Moody Monday: too many topics

[mellowtigger]

The worries pile up faster than a single Moody Monday post each week can accommodate.  These are wild times, aren't they?

Climate: I still rate climate change as my priority #1.  I've seen images of the flooding (USA, USA D.C., Mexico, China), the drought (USA, UK, Germany), and the fires (USA, Europe).  All of these events are predictable but ignored by nations around the globe.  I thought that 2020 was the last USA election in which we could get a government that acted boldly on this topic in time to avert catastrophe.  It was, and we didn't.  The 2024 election is when we decide how bad a catastrophe we are willing to accept.  From the rest of today's post, it seems apparent that we will accept a lot of bad outcomes.  Even the expected 51C/125F temperatures in northern cities soon.

Corruption:  I still rate corruption as my priority #3.  The Espionage Act of 1917 covers a lot of stuff that's only vaguely related to espionage, stuff like records retention.  It's still quite important, though, and it's the the law which led to the recent raid at Trump's residence.  He could face decades in prison if he is convicted of violating its rules, like some other people.  The records that Trump took weren't everyday documents.  Some of them were "top secret" and some were "sensitive compartmented information".   Let's be honest, though, it's unlikely that he will even be charged on this offense.

Separate from the retention issue, however, did the former USA President sell these secrets to foreign powers?  It seems like that is the worry.  Everything is a sales opportunity to him.  Remember when he wanted to just buy another nation outright?  Doing so would make Trump vulnerable to the same sentence of execution as the Rosenbergs.

Aside: People may not know details of this old USA history, but they would certainly remember Meryl Streep as Ethel Rosenberg's ghost from the excellent movie "Angels In America".  In the movie, Streep looks exactly like this image of Rosenberg here.  That movie also has an interesting dual connection to our current epidemic(s) and Roy Cohn's political corruption.

Random question #1: Why did Saudi Arabia give $2 billion to Jared a few months ago?

Random question #2: If Trump owes money to Russia (hypothetically), but Russian finances are frozen due to the war in Ukraine, how would Trump make payment if not by trading something of similar value?

Pandemics:  The Lancet has noticed that USA health policy is lacking.  Perhaps everyone needs a reminder that it was recommended to Democrats and President Biden that we simply declare COVID-19 is over and move on (the second paragraph includes link to the memo).  In the USA so far this year, almost 200,000 people have died from the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but the USA CDC has completely given up on reducing the epidemic impact here.  In the same week we were reminded even for people who survive initial infection

• that children are paying a heavy price (a Twitter thread in plain English),
• that it causes T-cell exhaustion (think: HIV/AIDS),
• that it causes "cortical atrophy and cognitive dysfunction" (think: Alzheimer's/dementia),
• that it may cause "immune amnesia" (think: measles)...

... in the same week that we see video of what COVID is doing to adults and children, well, that's the week the CDC decided to reduce isolation and mask recommendations and suggested that schools consider not punishing kids who still wear masks.  Even Twitter-verified accounts are being vocal in condemning the CDC and its new guidelines this week.  Responses have quite a range: polite, sarcastic, darkly humorous, rephrasing, rebellious, "blood on its hands", and class action lawsuit.  As usual, the excellent Plague Poems account has one or two good things to say on the topic.

If you're a USA citizen and want to help, maybe signing this Change.org petition to fire the CDC Director will help to finally hold somebody accountable for the gaslighting.  At least the FDA (which knows about C-AIDS) and DHS are helping to pick up the slack by providing real information during these multiple pandemics.

Minnesota: Closer to home, here in Minnesota our officials just can't explain why unemployment in our state is at unprecedented lows.  It's like nobody in government can even conceive of the idea that people have stopped participating in the workforce because they've been sick, disabled, or otherwise unemployed for too long to be counted in these statistics any more.  I, in a similar example, was not counted in July because I made no unemployment claim during that month, even though I was both unemployed and job hunting.  Because they can't imagine such widespread and enduring issues, they also have no explanation for new crime statistics for the state.  People enjoy badmouthing dense urban areas, but why did violent crime increase by a slightly lower 16% even throughout rural Minnesota?  It's a mystery.

Don't get hospitalized in Minnesota in the coming days.  The strike of 15,000 nurses is imminent.

Stay safe out there.  Keep masking.  Keep isolating.  Keep distancing.