This Coronavirus Pandemic and the Tough State Of and For Kansas

There's a pretty comprehensive article in today's New York Times, covering the overall situations across the nation with this pandemic, no surprise.

Testing Remains Scarce as Governors Weigh Reopening States

In both red and blue states, governors, health departments and hospitals are finding innovative ways to cope, but still lack what experts say they need to track and contain outbreaks.

Interestingly, tellingly and helpfully if probably also unfortunately, they have an entire section of it dedicated to the State of Kansas.

Credit...John Hanna/Associated Press

“We are nowhere near where we need to be with testing supplies,” Gov. Laura Kelly of Kansas said.

Herewith the segment of the article, with some occasional commentary. Also, occasional bolding of type within the article for emphasis.

Kansas: ‘There Will Be Death.’

After getting 2,000 tests kits to southwest Kansas and assessing the scale of the outbreak there, Ms. Kelly decided it was not necessary to close the meatpacking plants.

But she said the tortuous path to freeing up even minimal supplies for testing remains the biggest reason she was reluctant to lift the stay-at-home order she imposed on March 28.

“We are nowhere near where we need to be with testing supplies,” she said on Thursday. “I’m looking down a lot of rabbit holes trying to figure out how we are going to get those test kits here. It’s imperative if we are going to be able to lift that stay-at-home order.”

Kansas has one of the lowest Covid-19 testing rates in the nation. Dr. Lee A. Norman, the state’s top health official, estimated that Kansas needed tens of thousands more testing kits.

The state is so short of plastic test swabs that he has appealed to dentists to manufacture them in their offices by modifying 3-D printers used to make dental models.

Since March 20, Kansas has sent the Federal Emergency Management Agency nine requests for medical supplies, including for 235,000 testing swabs, 60,000 kits to transport samples and 178,200 kits to analyze them. As of Wednesday, the agency had sent “nothing,” said Jonathan York, the state’s coordinating officer. Federal officials told him that other states were in more desperate shape.

In mid-April, the federal government delivered 273,000 surgical masks, the kind needed to protect medical workers who administer tests. But Dr. Norman said the masks, which had been privately donated, “were so substandard they wouldn’t even make a good coffee filter.”

Late Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has helped the state obtain some supplies, told officials it intended to ship at least 25,000 of the 80,000 test kits it had requested.

State officials have had no luck trying to buy supplies themselves. Dr. Norman said Kansas had standing requests with private suppliers for $43 million in equipment, a “staggering” sum equivalent to nearly a third of his department’s annual public health budget.

“But the pipelines have pretty much dried up,” he said.

Kansas is still dealing with the hangover of seven years of draconian budget cuts under former Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican. Ms. Kelly said the state health department “had been pretty much decimated” by the time she became governor in 2018, with the laboratory that now processes many Covid-19 tests resembling “something out of the past...”

Thanks, Governor Brownback! Thanks, Republicans!

...The state plans to rely heavily on volunteers to create a corps of 400 workers to monitor the contacts of people who test positive.

Although the state is far from meeting the broad guidelines for testing capacity the White House has recommended for reopening, Ms. Kelly is under growing pressure to allow her stay-at-home order to expire as scheduled on May 3. The Republican-controlled state legislature has moved to curb her emergency powers, and protesters gathered on Thursday on the statehouse grounds.

“What is an acceptable level of risk?” Dr. Norman asked. “We cannot get it down to zero, so how can we guarantee that people won’t get sick?”

So there you have it, campers. Not a good or pretty situation over there next door in Kansas regarding this pandemic. At least Governor Kelly had the good sense to shut the state down early and pretty completely with her stay at home order. Now if she and they could just get some tests from Washington.

You know, the tests this Republican Party President Trump says are so plentiful.

Meanwhile, this from Trump's own lead on the pandemic.

Dr. Fauci says the US needs to double coronavirus testing before the economy reopens

Heavens help Kansas.

Help us all.

Kansas City Gets Another Great Write-Up

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Kansas City did, in fact, get yet another good, positive, maybe glowing write up by way of this clickbait article from The Daily Mail. It was in the following article.

 

The Biggest City in Every State

What they had to say about us:

Not to be confused with the neighboring city of the same name in Kansas itself, this is a beautiful city of approximately 480,000 that is often missed by tourists. It said that only Rome has more fountains than Kansas City, Missouri, which also supposedly has more boulevards than Paris. Art deco buildings decorate downtown streets, and the historic city market has plenty of dining and shopping options, as well as a farmers market. The 18th and Vine Historic District houses the American Jazz Museum as well as the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and other museums in the city include the National World War I Museum and Liberty Memorial, Crown Center (home of Hallmark Cards and the Hallmark Museum), and a few art museums to boot. The Crossroads Arts District has been referred to as the SoHo of the Midwest, and is particularly busy during the summer. The Kansas City food scene is another reason to stop here. Barbecue food is a local specialty, and the American Royal BBQ Contest is the largest of its kind.

Not just the biggest city in the state but maybe one of the best, as well?

Enjoy your Sunday, y'all.

The Only Way We'll Stop Polluting the Planet

I've worked at a couple huge, national corporations and noticed a continuing, repeated thread running through them.

Corporations and all the employees that work for them throw away and waste a great deal of plastics and papers and cardboard and aluminum cans and glass.

Corporations, with all those people, create and then throw away all these materials.

And they do it daily. Weekly. Month after month. Year after year.

And they have no desire nor motivation to reduce the amount of waste and wastes and what ends up as pollution, landfill.  It's what gets us these results:

Plastic Garbage Patch Bigger 

Than Mexico Found in Pacific

'Plastic in All Sizes' Found Everywhere 

in Once Pristine European Arctic

Nasa animation shows how ‘garbage islands’ have taken over the seas in the last 35 years

Corporations are all about profit and profits, of course. Because of that, they're also about cutting costs. They're about cutting costs at all costs. Recycling requires commitment. It requires spending. Those are costs they don't want to assume or commit to.

So let's face it. The only way we, as a nation and planet, can get them to start recycling and at least reduce, if not end polluting will be for government and governments, state by state and nation by nation, to require them to do so, to start and keep recycling.

Think about the waste.

Think about how much paper and plastic alone each McDonald's restaurant throws out. Daily. Then think of the entire company.

AT&T

GE

Alcoa

Dupont

Bayer

The list goes on. Company after company. All over the nation, continent and world.

We must do this. We must require this. We have to call them out on this. They won't do it on their own.

An upside to all this, besides that we'll clean up our planet is that it will also create jobs. Those are two huge wins for humanity and the planet.

The thing is, it must come from us, from the people.

Links:

Just 100 companies responsible for 71% 

of global emissions, study

Just 90 companies caused two-thirds 

of man-made global warming

Just 90 companies are to blame for most climate change

The Toxic 100: Top Corporate Air Polluters 

in the United States

The Oceans Are Drowning In Plastic -- 

And No One's Paying Attention

And it's not just the oceans, of course.

Landfill photos from six cities that highlight 

the global waste problem

Landfills: Are we running out of room for our garbage?

Missouri Republicans, You're Killing Us Out Here

Seriously depressing news out of our state today and lately.

First this, from the Star:

Senate candidate wants daughters to be homemakers

More on this Right Wing, Republican clown:

Senate candidate Courtland Sykes, a Missouri Republican, says feminists have 'snake-filled heads'

Missouri Senate Candidate Sykes: 

Women Are Here To Cook My Dinner

And this wouldn't just be for wives, either, with this guy.

Republican Senate candidate is slammed for calling feminists 'she devils', saying his  daughters will be homemakers and that he expects his fiancée to cook him dinner every night

This would all be marvelous, sure, if maybe companies and business owners paid a good, true,fair living wage but in 2018 America, presently, that's not happening. Besides, this would only be great if it's an option. It shouldn't be commanded, as Mr. Sykes seems to want it.

Republicans, not done there, what we get from them and their philandering Governor:

Greitens’ budget speeds up Missouri’s slide to mediocrity

As so frequently happens with Republicans, as we saw in the last few years in Kansas, they want to slash taxes for the wealthy and corporations--because, hey, they just don't have enough--they also, then, cut education budgets, rather mindlessly.

Again, this is what we get with Republicans, folks.

Keep it in mind this coming November.

Please.

At What Point Do We Agree On Man-Made Global Warming and Climate Change?

With all that's going on this year meteorologically, at what point do people give in and admit that there is global warming, first and that, second, it is, in fact at least heavily human-influenced if not out-and-out humankind created and that we have to do things about it? And soon as possible.

There have been many, many weather events this year, certainly, like all the hundreds of fires across Canada, Alaska, Washington state, Oregon, Idaho and California, at minimum.

Jul 27, 2015 Scorched earth: U.S. wildfires 

near record level 

What Washington state's wildfires tell us about climate change

Wildfires have now burned a massive 

8 million acres

Then, more recently, like yesterday, there was the unprecedented, unseasonable and deadly sandstorm in the Middle East.

Huge dust storm roars through 

Middle East

For the second week in a row, an expansive dust storm slashed visibility and put hundreds in the hospital with respiratory ailments across the Middle East. The countries most affected include Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan.

This storm comes soon after another dust storm, which was shaped like a pinwheeling cyclone that absorbed light, drastically lowered visibility across Iraq on Sept. 1.

'Unprecedented' sandstorm blasts across 

Middle East

'Unprecedented' sandstorm envelops Lebanon and Syria

Massive sandstorm blankets Middle East for a second day

Not only was there this 2 day sandstorm across several nations in the Middle East but there have actually been many duststorms, internationally, across the globe of late:

Mystery of the dust storms 

sweeping the world

Today we get word of another unprecedented rain and flooding in Japan and not just heavy but, again, unprecedented.

Terrified residents wait for evacuation by helicopter as the overflowing Kinugawa River rages through Joso, Ibaraki prefecture; 90,000 people were forced to flee their homes

Japan floods: City of Joso hit by 

'unprecedented' rain

Record rainfall in Japan has burst riverbanks, ripped houses from their foundations and forced over 100,000 people to flee their homes. The aftermath of Typhoon Etau has also washed tons of radioactive water from the ruined Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific.

In dramatic scenes reminiscent of the tsunami disaster that struck the country’s coast in 2011, residents of Joso City, 34 miles north-east of Tokyo, were rescued from rooftops by Self-Defence Force helicopters. Houses were swamped by a muddy deluge from the Kinugawa River as people were winched to safety, some clutching family pets.

Check out this facts of this rain and flood (emphasis added here):

Weeks of near-daily rain had already left much of Ibaraki and Tochigi prefectures, north/north-east of Tokyo, deluged before the typhoon struck, dumping over 500mm (about 20 inches) of precipitation in just 24 hours in some places – twice the average for the entire month of September.  At one point early today over 900,000 people were advised to evacuate. So far, more than 90,000 had been forced to flee the “wall of water”.

It seems the recurring adjective in all this is that each of these events, vastly different as they are and from far flung corners of the planet, is "unprecedented." It's either unprecedented or historic or record-breaking, all true and applicable here.

Other "unprecedented" factors this year? Here's one:

2015 May Just Be Hottest Year on Record

Here's another:

World's Glaciers Melting Faster Than 

Ever Before Recorded

And this last one:

Sea level rise accelerating faster 

than thought

Mind you, these aren't projections, either. This isn't warnings now of what could or might happen in the future. These things are already occurring and they are occurring now, not 20 or 50 or 100 years in the future. And all these events are killing thousands upon thousands of people and displacing and making homeless millions.

Put those few things together---warmer temperatures, more glacier and ice cap melt and rising oceans and to what simple but obvious conclusion do you surely have to come?

America, Where Murderous Racism Actually Pays

An additional rather horrific tragedy out of Ferguson, Missouri.

If this is true, and it looks as though it is, that Officer Darren Wilson was paid a "high six figure" amount for having an interview with ABC News:

ABC Paid 'Mid-to-High' Six Figures For #DarrenWilson Interview

And then this:

Darren Wilson to receive $1 million in funding from supporters

Then awful things can be concluded.

First, his crime did, in fact, pay. His choosing to shoot unarmed Michael Brown was, sadly, tragically and horrifically the "right" thing for him to do. Not only is he going to get away with it but it paid to do so. 

It paid.

And it's paying handsomely.

Second, it seems easy to see and believe that Officer Wilson might even feel he should have done it sooner. He could have been that much closer to wealth and retirement.

Third, what does this tell other officers of the law but that this can pay?

Not a good day for America. Not another good day for America.

Blood money, anyone?

Not only is it far less safe to be black, specifically a black, young man in America, even unarmed, but it pays whites to kill them.

Not only did Officer Darren Wilson get off with having killed a fellow American citizen, but he was well and rather hugely paid for it, too.

Michael Brown's parents just seem to be getting worse and worse news all the time.

No climate change, you say?

Nothing to be concerned about?



How about this, then?

China's largest freshwater lake that is twice the size of London, dries up

The largest freshwater lake in China which covers an expanse twice the size of London has dried up because of an ongoing drought.

Poyang Lake in rural Jiangxi province is one of the country's most popular tourist attractions.

But the combination of drought and a new water storage facility upstream at the Three Gorges reservoir - the world's biggest dam - has caused water levels to drop to dangerously low levels.

"Dangerously low levels"?

It's empty.

Isn't it?

But hey, let's not panic yet.  No need to do anything about it.

Let's wait until people start starving.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2543513/Chinas-largest-freshwater-lake-twice-size-London-completely-dries-drought.html#ixzz2riy6svNb
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Links:  

California governor declares drought emergency

Texas drought exposes sunken treasures

Our own government sprayed St. Louis with radioactive particles--and for years

Wow.

Is it any wonder people don't think our government is or can be against us? I just saw this article online:

Revealed: Army scientists secretly sprayed St Louis with 'radioactive' particles for YEARS to test chemical warfare technology

The United States Military conducted top secret experiments on the citizens of St. Louis, Missouri, for years, exposing them to radioactive compounds, a researcher has claimed.

While it was known that the government sprayed 'harmless' zinc cadmium silfide particles over the general population in St Louis, Professor Lisa Martino-Taylor, a sociologist at St. Louis Community College, claims that a radioactive additive was also mixed with the compound.

She has accrued detailed descriptions as well as photographs of the spraying which exposed the unwitting public, predominantly in low-income and minority communities, to radioactive particles.

It's bad enough the government did it, period, but then to also do it to "low-income and minority communities"?

What the hell are we supposed to think about our own government?

And who's to say what causes cancer in the US?

This is just stunning and extremely disappointing to me. Not completely surprising but still a bit of a shock.

So what are they doing to us now? Nothing? Hopefully? And are we supposed to believe that?

Is it any wonder people think the contrails of jet planes are poisoning us, even now? I just hope the ones who believe that are mistaken.

And then, to add yet more indignation to this whole mess, look where it's coming from. The story here is reported from the UK, not a media source here in the States. That's not to say some national or local news source didn't report it but this is the first I've seen of it.

Check out just this one bit of information from the article:

"...the greatest concentration of spraying in St Louis was at the Pruit-Igoe public housing complex, which was home to 10,000 low income residents. She said that 70 per cent of those residents were children under the age of 12."

How disgusting, how revolting is that?

With a bit of further digging, I found the military and government did this over not just St. Louis, either, but over Corpus Christi, Texas, too. (See 2nd link, below).

What are we to think or trust of our government?

Links to original article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2210415/Revealed-Army-scientists-secretly-sprayed-St-Louis-radioactive-particles-YEARS-test-chemical-warfare-technology.html

http://rt.com/usa/news/us-radioactive-louis-martino-taylor-443/

Some video from the original article, above:

Why no public or media outcry of Lt Colonel Davis' charges on the Afghan, Iraq wars and Defense Dept?

Earlier this month, unbeknownst to a lot of Americans, Lt. Colonel Daniel Davis wrote and distributed two reports on our Afghanistan war. One of these reports had classified material and he gave that information to members of Congress. The 2nd had only unclassified material and has been distributed by Rolling Stone Magazine and The New York Times. (see links below). In his unclassified report, he contends that, first, the Afghan war is going far worse than the American public is being told (I know, shocking, right?) and second, that we are wasting at least millions if not billions of dollars on weapons systems (Future Combat Systems or FCS) that are actually failing but they're being represented as successful. Lt. Col. Davis makes other important charges in his writing, too, but the point here and question is, why is not the government demanding an inquiry into his charges since by doing so we could, hopefully, of course, avoid more loss of American soldier's lives in Afghanistan, for one? Why are we not pursuing an inquiry so we would also, again, hopefully run a more successful campaign there--if we ought to stay at all--and finally, likely reduce our costs and expenditures in Afghanistan, too? I ask here, as Lt. Col. Davis must surely be asking--WHY IS THERE NO INQUIRY? Let's go further and ask-- WHY ISN'T THE MEDIA ASKING THESE QUESTIONS AND PUSHING FOR A REVIEW AND ASKING THESE QUESTIONS? For Americans who are aware---WHY ARE NO AMERICANS ASKING THESE QUESTIONS AND PUSHING FOR GOVERNMENT AND MILITARY REVIEWS? Links: http://www1.rollingstone.com/extras/RS_REPORT.pdf; http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/truthdigger_of_the_week_lt_col_daniel_l_davis_20120217/; http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/the-afghanistan-report-the-pentagon-doesnt-want-you-to-read-20120210#ixzz1m1zIKlqq; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097603/Army-Colonel-exposes-truth-lies-Afghanistan-claiming-military-leaders-let-down.html

Breaking as we slept: Bad news/good news

From the UK and their Daily Mail just last evening: U.S. debt now as big as entire economy America's national debt has reached a worrying milestone - it is now as big as the whole of its economy. The amount owed by the federal government to its creditors, combined with IOUs to government retirement and other schemes, now stands at $15.23 trillion. The government estimated the value of goods and services produced by the economy in a year at $15.17trillion as of September. This is decidedly bad news for President Obama, his administration and his re-election campaign. It's not insurmountable and the election is months away but this is not good, for sure. Then there's this, from the Gallup Poll people: U.S. Economic Confidence Rises to Seven-Month High Americans' outlook for the economy is improving faster than their ratings of current conditions Finally, we're going to heck in a debt handbasket but we're optimistic--how American is that?--just check out the Greek situation: Greek turmoil helps thieves steal a Picasso It seems that, with their debt problems, they had cut staff at the museum. Yikes. Link to original article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2084353/Size-U-S-debt-entire-economy--15-23-TRILLION.html; http://www.gallup.com/poll/151958/economic-confidence-rises-seven-month-high.aspx; http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/09/thieves-steal-picasso-and-mondrian-paintings-in-athens/?ref=greece

On the new year

From an article in the UK's Daily Mail: "Our world is poised on the edge of perhaps the most important 12 months for more than half a century. If our leaders provide the right leadership, then we may, perhaps, muddle through towards slow growth and gradual recovery. But if the European elite continue to inflict needless hardship on their people; if the markets continue to erode faith in the euro; and if Western politicians waste their time in petty bickering, then we could easily slip further towards discontent and disaster. The experience of 1932 provides a desperately valuable lesson. As a result of the decisions taken in those 12 short months, millions of people later lost their lives. Today, on the brink of a new year that could well prove the most frightening in living memory, we can only pray that our history takes a very different path." Here's hoping for the best in the new year. Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2080534/Loss-faith-democracy-make-2012-frightening-year-ever.html#ixzz1iMBUAHHz

More outrageous, ignorant hypocrisy from a Republican Congressman

This person, above, is Representative Jim Sensenbrenner. This is the guy, nearly unbelievably, who said First Lady Michelle Bachmann has a "large posterior." To make matters worse, he was quoted saying it at a church event. The stupidity, ignorance and hypocrisy, all, are staggering. Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2077779/Michelle-Obama-U-S-politician-Jim-Sensenbrenner-apologises-calling-First-Lady-fat.html

It doesn't make it right but we don't know what to think

There's been controversy in Switzerland lately because the voters came out squarely for a ban on minarets on mosques in their country. It seems they don't want to change the "flavor", if you will, of their country.

And while many people have come out against this seeming discrimination, the fact is, the West just doesn't know what to think about Muslims, Islamists, the Muslim religion and Islam.

I'm not condoning any discrimination or racism, let me be clear and firm on that. I'm just saying too many people are confused, if not out and out confused or in fear when it comes to Muslimists and Islamists.

To begin, we just don't understand how anyone could strap bombs onto themselves, walk into a group of their own citizens and blow themselves up.

Secondly, we can't understand any leader of young men (or women), telling those same young people that strapping bombs onto themselves, to blow others up--other innocent civilians--could possibly get them to any "heaven" and/or a "god" (in this case, Allah) and then, that they get to spend a heavenly eternity with 71 virgins. That is some kind of outrageous, sexist "heaven".

Third, "honor killings". We just don't get those.

"Honor killings" are killings of young women by their fathers or brothers, because they've accused of being promiscuous.

Yeah, we just don't get that.

Here's another thing we just don't get: In July, 2008, a poll was taken in England and it was found that "Almost a third of British Muslim students believe killing in the name of Islam can be justified..."

There again. Don't get it.

It just seems that there is far too much death and killing by Muslims and Islamists and we just don't understand where it comes from, why it's done and how it could be condoned.

We understand it's not all people of the Muslim faith, sure. Most of the world doesn't practice any of these insanities. But enough do that we are all at least cautious, because of all the killings and death.

Finally, we don't understand, on a much easier, less deadly scale, why these Eastern people wrap their women from head to toe, don't let them be seen, treat them as second-class citizens, at best, and make them walk behind them, etc., and never meet with the men, etc., when the men can do whatever and go wherever they want. It takes civilization back too many centuries.

So, for all this, I'm just saying we don't get it.

Fortunately, it's gotten so bad recently that, in a recent bombing, Muslims are coming out upset, angry and complaining that Muslims are killing Muslims, which is supposed to be understandably forbidden.

We'd like to think there is an international outreach from the sane, educated and logical Muslims and Islamists, teaching the young men in the world, particularly, that killing others is not only not good but that it's crazy and wrong.

You just wouldn't think you'd have to teach that, would you?

Links:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1231854/Voters-ready-ban-minarets-Switzerland-exit-polls-show.html

http://www.iris.org.il/blog/archives/2250-UK-Muslim-Honor-Killing-Wife-Daughters-Burned-Alive.html