President Donald Trump Ignores

President Donald Trump Ignores

By George Smith — 12/19/2020

1) The sharply rising numbers of pandemic cases and deaths.

2) The disconcerting news about Russian hackers burrowing into various agencies’ computer systems and undermining the security of the nation.

3) The more than 50 courtroom losses on his claims that fraud cost him his re-election bid.

4) The outcry on his pardons and commutations of convictions and sentences of key allies, all of whom were convicted or pled guilty to federal crimes.

5) The directives of his own Center for Disease Control for minimizing COVID 19 effects and holding events that resulted in virus outbreaks.

6) Traditional preparations that signify the peaceful transfer of power in our democracy.

7) Shows no emotion in regard to the federal government acknowledging it still has more than 500 undocumented children separated from parents and has no idea where the parents are or how to reconnect family members.

8 ) How inappropriate his last-days-in-office actions are in regard to firing certain officials and replacing them with loyalists… to what end?

9) How history will view his erratic and toxic presidency, basking instead in the crazed loyalty of his base, a hodgepodge of white supremacy, neo-Nazi, militia and short-sighted fervent evangelistic conservative groups.

10) The basic reality of his situation: At noon, Jen. 20, 2020, Trump is no longer president. That is a reality he cannot seem to grasp.

See the pattern? If a situation does not fit into his picture-perfect mental image of what he WANTS his world to be, the “truth” does not exist.

Trump, and many of his Trumpuppets, are suffering from “delusional disorder”. It is a type of serious mental illness — called a “psychosis”— in which a person cannot tell what is real from what is imagined. The main feature of this disorder is the presence of delusions, which are unshakable beliefs in something untrue.

This is Donald Trump, the 2020 version. Those that pledge allegiance to him, to his delusional view of the state of the union and the world, are complicit in the actions which undermine the safety and security of this nation and the health of its citizens.

Step back. Take a breath. Look to the future. And kick the hurtful delusions of this president to the gutter where they belong.

It’s a new beginning. Embrace it and smile about future possibilities to return to the light provided by a free, empathetic and loving nation that promises freedom and opportunities for all who reside here.

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CULT, MUCH?

By George Smith — 12/18/2020

Are you a member of or have your ever been a member of a cult?

Cult — a misplaced or excessive “admiration for a particular person or thing.

A typical cult has a charismatic, unaccountable leader, persuades by coercion and exploits its members, economically, sexually or in some other way.

The word cult can be broadly defined as “formal religious veneration,” “a system of religious beliefs and its body of adherents,” “a religion regarded as ‘unorthodox or spurious,'” “great devotion to a person or idea” as well as “persons united by devotion or allegiance to an artistic or intellectual movement or figure.”

Think about it: These general definitions could potentially include everything from Barbie doll collectors to so-called “Trekkies” and die-hard Elvis fans.

According to a book (“Cult Formation”) by psychologist Dr. Robert Lifton on the “glue” that holds cult together, three factors must be present in destructive cults:

1. A charismatic leader, who increasingly becomes an object of worship as the general principles that may have originally sustained the group lose power. That is a living leader, who has no meaningful accountability and becomes the single most defining element of the group and its source of power and authority.

2. A process [of indoctrination or education is in use that can be seen as] coercive persuasion or thought reform [commonly called “brainwashing”]. The culmination of this process can be seen by members of the group often doing things that are not in their own best interest, but consistently in the best interest of the group and its leader.

3. Economic, sexual, and other exploitation of group members by the leader and the ruling coterie.

Liftin states, “The destructiveness of groups called cults varies by degree, from labour violations, child abuse, medical neglect to, in some extreme and isolated situations, calls for violence or mass suicide.

“Some groups that were once seen as “cults” have historically evolved to become generally regarded as religions. Power devolved from a single leader to a broader church government and such groups ceased to be seen as simply personality-driven and defined by a single individual.”

Tipton gives 10 warning signs of a potentially unsafe group or leader.

• Absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability.

• No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry.

• No meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget or expenses, such as an independently audited financial statement.

• Unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies and persecutions.

• There is no legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil.

• Former members often relate the same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances.

• There are records, books, news articles, or broadcast reports that document the abuses of the group/leader.

• Followers feel they can never be “good enough”.

• The group/leader is always right.

• The group/leader is the exclusive means of knowing “truth” or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is really acceptable or credible.

Now, take a deep breath. Are you or someone you know a member of a cult?

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Bottom-Feeders

By George Smith — 12/16/2020

There-is-no-“bottom”-for-bottom-feeders headline of the day:

“Tucker Carlson Calls Jill Biden ‘Illiterate,’ ‘Not Very Bright’ and Says She ‘Can’t Think Clearly’ as He Continues Mocking Her”

Dr. Jill Biden has a doctorate in education. Carlson has a bachelor’s in advanced pencil sharpening or history, I forget which. He was rejected for employment by the CIA and moved into print journalism. He used to work fur MSNBC but couldn’t cut it.

A hardline Trumpuppet, he gets pleasure out of verbally gutting those he thinks are elitists snobs. This from a man who father was richly-rich and owned homes in La Jolla, California., Nevada and owned several islands. One of Carlson’s schools was a prep school in Switzerland. The country.

Rave on, B.A. Boy! Go ahead and pick on the FLOTUS-in-waiting, who has four degrees, a bachelor’s, two master’s AND a doctorate. While she is putting her stamp on the White House role and history, you’ll still be a petulant brat with a degree from a college few people have ever heard of, located in a state few people have ever visited.

Boolah! Boolah!

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Gasbag Flameout

12/15/2020

Gasbag Flameout
how now orange cow . . .

There are a lot of reasons Donald John Trump slithered into the Oval Office forty-seven months ago. And a lot of reasons he’s headed for the door next month when Joseph Robinette Biden is sworn in. You didn’t know about the Robinette thing, did you? I’ll admit it doesn’t have the same mudslinging frisson as Hussein, but it’ll do.

Anything’ll do, really. It is instructive to remember most MAGAs (You shall know them by their red-stained pates.) did not blink when told, “Remember, what you’re seeing… is not what’s happening.” That sort of phrase perfectly encapsulates Trump’s world view. Although no coherent view of the world is possible for a solipsist. (Solipsism is like narcissism on acid. Not like hippie acid, like Alien blood acid.)

Mr. Trump’s followers don’t tend to have (nor care to possess) a reasonable, objective, defensible view of reality; many believe the earth is less than ten thousand years old. Once you’ve swallowed something like that it’s not much of a leap to the notion that 50% of Guatemalan five-year-olds belong to a South American gang. A gang they had to commit first degree murder to join. As has been tirelessly pointed out by the fake news media (and even several earnest members of the organization) MS-13 started in Los Angeles.

And anyway, everyone knows it’s really the Salvadorans you want to watch out for.

Trump will of course continue to operendi his modus; fleecing the faithful and avoiding the cross-bar motel. (A skill he taught to remarkably few of his lieutenants.) Defining those who voted for Trump as either idiots or deplorable is a mistake. What they actually are, is pissed. Perhaps a majority of them were born that way. That’s not going away when Trump carries Melania across the threshold at Cruella Castle in County Palm Beach.

When the scarlet-tops get wound up – they’re worse than a bunch of ACLU pointy-heads railing on the death penalty. Greenpeace will keep you from cutting down a tree by putting a spike in its trunk. The Proud Girls will simply shoot you in the head.

As Dick Nixon might have put it, “NOW, we’re getting somewhere!”

Except that we’re not. The party might continue, but the guy with all the coke and whores has split, Jack. Ever since the premier episode of “Who Wants to be POTUS?!” when Trump and the soft-core First Lady descended from the skies on Big Otis, the MAGAS have sent the ratings through the roof.

But look guys, the Network didn’t pick up the series for a fifth season. What can I say? Write your Congressman.

But wait, what’s that slick new reality show on Facebook and YouTube? Something about 18,000 socialist poll workers toppling a government. The first episode was free but if you want to see the more please go to www.trump.com/one-born-every-minute.html/

Have a valid credit card ready. I’m told the new series will be renewed every season, as long as the MAGAs continue to finance the shooting costs and producer’s override.

Not that anyone cares, but those who’ve worked in a U.S. polling place knows ‘stolen’ votes are as common as virgin births. But these are the same idiots that believe in the safety of 5G and think chemtrails are made of condensed water.

The lippy drunk at the end of the bar has finally gotten tossed out on his ass by an eighty million pound bouncer strapped with nuclear weapons. Will he get nabbed for P.I. as he stumbles out to the car, or maybe return with an AR to teach the bouncer a lesson he’ll never forget?

MAGAworld is certainly welcomed to keep buying tickets and staying tuned, but that big bouncer’s been working the door here for nearly 250 years and one’s kicked his ass yet.

If you don’t count Ho Chi Min.

Like any rapidly aging drunk with too much money, Trump’s next move is as unpredictable as it will be excruciating to witness. My best guess is that he’ll end up hawking stale launch codes and shooting scripts of the Zapruder film. That means either a long reservation at the Julian Assange suite in the Kremlin… or ending up as a door prize for some lucky MS-13 member at Leavenworth.

Whatever happens, there’s no way they’re ever letting him back into that bar.

One more thing …

Trump: ‘What You’re Seeing and What You’re Reading Is Not What’s Happening’

Click here to see the video

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To all supporters of Dr. Shaun Bobbi Kelehan of Marshall, Texas

To all supporters of Dr. Shaun Bobbi Kelehan of Marshall, Texas

By George Smith — 12/08/2020

I’ve never said this licensed physician was not a good doctor. I believe, know and have said he is a sexual predator, that he stepped over the strict boundaries of doctor-patient demeanor and took advantage of a male patient, a friend of mine, administered drugs to him and sexually assaulted him in 2017.

This is not a he-said, he-said situation. Kelehan admitted to administering drugs to knock his friend, his patient out, in order to have nonconsensual sexual contact with him on two occasions…one time in which Trey Wood of Marshall remembered and another time that Wood had no idea the sexual contact occurred.

Yes, Trey has issues, just as we all do. His faults are glaring, humongous even. An addict and alcoholic, Trey is a former resident of the Texas penal system; he is the first to admit his screwed up a big part of his life, losing the faith of family members and many friends by his obnoxious, aberrant and self-destructive behavior.

But, no one, Trey included, deserves to be drugged and sexually assaulted by anyone, much less a respected citizen and acclaimed member of the medical community.

If Trey were named Becky, age 19 (not 46), a blonde cheerleader (not a 250-pound hulk with a shaved head). and the encounter was heterosexual, not homosexual, and could be proven, who would not support “Becky” in her complaint?

Trey followed the steps to get justice for the injustice he endured. He filed an official complaint; that complaint was investigated; evidence was collected; charges were filed; a grand jury convened…and nothing. Despite firm evidence – audio and video tape confessions from Kelehan, plus an apology for his actions and promising it would never happen again, the grand jury no billed the doctor.

Whoa! How could have happen? The special prosecutor did not play the recordings for the grand jury; he recommended the complaint be no billed. For the most part, that’s how grand juries work: I know, I served on one in Marshall in the mic 1980s, even serving as foreman. What the prosecutor wants in pending cases … usually happens. End of story.

After all this, Trey was despondent, suicidal. A friend called the Austin, Texas police (where Trey is now a resident) and they found him in his car in a wooded area; he was put into a detox unit and then he later went to a rehab facility.

He found Alcoholics Anonymous, bought into the 12-Step Plan, sobered up and has stayed clean for two years. In his sobriety, he had a revelation: Past demons are supposed to be exorcised. Trey knew he had been wronged and the legal system failed to protect him.

He contacted the Texas Medical Board and laid out his story. A long investigation ensued and the board issued a temporary ruling in October which prohibited Kelehan from having any contact or writing prescriptions with male patients, no visiting any patients outside his clinics, no telemedicine sessions and his physician assistants could not see male patients.

The board is expected to issue a final ruling on the case after the first of the year.

If you are having problems with his case, stop thinking about Trey and focus on ‘Becky”.

“Trey” is “Becky”. “We’ are could be “Becky”.

Trey deserves justice, the same justice Becky would get. We all deserve justice.

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IS IT TIME TO NEUTER ZUCK

IS IT TIME TO NEUTER ZUCK AND THROW HIM IN A PIT SOMEWHERE?

What the Would YOU do with Thirty Billion Dollars in Your Checking Account?

By Mark Lee
Mark Lee is a CPA and business consultant who writes about politics, economics and culture. He lives in Maui but makes frequent trips back home to Texas. He once portrayed Jeff Lebowski in a corporate video. You can reach him at mark@maui.tax

To be honest I never liked this little pricksicle.

Hating on Zuck – a nickname which misses the word “suck” by a single letter – has entertained millions for over a decade. If you think it’s because we’re envious of his dough, well look at the big brain on you. The difference between me and The Other White Mark is that I am jealous of his money – but he is not jealous of my possession of a soul.

I’d also like to take a moment to make clear that I’m not jealous of everything the boy has.

Like his hair.

Or Wuhan Bridezilla up there. Wowzers. A quarter trill sitting in the office safe… and you end with this chick?

Must have a hell of a personality.

Before you start in on me… I don’t believe in leaving innocent spouses out of things like this. And if you think calling a defenseless, innocent, thirty-five year old Asian multi-billionaire Wuhan Bridezilla is some fucked up, MAGA, racist bullshit – – you’d be right. But I cut and pasted it from Zuck’s website – http://www.facebook.com – not mine. So I’m just quoting when I say Wuhan Bridezilla- and nobody can culture cancel you for that. Can they?

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Sociology teaching moment: Innocent spouses are rare. More rare than Facebook posts by Nazis about killing Jews in any event. Less rare than US election news and analysis from the Internet Research Agency in your FB “news” feeds. Zuckerberg to world: “I got your feed right here…”

QUICK: WHICH WEBSITE IS THE BIGGEST SUPERSPREADER OF MISINFORMATION ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC?

(It’s not a trick question)

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I’m not going to apologize for what follows, because it comes from a genuine place. I’m speaking from the heart when I offer “feedback” to the worker bees at Facebook. It may be a black heart, but it’s my heart. Look, in all fairness to me the little bastards asked for my “feedback”. Should you ever decide to offer “feedback” to Squad Zuck, please exercise extreme caution. Feeding(back) the spawn of a chimpanzee and a wraith is extremely risky. It can bite your fucking arm off at the elbow and use what’s left as a bloody straw to suck your soul (viz. your ‘personal information’) out of you. Hey, speaking of soul sucking billionaires…

How many hours did you spend on social media last month? Have you ever considered that you could’ve spent all that time lying in a warm bath staring at the open straight razor sitting in the soap dish thinking about other cool stuff you might do instead? I’m only saying that life offers a cornucopia of possibilities other than spending fourteen hours a week as an unpaid research subject. Your breathtaking generosity with your time and your humanity has put enough money in the pockets of that guy up there who looks like he’s seconds away from going full Ted Bundy… that he can afford to move to Mars. Which is probably a much more suitable place for him. He could frolic around up there in the low gravity and CO2 breeze with South African CRISPR experiment Elon Musk.

It’s hardly a coincidence that a lot of billionaires are headed for outer space – and you should be rooting for them. These guys aren’t planning on letting people like you come with to Mars and that’s actually the good news. These delusional little demi-gods may believe they’re running from the disaster of planet earth but what they’re really doing is running to a different place where they can create yet another disaster.

We’ll all be doing much better down here without the Insane Clown Billionaire Posse sharing our ecosphere. I predict we’ll be amazed at how successfully we can all get back to the business of being actual human beings again. Instead of lab rats. The time when people like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates are safely consigned to vacuum of space can’t come soon enough. How about we lock the door and turn off the radios when they split?

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Life Is Interesting

Life Is Interesting

By George Smith — 11/23/2020

Life is interesting in the best of times. It is also interesting, as well as somewhat perplexing and frightening,in the worst of times.

In my seven-plus decades of life, 2020 was the most frightening and perplexing year I can remember.

Having lived through the civil rights marches, the Vietnam War protests, the assassinations of a president, two major civil rights leaders and a man destined to be president, as well as the criminal and corrupt exploits that led to three presidents being humiliated and disgraced, I thought I was prepared for anything.

Then 2020 rolled in. Talk about a sucky year!

Between a president who thinks democracy is like a finger widget to be spun around at will, a country and political parties so divided that the only discernible result was a volatile eruption of pettiness, open animosity and needless deaths, and a pandemic that consumed national collective energy, will and more than 250,000 lives like a Hoover picks up stray dust bunnies and the entire year has been a nightmare.

What is happening now in the U.S. is a travesty. We will have a new president in January. But the sitting president refuses to acknowledge that fact, and at the same time has abdicated his presidential duties.

While world leaders had a virtual G20 summit and were discussing the COVID 19 pandemic, President Trump went to play golf. While the most recent surge in coronavirus infections are swamping hospitals across the nation, Trump is tweeting “poor me!” missives and planning ways to cjntjbue to divide the citizens into “us and them” camps.

While President-elect Joe Biden was trying to get the information guaranteed by law and tradition about “peaceful transfer of power” from one administration to another, Trump was fighting his lopsided defeat with frivolous lawsuits in key states and prohibiting any administration official from giving information to Biden’s transition team.

In effect, this country can be likened to ship with a captain that is missing in action, a crew which is awaiting orders, a broken engine and no rudder, the vessel floating aimlessly on a current of despair.

President Trump, despondent over his rejection by 80 million American voters, is determined to not relinquish power. But, if he must, he also is determined to leave the new captain with a ship that is floundering in rough economic seas, its hull broken and taking on water and all internal systems inoperable.

This is Trump’s lifelong method of operations: All actions will be at “my@ command and done “my” way; if not, everything will be dumped in a shredder and rendered useless.

He cares nothing about the casualties created by his callous actions, he just cares that his personal whims, wants, desires and needed are met.

One term of the Trump Administration was four years too many.

Prayers to Joe Biden and his administration officials that they can right the ship of state.

God knows they are going to need all the help they can get.

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STOP THE UNNECESSARY DESTRUCTION

Scenic Texas

SCENIC TEXAS CALLS ON TXDOT TO STOP THE UNNECESSARY DESTRUCTION OF 250+ ACRES OF TREES IN EAST TEXAS

State Agency Fails to Provide Evidence to Support “New Traffic Safety Program”

(AUSTIN, TEXAS) August 24, 2020 — Scenic Texas, the state’s only non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of our state’s visual environment, particularly as seen by the traveling public, is urging the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to stop two TxDOT highway projects in Northeast Texas from destroying 250 acres of trees. This project is part of a “safety program” that TxDOT is piloting in East Texas to be applied to the rest of the state.

In a July 13 letter sent to the Texas Transportation Commission, TxDOT and legislators, Scenic Texas outlined its concerns about two TxDOT projects (see below for project details) in the agency’s Atlanta District which encompasses nine counties. Combined, these projects will clear approximately 250 acres of trees along 110 miles of public Rights-of-Way (ROW) by an unprecedented doubling of clear zones from 30 feet to 60 feet. Scenic Texas believes these are the first two projects approved under this program but because the program is state-wide, these types of tree-clearing projects could happen anywhere in Texas.

Scenic Texas Executive Director Sarah Tober says that, “Scenic Texas agrees our state’s highway infrastructure should meet rigorous safety standards and provide ample clearance in case of an accident or need to pull over. However, engineers from TxDOT have seemingly based their decision to double this already generous clear zone on intuition rather than evidence. No state or national studies, data, or calculations have been publicly provided to support this decision. While TxDOT provided information to Scenic Texas on the number of off-road crashes in the area, no detail was given to demonstrate whether the injuries or fatalities involving drivers who ultimately hit trees had contributing factors before leaving the highway. For example, distracted driving, drunk driving, texting, or other driver error could have been the actual cause of most if not all of the accidents and thus the real reason the driver left the road and hit a tree.”

Tober continued, “In fact, a number of studies exist that conclude trees along highways help to slow down drivers. Trees also provide valuable environmental benefits including the protection of pavement and a scenic drive that, in some instances, took decades or centuries to make. Additionally, the decision to double the clear zone in the public ROW will have fiscal implications for TxDOT since broader ROWs require more maintenance.”

Scenic Texas maintains that the current 30-foot clearance zone has proven to be ample enough space for public protection, and that clear-cutting publicly-owned trees beyond 30 feet has not been proven to increase highway safety. Moreover, it reflects a lack of good stewardship of taxpayer dollars and harms the state’s scenic beauty. If allowed to proceed, these projects will set a negative precedent for TxDOT to arbitrarily double the clearance zone in the public ROW and destroy hundreds, if not thousands, of acres of publicly-owned trees, many of which are native.

In his August 11 letter to Scenic Texas, TxDOT Executive Director James Bass said that TxDOT, “will be planting wildflowers along the stretch of roadways where the trees have been removed.” Scenic Texas believes that most Texans cherish their trees and would consider this a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars and contrary to the 20-year-old Green Ribbon Program. This taxpayer-funded initiative is intended for abatement of non-attainment standards under the Clean Air Act through the planting of highway trees and shrubs. While Scenic Texas is in support of most beautification efforts by TxDOT, the nonprofit organization of 35 years is adamantly against the clearing of trees only to plant wildflowers in these trees stead. In addition to severely altering the beauty of our highways, taxpayers will first be paying for the clearcutting of trees and then will be paying for the planting of wildflowers and other maintenance of the expanded ROW.

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CORONAVIRUS INFO PROVIDED BY DR. JIM HARRIS – 11/16/2020

11/16/2020

Area counts seem to be increasing but slowly. I should have new information on Tues. We still have some ICU beds in our Trauma Area G. There were 64 new Covid cases in Gregg County and 139 in Smith County on Saturday.

Until listening to NPR this morning, I had not considered that our nursing homes are currently full all over the US. Where will discharged Covid patients go? There will be a bottleneck that will keep Covid patients in the hospitals longer than necessary. Where are those patients who need rehabilitation and/ or more care at the time of hospital discharge from ICU and the wards. If recovering patients are too weak or unable to be cared for at home, where will they go — to some makeshift temporary space in a gymnasium or under a large tent? Behind a large rock?

How about utilizing a nearly empty 5 story (6 floors) hospital that is not being used at this time. Of course, I mean Kahn/Memorial/Good Shepherd/Christus Good Shepherd Marshall Hospital.These newly discharged patients should not be contagious and might even have immunity. They will be well enough to leave a general hospital but too sick or weak to go home. The medical environment should be safer for the level of medical care and rehabilitation that the facility would provide. In a short time, such a facility should provide many new jobs for area people that are medically safe and worthwhile — as well as filling a medical vacuum and utilizing a very large hospital building that seems to be in good condition.

J. Harris

Staying sane in our new COVID-19 world

(J.Harris: Some explanations and recaps but some comfort and suggestions. Very readable.)

“… during the pandemic there is also renewed purpose, hope, and community emerging. Scientists have responded with focus to their work and to developing appropriate guidance, treatments, or vaccines. Meanwhile, many citizens have taken on roles in their communities running welfare groups, delivering groceries to elderly neighbours, or working on communal gardens. Early on in the pandemic, health-care workers showed up on COVID-19 wards without appropriate personal protective equipment committed to their vocation of serving others. As we compare our pre and post COVID-19 selves, perhaps we should emphasise how the pandemic has shown who each of us really is…

“…Some governments, such as in the UK, initially turned to experts to become the oracles and predict the future—first to mathematical modellers and behavioural scientists, then to vaccinologists, and, finally, to public health experts and economists. And when these experts are not always able to provide the answers that appease the need for concrete predictions with dates, a backlash followed against experts with their balanced and contextualised statements. This gap was exploited by social media pseudo-scientist celebrities predicting the future and offering comforting lies on easy solutions.

“…One of these comforting lies being told is that we can have our pre-COVID-19 life back for the “acceptable” loss of some old and vulnerable people. Terms like “herd immunity” have been the ammunition of those who would see it as the perfect cover for lifting all restrictions and letting a dangerous virus spread through the population, starting with the young and fit.”

Suggested by Hopkins:

1. CHINA Shanghai, China, reported a locally acquired case of COVID-19 on November 10. While many countries around the world are battling a surge in COVID-19 incidence, this marks the first locally acquired infection in Shanghai in several months. According to local officials in China, the individual worked at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, and at least 25 close contacts have been quarantined. While SARS-CoV-2 emerged in China, China has largely contained its epidemic. In fact, the vast majority of cases over the past several months have been among arriving travelers. In an effort to maintain this level of epidemic control, the Chinese government is reportedly taking new steps to limit the possibility of importing COVID-19. One aspect of these efforts involves disinfecting packaging and transport vehicles carrying imported frozen food, after China identified contaminated food products as the source of several SARS-CoV-2 infections among cargo handlers and port workers.

Lessons From Europe, Where Cases Are Rising But Schools Are Open (NPR) Across Europe, schools and child care centers are staying open even as much of the continent reports rising coronavirus cases, and even as many businesses and gathering places are shut or restricted. Countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy appear to be following the emerging evidence that schools have not been major centers of transmission of the virus, especially for young children. And experts say these nations are also demonstrating a commitment to avoiding the worst impacts of the pandemic on children.

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Donald J Trump Is Not The President

By George Smith — 11/16/2020

Correction: He IS the current president, but he is not governing, not taking a leadership roll in guiding the country through this perilous time. In fact, instead of being the commander in chief, he has donned the mantle of abstainer in chief.

As expected, he is tweeting, moaning his daily choruses of “Woe is me! Yet another hoax to fight,” and still looking for fictitious election fraud ploys in various states to prove he was cheated out of a second term.

Oh, he is golfing and watching TV cable news and screeching at any commentator who dares suggest his barrage of lawsuits in multiple states will not change the Electoral College total. For him, that’s business as usual.

But…he is not performing the duties of president.

He is going out of office like he came in, poor-mouthing his treatment by the media, claiming he won the election in a landslide, making promises he cannot keep, striking out at anyone he considers “disloyal”, acting like a Tootsie Pop stealing bully during recess.

To those supporters of Trump: This cannot be a happy time; too much rancor and vitriol have been passed around in the last four years to make this transition from delusional egotism and ignorance of how government works to a calm, try-to-get-along-with-the-opposing-party administration an easy one.

But, it’s time for the supporters of this spit-fit persona of a political clown and a personality disaster to think more about the future of this country and less about upholding the allegiance to the Cult of Trump.

Donald Trump was not/is not a straight shooter; he lies when the truth was evident and would have served him and his party better.

He was not a skilled negotiator; Russia, Syria and North Korea played him for a fool; his trade agreements and his statements about their success were laughable; getting out of the Iran nuclear agreement and the global climate accord endangers the future of this country.

His decision to attack the competency of the national media AND the nation’s intelligence services was stupid and asinine.

In a phrase, Trump sees himself as a dictatorial strongman whose word is law and every thought and whim are of genius caliber.

I will not argue nor second-guess the support Trump garners from those who totally are absorbed by their belief that abortion is wrong. Personally, I will not insert myself in a situation between a woman, her doctor and her God.

But in all other issues, I cannot understand how anyone who is not a hardshell racist remains blind to the damage this self-centered, megalomaniac who shows not a shred of empathy for anyone, is doing to the democratic fiber of this country.

Trump relishes in the turmoil he has caused, continuing and expanding the partisanship of party politics that intensified with the election of the first black president in 2008.

Go back 13 years and remember that Trump was one of the leaders in denouncing Obama’s candidacy, perpetuating the lie that Obama was not born in the U.S. He was wrong, of course, but like all of his other lies, he has never admitted it nor apologized for promoting the fabrication.

Trump will eventually leave the White House. But, unfortunately for America, he will not just go away.

He is a master manure stirrer and spreader. And stir and spread more of his tongue fertilizer he will do. After all, he still has his followers, his Trumpuppets, to please. And the only way he can continue to hold his audience is to posture and preen and keep his cock o’ the walk act fresh by inventing new conspiracies and frauds perpetuated upon his person.

The Trump Show will continue. Count on it. He has no other place to go to get the adrenalin surge that keeps him

at the same emotional and needy psychological level as he did for being the most powerful man in the world for the past four years.

He is an addict and he needs his fix.

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