Sunday, August 2, 2020

Testing... testing...

Four-plus months into Lockdown and six-plus months into what was planned as three months to oversee my mother’s affairs, I’m humming and oldie but goodie:
“On a Sunday morning sidewalk/wishing lord that I was stoned/for there’s something ‘bout a Sunday/makes a body feel alone…” (See below for more.)
And my tales of woe are just a microcosm.
The macrocosm? “Who the hell knows what’s going on? It’s just insanity.” 

News blues…

The federal government, under Trump’s direction, has botched testing.
…Experts are warning that the U.S. testing system is on the brink of collapse. “We are at a very bad moment here … We are about to lose visibility on this monster and it’s going to rampage through our whole country. This is a massive emergency.”
This must-read Vanity Fair article by Katherine Eban, “How Jared Kushner’s Secret Testing Plan Went Poof Into Thin Air”, lays a foundation to understand how We the People arrived at this tenuous place.  
***
Trump’s Tweet baselessly claims
mail-in voting is a vehicle for voter fraud.
Click to enlarge. 
"Why would Trump even suggest putting off the vote? Unless he plans to occupy the White House illegally, a postponed election wouldn’t keep him in office. In fact, it could well usher in an unelected President Joe Biden. That sounds strange, but it’s where the rules would take us if there were no election — if those rules were followed, which is a significant “if.” Here’s how it would work. 

Additionally, even Republican conservative legal expert and Federalist Society’s Steven Calabresi calls the president’s threats to delay the election “fascistic – and grounds for impeachment.” 
The influential conservative law professor supported President Donald Trump in 2016 and spoke out against his impeachment said the president’s latest tweet about delaying the election is grounds for his removal. Steven Calabresi wrote in his New York Times opinion article  that Trump “should be removed unless he relents” on his suggestion to delay the November election…. “Until recently, I had taken as political hyperbole the Democrats’ assertion that President Trump is a fascist,” Calabresi wrote. “But this latest tweet is fascistic and is itself grounds for the president’s immediate impeachment again by the House of Representatives and his removal from office by the Senate.”
Calabresi also called for any lawmakers who support Trump’s fight to delay the election to “never be elected to Congress again.”
***
 Tick tock on TikTok? - because “Sarah Cooper is being mean to me! I don’t like it when girls are mean to me!” Critics [including this one are] convinced Trump wants TikTok banned because Sarah Cooper is driving him (even more) nuts. 

Healthy futures anyone?

Sunday timeout to appreciate wonderful creatures of our planet. They, we, the planet requires giant efforts to bring back a semblance of sustainable balance. Search for the community that is right for you and get to work…. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

“On a Sunday morning sidewalk/wishing lord that I was stoned/for there’s something ‘bout a Sunday/makes a body feel alone/and there’s nothing short of dying/half as lonesome as the sound/on the sleepy city sidewalk/Sunday morning coming down…”
On this Sunday morning, I’m aligned with Kris Kristofferson (remember him? An historical figure these days.) “Sunday morning coming down”  (4:30 mins – scroll to 1:40 for the refrain.) 

I’m out of my depth in the situation I find myself. Having no experience of a mothering mother, I’m at a loss trying to understand the person biologically my parent. All this is complicated by the huge changes she faces: advanced age and fragile physicality, the consequence of past decisions, living as a “boss” in the same life for 60 years, and never having to face the challenges and complexities of the “real” world. Plus, seven pampered dogs. Two resentful and frightened domestic workers who see the writing on the wall: their longtime “boss” cannot continue “as is” so they’ll be retired. 
They’ll retire with sufficient funds to ensure they do not have to work again, but change is frightening. 
Fear projects outward, onto an object. 
Too bad for me that, in the microcosm,  I’m the object.
Too bad for the planet that, in the macrocosm, We the People - and planet - are Trump's object.
Posted by at No comments:

Saturday, August 1, 2020

Seeing the light?

It’s taken a long time, but I knew, sooner or later, a majority of Americans would break through the fog of Trumpism. But, the toll, the toll…. 

News blues… 

Rats abandoning ship as Sen. Mitch McConnell suggests the Republican Senators… 
do whatever it takes to salvage their campaigns ahead of what could be a devastating election for the Republican party. McConnell has become so concerned over Republicans losing control of the Senate that he has signaled to vulnerable GOP senators in tough races that they could distance themselves from the President if they feel it is necessary…. [This] forces them to walk a tightrope. 
"These vulnerable senators can't afford to explicitly repudiate Trump," said one senior Republican on Capitol Hill. "They just need to show they are independent on issues important in their states." 
Trump’s Self-Inflicted Wound: Losing Swing Voters As He Plays to His Base  The president’s support among bedrock Republicans is almost certainly not enough to win him a second term in the White House, as even some G.O.P. leaders concede.
*** 
To poach, or not to poach? In May, news reported a …
wildlife catastrophe unfolding in Africa with closure of safari tourism (an industry worth almost $30 billion a year and employing almost four million people) due to the coronavirus pandemic, decimating the industry, and leading to an increase in poaching. Experts and rangers on the ground say they are seeing a surge in poaching as thousands of unemployed people dependent on the industry turn to wild animals for food. They also fear an upsurge in more organised poaching of endangered species. 
South Africa has for years battled a scourge of rhino poaching fueled by insatiable demand for their horns in Asia - China and Vietnam - where the horn is coveted as a traditional medicine, an aphrodisiac or a status symbol. 
During the first six months of the year, 166 rhino were poached in South Africa, compared with 316 in the first half of 2019. That’s a drop of 53 percent in the first six months of 2020 as restrictions and disruption to international flights hinder poachers.
I’m confused. Animals other than rhinos are still being poached? 

Healthy futures anyone?

Taken-for-granted items in your pantry: “The 'deadly food' we all eat” - BBC REEL  (3:25 mins) 
***
The Lincoln Project :
Wake up  (6 mins) 
We will vote  (1:00 min) 
A must see ad: Nationalist Geographic  (0:55 mins) 
Sarah Cooper: How to tick tock  (0:13 mins) 

 Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

 I was scheduled to return to California on May 21, but the pandemic and subsequent lockdown put an end to commercial flights. Overly bureaucratized repatriation flights were occasionally available, but high-tailing it out of SA and abandoning my fragile, 87-year-old mother didn’t feel like a viable option. Moreover, repat flight reservations and routes were confusing. If I could get to Johannesburg (required a permit for the 6-hour trip by car), a flight would dump me in, say Istanbul or Doha – cost in the vicinity of US$2,500.00 (ZAR41,250). I’d still have to find a flight to New York – then the world’s Covid-19 epicenter – or Chicago, followed by a domestic flight to San Francisco. 
I was smart to stay put. 
Today, travelers who opted for repat flights find themselves in a quandary: Americans stranded abroad as the coronavirus spread took a lifeline offered by the State Department: We'll fly you home, but you have to pay us back. 
… the main method of payment for State-chartered repatriation flights was promissory notes, without anything more than an estimate of how much it might cost. Most of the people repatriated, especially in the beginning of the department's efforts, were handed blank documents which they had to sign before they got on the plane, promising to pay back the government when billed. 
Some Americans had to use passports as collateral for loans — but months later, they're still waiting for a bill, so their passports are invalid. Others signed promissory notes agreeing to pay an eventual bill they're still waiting for, and dreading a price tag that for a family of four could weigh in at $10,000. 
Since the pandemic began, State has flown home about 100,000 U.S. citizens from nearly 150 countries, at a cost to the agency of $196 million, which it must collect from passengers. Of that sum, about $8 million comes from direct loans secured with a passport. 
Hmmm, sounds like health care in America. 
Health care has never been easily available or affordable in America. President Obama tried to address that. 
Along came Trump. In the middle of a pandemic, he has been battering at the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. 
Who does that? 
And why? 
My guess? 
Then president Obama – for years accused by then-birther Trump of not being eligible for the presidency as not born in America – made fun of notoriously thin-skinned The Donald at the White House Correspondents dinner back in 2011. 
This clip is a bit “inside the beltway” for non-Americans but worth watching: Barack Obama mocks Trump at the White House correspondents' dinner.  (3:57) 
Ah, the good ole days! I miss Obama. Smart. Funny. Intelligent. Elegant. Happily married family man.
Decent Americans are out there still, plenty of them/us. Step up, you guys. We the People need you!
Posted by at No comments:

Friday, July 31, 2020

“Not Trumpistan”

Déjà vu all over again: end of the month and end on the week without internet.
After full-throated moaning about being hours behind the latest news, one accepts the temporary absence and finds something else to do. A refreshing break….
(c) Illustration by Victor Juhasz for Rolling Stone
 (c) Illustration by Victor Juhasz
for Rolling Stone
Click to enlarge

News blues…

Donald J Trump Tweets his idea of delaying the election: 
With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???
Masters of under-statement – and Trump allies - respond:
  • Lindsey Graham, "I don't think that's a particularly good idea."
  • Majority Whip Sen. John Thune: "I think that's probably a statement that gets some press attention, but I doubt it gets any serious traction.”
  • Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: "I think we've had elections every November since about 1788, and I expect that will be the case again this year," he said. 
  • Republican Sen. Thom Tillis: "The election is going to happen in November period."
  • Republican Sen. Ted Cruz:  "Election fraud is a serious problem we need to stop it and fight it, but no the election should not be delayed."
  • GOP Sen. Marco Rubio: "I wish he hadn't said that, but it's not going to change: We are going to have an election in November and people should have confidence in it."
  • Senate Finance Committee chairman Chuck Grassley: "All I can say is that, it doesn't matter what one individual in this country says. We still are a country based on the rule of law. And we must follow the law until either the Constitution is changed or until the law is changed."
  • Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming: "No, we're not going to delay the election… We're going to have the election completed and voting completed by Election Day."
  • GOP Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota: "Moving Election Day would seriously jeopardize the legitimacy of the election. Federal, state and local officials need to continue to work hard to ensure that Americans can vote safely whether by voting early or on November 3." 
Trying to change direction when he’s under fire is Trump’s go to MO (modus operandi). It’s worked well for him in the past, but there are signs the public – including Republicans – are onto his strategy. 
The Lincoln Project:
Memories 2  (0:57 mins) 
Meidas Touch:
Nobody likes Trump  (0:37 mins)

Healthy futures anyone?

An effort to educate and support peoples' effort toward sustainable living.
Terms and definitions: The Sustainable Development Index (SDI)
… measures the ecological efficiency of human development, recognizing that development must be achieved within planetary boundaries. It was created to update the Human Development Index (HDI) for the ecological realities of the Anthropocene. 
The SDI starts with each nation’s human development score (life expectancy, education and income) and divides it by their ecological overshoot: the extent to which consumption-based CO2 emissions and material footprint exceed per-capita shares of planetary boundaries. Countries that achieve relatively high human development while remaining within or near planetary boundaries rise to the top. 
See SDI results for 2015, the most recent year of complete data. While some countries score reasonably well, none reach over 0.9. South Africa is 57 on a list of 164 countries while US is 160.
Sustainable development goals – SDGs – also known as the Global Goals, 
…adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.
The 17 SDGs are integrated  — that is, recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability…. Everyone is needed to reach these ambitious targets. The creativity, knowhow, technology, and financial resources from all of society is necessary to achieve the SDGs in every context. 
Focus on Norway.  Norway ranks high on SDI in terms of global implementation of the SDGs. 
From the school curriculum to the initiatives for recycling and the cross-industry struggle to keep the air, the seas and nature as free from pollution as possible, every aspect of life is imbued with a need to go greener. 10 Ways Norway Is Contributing to an Environmentally Friendly Planet  

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

South Africans talk of “the CCMA” as the bugaboo of South African employers, particularly employers with long-term employees. Since one of my mother’s two long-term domestic workers is spreading false rumors that I am “going to throw her out of her job and into the street”, I researched CCMA. 
The website was no help in unpacking the acronym, but Google defined it as, “Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). 
CCMA is “a dispute resolution body established in terms of the Labour Relations Act, 66 of 1995 ….” 
If a dispute exists (none exists here, far as I’m concerned) dispute resolution is a good thing. Isn’t it? 
Apparently, CCMA has the reputation for bias – toward employees and against employers. 
I believe in fairness and recognition of all parties to obtain justice. 
Should be interesting as the saga continues….



Posted by at No comments:

Thursday, July 30, 2020

Another Thursday

No internet connection all day! 
On the one hand: Grrrr! No internet! 
On the other hand: Yay, no internet! No news on Trump craziness. No news on Covid-19 deaths and destruction. No news about our desperate planet and its desperate people. 
 Yet, the Covid news doesn’t end. Compare this week’s numbers with last week’s: 
July 30 – 17,096,000 worldwide: confirmed infections; 668,590 deaths 
     July 22 – 15,240,000 worldwide confirmed infections; 623,660 deaths 
July 30 - US: 4,451,000 confirmed infections; 151,270 deaths 
     July 22 - US: 3,971,000 confirmed infections; 143,200 deaths 
July 30 - SA: 471,125 confirmed infections; 7,498 deaths 
     July 22 - SA: 395,000 confirmed infections; 5,940 deaths

News blues…

With more than 3,000 Covid-19 infections each day since last weekend, KwaZulu-Natal is emerging as South Africa’s latest epicenter. 
Last Sunday, the number of cases in the province had risen to 60,532, with 3,405 new infections since the previous day. On Monday, the number of cases stood at 65,982, placing KwaZulu-Natal behind the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and the Western Cape in totals, but giving it the highest rate of increase in infections in the country. 
Today, KZN has 71,240 cases. 
***
Iceland has virtually beaten Covid-19 infections. 
The latest statistics show 1,823 recoveries of 1,861 cases with 10 deaths. Iceland never imposed a lockdown. Only a few types of businesses - night clubs and hair salons - were ordered closed. Hardly anyone in Reykjavík wears a mask. And yet, by mid-May…the tracing team had almost no one left to track. During the previous week, in all of Iceland, only two new coronavirus cases had been confirmed. 
(Consider: Katrín Jakobsdóttir is Iceland’s prime minister 
Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand's prime minister, announced stringent lockdown and quarantine measures and that country fares very well. 
A similarly positive pattern occurred in Denmark, Norway and Finland, all ruled by women, as opposed to Sweden, ruled by a man, where economic considerations trumped health concerns, and ultimately resulted in the highest death toll per capita in Europe. 
Not sexism. Just facts. 
***

Healthy futures anyone? 

Focus on Iceland. With low levels of air pollution, stunning green forests, excellent water quality, and effective environmental policies, Iceland is one of the most environmentally friendly countries on the planet. According to PR Newswire, 72 percent of the country’s total energy consumption comes from hydro and geothermal resources. Moreover, Iceland is still reaping the benefits of the Nature Conservation Act (1999), which protects the land from construction, deforestation, and other damage. 
When settled in the 9th century, Iceland had considerable forests which provided fuel for the population… and for the production of charcoal and, by extension, for iron working. Available] forests … almost disappeared in less than 400 years and, along with volcanic eruptions, climate changes, and wind erosion of grassland, caused serious desertification. Centuries of poverty followed when the population squeezed what we could out of peat and other low-grade combustibles. In other words, trees were harvested without foresight, not replaced, and the valuable forest asset was destroyed.
Around 1900, fossil fuels triggered a historical shift with the use of coal and oil in Iceland’s growing fishing fleet. This made possible trawler fishing and large-scale harvesting of productive fishing grounds. Fossil fuels also heated houses.
Fortunately, the country began harnessing hydropower resources to produce electricity to light streets. That worked until the 1970s, when oil prices dramatically climbed. The oil crisis forced Iceland to look at other energy sources. The success of a large project to produce electricity from geothermal steam has been followed by more technically advanced power plants.
Today, wind turbines, reclaimed forests, and hydropower and geothermal energy account for more than 99 per cent Iceland’s sustainable and clean electricity production.
On the other hand, World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), predicts the world is on the brink of reaching temperatures the Paris agreement had hoped to avoid. 
The study predicts that the global temperature is likely to be at least 1°C above pre-industrial levels in each of the coming five years. There is also a 20 percent chance that the Earth’s temperature will exceed 1.5°C in at least a year’s time. 
As the United States under Trump is set to pull out of the Paris accord (see yesterday’s post ) South Africa’s government hopes to
…cushion the blow of the Covid-19 economic crisis [with] a three-month delay in first carbon tax payments. The implementation of the carbon tax, aimed at penalising large emitters of greenhouse gasses, has since been concluded. On March 27, the day the lockdown kicked in, Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries … lowered minimum air pollution standards for sulphur dioxide to reduce emissions by 58 percent.
The move was a compromise, achieved after public consultation [and] took into account the financial situations of big polluters Eskom and Sasol, which were seen as unable to invest in infrastructure that would lower their emissions to standards called for by environmental organisations. Since the beginning of the pandemic, stimulus directed at South Africa’s fossil fuel producers exceeds stimulus directed at clean energy. 
***
 Daily Maverick webinar, “Dirty Tobacco: Spies, lies and mega-profits.” 
For decades, reputable tobacco companies have been complicit in cigarette smuggling. In a tell-all exposé, host Pauli van Wyk talks with Telita Snyckers, SARS insider [South African Revenue Service (US IRS)] about the illegal cigarette trade, why and how listed companies smuggle their own product, and other truths uncovered while writing her latest book, Dirty Tobacco. 
***
The Lincoln Project: Trump Stooge 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch… 

What would I do without online libraries? 
I subscribe to and download e-books from both Berkeley Public Library and San Francisco Public Library. Downloads allow me to read on my cell phone anytime I have Internet access (a bit tricky here). My regular sleep pattern includes awakening at 3:00 a.m. I’ve no heavy physical book or flashlight/torch to hold as I lie in bed and me. Just me, snug in my bed with my cell phone – happy as the proverbial clam. 
After years of reading hard-topic non-fiction, I returned to fiction to escape reality. Well, almost: I read current non-fiction online, as it becomes available. Recently I downloaded, and n the process of reading, the second edition of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 35 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President, edited by Bandy Lee, M.D., M. Div. 
It’s a disturbing read. 
I pause frequently and read fiction to regenerate my mental constitution before diving back into The Dangerous Case… 
For lovers of books and reading, online libraries are heaven sent. I’m an online library evangelist. Recently, as I purchased my usual weekly seed, nut, and whole grain loaf at the local bakery, I chatted with the store owner. He mentioned he’d not slept well and read a book in bed. 
Did he read e-books, I asked. 
He’d never heard of e-books. 
I grabbed my moment to proselytize and explained how e-books work: one signs up for library membership, logs onto the library website, finds e-books, audio, and video (a filter system allows easy perusal of catalogs) and either downloads or “holds” items. 
Most users process and track downloads through an Amazon account although I suspect there are alternatives to Amazon, too. 
I suggested the bakery owner approach the local library and inquire about their e-book offerings. Prior to finding a local Internet Services Provider, I frequented the local bricks-and-mortar library and used one of three computers there. Like most libraries, a user signs up for a computer and, once online, has 30 minutes of use, including accessing Internet. Not much time, but better than nothing.
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)