And the People Stayed Home...
“And the people stayed home. And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still. And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.
"And the people healed. And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.
"And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed." ~Kitty O'Meara
Fifty Million Americans set to ignore warnings against Thanksgiving travel [Click] Jeez. . .
ReplyDeleteHere’s the source for the 50 million estimate. [Click] Most going by car.
Egads! So there will be a major upsurge by mid December.
DeleteWil and I are able to venture to Root*Center*Son’s house because the Governor/State allows people who live alone to join with one other household. Plus, even though not required, we and he have been quarantining in advance and will quarantine afterward.
Egads! indeed. And many hospitals at the breaking point already. I saw a story that there is no shortage of ventilators now, but. . .there aren't enough people who know how to operate them (respiratory therapists, for the most part).
DeleteVia politicalwire.com:
Delete“The U.S. recorded a drop in newly reported Covid-19 infections following an all-time high, but it also reported record hospitalizations for the 12th straight day as the coronavirus pandemic rages,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
What was the date on the ventilator story? I heard that back in the Summer. You’d think, by now, more people would have been trained.
DeleteOr better ~ that a different treatment were being offered than ventilators. There are now several treatments that, if used early enough, preclude the need for a ventilator. A ventilator ought to be a last ditch resort, because once on it more than 24-48 hours your chances decrease, and if you make it you may well have lifelong after effects.
Prime position reduces need for ventilator
Deletehttps://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/proning-covid-19-patients-reduces-need-ventilators
Various drugs are proving useful too. But I especially appreciate this common sense treatment.
I should expect that to become a respiratory therapist requires first of all the desire for such work; appropriate education; then a year's internship and training (quite possibly without a stipend) and (depending on the state) some sort of licensure or certification examination. Then actual licensure, which will require some time. In short, there has not been enough time to train a bunch of respiratory therapists for jobs that will presumably disappear before long.
DeleteFor the past couple days CNN has been showing pictures of and decrying crowded airports. Reports are, a 10% decline in air travel from this time last year. Only 10%, when it should be 90% or more. And the medical experts are indeed predicting a huge surge in infections because of all the travel. People are stupid and selfish!
DeleteIt's not the travel, of course. It's the get-togethers after. The risk would be pretty much the same if two or three households in the same town got together. The spread would just be a bit more localized.
Delete"Political reporters in Washington, D.C., have been saying a lot of Republicans in Congress privately despise President Trump, but few have publicly criticized him — and likewise, few have publicly acknowledged his defeat to President-elect Joe Biden. Carl Bernstein, one half of the journalistic duo that uncovered President Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal, named 21 names on Sunday night, saying that in private conversations, these Republicans senators "have repeatedly expressed extreme contempt for Trump" and his fitness to be president.
ReplyDeleteThe 21 senators he named include names you would expect, but also some surprises, like Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.), and Senate Majority Whip John Thune (S.D.). The other 18 GOP senators are Rob Portman (Ohio), Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Ben Sasse (Neb.), Roy Blunt (Mo.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Mitt Romney (Utah), Mike Braun (Ind.), Todd Young (Ind.), Tim Scott (S.D.), Marco Rubio (Fla.), Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Richard Burr (N.C.), Pat Toomey (Pa.), Martha McSally (Ariz.), Jerry Moran (Kansas), Pat Roberts (Kansas), and Richard Shelby (Ala.).
Only Romney has any backbone. Toomey spoke out over the weekend, but the reporters and experts don't think much of that since he's retiring. Except for Romney they're all a bunch of wet noodles.
Deletehttps://people.com/pets/5-parrots-separated-for-swearing/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social-share-article&utm_content=20201119
ReplyDeleteVT cases: 3714-3629=85
ReplyDelete1351 active cases
63deaths(3days)
Recovered 2300(+21)
Hospital 18(-3) ICU 3(0)
Tests 215,433 (+1704)
7 day average positivity rate down to 1.6%
Death rate holding at 1.7%
President Donald Trump’s false claims of a “rigged” election could hurt Republicans in the upcoming Georgia Senate runoffs, GOP pollster and strategist Frank Luntz told CNBC. [Click] I don’t find it at the moment, but last night I was reading a story about young people, including ones too young to vote, working hard to turn out young voters for the Georgia US Senate elections, using methods of communication and persuasion virtually unknown to their elders. Go, kids! I will see if I can locate it later this morning.
ReplyDeleteHere it is:
DeleteWith Senate on the line, Georgia activists are sliding into voters' DMs before election [Click]
ReplyDeleteHelicopter pilot finds 'strange' monolith in remote part of Utah [Click]
More on Twitter [Click]
President-elect Joe Biden on Monday unveiled his nominations for top national security positions in his administration:
ReplyDeleteSecretary of State: Tony Blinken
National Security Adviser: Jake Sullivan
Director of National Intelligence: Avril Haines
Department of Homeland Security: Alejandro Mayorkas
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations: Linda Thomas-Greenfield
Special presidential envoy on climate: John Kerry
New York Times: “The emerging team reunites a group of former senior officials from the Obama administration, most of whom worked closely together at the State Department and the White House and in several cases have close ties to Mr. Biden dating back years. They are well known to foreign diplomats around the world and share a belief in the core principles of the Democratic foreign policy establishment — international cooperation, strong U.S. alliances and leadership but a wariness of foreign interventions after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
A little more background; at least some more cabinet nominees to be announced tomorrow. [Click]
DeleteBiden’s Sleepily Reassuring Appointments [Click] “Blinken, Flournoy, and Sullivan are not widely remembered by ordinary, non-Beltway people, because they were hypercompetent public servants who tended not to make hilarious, unforced errors.”
OHIO; COVID cases 363,304 and 6,020 deaths. (Still with the warning of incomplete data)
ReplyDeleteThe One Word That Bars Trump From Pardoning Himself [Click] “The question shouldn’t be whether the president can pardon himself but whether he can grant himself a pardon—and those are not the same thing.” And the answer is NO.
ReplyDeleteGM Drops Support for Trump Climate Rollbacks [Click]
ReplyDeleteMay we not have another night like last night!
ReplyDeleteEarly in the evening Mom had a massive incontinence accident. She pulled off the diaper at the same time her bowels were emptying. A couple times in the past few days it has seemed she couldn't tell when her bowels (or bladder) were emptying. One worries if she has lost sensation below the waist. Or maybe it's a brain problem? Anyway, the mess panicked Sis, understandably. She finally got Mom cleaned up and settled...as we thought.
Around midnight, Mom fell out of bed. We think she was trying to stand up. Her own story is that she was trying to reach for something, though she can't say what. Dad and Sis couldn't lift her back into bed and settled her on an air mattress on the floor. Fortunately, we were quickly able to persuade Dad to call the EMTs. They came promptly and were very nice. Even with Dad and Sis helping,they had a hellova time shifting her back into bed. They asked both Dad and Mom herself if she wanted to go back to bed or to the hospital. She was clear enough to say no hospital.
She was restless and fretful the rest of the night. I went in to check on her a couple of times and though she was quite insistent on whatever it was she wanted, I couldn't work out what that was. I told her firmly that it was the middle of the night so nobody was going to rearrange anything or search for anything. She eventually became disgusted with my noncooperation and said, "Forget it!" and turned over to go to sleep. The one thing she said very clearly was that she was hungry. By morning, she seemed calmer. Jessamyn came while I was snoozing. Fortunately, Mom took to her. She had juice and some oatmeal. A little later she worked with her squeezy ball, which she seems to like. Then she shooed Sis and me away so she could have a nap.
While I was eating some breakfast, Sis informed me that she told Jessamyn not to talk to Mom about living and getting better because this agitates her since she obviously wants to die. This was a not so veiled jab at me. Yeah, whatever. I'm going to go right on acting as if Mom were going to get better. Sis can do whatever she wants.
Ohhh, that all sounds so hard, Cat.
DeleteWith a stroke it is likely that Mom has at least lost strength enough to stand and possibly sensation as well.
Calling the EMTs was exactly the right thing to do. Well, done! After my mom died (heart attack), Dad had a series of strokes. Living alone, he occasionally fell out of bed. I happened to call him one day and he told me he'd been lying on the floor for four hours, because he could reach the phone but was not able to dial it. I called his fire dept (next door to his apartment!) and they went right over. They were there a couple times a month for awhile...until he finally got a bed in a nursing facility. He was so much better off in the facility, because they gave him his meds on time (he was terrible at that), and his diabetes got under control. He also had a roommate who loved the Red Sox as much as Dad did. So they watched the games together. Dad died in 2008, a month before the Red Sox finally won the Series! His roommate said Dad must have put in a good word. 😉
Can you talk with your Mom by yourself and ask her what she would like to see happen? I'd want to hear it from the horse's mouth, as it were. And if she is leaning toward dying, is it because she is finding life too changed and challenging, or is it something more? If COVID wasn't an issue in hospitals, would she want to go to one and get help or no? My Dad always said that if he had another stroke he wanted just to go. But Mom was adamant that if she had another heart attack all measures should be taken to keep her alive.
Ironically, she died in her sleep (her last heart attack) one hour after signing the papers such that Dad and she could share a room at the nursing facility.
I find it interesting that your Mom likes to use her squeezy ball. That makes me think she is interested in improvement, y'know?
Cat: Sending good vibes your way.
DeleteI send my most sincere good wishes for all, and regret that I can't do more than that.
DeleteCNN Breaking News:
ReplyDeleteMichigan certifies election result!
🌟 GSA tells Biden the Transition can formally begin! 🌟
The vote was 3-0.
DeleteBoard member Normal Shinkle, a Republican, opted to abstain from the vote while calling for an overhaul of the state's elections procedures.
That's good news about the GSA. I could have seen them stonewalling indefinitely.
DeleteHere's Mother Jones on the certification; I hadn't yet heard about the GSA; I expected stonewalling to go on for weeks, anyway. Great news!
DeleteIn a Blow to Trump, Michigan’s Canvassing Board Certifies Election Results
[Click] “On Monday, two high-ranking figures from the Obama Justice Department wrote in the Detroit Free Press that voting against certification could be a felony under the Voting Rights Act’s prohibition on those who “willfully fail or refuse to tabulate, count, and report” legal votes.”
Here are some more stories from Mother Jones:
ReplyDeleteThese Rare Seeds Escaped Syria’s War and Are Now Helping to Feed the World [Click]
Trump soon will be unable to hide from the women accusing him of sexual assault [Click]
7 Ways Biden Can Fight Climate Change Without Any Help from Congress [Click]
Biden Would Be a Fool Not to Break Up Huge Food Conglomerates [Click] “His rural support might depend on it.” One of the most important initiatives of the New Deal was to break up monopolies, which they framed as increasing competition. I’m so old I can remember when both the GOP and the Dems had anti-monopoly planks in their platforms. I’t still a great idea IMO.
On re-reading, I think it would be better to say that "One of the most important initiatives of the New Deal was to break up monopolies, which they framed as ENCOURAGING competition."
DeleteThinking of that gal at the GSA releasing the transition funding etc., rumor had it that she was looking for another job. The cynic in me wonders if the explanation for her action was that she landed one.
ReplyDeleteTrump fears his lawyers are making him look bad. [Click] Awwwww. . .
Feinstein won’t seek any committee chairmanship(s). [Click] She was most recently re-elected in 2018, so there are four years left in her term. I hope this augurs an early retirement.
ReplyDeleteGrazings from Twitter (which I rarely peruse):
ReplyDeleteStacey Abrams
BREAKING: More than 750,000 Georgians have requested their ballots for the January 5 runoff elections.
Cleavon MD
Just got to work and was notified there are no more ICU beds in the state of Arizona.
Where is the best link to use to donate to Stacey Abrams’ efforts, without a chunk going to the national party?
DeleteNYT: Small Gatherings [Can] Spread the Virus, but Are They Causing the Surge? [Click] “Yes, the coronavirus can be transmitted over cocktails and dinners. But these get-togethers may not account for the huge rise in cases.”
ReplyDeleteThe Virus Surge, Once Centered in the Midwest, Is Accelerating in 45 U.S. States [Click]
Another VT death announced tonight: 64 now.
ReplyDeleteApparently the 5 deaths we’ve had this season are all from the Rutland Rehab.
I had occasion to visit two rehabilitation hospitals last year; they seemed inherently better able to avoid propagation of infectious diseases than are nursing homes, but at higher than average risk because of their debilitated patients. Darn.
DeleteWaPo: What Joe Biden can learn from Harry Truman [Click]
ReplyDeleteI just ordered a pair of books about Harry Truman: Whistlestop, and Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure.
Delete