Good man

News blues

You can’t keep a good man down!

“After more than 50 years of government service, I plan to pursue the next phase of my career while I still have so much energy and passion for my field,” Dr Anthony Fauci said in a statement. “I want to use what I have learned as NIAID Director to continue to advance science and public health and to inspire and mentor the next generation of scientific leaders as they help prepare the world to face future infectious disease threats.”

Joe Biden, [79 years old] in a statement recognizing Fauci’s coming departure, hailed [Fauci, 81 years old] as a “dedicated public servant, and a steady hand with wisdom and insight honed over decades at the forefront of some of our most dangerous and challenging public health crises.” 

Read more >> 
Watch interview with Dr Fauci on his announcement and his views on zoonotic diseases, and the current atmosphere of hate and anger in the US >>  (11:53 mins)

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A quick review of recent history – Covid and US response

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator under former President Donald Trump, on Sunday said the U.S. should not have had to rely on COVID data from Europe to protect Americans in the early days of the pandemic.
“In March of 2020, all of our data that I used to warn Americans of who was at risk for severe disease, hospitalization, and deaths came from our European colleagues,” Birx told CBS’ “Face the Nation. “That in itself should be an indictment of our system.”

Read more >> 

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On war and culture war

Russian soldier speaks out… ‘I don’t see justice in this war’: Russian soldier exposes rot at core of Ukraine invasion >> 
Watch interview with this Russian soldier >> (5:33 mins)

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The Lincoln Project:
Fire the Feds  (1:05 mins)
Receipts  (0:25 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Nurdles, nurdles everywhere but none that we can capture…

Maritime authorities are considering stricter controls on the ocean transport of billions of plastic pellets known as nurdles after a series of spillages around the world.
Campaigners warn that nurdles are one of the most common micro-plastic pollutants in the seas, washing up on beaches from New Zealand to Cornwall. The multicoloured pellets produced by petrochemical companies are used as building blocks for plastic products, from bags to bottles and piping.

So, the UN seeks a plan to beat plastic nurdles?
Here’s a plan: NO more manufacture and use of plastic bags. No, not allow consumers off the hook simply by paying 10 cents, or 15 cents, or 20 cents per plastic bag. NO more plastic bags produced at all.
Let ‘em use cloth bring-your-own bags… or use up the plastic bags already littering the planet, dispose of them carefully, then bring their own bags….
Read more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Mary is amazing. She’s determined to quit her oxycodone use asap… Yesterday, she was down to 5mg every 8-plus hours. Today? She bit the small, white 5mg pill in half and plans to gauge her pain threshold accordingly. So far, so good. She says it is not “pain” she experiences as she fights this good fight, it’s more the feeling that her chest is “boxed in” and “squeezed”.

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Yesterday, Mary accompanied me and a friend to the Sacramento Delta where I’m looking at purchasing another liveaboard boat. Yes, liveaboard is in my future, again.
It was a lovely day in the Delta; hot, hot…

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Time, again, to track the change of seasons:
SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 6:33am
Sunset: 7:49pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 6:23am
Sunset: 5:40pm

“Try it. What have you got to lose?”

Click to enlarge

Remember Trump saying, "[Hydroxychloroquine has] been out there for a long time. Try it. What have you got to lose? I hope they use it."
He added, "I may take it. I have to ask my doctors."

Needless to say, the self-confessed germophobe neither asked his doctors nor took it.
Trump was 100 percent correct when he said about the drug for treating coronavirus. “I think it could be a game changer.”
Game changer, indeed.

Experimenting on American servicemen?

Trump oversaw (by doing nothing contrary) dosing military veterans in U.S. veterans’ hospitals.

Researchers reported there were more deaths among those given hydroxychloroquine versus standard care.
The nationwide study was not a rigorous experiment. But with 368 patients, it’s the largest look so far of hydroxychloroquine … The study was posted on an online site for researchers …[who] analyzed medical records of 368 male veterans hospitalized with confirmed coronavirus infection at [VA] medical centers who died or were discharged by April 11.
About 28% who were given hydroxychloroquine plus usual care died, versus 11% of those getting routine care alone. … 

Science? Who needs it?

The federal agency led by Dr. Anthony Fauci issued guidelines on Tuesday that stated there is no proven drug for treating coronavirus patients…. Fauci has repeatedly pushed back at the president’s enthusiasm over the malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, sometimes disagreeing in public with Mr. Trump.
For weeks Dr. Fauci has stressed the lack of scientific evidence to back up any potential treatment, and this new document, which includes the expertise of more than a dozen federal agencies and professional groups, underscores his reasoning.

Wednesday's most stunning development, a top administration official working on a vaccine claimed he was ousted after resisting efforts to push unproven drugs promoted by President Donald Trump and his conservative media cheerleaders as "game changer" treatments.
That news was followed by a bewilderingly inconsistent White House briefing. Conflicting messages on when to reboot the economy, the need for testing and the possibility of a resurgence of the virus combined with Trump's effort to suppress facts that jar with his insistence that the end of a nightmare likely to last many more months is near.
In another bizarre twist, Trump produced Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to walk back his remarks that the coronavirus challenge could be more difficult in the fall.
Trump claimed that Redfield had been "totally misquoted" by the media.  But under questioning from reporters, Redfield confirmed that he had in fact made the remarks that angered Trump."I'm accurately quoted in The Washington Post," [Redfield] conceded, as Trump countered that the headline was wrong. It accurately described Redfield warning that if a coronavirus resurgence came at the same time as the flu season, hospitals could be overwhelmed.
The President also openly clashed with his top public health officials on the likelihood of the virus returning for another assault in the fall -- saying only "embers" of disease were likely that could be easily put out.

Feelin’ safe yet?

When all else fails, sue!

Americans fallback option is… to sue.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced Missouri is suing the Chinese government and other top institutions for the role they played in the coronavirus pandemic and the effects it has had on the state:

Chinese authorities deceived the public, suppressed crucial information, arrested whistleblowers, denied human-to-human transmission in the face of mounting evidence, destroyed critical medical research, permitted millions of people to be exposed to the virus, and even hoarded personal protective equipment—thus causing a global pandemic that was unnecessary and preventable."
The lawsuit alleges that while the Chinese medical community had indications of human-to-human transmission of the virus, they did not inform the World Health Organization when they first reported the outbreak.
It also alleges Chinese leaders did little to curb spread of the virus, still allowing thousands of people to travel to and out of Wuhan.

Huh. The Trump administration could be sued for the same reasons, no?
But then, Donald Trump, Bidnessman, has decades of experience suing various people and entities. An analysis by USA Today published in June 2016 found that over the previous three decades, Donald Trump and his businesses have been involved in 3,500 legal cases in U.S. federal and state courts, an unprecedented number. (A partial list )

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Jellyfish in Venice Canals?  Déjà vu all over again? Is this true truth or false truthiness?
Remember the last go-round of truthiness about dolphins in Venice’s canals turned out to be false and/or wishful thinking.

Lockdown laughs

I manage lockdown by mowing lawns, gardening, blogging and writing, following news and webinars, cooking and cleaning, spying on and photographing garden critters, walking dogs around the garden while waving a large stick to break spiderwebs (learned behavior after too many spider bites). I’m beyond worrying about what neighbors think when I yell greetings to monkey visitors, “Monkeys! Munksters! Monkelizers!”

I imagined a monkey mishap
like this cat mishap
on a telephone wire.click to enlarge

Yesterday afternoon, monkelizers lavishly repaid my attention after I chased half dozen raiding the birdfeeder. Two young’uns skittered into trees then along telephone wires! It’s moments like these I long for camera-in-hand.
Alas, nothing but delightful memories of two balanced, upright, and fast monkeys negotiating a trapeze.

Advice to monkeys from squirrels 
click to enlarge

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