Category Archives: Viva!

All 50 States Are Now Reopening. But at What Cost?

Death will be walking down main street again.

Governors face intensifying pressure to reopen their economies, but experts warn it could mean thousands of new deaths.

Why Are You Downcast? #psalm #trial #haiku

thanks

penned in moon dust

Questions makes no sense

Sitting under a fog bank

sorrow on my brow

***

Vindicate me, O God, and plead my case

against an ungodly nation;

deliver me from deceitful and unjust men.

2For You are the God of my refuge.

Why have You rejected me?

Why must I walk in sorrow

because of the enemy’s oppression?

3Send out Your light and Your truth;

let them lead me.

Let them bring me to Your holy mountain,

and to the place where You dwell.

4Then I will go to the altar of God,

to God, my greatest joy.

I will praise You with the harp,

O God, my God.

5Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why the unease within me?

Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him,

my Savior and my God.

~Psalm 45

There are days when sorrow is a…

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Thoughts and Prayers for Having a Real Election This Year

He can bluster and bully but courts will not support him. kuedfbxizeekndsxvhtm.jpg

President Trump falsely accused Michigan and Nevada of illegally sending vote-by-mail ballots to registered voters Wednesday morning, threatening to halt funding to the states in retaliation. In reality, the states are merely joining the ranks of other states—both red and blue ones—that are making absentee ballot…

Read more…

Pompeo Defends Firing of Inspector General, Denying It Was Retaliation – The New York Times

Congressional officials said the inspector general was examining several areas of policy and potential misuse of government resources that had raised concerns about Mr. Pompeo’s actions.
— Read on www.nytimes.com/2020/05/20/us/politics/mike-pompeo-state-inspector-general.html

Liar! Big time liar!🤬

He joked about killing endangered species. Trump gave him a top environment job

Despicable is not strong enough to describe this person’s beliefs and actions.

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Under the leadership of William Perry Pendley, the Bureau of Land Management is failing to fulfill its most basic duties of safeguarding America’s public lands, his critics say

In July 2017, William Perry Pendley, a crusading conservative attorney, delivered a speech to a group of rightwing activists in North Carolina in which he was completely candid about his ideological commitments.

He accused “the media” of selling “their soul to the greens”. And after criticizing the Endangered Species Act, he made light of killing endangered species.

Continue reading…

Mercenaries To The Right…Mercenaries To The Left

I have written many times about the modern use of mercenaries. I do not approve of using mercs to fight wars. If the war is necessary and for the right reason then man up and use the military…….do not use thugs masquerading as “security specialists”.

Like I stated I have lots to say about the use of mercs……pick on or read them all…..

https://lobotero.com/2018/02/13/the-dogs-of-war/

https://lobotero.com/2017/01/03/rise-of-the-american-mercenary-2/

https://lobotero.com/2016/03/11/those-security-contractors/

https://www.your-poc.com/the-private-military-industrial-complex-extending-conflict-duration-and-quality-the-cost-of-using-private-military-contractors/

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/outsourcing-war/

https://lobotero.com/2019/11/27/curb-your-mercenaries/

Now you know how and why I feel that way about the use of mercs in today’s world.

Occasionally I get to read some of the papers that grad students are writing on international relations and conflict management…..this one is very interesting…..

The roots of the mercenarism can be traced back to the sixteenth century, argues Janice Thomson in one of the most comprehensive studies dedicated to this issue, in her book entitled “Mercenaries, Pirates, and Sovereigns: State-Building and Extraterritorial Violence in Early Modern Europe”. Countries like Switzerland were the main suppliers and France, one of the main beneficiaries of mercenary troops in the 16th and 17th century. By the 18th century, armies could be considered truly multinational. “Frederick the Great recruited all over the Holy Roman Empire (…) At the onset of the Seven Years War he attempted to incorporate the entire Saxon army into his own”, argues Thomson. Large scale mercenarism began to fade in the 19th century, and by the 20th century the citizen-army became the norm with the employment of foreign fighters beginning to be regarded as an anomaly, representing either the remnants of imperialism or an ad-hoc response to a shortage in fighting forces. Janice Thomson argues, and her view is consistent with Barry Posen’s, the fading of this practice can be seen as a corollary of the evolution of state authority claims.

The practice of mercenarism is sanctioned under Humanitarian and Public International Law, under Article 47 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, the 1989 International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries and under a regional convention sponsored by the African Union. The 1989 Convention describes a mercenary as “any person who is especially recruited locally or abroad in order to fight an armed conflict” who is “motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain”. The convention entered into force in 2001 and was signed only by 36 countries – with notable absentees like the US, Russia, Turkey or the UK. Arguably, these states have not ratified it because they use Private Military Contractors (PMC), who are of a different kind from mercenaries. However, the distinctions are more often hard to make – it is hard to find out whether foreign fighters are hired in a registered organization – which is what defines a PMC.

Opinion – The Rise of Mercenarism: Avoiding International Accountability

Let’s not forget that failed merc operation to kidnap Venezuela’s Maudro…..of course this was not in any way sanctioned by the DoD.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Chinese lab testing new drug that could stop Covid-19

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BEIJING • A Chinese laboratory has been developing a drug it believes has the power to bring the corona-virus pandemic to a halt.

The outbreak was first reported in China late last year before spreading across the world, prompting an international race to find treatments and vaccines.

Researchers say a drug being tested by scientists at the prestigious Peking University can not only shorten recovery time for those infected, but also offer short-term immunity from the virus.

Dr Sunney Xie, director of the university’s Beijing Advanced Innovation Centre for Genomics, said the drug has been successful at the animal testing stage.

“When we injected neutralising antibodies into infected mice, after five days, the viral load was reduced by a factor of 2,500,” he said. “That means this potential drug has a therapeutic effect.”

The drug uses neutralising antibodies – produced by the human immune system to prevent the virus from infecting cells – which were isolated from the blood of 60 recovered patients.

A study on the research, published on Sunday in the scientific journal Cell, suggests that using the antibodies provides a potential “cure” and shortens recovery time.

Dr Xie said his team’s “expertise is in single-cell genomics rather than immunology or virology. When we realised the single-cell genomic approach can effectively find the neutralising antibody, we were thrilled”.

He said the drug should be ready for use later this year and in time for any potential winter outbreak of the virus, which has infected 4.9 million people around the world and killed more than 320,000.

Planning for the clinical trial has started, said Dr Xie, adding that it will be carried out in Australia and other countries since cases have dwindled in China, offering fewer humans for testing.

“The hope is that these neutralised antibodies can become a specialised drug that would stop the pandemic,” he said.

China already has five potential coronavirus vaccines at the human trial stage, a health official said last week.

But the World Health Organisation has warned that developing a vaccine could take 12 to 18 months.

Scientists have also pointed to the potential benefits of plasma – a blood fluid – from patients who have recovered and developed antibodies to the virus, enabling the body’s defences to attack it.

More than 700 patients have had plasma therapy in China, a process which the authorities said showed “very good therapeutic effects”.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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truthdogg:“Trumpism is a state of mind, an active denial of the actual reality of America’s…

truthdogg:

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“Trumpism is a state of mind, an active denial of the actual reality of America’s past, present, and future. It’s a philosophy of weaponized illusion.

It’s fascism in theory, action, and form. The conquering of other peoples so a group concerned with power can maintain power.”

via twitter

‘The president is not a medical professional’: Republican senator urges Americans to ignore Trump on hydroxychloroquine | The Independent

US senator Lisa Murkowski has cautioned Americans against putting stock in Donald Trump’s medical remarks, after he admitted taking an unproven drug in an attempt to avoid Covid-19.

“What I’m saying, follow the guidance of our medical professionals,” said Ms Murkowski to CNN. “I’m not a medical professional. The president is not. We should be listening to them.”

The Republican’s comments came as politicians from both parties denounced Mr Trump’s remarks on hydroxychloroquine, which is not approved for use on Covid-19 cases outside of hospital or research settings.

Source: ‘The president is not a medical professional’: Republican senator urges Americans to ignore Trump on hydroxychloroquine | The Independent