Thursday, April 30, 2020

No ‘net, no posts

Catching up on late post for Wednesday April 29
My mother’s house nestles in a shallow valley with lush trees and undergrowth. It’s lovely but it offer lousy Internet and wi-fi connectivity.
My first visit here – 2014 – was maddeningly frustrating. It reminded me of the early days of the Internet - before many of us had been spoiled by technology! 
I’d hoped connectivity would improve over the following year. Instead, a visiting ISP technician explained that the “height of the trees blocked the signal.” 
I took to visiting a local café where I confined my Internet use to an hour a day. 
Competition between businesses to provide customer service isn’t much of a thing here, at least in this part of the province. Apparently, neighborhoods are divided into sectors with one ISPs “owning” the right to provide services to all residences in that sector. Residents are hostages to the efficiency and professionalism of their neighborhood’s ISP. 
After three years I found an ISP that provides most of my needs. Until recently, I paid for 20G per month but used far less. Pandemic anxiety switched that around and, these days, I regularly run out of bandwidth! I “topped up” another 10G mid-month, then used that up by 27 May. I had two options: 1) pay for another 10G (for the remaining two days of the month), or 2) wait until 1 May.  
I opted to wait. 
Internet withdrawal is nasty!  
Imagine being stranded on a tiny desert island with an active and curious brain, no access to online library e-books, no cellphone, and no intelligent friends. 
Add pandemic lockdown anxiety, only Clorox at hand, Donald J Trump making decisions – and you get an inkling of my Internet withdrawal! 

Thoughts on pandemic 

Much news these days about stir-crazy people contravening stay-at-home/shelter-in-place orders. Unless one is directly impacted, it’s easy to assume the pandemic is relatively under control. 
A trip outside quickly shows pandemic anxiety is alive and well, and that nothing virus-related is under control. 
A week since my last foray into town, this week I planned a trip to: fill my mom’s monthly pharmacy scrip; convince the vet to sell meds for my mom’s dog’s skin irritation without bringing the dog in for examination; purchase hardware store items; purchase a new tire (tyre in SA) for my mother’s car; find a technician willing to troubleshoot my mother’s Telkom wireless landline phone. (She’s been incommunicado for 3 weeks.) Plus, a big ask of local police: permission for the gardener to return to work at least one day a week. 
I phoned some places before I set off. 
A clerk at the hardware store answered – good sign: the store was open – and he explained that only essential businesses – plumbers, electricians, etc., – could purchase. He added stores would be fined up ZAR30,000 (US$1,700) for contravening this rule. 
Since I had him on the line, I asked if he knew whether the local tire repair shop was open. (Front passenger tire has slow leak that I’ve had repaired three times in the last three years. Time for a new one.) Alas, only emergency tire repair service is available.) 
Backstory: My mom has been advised not to drive but…stubborn … she drives when she decides a dog needs veterinary care. Scary truth: when I’m not here, my mother is the only person in the house who can drive. (This is one feature of my mother’s puzzling decision not only not to downsize for retirement, but to burden herself, her family, and her domestic workers with a large house and garden, too many dogs, etc.) 
My first week back this year, I drove my mother, one domestic worker and an assortment of dogs to the vet four times – for minor issues such as skin irritation. 
Following that, I drove my mother and a domestic worker to the vet to euthanize two elderly and ill dogs, 2) drove solo to pick up two fancy urns with dog cremains, 3) drove solo again to pick up two fancy urns with dog cremains that hadn’t arrived according to the first schedule. 
When it comes to dogs and vets, I thank the gods for lockdown! 
***
I’m delighted by simply wiping the dust off my vehicle, strapping on the seatbelt, and exiting the security gate.
I’m thrilled with having a valid reason to experience life outside the security fence. 
Potholes, once objects of frustration and derision, now warm my heart – like running into a long-lost friend. 
Full parking lots at mini malls present an opportunity to ponder human behavior. Are those shoppers really shopping? Or are they enjoying liberation? Maybe I should escape more often?

At the vet's clinic, I bought two bottles of dog skin irritation muti (Zulu word for medicinal concoctions cooked up by songoma/ "witchdoctors”). 
While we waited for the vet to agree to dispense meds without seeing the actual dog, the receptionist and I agreed that, yes, indeed, people locked down in houses have unrealistic views of what’s going on “out there” until they visit “out there”. 
Lockdown underplays the potential threat from coronavirus. We agreed that the elderly and frail seem least willing/able to grasp the concept of lockdown. 
By the way, I noticed the skin muti cost about the same as “the kit” of injector pens for whose purchase I’d felt soundly berated. 

My quest to ask police permission for the gardener to travel failed utterly. 
I handed over the letter describing our household’s need for a strong male to perform certain tasks for a frail 87-year-old. 
The officer’s refusal wasn’t adamant. Rather, she looked at me as if I’d asked her to become president of the United States: bemused. 
(After I returned home, I contacted the neighbor who’d described another frail 87-year-old’s success requesting the same of the police. I learned that after police received that woman’s letter, they visited her home to confirm her need. Hmmm, I doubt police visiting here would result in permission.) 

My visit to the police station had an unexpected bright side. Angels’ Care, a center that feeds and supports underprivileged children, is located right across the street. 
Last week, I’d tried, unsuccessfully, to donate funds online to Angels’ Care. Seeing the facility right there felt like divine intervention. I dropped by, explained my online experience, and the office admins cleared a path to successful donation. 
***

Meanwhile, back at the ranch… 

Humans who live in the cushy west routinely discard items that could easily be reused/  recycled/ composted. 
I grew up on rural KZN before the widespread use and abuse of plastic, before municipal services, at a time when precious water was pumped from a stream and stored in tanks; when septic tanks were common; when food waste was fed to pigs or composted; when only refuse that couldn’t be recycle was burned in burn pits. 
I’m grateful for running water, electricity (unless Eskom is load-shedding!), and flushing toilets - although my houseboat hosts a composting toilet. 
Convinced the contemporary world is wasteful, I try to conserve. I carry my own shopping bags and complain to grocery store managers about frivolous use of plastic containers. 
Do I sound like a stuffy ideological puritan? 
I’m not but I try to act on my belief that mindless cycles of consumption and dumping threatens people and planet. 
My latest pro-compost action? 
Recycling that soft pond weed (I’ve described in earlier posts) and making a footpath through long grass. 

Swamp cypress - click to enlarge
Background: Swamp cypress grow in wetlands and send up aerial roots that act as secondary lungs when the area is flooded. Grass and weeds also grow think and fast under these beautiful trees. The combination of lush grass, weeds, and aerial roots create tripping hazards. Bushwhacking the area is difficult but not impossible – at least for the gardener. The bushwacker contraption is too heavy for me. To cope while he’s away, I laid a footpath made of pond weed and clumps of invasive waterlilies.  
***
First thing in the morning, after I step outside, I check my gumboots for spiders before pulling them on, strap on my camera, and call the dogs for a walk around the garden. 
Two of seven dogs accompany me (the rest hunker on beds under blankets). I carry a big stick while walking and wave it in front of me as I apologize to spiders for breaking the webs they spun overnight. 
This wards off spider bites and furthers my reputation as Neighborhood Crazy Lady. 
Pond weed path.




Monday, April 27, 2020

Free Freedom?

Ten facts about Freedom Day
Yesterday, Monday April 27, was Freedom Day in South Africa.
Under normal conditions, Freedom Day is a public holiday to celebrate and commemorate the first post-apartheid elections held on April 27, 1994.
Freedom Day during Level 5 Lockdown seems like an oxymoron.

Perhaps it’s the public holiday…or Midlands weather – cold and wet – or the Lockdown Blues… or Trump Fatigue…or that we've blown passed 3 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 - one third of which are in the US ....that makes today’s post shorter than usual.

Before closing, this US state-by-state guideline may help you plan your day.

Regarding my homestate of California, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state is not prepared "to open up large sectors of our society" but made the first modification to the state's stay-at-home order with the resumption of "essential" surgeries.
“Tumors, heart valves, the need for people to get the kind of care they deserve," Newsom said. "If it’s delayed, it becomes acute. This fundamentally is a health issue.
The guidelines became effective immediately.
Meanwhile, San Diego announced April 24 that beaches could reopen for various forms of exercise beginning at sunrise on April 27. Boardwalks, piers, and parking lots remained closed; gatherings were still banned and beachgoers should maintain social distancing and wear a face covering, the city said.
You go, Gav!

On a bright note

Glow-the-dark/bioluminescence of swimming dolphins…

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Cold, wet, rain… forecast is the same for tomorrow.
Perfect for plants, fine for fish, dismal for dogs, and lousy for lockdownees….


Read Week 1  | Week 2 Week 3 | Week 4  |  Week 5






“Not worth the time and effort”

World: 2,971,669 confirmed cases; 206,542 deaths
US: 965,910 confirmed cases; 55,000 deaths 
SA: 4,546 confirmed cases; 88 deaths
BBC News
Click to enlarge 

Favorable front page news coverage and high ratings have been The Donald’s obsession for decades.
Massaging tabloid coverage of his shenanigans with women, business dealings, and lifestyle - along with his “reality” show "The Apprentice" - likely contributed to his election. 
A first-class narcissist, he adores coverage.
His disastrous comments on injecting disinfectant into the human body, however, may be his Waterloo.
Then again, this is Trump. Who knows what else his “very, large brain” cooks up before the election?

Click to enlarge

These days, even his handlers urge him away from the podium.
They fail, however, to confiscate his cell phone.

Over the weekend he went on a Tweet tirade
  … against the media Sunday, slamming a days-old story about his lax work habits and even bashing his usual favorite Fox News, calling for an “alternative.” 
Trump also called on reporters who wrote about Russia’s interference in the U.S. presidential election to return their “Noble” prizes. There are no Noble prizes for reported stories, nor are there Nobel Prizes. There are Pulitzer Prizes for journalism; there is a Nobel Prize for literature. That particular three-tweet rant about Noble prizes subsequently vanished. ... 
Hours later, Trump called his comments “sarcasm” — insisting he meant to say “Noble” prizes all along (even though he had earlier called on the “Noble Committee” to rescind the awards). 
Trump’s 10-tweet media attack (as of Sunday evening) first scorched The New York Times for what he called its “phony story” Thursday reporting that he often doesn’t arrive in the Oval Office until noon after spending the morning watching TV news — and enjoys eating Diet Coke and French fries. 
He called himself the “hardest-working president in history,” who hasn’t left the White House in “many months,” apparently forgetting a campaign rally just last month.  

One can almost feel sorry for a narcissist of his caliber to fail this spectacularly while the entire world watches. 

Back on Day 27, April 22, after his former friend Piers Morgan critiqued Trump’s (and Boris Johnson’s) woeful leadership in a time of crisis, I predicted “Piers Morgan can bid goodbye to that friendship.” 
Three days later, Donald Trump ‘unfollowed’ Piers Morgan on Twitter

Simultaneously, The Lincoln Project, and Republicans for the Rule of Law (prominent Republican groups) regularly release ad spots condemning the president, members of his administration, and other prominent Republicans

The next six months will be fascinating - if we survive Covid-19 pandemic. 
Trump won’t be physically removed from office – “Not worth the time and effort.”
His coterie of thugs, yes men, and Republican toadies, if wise, would limit his public announcements (including Tweets). 
After all, with Trump at the helm, they’ve succeeded in shrinking government – a decades-long goal. All that’s left is to drown it in the bathtub. That, they may accomplish before the election.
That’s terrible for the world, but powerful Republicans daily display how little “the world” matters to them. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch… 

Cold and wet enough today to pull my winter faux-sheepskin jacket from storage. While temps drop in SA (F: 61/53; C:15/12) spring gears up in California (F: 85/55; C29/18). 
Alas, with no camera at hand, I missed shooting a red-chested cuckoo with its distinctive call: “Piet-my-vrou”.  (Listen to its call) Onomatopoeia anyone? Incidentally, Piet-my-vrou is the bird’s Afrikaans name. 
No recent goldfish sightings – but now I know they’re there….

Saturday, April 25, 2020

"Out, Damned Spot!"

What'll he push next?
Don't hurry him -
 he could get it right
(...Nah! Unlikely)
(Click to enlarge)
“Out, damned spot,” says Lady Macbeth as she washes invisible blood from her hands. “Out, I say! - One: two: why, then, 'tis time to do't. Hell is murky! ...afeared? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?”

In this scene, Shakespeare communicates Lady Macbeth’s internal attitude to her despicable actions brought on by overweening ambition. And to abuse of power by the powerful.

Lady Macbeth’s conscience still flickered.
Click to enlarge.

The Donald’s? Not so much.
He wallows in abusing his power . Moreover, he proudly tells the world that his decisions come from his “gut” and his “very, very large brain.”

Do you see either gut or large brain at work in this clip of Trump promoting the injection of disinfectant into the human body?

The clip shows me a desperately deluded individual aiming to go down in history as The Guy with the Definitive Cure.
As this gaff becomes a universal meme, The Donald is back-pedaling, claiming, “It was sarcasm.” (Sheesh, can’t you take a joke?)
Sarcasm?
During a pandemic that has, to date, killed upward of 50,000 Americans?

Astoundingly, some diehard Trumpies believe him.
Kudos to the 100+ Maryland residents who’d like to believe him but decided to ask actual experts before following the deadly advice.

Of the “big problem” in Trump’s response, former Trump officials say:
…he is not relying much on data  but instead is using what he’s previously called “his very, very large brain.” At a briefing in mid-April, he pointed to his head when asked the metrics he would use to decide when to reopen the economy. 
… Asked whether Trump is a different person because of the virus, Anthony Scaramucci, Trump’s short-lived communications director, said: “No way. This guy hasn’t changed one iota.” [He added] “There’s only one thing that he’s concerned about and you know what that is? It’s TRUMP,” … spelling out the letters for effect. “When he does a news search,... [he] doesn’t search ‘USA,’ he searches ‘TRUMP.”
The Mooch got that right.

Then there are the pesky Americans (gotta be Democrats and socialists) who left a pile of newspaper-stuffed body bags outside Trump’s D.C. hotel.
Their message? “Most of the country believes in science….”
***

Listening pleasure

Click to enlarge
Music soothes ... and, during a pandemic, can lighten the load. The firefighter (left) gets it. He's playing his trumpet to lighten the load for residents locked down in Quito, Ecuador. Enjoy these, too:


Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Click to enlarge

Detergent suds in the stream appear in the garden pond a few times a month.

Someone in the ‘hood is doing what residents near Howick Falls do: use public waterways to wash laundry.

***

I’ve tried, unsuccessfully, to photograph a pair of long tailed birds flying into a yellowwood tree in the garden. They could be widowbirds, shown left. 

I’m almost certain they’re not pin-tailed whydah.
The whydah is a handsome bird – at least with his seasonal breeding plumage, as shown below.

The seasonal appearance of his tail must boost his confidence because, during this time, he chases, pecks, and bullies his feathered colleagues.

After his tail feathers drop off, he turns back into a small black and white bird… and the bully becomes the bullied.





Read Week 1  | Week 2 Week 3 | Week 4  |  Week 5

See photos Spying on Garden Creatures 
Watch Videos of Garden Creatures








Friday, April 24, 2020

Meaty Issues

(c) Progressive Charleston
click to enlarge.

China’s Calling

Trump might have small paws, but when it comes to grasping money, they reach around the world.
From possible money laundering  to loans coming due, life’s going to get interesting for the guy who too often gets away with bad chit!
Those of us who follow the prez, know he’s up to his orange hair in various money schemes.
Now We the People (at least, those of us who care) discover that Trump owes tens of millions to the Bank of China – and the loan is coming due:
In 2012, his real estate partner refinanced one of Trump’s most prized New York buildings for almost $1 billion. The debt includes $211 million from the state-owned Bank of China — its first loan of this kind in the U.S. — which matures in the middle of what could be Trump’s second term.
Second term? Nah, he’s not getting another shot at that, is he? The question is, how will he squirm out of this one? And, how deeply will he implicate all of us?

***

The meat of it

Increasing evidence suggests climate change, decreasing natural environments, and pandemics go hand in hand. Fossil fuels subsidies are in the mix, too. So are your individual actions....

Usually not a head-in-sand kind of person, I admit existential pain kept me from looking too closely at the toll of ongoing poaching, hunting, and trafficking of wild animal and the devastation of our communal oceans.
Last week I joined the Daily Maverick webinar, Earth Day: Nature and Societal Reset in the Age of Covid-19.  Presenter Linda Tucker clued me into what was happening with lion bones … and lions, and tigers, and bears….
It ain’t pretty.

Serendipitously, soon after the webinar, I received an email from Dear South Africa, a policy shaping outreach organization to which I subscribe.  Dear South Africa encourages citizen participation in governmental propositions. (If you are South African, sign up )
This time, it asked citizens: Do you support the draft amendment to the Meat Safety Act?
I read the information then, not one to hold back, I responded:
No, I do not support the draft amendment to the Meat Safety Act.
Never in my wildest nightmares did I consider humans to be as short-sighted, greedy, thuggish, and self-centered as this amendment shows them to be. Instead of domesticating and/or eating and/or otherwise consuming wild creatures, we humans should be doing our best to conserve them and the natural lands that SUPPORT THEM AND US IN THE LONG TERM. If its an issue of money, FAR MORE MONEY CAN BE MADE CONSERVING RATHER THAN KILLLING. Wake me up, someone. This nightmare must end!
You can get involved and share your view on the Meat Safety Act

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Next week, lockdown will ease from Level 5 to Level 4.
Who knows if easing will make much of a difference in the here and now. Long term, however, lockdown has gifted me with the time to truly notice the ongoing lives around me: birds, bugs, fish, fowl, primates, plants. I noticed and appreciated these lives before but this time around, the joy of just sitting, listening, and watching has been a luxury.

Pond Creature Takes a Breather
Click to enlarge
This frog (Common Striped River Frog?) popped out the pond and posed for me.
I titled it, "Pond Creature Takes a Breather."

Far away in Florida, endangered sea turtles agree that Covid-19 has an upside.
They're taking a breather, too.

Monkey dream
I dreamed an ill neighborhood monkey placed herself in my care.
I wrapped the wild creature in a blanket and felt her furry forehead for fever.
We stared into one another’s eyes...and we saw one another. Fellow creatures.

The dream ended there but the feelings evoked have not ended. I hope they don’t.
I’ve re-dedicated to following the knowledge with which I’ve been gifted. Oh, the existential pain will be there, but my personal pain is nothing compared to that foisted upon our living planet by thuggery, greed, and ignorance.


Read Week 1  | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4  |  Week 5

See photos Spying on Garden Creatures 
Watch Videos of Garden Creatures





Lockdown eased - slightly

(C) Taylor Jones
click to enlarge 

Review of numbers

Week 5 – Friday April 24
World confirmed cases: 2,709,408
US confirmed cases: 869,172
SA confirmed cases: 3,953

Week 1: Monday March 30
World confirmed cases: 735,560
US confirmed cases: 143,055
SA confirmed cases: 1,280

President Ramaphosa eases Lockdown – slightly

SA's strict national lockdown will be partially relaxed from next week Friday, 1 May.
Ramaphosa said SA would follow a risk-adjusted approach to the return of economic activity. The need to limit the spread of the coronavirus would be balanced with the need to get people back to work.
He said five different levels would determine the severity of the lockdown from May 1, with five being a hard lockdown and one being almost completely lifted. 
Summary of Levels 1 - 5

“COVID Toes”

Science and health professionals suggest coronavirus may have been present in communities long before first cases were diagnosed.
This stimulates apparently asymptomatic people in the “gen pop” to claim non-specific illnesses they suffered in September and October to have been Covid-19. (“Gen pop”: my lockdown appropriation of the prison term for “general population”)

Handy COVID Toes as clue:
Dermatologists say looking at a person’s feet may be a handy way of seeing if someone has the coronavirus.
Otherwise asymptomatic people are reporting the presence of painful purplish lesions on their toes.
“COVID toes” are “typically painful to touch and could have a hot burning sensation…. This is a manifestation that occurs early on in the disease, meaning you have this first, then you progress. Sometimes this might be your first clue that they have COVID when they don’t have any other symptoms.” For some people, “COVID toes” disappear without showing up with any other symptoms after a week or so, while others come down with serious respiratory problems.

Almost…

I almost pulled off a whole post without a stinging critique of The Donald. But… humor won out. Enjoy this video: Vote Him Away

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Lockdown has me talking to myself and to dogs.
“Jessica,” I told one dog late yesterday afternoon, “should I carry the camera?”
Jessica didn’t answer and, as I passed the study, I decided, “Nah, I’ve carried it around all day without much success….”
How wrong I was.
After 11 days with sighting nary a goldfish fin, I saw four healthy goldfish!
I dashed inside for the camera while assuming the fish would flee. Just in case, I grabbed the sack of fish food, too.
A thrill a minute: the fish were still visible!
Tossing fish food, I shot this short (unedited) video segment…

Hardly camera shy, the goldfish flitted back and forth, their bright colors flashing.
Perhaps, tomorrow when I try to cajole them out with more fish food, I’ll toss in several fish-sized water-camo colored cloaks, too.
Wearing water-camo cloaks over their gorgeous goldfish bodies and fins might disguise them from hungry kingfishers….


Read Week 1  | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4  |  Week 5

See photos: Spying on Garden Creatures 
Watch Videos of Garden Creatures




Thursday, April 23, 2020

“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











Read  Week 1  |  Week 2  |  Week 3  |  Week 4