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Notice in California:

Get notified when it’s your turn to get the COVID-19 vaccine. If you’re near San Francisco, Los Angeles, or San Diego, you can also schedule your appointment.

Everyone in California will have an opportunity to get vaccinated against COVID-19. But our vaccine supply is limited right now. So we’re starting with the groups who are at highest risk, like people with a high chance of exposure and people 65 and older. Are you eligible? 

News blues…

As Americans struggle to survive an out-of-control pandemic and clean up after Trump (the White House), and the Trumpies’ mess of the federal government, Trump’s second impeachment commences. Historical moments:
Lead House Manager Rep. Jamie Raskin presents graphic video timeline of Jan. 6 attack on U.S. Capitol (13:13 mins)
Conclusion of House Manager Raskin’s emotional appeal to Senate on Day 1 of impeachment trial  (8:36 mins)

***

Calendar it:

• President Ramaphosa will address the nation tomorrow night, Thursday, at 7pm.
• Register for the Webinar: Unpacking the SoNA

The 2021 State of the Nation Address (SONA) to be delivered by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 11 February 2021-
Theme Following up on our commitments: making your future work better will reflect the devastation the coronavirus pandemic has on almost every sector of the South African economy and on ordinary people’s lives.

***

The Lincoln Project: 

The case against Donald J. Trump  (0:50 mins)
Branded  (0:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Pollution from power plants, vehicles and other sources accounted for one in five of all deaths in 2018, with fossil fuels causing 8.7m deaths globally in 2018. 

Guardian graphic. Source: Harvard University.
Deaths attributable to exposure to
fine particulate matter (PM2.5)
generated by fossil fuel combustion

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

A good friend from California has been perseverating for months about Covid-19. He has some health vulnerabilities, so he’s extra cautious about protecting himself, his family, friends, and neighbors.
Sometimes, I’ve wondered if he has been, well, just a bit over the top: he refuses to enter grocery stores, instead ordering online, driving to the store where assistants deliver groceries directly into his vehicle’s trunk/boot and, back home, sanitizing all purchases. During his daily walk around the neighborhood, he berates other walkers who don’t wear masks….
This friend’s health care provider warned that they’d not dispense vaccinations until at least late summer, 2021. Then, a miracle! My friend heard via the online grapevine that the State of California has opened vaccination sites in Los Angeles, San Jose (“Silicon Valley”) and San Francisco. What’s more, one could make appointments for two-dose vaccinations.
He drove for more than an hour and reached San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center well before his 9:30am appointment. He was immediately attended to, and he processed out of the facility by 10:15am.
Yay! California! Yay, Biden administration! Yay, the resurgence of bureaucratic competence in the United States.
Now, to bring down the rate of infection and death.
Currently, the US is more than twice the rate of infection and death than its closest competition: 26+ million in US, 10+ in India (and India has twice the population).
Competence counts!

***

Yesterday I visited TOPS, the alcohol off sales store. I purchased a bottle of grapefruit flavored rum – with my homemade mint syrup I look forward to an occasional mojito. I also purchased a bottle of (cheapish) tequila. Now I seek an easy to make but delicious margarita mix recipe.
Things are looking up!

Power(lessness) of positive thinking

Humans. Gotta luv ‘em. Nurse says, “…Some coronavirus patients often don't want to believe that Covid-19 is real, even in their dying moments…”   (4:29 mins)

News blues…

The news media repeatedly repeats repeated news: Trump refuses to face reality; Republicans support Trump no matter what; Covid 19 crisis continues to surge; Covid-19 decimates We the People; Trump tweets while the US burns; corruption reigns; comedians try to make light of tragedy….

Healthy futures, anyone?

Australia’s latest State of the Climate Report finds,

Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, mostly from fossil fuel burning, has driven more dangerous bushfires, rising sea levels and a rapid rise in the days where temperatures reach extreme levels.
“What we are seeing now is beyond the realm of what was possible previously,” said Dr Jaci Brown, director of CSIRO’s Climate Science Centre.”
Among the key findings, the report said Australia’s climate had warmed by 1.44C since 1910 with bushfire seasons getting longer and more dangerous. Australia’s oceans had warmed by 1C and were acidifying.
In a briefing to reporters on Tuesday, Dr Karl Braganza, manager of climate environmental prediction service at the bureau, said … “What we are seeing now is a more tangible shift in the extremes and we are starting to feel how that shift in the average is impacting on extreme events.
“So we don’t necessarily feel that 1.44C increase in average temperature, but we do feel those heatwaves and we feel that fire weather.” 

Read the article, “Rising levels of carbon dioxide increasing extreme weather events in Australia.” 

In conjunction with rising temperatures and sea level rise, “humanity’s destruction of biodiversity creates the conditions for new viruses and diseases like COVID-19”… 

Only a decade or two ago it was widely thought that tropical forests and intact natural environments teeming with exotic wildlife threatened humans by harboring the viruses and pathogens that lead to new diseases in humans like Ebola, HIV and dengue. But a number of researchers today think that it is actually humanity’s destruction of biodiversity …creates the conditions for new viruses and diseases… to arise—with profound health and economic impacts in rich and poor countries alike. In fact, a new discipline, planetary health, is emerging that focuses on the increasingly visible connections among the well-being of humans, other living things and entire ecosystems. Is it possible, then, that it was human activity, such as road building, mining, hunting and logging, that triggered the Ebola epidemics …is unleashing new terrors today? … “We invade tropical forests and other wild landscapes, which harbor so many species of animals and plants—and within those creatures, so many unknown viruses,” David Quammen, author of Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Pandemic, recently wrote  in the New York Times. “We cut the trees; we kill the animals or cage them and send them to markets. We disrupt ecosystems, and we shake viruses loose from their natural hosts. When that happens, they need a new host. Often, we are it.”

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I recommend treating pandemic fatigue with limited, safe, masked social interactions with friends and colleagues. Be prepared for side effects: Wanting more interactions with friends!
Successfully engaging with friends after months of lockdown feels liberating. Afterwards, however, lockdown feels like imprisonment. Lockdown isolation is stressful. One rebels, but… stays home, again. 

 ***

A word of warning to anyone thinking of doing business in South Africa: Expect costly delays!
Protect yourself – even if things “sound” feasible and appear straight-forward.
Do not expect any busines-person to show up on the agreed upon schedule.
What can go wrong is likely to go wrong!
Unfortunately, I’m discovering this the hard way: financial loss, threated law suits, avoidance and displacement of responsibility….
Not to be cryptic, but for now, best I express chagrin, not air details.
To date, this extended stay in South Africa has confined me to a home not my own, and far from my immediate family; strained relationships with my extended family; included verbal abuse and insults from my mother; had a bad actor threaten to rape and kill me; put me in front of a local magistrate to request a restraining order; illegally (unbeknownst to me) carried licensed firearms in my vehicle in an (unsuccessful) effort, on behalf of my mother, to turn them in to local police….
Things can only get better. 

Right?

Stay or go?

Trump’s dilemma: should I stay or should I go? The Clash put it to music…  (3:00 mins)

News blues…

We, the People are exposed to mountains of media each day and, as the Trump election fiasco continues, it becomes increasingly difficult to discern what is based in fact or fantasy, in truth or lies, and satirical or serious news. For example, choose from the following headlines (answers below):

1. Trump Claims Over 70 Million Biden Votes Came From People Who Should Be Dead
2. Trump is devouring fast food — and aides are ‘lighting scented candles’ to cover up the stench
3. Donald Trump Jr. Refuses To Step Down From Post Of President’s Oldest Son
4. After Baseless Trump Claims, Barr Says DOJ Can Investigate Voter Fraud Allegations

Answers:

1. Satire, from The Onion 
2. Truth, from Rawstory 
3. Satire, from The Onion  
4. Truth, from Huffpost 

***

Currently popular, the term “inflection point” refers to selecting one possible direction over another possible direction - and that both directions are inherently equally valid.
In fact, we face a choice between a culture based on “traditional” values – integrity, honor, respect for other people and points-of-view, respect for justice and the law, and a shared moral code – and a culture based on an any-deceit-that-works-at-the-moment, authoritarian-whim-based, emotion-driven culture.
The United States – and, therefore, the world – are at an inflection point, the consequences of which are grave.
It’s frighteningly unclear which direction we’ll choose.
Warning: unless Trump and Trump-supported cabinet members are charged with their crimes against the US Constitution and US law, the second choice will triumph, whether expressly chosen or not.
Sobering, no?

***

The Lincoln Project looks on the bright side:

It took all of us.
Just 72 days remain in Donald Trump’s first, and only, term as president.
While Trump Republicans continue to kick, scream, and cry fraud without evidence, the real world is moving on and looking forward to the next administration, and the next chapter in America’s story.
World leaders were quick to congratulate President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris, as were the likes of President George W. Bush, Senator Mitt Romney, and a handful of other Republicans who aren’t willing to deface our free and fair elections for political points.
We, the People, have spoken.
A truly American coalition of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans delivered Joe Biden the largest victory in American history, with 75 million votes for the Biden-Harris ticket—and counting.
However, as we saw play out last week, the margins in several key states were narrow—meaning it took every single voter within this coalition to deliver this result.
This win belongs to all of us, including you.
Donald Trump is the first-ever president to be impeached, lose the popular vote twice, and lose re-election. A trifecta of failure fit for the most un-American president in our history.
Looking ahead, our work is far from over.
Over 71 million Americans voted to keep Trump in power, to continue on our path of destruction and chaos, and ultimately, for an illiberal takeover of our democracy.
Luckily, there are more of us than there are of them.
With several Trump enablers remaining in office, control of the Senate could be in the hands of Georgia. Senators Perdue and Loeffler must once again face voters for a runoff on January 5 in the ultimate test of their loyalty: America, or Trump?

Healthy futures, anyone?

Covid recovery plans threaten global climate hopes as countries pour money into fossil fuels to fight recession 

In at least 18 of the world’s biggest economies, more than six months on from the first wave of lockdowns in the early spring, pandemic rescue packages are dominated by spending that has a harmful environmental impact, such as bailouts for oil or new high-carbon infrastructure, outweighing the positive climate benefits of any green spending, according to the analysis. Only four countries – France, Spain, the UK and Germany – and the EU have packages that will produce a net environmental benefit.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Pandemic fatigue, coupled with California homesickness, has kicked in BIG TIME for me.
South Africa has a term for how I address these feelings: vasbyt
Vasbyt is advice from then-conscripted SADF recruits who served compulsory military service, from 9 months to 2 years.
The Afrikaans term means, literally, bite down; figuratively it means “keep a stiff upper lip,” or “grin and bear it.”
I’ll try….