Virus mass distribution

For a Trump official, US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s slip of the tongue  during a telephone interview was uncharacteristically honest: “We’re working on mass distribution of the virus.”
Likely his goal was spinning reality and saying, “mass distribution of a vaccine.” 

Shakespeare said it first: “the truth will out.” 

Will Trump say to Mnuchin what Trump's famous for? "You're fired!" 

News blues…

Another horrific milestone in a month full of devastating Covid-19 records in the country. November already accounts for almost a quarter of all Covid-19 cases and 9% of deaths.  The number of US coronavirus cases surpassed 12 million Saturday - an increase of more than 1 million cases in less than a week. The number of US coronavirus cases surpassed 12 million Saturday -- an increase of more than 1 million cases in less than a week.
South Dakota is the state with highest rates of Covid in the country, replete with residents and a governor who refuse to pay attention to safety…   (4:11 mins) 

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Hunger for Thanksgiving? Los Angeles California in dire straits ….  (2:50 mins)

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SA records 86 new Covid-19 deaths as cases climb to 765,409 

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President Cyril Ramaphosa has pleaded with G20 Leaders to ensure all countries have access to the COVID-19 vaccine once it is available, saying the global recovery needs to be inclusive.  
"An immediate task is to ensure that there is equitable and affordable access for all countries to the COVID-19 vaccine once it is developed.

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Healthy planet, anyone?

Mission Blue  is a not-for-profit organization geared “to inspire action to explore and protect oceans and to unite a global coalition for an upwelling of public awareness, access and support for a worldwide network of marine protected areas termed Hope Spots.” 

Cape RADD (Research and Diver Development) became the newly-appointed Champions of the False Bay Hope Spot. Run by a small team of passionate marine biologists and conservationists, Cape RADD serves as a platform for researchers in the False Bay area of Cape Town, South Africa.
Cape RADD’s team of scientists aim to better understand the underwater world by using a variety of sampling techniques including transects, quadrats, remote underwater video and mark-recapture to monitor long-term changes to biodiversity in the area. They conduct a number of research projects including kelp forest grazer density and distribution, fish and shark population estimates, microplastic pollution, and more.   Learn more >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I am rediscovering my groove after despondency, fear, anxiety dogged my last ten days. Somehow, resilience won out. I’m back in action.

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Today, I bid farewell to the elderly concrete mixer that gifted me 5 bags full of compost. The last batch surprised: the raw material was damp after sitting in the mixer during two thunderstorms. Instead of producing drier, spreadable compost, it produced dozens of compost balls in a variety of sizes: ping pong ball, tennis ball, baseball, even a pair of semi-deflated-footballs. Not perfectly round, but off-center, the collection of balls resemble animal dung ranging in animals the size of cane rat to rhinoceros. Gardening. Gotta love it: never a dull moment.
My waders got a workout, too. Geared up - waders, gloves, sunhat with pert guinea fowl feather, and slathered in sunscreen - I entered the rain-swollen pond to weed out excess pond lilies and freshwater grasses. I recycled this vegetation by forming a new footpath through the far reaches of the garden.
The plum tree is prolific this year, with dozens of slowly ripening fruit. Naturally, this indicates dozens of future visits by the neighborhood’s monkey troop. Already the troop, numbering more than 50 fearless individuals, including this year’s crop of youngsters, enter the garden at will, pull up potatoes, root through zucchini plants, and enjoy mulberries and bird seed.
I predict too much monkey business….

Turkey pardons…

Next Thursday is Thanksgiving Day in the US, followed by Black Friday – aka the day to dash out and holiday shop ’til you drop…. 

US tradition has it that, on or slightly before Thanksgiving Day, the president “pardons” two turkeys from being slaughtered and consumed as the main attraction at the holiday repast. 

The pardonees go on to enjoy the rest of their life, threat-free, at Virginia Tech’s “Gobbler’s Rest” enclosure.
Hmmm, I look forward to the current hard-to-dislodge president 1) pardoning himself as this year’s turkey, and 2) the cornucopia of Trump-as-turkey-of-the-year themed cartoons…

Let the games begin – people need a good laugh during these dire times.

News blues…

With more than 3,000 new Covid cases over 24 hours, South Africa’s health minister is “very concerned” about the rise in infections, particularly in Eastern Cape …  (9:15 mins)

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El Paso, Texas desperately needs Morgue Attendants at the county medical examiner’s office as Covid fatalities continue to rise. The work notice states:

“Morgue Attendants will be provided maximum PPE [personal protective equipment] and will receive a COVID test prior to starting. All Morgue Attendants will be tasked with physically moving Decedents… Not only is this assignment physically taxing, but it may be emotionally taxing as well.”
The request comes as the county has resorted to using low-level offenders from the county jail to help transport the deceased. Their work will continue until there are enough new hires, County Judge Ricardo Samaniego said. “Not everybody is going to be able to do [the job]. We’ve had people there that have lasted an hour, 30 minutes, half a day…it’s a difficult process.”

Cry the beloved country.
Who’d a thunk?
Many immigrants may share my experience of ambivalence towards an adopted country. In my case, I went from adventurous country kid living in rural Valley of a Thousand Hills, KZN to life in a small city apartment within California’s 7-million-people-strong conurbation of San Francisco Bay Area. That massive emotional and psychological adjustment took two decades.
Today, locked down in a small village in KZN, 14,000 miles from San Francisco, I watch the unfolding tragedy in my adopted country… and cry.
How could such mismanagement of a deadly pandemic have happened in the United States of America?
Then I remember, ah, yes, Trump. A son of the soil… 

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I seldom watch news anchor Rachel Maddow’s show (too long winded). Recently, however, I stumbled upon a You Tube clip she’d made during an enforced quarantine. Thankfully negative for Covid 19, her brief appearance was brave, clear, and very touching. Her message? Do everything you can to avoid Covid-19 – it can kill those you love… (8:15 mins)

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The Lincoln Project: Michigan  (1:40 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Months ago, I made an offer to purchase a small, safe, secure, relatively inexpensive (in comparison to California’s prices) apartment in the village of Howick. The purchase was accepted and we began the very long process of transferring my funds from the US to seal the deal.
I worked with the conveyancing company selected by the seller’s representative.
FYI: Google explains that a “conveyancer is a licensed professional/attorney who provides advice and information with regards to the transfer of property ownership, as well as assisting buyers and sellers through the selling process.”
Alas, “assisting buyers and sellers through the selling process” is not how these conveyancing attorneys see their role.
Yesterday, after weeks of a very delayed timeline and regularly urging the conveyancing office assistant to attend to details of the very delayed timeline that costs me a pile of extra money – I met with a conveyancing professional.
My complaint? Their admin dropped the ball, made egregious errors on paperwork geared to transfer US dollars – and continues to cost me thousands of dollars more than budgeted.
Naturally, the conveyancing office practices CYA (cover your ass). They’re attempting to shift blame entirely upon my shoulders when dated documents clearly indicate the core of the problem: tardiness emanating from their office.
Moreover, I learned their office was operating on a halftime schedule due to Covid. No adjustment had been made, however, to address the staff’s ongoing fulltime workload – other than, “oh, well…” 

The turkeys seek a pardon…

Giving new meaning…

Trump as African dictator
(c) Trevor Noah  

Giving new, broader, and inclusive meaning to Donald Trump’s assertions about “sh**hole” countries, greed and corruption, in America millions of dollars have been stolen from the pandemic-related PPP – the US Payroll Protection Program 

Donald Trump brought his history of and reputation for shoddy business behavior with him into the White House:

• Whenever Trump has been in positions of power or authority, he has demonstrated a pattern of trying to enrich himself by abusing the trust others have placed in him — whether it’s creditors, contractors, charitable givers, Trump University students, regulators, or campaign donors  .
• Trump’s business failures are very real .

A simple Internet search will reveal far more of The Donald’s shady business history. It wasn’t like We the People were not warned. Way back in the misty past of 2016, South African Trevor Noah was spot on with his assessment of Trump: How South Africa Could Prepare the U.S. for President Trump…  (11:49 mins)

News blues…

The Super Spreader in Chief:

• White House Plans In-Person Holiday Parties As COVID-19 Cases Rise 
• Over 900 Midwest Mayo Clinic Staff Diagnosed With Coronavirus In Last 2 Weeks  
• Trump Takes Credit For Vaccines, Remains Silent On 250,000 COVID-19 Deaths 

And, to ensure he kills more of us with inaction on Covid-19, the Super Spreader in Chief continues to fighter election reality: Trump Summons Mich. GOP Leaders To Special Meeting At White House 

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The Lincoln Project: Leaders (0:55 mins)
And, an email from The Lincoln Project on not-leaders:

Our nation's institutions, and our vigilance and resolve, are being tested at this hour.
Trump and his entourage of grifters and sycophants continue to challenge the legitimacy of our nation's free and fair elections, despite a complete lack of any evidence of fraud.
And, despite the Trump team's incompetence, the damage they are inflicting on our democracy is very real.
The reality is that Joe Biden won handily, and will become the 46th President of the United States on January 20. That has not stopped Trump from sowing chaos, confusion, and doubt to sabotage the president-elect and further divide our nation on his way out.
Trump has summoned members of the Michigan GOP in a bid to continue his charade, with two legislative leaders confirmed traveling to meet with the president:

Lee Chatfield
Michigan Speaker of the House
LeeChatfield@house.mi.gov
Office #: (517) 373-2629 

Mike Shirkey

Michigan Senate Majority Leader

SenMShirkey@senate.michigan.gov

Office #: (517) 373-5932

Michigan’s Senate Majority Leader, Mike Shirkey, and Speaker of the House, Lee Chatfield, are meeting with Trump to continue denying Joe Biden the electoral votes he’s won.
Contact them now to demand that the results of the election—and the will of Michigan voters—are upheld.
We must stay focused, stay vigilant, and stay confident. Our system is holding firm. Joe Biden is our duly elected president-elect, and he will take the office on January 20.

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Healthy futures, anyone?

Poet Robert Frost wrote, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall”
…Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense….

What would Frost write about the US/Mexico border wall?

In the 1980s, when Kevin Dahl first began visiting the Organ Pipe Cactus national monument in southern Arizona, the border was unmarked, save for a simple fence used to keep cattle from a ranch in the US from crossing into Mexico. In those days, park rangers would call in their lunch orders at a diner located just across the border.
Since then, a 30ft steel bollard wall has replaced the old barbed wire fence at Organ Pipe. The towering steel barrier cuts through the Unesco reserve like a rust-colored suture.
“It’s this incredible scar,” said Kevin Dahl, a senior program manager at the National Parks Conservation Association, describing the wall that snakes its way through a pristine track of Sonoran desert, dwarfing the giant cacti that give this desert its name. “What was once a connected landscape is now a dissected one.”
That dissection is now a reality across much of the US border. It is a landscape increasingly defined by walls, roads, fences and associated border infrastructure that is fragmenting critically protected habitats, desecrating sacred cultural sites and threatening numerous endangered species in some of the most biodiverse and unique places in North America. 

Read 'An incredible scar': the harsh toll of Trump's 400-mile wall through national parks 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The saga of what can go wrong, will go wrong – amid a pandemic, to boot. This morning, I head to meet with a set of lawyers who’d like nothing more than have me stop kvetching at them and just disappear already. Their inefficiency has cost what to me is a lot of money – and I’m fighting back. More about it tomorrow…. My challenge? Emotionality. My friend, himself a (public interest) lawyer, shared a lawyer’s motto: Don’t let your feelings become an enemy of your wallet.
Excellent advice for today.

Normalizing

It's that increasingly dreaded end-of week reviewing of numbers and facing Covid’s devastation on our planet:
Worldwide (Map) 
November 19 – 56,188,000 confirmed infections; 1,348,600 deaths
October 22 – 41,150,000 confirmed infections; 1,130.410 deaths

US (Map)  
November 19 – 11,525,600 confirmed infections; 250,485 deaths
October 22 – 8,333,595 confirmed infections; 222,100 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal)  
November 19 – 757,145 confirmed infections; 20,556 deaths
October 22 – 708,360 confirmed infections; 18,750 deaths

News blues…

While the particulars change day-by-day, each day seems to offer a rehasd  of yesterday’s news:

• Covid-19 wreaks havoc around the world, and particularly in the US (“North Dakota COVID Mortality Rate Highest in the World, With 1 in Every 1,000 Residents Dead”).
• Donald Trump wreaks havoc to the rule of law and highlights the weakness at the heart of a democratic republic that espouses “the rule of law .” 
• Climate change, unacknowledged, wreaks havoc on the environment .
• Honest, coherent, forward-looking leadership remains absent. 

I got the blues as the US normalizes havoc!

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In South Africa, Covid-19 cases jump by 2,888 in a day  

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Healthy futures, anyone?

Dr Maria Neira, WHO Director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health:

Every day we depend on biodiversity (the sheer variety of life found on Earth) to keep us alive and healthy. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the foods we eat and the medications we take are all by-products of a healthy planet. Read more  >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The rainy season arrives with drama and fanfare: hail stones, the size of tennis balls, fell in Pietermaritzburg yesterday . Here, a 15-minute drive away, hail stones were of inferior size, mere marbles. 

Hooray for inferiority!