In Romania, where conspiracy theories and warnings from the Orthodox Church are fueling uncertainties, 65 percent of the population hasn’t yet been vaccinated against COVID-19. Why hasn’t the government been able to get a handle on the situation? Source: COVID-19 in Romania: From Vaccine Champion to the World’s Highest Death Rate – DER SPIEGEL
Monthly Archives: November 2021
German far-right AfD co-leader Alice Weidel contracts COVID | News | DW | 11.11.2021
Alice Weidel, the joint leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, has tested positive for coronavirus. She has long railed against vaccination requirements and COVID restrictions. Source: German far-right AfD co-leader Alice Weidel contracts COVID | News | DW | 11.11.2021
5 reasons Germany′s COVID-19 infections are soaring | Germany | News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 11.11.2021
Opinion: Xi Jinping, China′s eternal president | Opinion | DW | 11.11.2021
Power is addictive. This is why, in the early 1980s, the far-sighted party leader Deng Xiaoping limited top officials to two five-year terms in office, with good reason. Until now, they had all abided by this. Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao each ruled China for 10 years – not longer.
Today, things are looking different. The Communist Party has ruled China continuously since 1949, but no politician in its entire 100-year history has held as much power as Xi does right now. And China has never been as strong as it is today – politically, economically and militarily.
Source: Opinion: Xi Jinping, China′s eternal president | Opinion | DW | 11.11.2021
The earth’s secret miracle worker is not a plant or an animal: it’s fungi | Giuliana Furci | The Guardian
Ahmaud Arbery killing: outrage as defense team tries to limit Black pastors in courtroom | Ahmaud Arbery | The Guardian (Me: Guess attorney figures he can’t be too racist…?)
Kevin Gough, a defense attorney in the trial over the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, has sparked outrage after asking the court to limit the number of Black pastors who can sit with the Arbery family, claiming their presence could influence the almost entirely white jury.
On Thursday, while addressing Judge Timothy Walmsley, who is presiding over the trial, Gough claimed that high-profile Black pastors such as the Rev Al Sharpton and the Rev Jesse Jackson could be “intimidating” for jury members.
“There’s only so many pastors they [Arbery’s family] can have. If their pastor’s Rev Al Sharpton right now, that’s fine. But that’s it. We don’t want any more Black pastors in here or others,” said Gough.
US women are being jailed for having miscarriages – BBC News
CHARMING TEARS

my eyes are gobsmacked,
for it has seen a beautiful sorrow.
•
I have never imagined sorrow with a pretty face,
yet I saw one.
neither did I expect sadness to captivate my heart,
but it did.
•
my unbelief could not breathe within me,
for it gazed upon its own doom in your charming face.
and your tears melt my heart,
that my unbelief withered away.
for you were a weeping sun,
that made sorrow more beautiful,
than the twinkle of a star in the night sky.
Remembering Granddaddy Rex on Armistice Day and Honoring Veterans Day
Granddaddy’s French helmet, red cross armband and other personal effects.
On November 11, 1918 the Armistice between Germany and the Allies was signed, ending the War to End All Wars. The guns on the Western Front fell silent. My grandfather, Rex R. Forsyth, was in France that day still serving in Section 625 of U.S.A.A.C. (United States Army Ambulance Corps) while attached to the French Army. He volunteered, learned to drive the Model T ambulances in the Allentown, Pennsylvania fairgrounds, and was soon shipped overseas. His unit was part of the Allied Army of Occupation and was stationed during 1919 at Kaiser Wilhelm’s castle in the Black Forest.
Shown is Colonel Bertrand, 162nd French Infantry, pinning the Croix de Guerre on the coat of Rex Forsyth. Note that the helmet Rex is wearing is shown in a photo above, and also note in the right background that you can see…
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Mutual Aid or Collapse
For a long time, we have been observing the breakdown of so many systems we depend on. In medicine we have the term ‘multi system organ failure’. I’ve begun to think of the dysfunction of our economic, political, educational, medical, spiritual, and social support web as being in multi system failure now.
We have three choices.
- We can try to continue to ignore these failures. But that is becoming increasingly difficult to do.
- We can try to repair those systems, hoping they will keep working a little longer.
- Or we can build something new. Which might be a return to how things once were.
The consequences of the Covid pandemic are a preview of the future if change doesn’t happen now. As in NOW. As umair haque says below, “And so what do you expect to happen? If change can’t, then only collapse is left.
I think of Covid…
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