging effort to interfere in the election on Donald Trump's behalf. It says Trump associates were eager to exploit the Kremlin's aid, particularly by maximizing the impact of the disclosure of Democratic emails that were hacked by Russian military intelligence officers."

"The report from the Republican-led panel lays out significant contacts between Trump associates and Russians, describing for instance a close professional relationship between Trump campaign chairman Paul Mananfort and Konstantin Kilimnik, whom the committee describes without equivocation as a Russian intelligence officer."

OTHER NEWS

PREDICTION: On or about January First, 2021 there will be T-shirts on the market reading 'I SURVIVED 2020'

Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

Trump's Dirty Mouth

what we are left with after the 2020 RNC Trumpathon is how much Donald Trump needs his mouth washed out with soap

current unemployment rate is 25 percent

The U.S. Department of labor reported on August 8th that 29.7 million American workers are either on Unemplyment Insurance benefits or have applied and are waiting a decision. The U.S. labor force reached a high of 164.6 million persons in February 2020, so that means that the official unemployment rate is really 18%, and that actual unemployment is probably at least 25% - the official unemployment rate during the Great Depression was 23%.

THE PLAGUE: SOME HOPE, AFTER ALL

NOTE: Source for this statement may never be verified; so far it is said to be from 'a well-respected pathologist', 'a professor of pharmacy at the University of Toronto', and also 'a senior British doctor in a medical forum that was held recently'. Included here because it makes sense.

For this pandemic there’s a greater chance of survival for those getting infected 3 months later like June 2020 than those who got infected 3 months earlier say February 2020. The reason for this is that Doctors and scientists know more about Covid-19 now than 3 months ago and hence are able to treat patients better. I will list 5 important things that we know now that we didn’t know in February 2020 for your understanding.

1. COVID-19 was initially thought to cause deaths due to pneumonia- a lung infection- and so Ventilators were thought to be the best way to treat sick patients who couldn’t breathe. Now we are realizing that the virus causes blood clots in the blood vessels of the lungs and other parts of the body and this causes the reduced oxygenation. Now we know that just providing oxygen by ventilators will not help but we have to prevent and dissolve the micro clots in the lungs. This is why we are using drugs like Aspirin and Heparin (blood thinners that prevents clotting) as protocol in treatment regimens in June 2020.

2. Previously patients used to drop dead on the road or even before reaching a hospital due to reduced oxygen in their blood- OXYGEN SATURATION. This was because of HAPPY HYPOXIA- where even though the oxygen saturation was gradually reducing the COVID-19 patients did not have symptoms until it became critically less, like sometimes even 70%. Normally we become breathless if oxygen saturation reduces below 90%. This breathlessness is not triggered in Covid patients and so we were getting the sick patients very late to the hospitals in February 2020. Now since knowing about happy hypoxia we are monitoring oxygen saturation of all covid patients with a simple home use pulse oximeter and getting them to hospital if their oxygen saturation drops to 93% or less. This gives more time for doctors to correct the oxygen deficiency in the blood and a better survival chance in June 2020.

3. We did not have drugs to fight the corona virus in February 2020. We were only treating the complications caused by it... hypoxia. Hence most patients became severely infected. Now we have 2 important medicines FAVIPIRAVIR & REMDESIVIR. These are ANTIVIRALS that can kill the corona virus. By using these two medicines we can prevent patients from becoming severely infected and therefore cure them BEFORE THEY GO TO HYPOXIA. This knowledge we have in June 2020... not in February 2020.

4. Many Covid-19 patients die not just because of the virus but also due the patient’s own immune system responding in an exaggerated manner called CYTOKINE STORM. This stormy strong immune response not only kills the virus but also kills the patients. In February 2020 we didn’t know how to prevent it from happening. Now in June 2020, we know that easily available medicines called Steroids, that doctors around the world have been using for almost 80 years can be used to prevent the cytokine storm in some patients.

5. Now we also know that people with hypoxia became better just by making them lie down on their belly - known as prone position. Apart from this a few days ago Israeli scientists have discovered that a chemical known as Alpha Defensin produced by the patients White blood cells can cause the micro clots in blood vessels of the lungs and this could possibly be prevented by a drug called Colchicine used over many decades in the treatment of gout.

So now we know for sure that patients have a better chance at surviving the COVID-19 infection in June 2020 than in February 2020, for sure.

Going forward there’s nothing to panic about Covid-19 if we remember that a person who gets infected later has a better chance at survival than one who got infected early.

Let’s continue to follow precautions, wear masks and practice social distancing.

Garden of Statues

DJT today announced signing an executive order to establish the National Garden of American Heroes, a vast outdoor park featuring statues of 'the greatest Americans to ever live'; he will not be among them, although the visitor center could maybe sell Donald Trump bobble-head action figures that make 'tweet, tweet, tweet' sounds.

Monumental failure Emperor Trump should instead contemplate the STATUTE of limitations. Pardons from the White House only apply to federal crimes. Also there are no statutes of limitation on murder or treason or tax fraud in America. Expect indictments on 21 January 2021, in New York at minimum.

Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

WHAT IF TRUMP IS NOT THE NOMINEE ???

The way things are looking today, after the fiasco in Tulsa, Emperor Trump might not get the nomination on the first ballot at the Rethuglicon convention in August. The GOP - Gang of Perverts - is in disarray with every indication that they will lose in November to the Democrats for the White House and for both houses of Congress.

WHOOPPEEE !!!

But that leaves us with the question of who WILL the Republican Party nominate for President? Of course every Republican senator and governor believes themselves to be the perfect choice, but what about the practical reality?

Mitt Romney has been positioning himself as the next GOP contender for the last several years, and that could very well happen in 2020 rather than in 2024. Who else do they have? Rand Paul for VP, maybe?

Who else is there?
Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

May 2020 Quotations (53)

"November 3 the nightmare ends."
~~ Rob Reiner on Twitter, 22 May 2020

"Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war."
~~ Ernest Hemingway [1899-1961]

"The more we see of men, the more we like dogs."
~~ inscription by Messrs. Frank and Dubois on a 1902 dog collar
at the Colorado Railroad Museum

"Social distancing is not difficult for me because of my years of practice in anti-social distancing."
~~ philosopher, hermit & curmudgeon G.E. Nordell

"Fear cannot be banished, but it can be calm and without panic; it can be mitigated by reason and evaluation."
~~ engineer Vannevar Bush [1890-1974]

"Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else."
~~ entertainer Judy Garland [1922-69]

"It's never too early to be annoyed by Christmas."
~~ Grinch character, as written by Dr. Seuss

“Losing doesn’t make me want to quit. It makes me want to fight that much harder.”
~~ Bear Bryant [1913-83], football coach at the University of Alabama

"It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow."
~~ rocket scientist Robert H. Goddard [1882-1945]

“Positive leadership, in my mind, comes from two things ... No. 1 [is] do your job. No. 2 [is] put the team first.”
~~ Bill Belichick, football coach of the New England Patriots

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure."
~~ Clarence Darrow [1857-1938]

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary."
~~ William Faulkner [1897-1962] (about Ernest Hemingway [1899-1961])

"The Republican Party is the Special Olympics for politicians."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"Don't shove me into some pigeonhole, where I don't fit, because I'm all over. My tentacles are coming out of the pigeonhole in all directions."
~~ Ursula K. Le Guin [1929-2018]

“I’ve spent my entire writing life trying to make sure that the white gaze was not the dominant one in any of my books.”
~~ Nobel-laureate author Toni Morrison [1931-2019] to Charlie Rose, in a 1998 interview

“Not making a decision is the worst thing you can do. So long as you feel you made the right decision based on the information you had at the time, there’s no need to fret about it. If it fails, you’ll know what to do next time.”
~~ Bo Schembechler [1929-2006], football coach at the University of Michigan

"We are going to have to understand evermore complex systems if we are to deal with the future. Without that understanding there may be no future."
~~ mathematician & philosopher Norbert Wiener [1894-1964]

"To be really great in little things, to be truly noble and heroic in the insipid details of everyday life, is a virtue so rare as to be worthy of canonization."
~~ Harriet Beecher Stowe [1811-96]

"All religion may be centered around a generally good idea; however, this has not stopped its adherents from acting like bastards."
~~ Paul K. Feyerabend [1924-94]

"I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown."
~~ Woody Allen

"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious."
~~ physicist Albert Einstein [1879-1955]

"Climate change is the single biggest thing that humans have ever done on this planet. The one thing that needs to be bigger is our movement to stop it."
~~ eco-activist Bill McKibben

"Science is not only a discipline of reason but, also, one of romance and passion."
~~ Stephen W. Hawking [1942-2018]

"The virtues of science are skepticism and independence of thought."
~~ Nobel-laureate Walter Gilbert

"In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate."
~~ French/Dutch philosopher René Descartes [1596-1650]

"Things start out as hopes and end up as habits."
~~ playwright Lillian Hellman [1905-84]

"You have been my friend . . . That in itself is a tremendous thing."
~~ E.B. White [1899-1985], in "Charlotte’s Web" [1952]

"Jazz, to me, is one of the inherent expressions of Negro life in America: the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul — the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world, a world of subway trains, and work, work, work; the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed in a smile."
~~ Langston Hughes [1902-67]

"Dune is the bestselling science fiction book of all time. It's something [that] you really need to read in your lifetime. If you're going to read The Lord of The Rings, which everyone should, then you have to read Dune too."
~~ Kevin J. Anderson

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."
~~ Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu [IVth Century B.C.E.]

"There are trivial truths and there are great truths. The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true."
~~ physicist Niels Bohr [1885-1962]

"If we wait for a pandemic to appear, it will be too late to prepare."
~~ President George W. Bush in 2005

"We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education."
~~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau [1712-78]

"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission."
~~ philosopher Ayn Rand [1905-82]

"The lies Trump tells won’t wash the truth away."
~~ Laura Leighton, on Facebook

“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.”
~~ Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [1922-2007]

"Not all idiots are Republicans, but all Republicans are idiots."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"[Trump's] dishonesty has no limits."
~~ John O. Brennan, former head of the C.I.A.- in April 2020

"Three things I prize and hold fast: Humility, Compassion, and Economy."
~~ Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu [IVth Century B.C.E.]

"Please don't call them protesters . . . they're terrorists. Protesters don't carry AK47s, wave swastika flags, or block ambulances."
~~ shared on Facebook, April 2020

"A gathering of covidiots is known as a covfefe."
~~ shared on Facebook, April 2020

"Donald Trump is the number one mass murderer in U.S. history."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"The takeover of the environmental movement by capitalism is now complete."
~~ filmmaker Jeff Gibbs

"Humankind is challenged, as it has never been challenged before, to prove its maturity and its mastery - not of nature, but of itself."
~~ Rachel L. Carson [1907-64] in 1962

"The coronavirus didn’t break America. It revealed what was already broken."
~~ The Atlantic Magazine

"We've reached a point where every day must be Earth Day."
~~ Canadian eco-journalist David Suzuki

"Under certain circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]

"Every time I learn something new, something old falls out. And I might really need that!"
~~ Homer Simpson, your spiritual advisor

"Religion is a primitive form of philosophy, [an] attempt to offer a comprehensive view of reality."
~~ philosopher Ayn Rand [1905-82]

"Human history is the long terrible story of humans trying to find something other than God which will make them happy."
~~ C.S. Lewis [1898-1963]

"I try to avoid looking forward or backward and try to keep looking upward."
~~ Charlotte Brontë [1816-55]

"Everyone says he is crazy – which maybe he is – but the scarier thing about him is that he is stupid. You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump."
~~ Fran Lebowitz

"Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force."
~~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer [1906-45]

{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}

HAPPY FUCKING EARTH DAY !!

"The takeover of the environmental movement by capitalism is now complete."
"Michael Moore Presents: Planet of The Humans" [2020] Directed by Jeff Gibbs
watch movie [1:40:01] online at YouTube

DONALD TRUMP IS NUMBER ONE !

I looked into what the historic record shows as to documented massacres and mass murders in the U.S.A. Surprisingly, Gen. Custer is responsible for only 100+ Native Americans massacred at the Battle of Washita River in 1868.

Round Valley Settler Massacres in California, 1856-59: White settlers killed over a thousand Yuki Indians over the course of three years in an uncountable number of separate massacres.
Death toll: 1000+ Native Americans.

Dakota War, August–September 1862: The Sioux killed as many as 800 white settlers and soldiers throughout Minnesota; some 40,000 white settlers fled their homes on the frontier.
Death toll: 450–800 settlers & soldiers.

Yontoket Massacre, 1853: A posse of settlers attacked and burned a Tolowa rancheria at Yontocket, California during a prayer ceremony.
Death toll: 450 Native Americans.

Old Shasta Town Massacre, 1851: California miners killed 300 Wintu Indians and burned down their tribal council meeting house.
Death toll: 300 Native Americans.

The Wounded Knee Massacre, 1890: A detachment of United States Army Cavalry soldiers wiped out a Lakota camp on a reservation in South Dakota.
Death toll: 250-300 Native American men, women & children.

That creepy guy who opened fire on concert-goers from a hotel room in Las Vegas, Nevada in October 2017 killed only 58 and wounded 413 (then committed suicide).

So that leaves Donald Trump as the Number One Mass Murderer in U.S. History by far, with at least 20,000 deaths due to his greed and incompetence as-of Easter Sunday April 12th. And total 100,000 deaths by Memorial Day, almost twice as many in three months as the number of Americans who died in the ten years of the VietNam War.

Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

IMPEACH THE BASTID FOR HIS NEW CRIMES !

Donald Trump continues to violate the U.S. Constitution and must be held accountable. So we need to demand that Congress do something and that begins with Nancy Pelosi holding new impeachment hearings to investigate (and put on record) Trump's many new crimes.

You all can and should cut and paste the short statement below to Pelosi's Speaker site Contact page. (Most members of Congress restrict their Contact input to constituents - by ZIP code - to prevent spam, so this is better; you can also cut and paste to your Senators & Congresspeople, without my direct help.)

http://www.speaker.gov/contact

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Donald Trump continues to violate the U.S. Constitution and must be held accountable.

Please start the impeachment hearings about Donald Trump's many recent crimes, including:

• • malfeasance in office;
• • war profiteering;
• • seeking and accepting bribes;
• • emoluments violations by his entire family;
• • mass murder of 10,000 (so far) Americans.

All members of Congress swore an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution from enemies foreign & domestic, and that requires you all to take this action.

include your name & address & phone
also your email address and any personal website/s

Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

News Factoids for First Quarter 2020

TRUMPVIRUS NEWS

It took three months to reach 100,000 coronavirus cases worldwide; the second 100,000 took only 12 days; it took only two weeks to reach 500,000 on March 26.

The U.S. trumpvirus outbreak hit another grim milestone on Wednesday April 1, with the national death toll jumping by more than 1,000 in a single day for the first time and rising to 5,137 overall.

ECONOMIC NEWS

The U.S. federal budget deficit rose to $389.2 billion in the first four months of the 2020 fiscal year, a 25 percent increase over the same period the previous year.

The Federal Reserve on Sunday March 15 announced that it was cutting interest rates by 100 basis points to near zero; the Fed also said that it was buying at least $700 billion in government and mortgage-related bonds in a broad effort to stimulate the economy.

The Federal Reserve on Saturday March 21 announced that it will buy up to $30 trillion dollars in corporate and investment junk bonds as a way of propping up the collapsing U.S. economy; the plan is to purchase $1 trillion each day for the next 30 days.

Economists at the Federal Reserve's St. Louis District are now projecting the unemployment rate in the United States could hit 32.1 percent, placing 47 million people out of work. [CNBC March 30, 2020]

ET CETERA

As the year changed over on January 1, thousands of once-copyrighted works from 1924 entered the public domain. Ninety-five years after their creation, these classics are finally free to use, remix, and build upon without permission or payment.

"Always remember that half the population is below average, and it is even worse on Facebook." ~~~ G.E. Nordell

Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

Working Minds March 2020 Quotations (51)

"Hard to say which is the worst infection: the Trump coronavirus or endemic stupidity."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"The point is not to wish for these adversities, but for the virtue that makes adversities bearable."
~~ Seneca the Younger [4? B.C.E. - 65 A.D.]

“Cruelty is not wit.”
~~ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

'found' t-shirt text: no artificial preservatives

"God is easy to please but hard to satisfy."
~~ British author C.S. Lewis [1898-1963]

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts . . . For support rather than illumination."
~~ Andrew Lang [1844-1912]

"Rape and pillage and pollution is all that these fascist Republicans know."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"Sarcasm and reality have become one."
~~ cartoonist Scott Adams (in the "Dilbert" comic strip, 2020)

"Remember kid: With great power comes zero accountability."
~~ cartoonist Dan Piraro (in the "Bizarro" daily panel, 1/2020)

"One of the primary roots of wealth inequality: the richest Americans get to live by a different set of rules than everyone else."
~~ Tom Steyer, op-ed in USA Today in October 2018

"Equality is the soul of liberty; there is in fact no liberty without it."
~~ reformer Frances Wright [1795-1852]

"Unexplained joy is always so keen that . . . it seems to hold enought to reconcile one to the inevitable."
~~ Jessie Benton Frémont [1824-1902]

"No one ever makes a billion dollars. You take a billion dollars."
~~ Congresswoman Alexandria 'A.O.C.' Ocasio-Cortez [Dem NY-14]

"It is in the shelter of each other that the people live."
~~ Irish Proverb

"The many, many fascist trolls on Facebook and elsewhere epitomize ignorance & stupidity. Education will fix that: the purpose of true education is to make the population more and more progressive (which is why Republicans are opposed to education). But first these trolls have to give up being hate-mongers."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"The federal budget deficit will hit $1.02 trillion this year, and it's shameful that the next Democratic president let this happen."
~~ Teresa Hanafin, Boston Globe staff writer {sarcasm 1/2020}

"States are not great except as men may make them; men are not great, except they do and dare."
~~ Eugene Fitch Ware [1841-1911]

"The next pandemic is coming. We’re not prepared for it."
~~ Washington Post article headline

"We can't expect the world to get better by itself."
~~ television journalist Gwen Ifill [1955-2016]

"Republicans are essentially 14 year olds."
~~ Kritter Metimbers, on Facebook

"All glory comes from daring to begin."
~~ Eugene Fitch Ware [1841-1911]

"[Donald Trump] shredded the truth, so I shredded his speech."
~~ House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

"Nancy Pelosi has nine grandchildren, so she knows exactly how to deal with somebody like Donald Trump."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"There are none so blind as those who watch the Fox Faux News Propaganda Channel."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"Ignorance per se is not nearly as dangerous as ignorance of ignorance."
~~ Chicago columnist Sydney J. Harris [1917-86]

"He who is not every day conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life."
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82]

"The purpose of life is eating donuts."
~~ cartoonist Stephan Pastis (in the "Pearls Before Swine" daily strip, 3/2020)

"One big problem these days is that so many former Americans, now fascist Trumpies, are suffering from stage four Limp Rushbaugh."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"This Administration is out of control."
~~ Congresswoman Deb Haaland [Dem NM-01]

"In coming months, the place [that] one would be most likely to be infected with the coronavirus will be one of Trump's own Make America Sick Again campaign rallies."
~~ the team at The People's Email Network [est. 2004]

“No. I don’t take responsibility at all.”
~~ Emperor Trump, March 2020

"If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present."
~~ Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu [IVth Century B.C.E.]

"We are always as safe as the least-insured person in America."
~~ Sen. Bernie Sanders, 13 March 2020

"A mentor in broadcast journalism once told me, 'To find the real story, sometimes you have to turn your back on the fire, and look around'.”
~~ Eric Pearson, president/CEO, El Paso [TX] Community Foundation

"Everyone's a socialist in a pandemic."
~~ journalist Farhad Manjoo

"We tried to find some non-coronavirus news, honest we did."
~~ MovieMaker Magazine [est. 1993] email newsletter, 13 March 2020

"Quality is not an [action], it is a habit."
~~ Greek philosopher Aristotle [384-322 B.C.E.]

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go."
~~ Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]

"You think [that] a life is built of dreams when, really, a life is made up of daily to-do lists."
~~ novelist Susan Henderson

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."
~~ Groucho Marx [1890-1977]

"The older I get, the more I realize that the ultimate luxury is time."
~~ fashion designer Michael Kors

"You cannot teach anything to a person who knows it all."
~~ Zeno of Citium [334?-262? B.C.E.]

excited ten-year-old schoolchild in America: "We don't have to worry about getting shot at school for three weeks!"

"If I start to hear of chocolate shortages, I have no problem hoarding."
~~ Teresa Hanafin, Boston Globe staff writer

"The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the excluded, and to say, 'I was wrong'."
~~ Chicago columnist Sydney J. Harris [1917-86]

"Je divague fort, j'y retourne (I ramble hard, I'm going back)."
~~ essayist (Michel Eyquem de) Montaigne [1533-92]

"Stupidity is not the lack of knowledge, it is the illusion of having it."
~~ Grigore Lilian

"A pack of jackasses led by a lion is superior to a pack of lions led by a jackass."
~~ George Washington [1732-99]

"Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance."
~~ Anthony de Mello [1931-87]

"To do what nobody else will do, in a way that nobody else can do, in spite of all we go through – that is to be a nurse."
~~ Rawsi Williams

"Some of the stuff going on in the world is only there to put a smile on your face, there's no other reasonable explanation for it."
~~ folksinger Arlo Guthrie, in 2010

{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}

Lesson For Today

Pass it on . . .

Working Minds Essay #117: We Are At War

Rather like during World War II, the United States is at war on two fronts: one is the coronavirus epidemic and the other is retaining the ability to elect a President that We The People choose.

World War II began in September 1939 when Germany's Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler invaded Poland; the U.S. tried to stay neutral, but the attack by Japan at Pearl Harbor in December 1941 dragged us into the fray. The Germans were beaten, and surrendered in May 1945; the U.S dropped two small atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945, and the war was over.

Current worldwide casualty estimates for World War II list about 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians. At a time when the U.S. population was 131,028,000, military & civilian deaths from the war (all causes) were 419,400 Americans, and the total of Americans wounded was 671,800.

This 'novel' Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus first appeared in China in November 2019; President Trump intentionally fumbled the ball in January and February and March of 2020, and already schools, entertainment venues, restaurants & bars, and retail stores are being shut down, state by state (since federal leadership is absent). The statistics presented by W.H.O. and the C.D.C. are that we should expect 70% to 90% of the U.S. population to be exposed to the disease; their statistics also say that about 3.4% of people who contract the virus will die from it. The estimated U.S. population is currently 332 million; multiply that by 70%, the result is 23¼ million infected, and multiply that by 3.4% and the likely deaths figure comes out to 790,000.

So look at the numbers: 790,000 expected to die from the Wuhan 2019-nCoV coronavirus vs. 419,400 American soldiers & civilians killed in World War II.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Hard to say which of the two fronts is a distraction from the other. The coronavirus now exists in almost 100 countries, we all will be dealing with the health crisis as best we can. American scientists are working to exchange information with other governments, but the American federal government - specifically the fascist Republican Party - is unashamed in their blocking of all funding and aid at the federal level.

So state governments have stepped into that vacuum. Basically, gatherings of fifty or more people must be cancelled or postponed. Bars, restaurants, entertainment venues, and other public spaces are shut down: events also to be cancelled or postponed. K-12 schools are shut down for three weeks or longer; many colleges are converting to online classes only, some are closing their dorms. The games of basketball's March Madness continue, but there is no one in the stands.

We are in a war for our lives and the fascist media continue to convince their kool-aid drinking sheeple that the incompetent Orange Imbecile has everything under control - go ahead and sneeze on your family and friends and co-workers, there is no problem.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
At the same time, the fascist Republican Party is building a huge infrastructure on social media that is already skewing voting results. They are being helped by the Russians, and to a smaller extent by the North Koreans, the Saudis, and the Chinese. Journalists report full details in magazines and newspapers and online, and yet the masses are ignorant.

Joe Biden's win in South Carolina was largely caused by deceit: lies from Biden himself, efforts of fascist GOP bots, and hard work from the same foreign actors as were cited for their crimes in the Mueller Report.

Joe Biden lied several times during the debate last night with Bernie Sanders, and none of the so-called journalists (nor the crew of people behind them) called Joe on his avoidance of the truth.

This damage to your right for a fair election is intentional; state legislatures are corrupted by the Koch Brothers-funded A.L.E.C. group. GOP/red states fight for their crooked gerrymandering all the way to the Supreme Court; the majority of justices there are members of the Federalist Society and thus are traitors to the U.S. Constitution, so such cheating of voters repeatedly gets their approval.

The antidote for this debacle is to emulate our only four-term President: ask the question 'What would F.D.R. do ?'

The stock market crashed in Oct-Nov 1929 and hit bottom in July 1932. Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected President of the U.S. in November 1932 and immediately got to work. Glass-Steagal prevented further banking crises, Social Security began a program to alleviate poverty in old age, and many jobs programs gave paychecks and meaning to millions of desparate workers. He also improved working conditions for labor, and created the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. After Pearl Harbor, he built an army that invaded Europe and conquered the Nazis. The war in the Pacific was largely fought by Navy, Marine, and Air Force units.

We won that war because of excellent leadership, including Winston Churchill of Britain. The United States does not today have competent leadership, the fascists intentionally make the worst choice whenever they can.

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We are in a war, on two fronts, and some of us may not survive. Small businesses may not survive, BIG businesses may not survive, including banks. The stock market casino has lost trillions of dollars in inflationary value, and the Federal Reserve has 'emptied its quiver', except to hand cash to the banks, which disappears in a day. And if citizens have no jobs, they cannot pay their rent, and the inflated housing market will just crash, taking Goldman Sachs and Wall Street with it. The name of the third crisis will be Trump's Great Depression.

There is a lot of this that none of us can avoid - shortages, closures, job loss, infection - so we need to work together, stay informed, take proper precautions, and not panic. If we can manage that, then F.D.R.'s most famous saying will prevail: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

REPORT ON THE 'PERMISSION' ERROR MSGS

If you have been getting the "You do not have the necessary permission for the specified Page to perform the requested action" pop-ups you are likely annoyed - but let's look deeper at what might be going on:

1) best choice is that this is caused by Russki/Korean/Chinese gov't hackers laying down some worm/virus s/w at Facebook

2) while option #1 may be hard to prove, it is equally dangerous no matter its source

3) just proves that not enough money is being spent on security and-or tech support at Facebook

Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

Mitch McConnell, King of Cover-Ups

Over 50 years ago, Mitch McConnell was the subject of a cover-up at the age of twenty-five. He earned a B.A. in political science in 1964 and worked as an intern for Senator John Sherman Cooper. McConnell was called up by the draft in 1967 and was lucky to get into the Army Reserve (which were not then serving overseas). He lasted 37 days in the Army, court-martialed for sodomy.

Sodomy is not actually mentioned in the Judeo-Xian Bible as some terrible sin, that book just reviles Sodomites (people from Sodom) in many ways. But in the time and location of Kentucky in 1967, sodomy meant any sexual act other than the missionary position between a married male-female couple.

Mitch got caught having sex in the barracks on an Army base during training and a quick court martial sentenced him to a dishonorable discharge. Details are not known. Sen. Cooper intervened with the camp commander (copies of the telegram exist) asking for a medical discharge, which shows on record as 'optic neuritis'; that diagnosis was supposed to preclude military service, but no other cases of such a discharge have been found. No record of a physical exam has been found; treatment with steroids was then available, but no record of such treatment has been found. The telegram stated that McConnell wanted to attend N.Y.U., but it never happened.

A FOIA request to the Selective Service in late 2007 was stonewalled; they produced a summary document with false information. Reference to a transcript of the court martial exists among McConnell's archives, but that reference has the strange notation 'not on file'.

Times have radically changed in the fifty-plus years since the court martial, and not many would fault McConnell for whatever sexual activity took place so many decades ago - well, maybe Kentucky hasn't gotten any wiser - but the real issue for most Americans is the cover-up, the privileged young man being excused by political heavyweights.

And here we are in 2020 with 'Moscow' Mitch McConnell involved in another cover-up, this time excusing a congenital liar and confessed extortionist and tax cheat and embezzler and sexual predator of abusing the power of his office for personal gain. And how many such cover-ups by and for McConnell will be found in those many years between, once the United States has a constitutional government again?
Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

Educating Trolls

The many, many fascist trolls on Facebook and elsewhere epitomize ignorance & stupidity. Education will fix that: the purpose of true education is to make the population more and more progressive (which is why Republicans are opposed to education). But first these trolls have to give up being hate-mongers.

Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

Working Minds Essay #116: 'Free Speech' Is Not Guaranteed

FREE SPEECH IS NOT GUARANTEED - Y'all should read the actual First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press . . ."

First off, that refers to Congress (only).

Secondly, no venue is required to provide access to any hate-mongering group or individual, refusal is completely legal.

Thirdly, what the racist-nazi-fascist minority that follow IMPOTUS carefully forget is that Freedom of Speech goes both ways, such that any town square soapbox hate speech will likely be surrounded by majority Americans chanting loudly to drown out the hateful drivel - this is why the creeps try to access indoor venues that they can control and keep from interference by any sort of reality.

Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

My Websites - Year-End Statistics for 2019

Readers here probably don't much care, but this is posted for the record:

Total on the several domains are 1,772 pages and 31,029 coded covers (books, DVDs, posters, etc).

There are 136 new pages & 1,669 newly-coded covers for 2019.

Other web-related 2019 statistics include: reached 688 connections {up just 2} on LinkedIn; 351 friends {up 77} on two Facebook accounts; 18 postings to my blog {all-time count now 455} . . . and the worser 2019 statistic for Amazon was $97.53 in commissions.

Non-web-related 2019 statistics include: body weight now slightly down at 277 pounds and my trusty red 2004 Chevy Blazer has 194,333 miles on it.

Also, since I am now 75½ years old, I keep getting slower and the various pains get stronger and the increased pain medication makes me take more naps; for example, last year I proudly posted the Year-End Statistics Page on January First, this year it took a week to do.

{ Anyone interested in the details can go here. }

Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

News Factoids for Fourth Quarter 2019

ECONOMICS DEPT.

Stock market under Trump posts record highs, but markets under Obama performed far better -- headline at newsweek.com

Manufacturing slump worsens
A key gauge of U.S. factory activity slipped in September to its weakest reading in 10 years as slowing global economic growth and the U.S.-China trade war hurt exports, according to a monthly survey released Tuesday 10-1 by the Institute for Supply Management • "We have now tariffed our way into a manufacturing recession in the U.S. and globally," said Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group

Reuters October 1: U.S. manufacturing activity tumbled to a more than 10-year low in September as lingering trade tensions weighed on exports, further heightening financial market fears of a sharp slowdown in economic growth in the third quarter. The economy’s fading fortunes have been attributed to the Trump administration’s 15-month trade war with China, which has sapped business confidence and undermined manufacturing.

The federal deficit rose to $134 billion in October, a 34 percent increase over last October, according to Treasury Department data released Wednesday. The Treasury Department estimated that the full 2020 fiscal year deficit would be greater than $1 trillion for the first time since 2002.

The 26 richest billionaires own as many assets as the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of the planet’s population. -- The Guardian, UK 11/2019


JOBS DEPT.

California accounted for nearly three-quarters of US jobs added in February == per cnbc

US business hiring falls to a 7-year low ~~~ per the October jobs report

Trump trade war with China has cost 300,000 U.S. jobs, per Moody's estimates

The $15 minimum wage was supposed to hurt New York City restaurants — but both revenue and employment are up ~~~ per marketwatch.com

"80 percent of hourly retail workers have fluctuating schedules" and
"40 percent of hourly workers don’t get more than a week’s notice about their schedules" ~~ per The Atlantic

Trump Has Created 1.5 Million Fewer Jobs Than Obama - per forbes.com 9-2019

Cummins, the largest maker of truck engines in the US, announces 2,000 layoffs ~~ per Business Insider, 11/2019


HEALTHCARE DEPT.

New from STAT: "An estimated 35,000 Americans die of antibiotic-resistant infections each year -- one every 15 minutes -- according to a stark 11-2019 report from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention that reveals that the problem is substantially greater than previously estimated."

Measles killed 140,000 people in 2018, most of them children, as outbreaks hit all around the world, the World Health Organization said. In all, nearly 10 million people were infected. The figures for 2019 could be even worse. Provisional data in November showed that cases had tripled compared to the same period in 2018.


THE ENVIRONMENT

When bay scallop season opened in November, most of the adult scallops in Peconic Bay, Long Island were dead.

Russia’s warm winter has deprived Moscow of snow in December, caused plants to bloom, and awakened bears from hibernation.


HIGH TECH DEPT.

Amazon controls roughly half of US e-commerce and 5% of all US retail sales. It also holds nearly half of global cloud services through AWS, and is carving out a sizable chunk of search.
•Facebook counts 2.2 billion daily active users across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. That’s 29% of the entire global population.
•Since 2017, the European Commission has fined Google €8.3 billion ($9.1 billion) on competition grounds.
•In the US, 50 state attorneys general are investigating Google and 47 are investigating Facebook.

Luxembourg Becomes First Country to Make All Public Transit Free


POLITICS DEPT.

According to Census demographic trends, in the next couple of decades, half of America’s population will live in just eight states. The half that is whiter, older, more rural, and more conservative, will be spread across the other 42 states. That’s 84 senators for them, and 16 senators for the other half of America.

SCARY NEWS ITEM - Mike Huckabee announced on December 12th that he is in charge of Donald Trump's re-election campaign for 2024.

Copyright 2020 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved