After Pulse: Lindsay Kincaide

Posted on by Thor

Lindsay Kincaide is an Orlando Florida mental health clinician and an HIV, LGBT advocate. She volunteered at the Center on Tuesday nights and the volunteers  became known as Team Tuesday. After work they would go to Karaoke night at Pulse.

She loved Pulse. A friend dealt poker at Pulse. Barbara Poma had named the club after her brother who passed away from aids, and she was always open to local agencies coming into the club to do fundraisers.

She started with front desk work at the Center but wanted to get involved as an HIV tester. She did the work to become a certified HIV tester in the state of Florida. She as also a case manager for low income people living with HIV, Aids. She was promoted to become the Center’s HIV program director. She built the program up adding Hep-C and STI testing and she expanded mental health services.

She vividly recalls June 11, the day before the Pulse tragedy. She was running a support group for partners of individuals how have come out as trans-gender. She was running that support group on Saturday mornings. It was a beautiful day. She felt great and went shopping at Publix for the weekend. The plan was to have mimosas on Sunday. She and her partner went to bed early that night, about 10pm. She considered the idea of going out, maybe to Southern Nights, but she was tired.

She woke up the next morning to the text messages, “Are you OK?” “Did you go to Pulse?” A text message at 2Am read, “Are you at Pulse?” from a friend. She assumed her friend wanted her to meet at Pulse. Then she got a text from a best friend in Atlanta. Then she sought out the news at about 8AM on social media. What the hell is going on? She jumped out of bed and woke her partner up, “There has been a shooting at Pulse.” She realized she had to go to the Center. That was her first instinct. Her partner was nervous, “What if they decide to go to the center and begin shooting?” At that point Lindsay didn’t care. She needed to be there. They both went.

They got coffee and immediately drove to the Center and they were some of the first to arrive. No one was prepared for this. The Center started putting information online via Facebook. People started to arrive. Water, Klenex, toilet paper, paper towels, coffee and food poured into the Center. They moved the TV to the front room so that the news could come in.

About mid-morning about 12 councilors went into the back and stated to figure out how to mobilize. They needed to be in the community. A clipboard was passed around but that wasn’t going to work. Someone suggested Google Docs to get organized. A spreadsheet was created. Lindsay began to sign people up, getting their contact information. The Zebra Coalition right across the street donated their crisis hotline. People were sent to the hotel across the street from ORMC where the families were hoping to hear news about their loved ones. They also needed an off site location. The Center was getting insanely crowded. That off site location became Christ’s Church on Robinson.

The Google Doc which she ran had contact information and then tabs for the different sites and different shifts. For the first day, Sunday, She tried to schedule people. It was too much for her to handle alone. She was there until 11Pm on Sunday. She decided to just put the spreadsheet out into the world, and let people sign up virtually. She added new tabs as needed. The document was editable. It went out on all the Facebook pages that counselors are a part of. Her phone blew up with call from all over the country. She was texting, e-mailing and calling out information to everyone to sign in on the Google Doc. She was up until 2AM. Over 700 people signed up. There were about 1000 interactions between June 12 and July 4th.

By Monday they were going to the LGBT clubs, Parliament House, Southern Nights, Savoy, Stonewall, because that is where the community gathers when they need support. That is our safe space. Councilors were at the clubs until midnight. The mental health community wrapped their arm around the LGBT community and said, we are here. They provided support and connected people to counseling. Two Spirit began offering services for free and the Center got their counseling mobilized. Another Google Doc was created where she asked all who had signed up, what they were willing to offer the community. That document went to what became the United Orlando Assistance Center and to the Center as a counseling resource guide.

 

Anti-Science Aggression

Posted on by Thor

There is a horrifying level of anti-science aggression in the United States coming from far right groups including some elected members of the US Congress and conservative news outlets that target scientists fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conservative news outlets repeatedly and purposefully promote disinformation designed to portray key American scientists as enemies. As a consequence, many receive threats via email and on social media, while some are stalked at home, to create an unprecedented culture of antiscience intimidation.

Prior to 2021, there was a concerted program of antiscience disinformation that dismissed the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic which was promoted by a White House committed to policies of “America First”. “America First” promotes negativism, anti-immigration, voter suppression, and loyalty tests to the former President that question the veracity of the 2020 Presidential election. These elements converge to form what could become modern day authoritarian regime. Historically, such regimes viewed scientists as enemies of the state.

In June 2021, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced house bill 2316. The “Fire Fauci Act” which called for halting payment of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s salary as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and auditing his digital correspondence and financial transactions. Mud slinging Rand Paul (R-KY)  has been making unsubstantiated claims that Fauci is responsible for 5 million deaths. Public threats against Anthony Fauci have resulted in his having to hire security to keep his family safe.

Scientists who are trying to keep Americans safe are being threatened all across the county. Public-health researcher Tara Kirk Sell experienced online and e-mail attacks after talking about COVID-19 in the media. Infectious-diseases physician Krutika Kuppalli had been in her new job for barely a week in September 2020, when someone phoned her at home and threatened to kill her. Of 321 scientists asked by Nature Magazine, 15% said they had received death threats and 22% had been threatened with physical or sexual violence as a result of talking publicly about the pandemic. Two-thirds said they had had a negative experience after appearing in the media. Scientists disclosed how they had been left distressed and scared and in some cases stopped sharing their views publicly after experiencing harassment and intimidation.

In June 2021, the Republicans organized a House Select Subcommittee on the origins of COVID-19 with the presumption that it was ignited by gain-of-function genetic engineering research from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Despite evidence pointing to spillover from a viral infection in bats to additional mammals and ultimately humans as has happened in previous coronavirus epidemics.

Vaccines and vaccine scientists are also targeted. Alongside the June 2021 Republican COVID-19 origins hearings, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) organized a round table in Milwaukee to highlight the rare adverse side effects from COVID-19 vaccines, as evening Fox News anchors promoted fake claims regarding deaths from COVID-19 vaccination. In July 2021, Rep. Greene declared on Twitter that a COVID-19 vaccine is “a political tool used to control people”, while Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) said that door-to-door COVID-19 vaccinations were just a step away from US Government confiscations of guns and bibles, and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) referred to vaccinators as “needle Nazis”. Days later, the medical director for vaccines in the Tennessee Department of Health was abruptly terminated for her efforts to vaccinate minors (14 and up) without parental consent. At the same time states are making efforts to halt vaccine advocacy and outreach to teens and adolescents.

 

Watching Lilo and Stitch

Posted on by Thor

I used to teach at Full Sail University. I had to leave since they didn’t pay me enough to cover the cost of gas to get there.

Kathy Blackmore and Sam Ewing were in charge of the class that taught traditional animation with pencil and paper instead of computers. I helped student as they shot their scenes and answered their questions.

For the last class we always showed a movie. It was the final day students had to work on their animation assignments and you could tell who was serious about animation because they could focus in this last class to keep improving the scenes they ha created. True artists use every moment available to keep tweaking their scene since no scene and no sketch is ever perfect. I also would use the class to sketch, always hoping to catch a few students at work.

I now teach virtually for Elite Animation Academy and the great thing about that is that I get to animate right alongside of the student. Getting to animate so often let me break out of my usual illustration routine and bring a character to life. Students get to see ever step taken in creating a scene which is rare when dealing with a larger group.

The Queen of England has COVID-19

Posted on by Thor

Queen Elizabeth of England, has tested positive for COVID-19. She had been doing a great job of social isolating in Buckingham Palace but she came out for her Platinum Jubilee celebrating her 70 years as the queen.

Being 95 years old she is at high risk of complications, from the virus but is experiencing mild cold-like symptoms. She expects to keep up light duties in the following weeks. “She will continue to receive medical attention and will follow all appropriate guidelines,” it added. the palace announced.

UK media reported that the Queen is fully vaccinated. Buckingham Palace previously confirmed that she and her late husband, Prince Philip, received their first doses of a Covid-19 vaccine in January 2021. The palace declined to reveal any information about subsequent vaccinations, citing medical privacy. In October 2022, the Queen had secretly spent a night in the hospital for undisclosed reasons.

“A number of cases have been diagnosed in the Windsor Castle team,” a palace source announced. Prince Charles previously contracted coronavirus in March 2020. He tested positive for Covid-19 for a second time 10 days ago while his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, confirmed she too had the virus on February 14, 2022. Charles is the heir to the throne should anything happen to Queen Elizabeth.

 

Smoking Like COVID-19

Posted on by Thor

Benjamin Mazer of The Atlantic wrote a wonderful article that had the intriguing premise that COVID-19 will not become endemic like the flu but rather more similar to the annual pandemic of death from smoking. Close to a million deaths could be prevented with a simple behavioral change.

Pandemic minimizers have long suggested that COVID-19 is no worse that the flu. However after over 900,000 dead it is hard to justify that stance unless your head is firmly entrenched in the sand.

However experts are now on board with the idea that if you are fully vaccinated and boosted your risk is on par with the flu for hospitalization and death. The flu results in about 52,000 deaths annually. That is a far better risk than about 333,ooo deaths a year from COVID-19. There is no risk less option.

A new normal will arrive when people realize that COVID deaths closely resemble smoking deaths. Both are easily avoidable. Choosing not to get vaccinated against COVID is, a modifiable health risk on par with smoking, which kills more than 400,000 people each year in the United States.

COVID vaccines have proven to be incredible effective in avoiding hospitalizations and death, An unvaccinated adult is 68 times more likely to die from COVID than a boosted one. Yet people still choose not to get protect thenselves with a simple jab. Because so few are vaccinated in America, hospitals continue to be over run. Denmark and Sweden who have done an amazing job of vaccinating their populations and have decided they are over COVID. Herd immunity is being build in the rest who survive the disease.

Smokers are 15 to 30 times more likely to develop lung cancer than non-smokers. Quitting the habit is akin to receiving a staggeringly powerful medicine, one that wipes out most of this excess risk. Yet smokers, like those who now refuse vaccines, often continue their dangerous lifestyle in the face of persistent attempts to persuade them otherwise. So for those who choose death, you can heighten the experience by shoving a butt in every one of your holes. Oh, and protest those who are trying to save your life while you are at it.

 

OMA Debacle

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Orlando Museum of Art (OMA) has put Orlando on the art scene map by having a blockbuster showing of 25 potentially fake Jean Michel Basquiat paintings on cardboard. The New York Times investigated and now Orlando is a laughing stock in the international arts scene.

At the exhibit opening, the museum in it’s wisdom had an artist named Naderson Saint – Piere, in the lobby creating a painting in Basquiat’s style, thus demonstrating how easy it would be to forge the famous artists work.

OMA has a new and ambitious director named, Aaron De Groft, who learned all he knows about art by getting a PHD from Florida State University. He should be expert enough to spot a forgery. “Dammit Jim I am a doctor not an art expert.” At the opening of Heros and Monsters: Jean – Michel Basquiat, De Groft claimed the work on exhibit was worth $200 million dollars.

The “story” is that these were created in 1982 while Basquiat, working out of a studio space beneath Larry Gagosian’s home in Venice, California, preparing for a show at the art dealer’s Los Angeles gallery. The cardboard works are said to have been sold by Basquiat directly to the television screenwriter Thad Mumford, a producer and writer for the top-rated M*A*S*H. for $5,000 in cash without Gagosian’s knowledge.

Mumford threw the work in a storage locker and it stayed there for 30 years until he failed to pay a bill for the storage locker in 2012. Thad Mumford died on September 6, 2018. William Force, a “picker,” and his financial backer Lee Mangin, snagged the lot for $15,000.  This story of forgotten treasure in a storage locker is too good to be true. Gargosian told a reporter that he “finds the scenario of the story highly unlikely.” Gagosian, lived just one floor above Basquiat and kept close tabs on his studio progress. The provenance of the artwork is in question. Force and Mangin have not been able to find a buyer since the works legitimacy has been in question. If they could get a museum too exhibit the work it might become easier to sell.

In 2017 one of Basquiat’s paintings sold for $110.5 million at Sotheby’s which is the current auction high for an American artwork. One “proof” that the work was  created by Basquiat is a poem in which 25 paintings were mentioned. Now what rhymes with 25 paintings? The treasure hunting pickers claim it as a form of receipt. It wasn’t in the storage locker but was apparently retrieved by them from Mumford. It was signed in oil stick, JMB.

To confirm the authenticity of the artwork experts turned to the cardboard it as painted on. It is hard to differentiate cardboard of 1980s from that of today. However on the back of one of the works was a company imprint that said, “Align top of FedEx Shipping Label here.” According to Lindon Leader, an independent brand expert consulted by The Times, who was shown a photo of the cardboard, the typeface in the imprint was not used by Federal Express before 1994. He should know: that was the year he personally redesigned the company’s logo and its typefaces while working as senior design director at the Landor Associates advertising firm. “It appears to be set in the Univers 67 Bold Condensed,” Leader said of the label’s distinctive purplish font. In 1982, “They were not using Univers at that time.”

BOOM so these were created 6 years AFTER the artist’s death from an overdose on August 12, 1988.

The Orlando Weekly reported that a tipster claimed a gag order had been handed down to OMA staff by museum higher-ups and that computers had been seized from the museum by the FBI. This has not been confirmed. De Groft is doing what he can to, deny, deflect and distract as pompously as possible. This morning 18 February 2022 his story was that he was absolutely no doubt that works were genuine. By this afternoon his story changed when he told the Orlando Sentinel‘s Matt Palm, “Our job is not to authenticate art. Our job is to bring the best art to the people of Orlando and Orange County.” Ha. Yes the best Orlando can do is exhibit fake art.

Omicron Invasion

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More than 66,400,000 Americans have been infected with COVID-19 since the pandemic began in early 2020. The country has seen more than 900,000 deaths and that number will likely climb to over a million. The total number of Americans who had COVID-19 could be much higher due to asymptomatic cases.

Hospitalizations have fallen in the last week by about 20% and immediately politicians want to lift all restrictions. however 98% of states in America are at high risk of transmission.

About 60,000 people are still in hospitals and there are still about 2,500 deaths a day due to COVID-19. On top of this there are still about 250,000 new cases every day. Now is not the time to let your guard down.

Things could be dropping to a base line level in the coming weeks unless a new variant emerges.

16 states so far have found COVID in their deer populations. Up to 30% of the deer tested have the virus. Some deer are being re-infected. The virus can circulate in an animal population and then re-emerge and infect humans in a new variant.  Some researchers believe that Omicron was circulating in mice and then re-emerged in its highly infectious form. Our immune systems don’t recognize the new variant and thus the virus can spread unchecked.

It has not yet been proven that a deer can infect a human but certainly humans can infect deer. An unvaccinated hunter might be the next conduit for the next wave of the pandemic. Venison when properly cooked can not spread the virus.

Waiting Room

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I have been going to a barrage of medical appointments this past month. This particular sketch was done at the waiting room for my butt doctor. One guy came in and had no idea how to wear a mask. He kept it on as a chin strap. As an artist I am surprisingly repulsed by a bare exposed nose. I was thankful that, when he started coughing, my name was called and I got the hell out of there.

The night before I drank two bottles of some sweet tasting liquid which turned my insides to liquid magma. I imagine may of the people waiting in this room had been through a similar explosive sleepless night.

Pam was allowed back as I was gowned up and had an IV put into the back of my drawing hand. The doctor was late so I lay on the gurney to wait. I had the same procedure don about 10 years ago so I had some idea of what to expect.

My memory of last time was of being partly awake to with the video of the camera exploring my insides. This time however after being wheeled into the surgery room they put something in my IV and I was out like a light. Although I didn’t get to watch the operation or sketch it, I dd get to see a nice portfolio of photos of my insides.

I hadn’t eaten for over a day and after the procedure, Pam treated me to some Krispy Cream donuts. That made all the poking and prodding worth while.

9/11: Falling Man

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On 9/11 when the Twin Towers were attacked by terrorists, New Yorkers gathered to watch in horror as the top floors burned. Some people went into local shops and bought up all the portable cameras to bear witness.

On the top floors windows were broken open to let out smoke and people faced the choice of being burnt alive or jumping. Many chose to jump. Richard Drew shot photos as one man fell. How many photos can be shot before the inevitable impact?

Photos like these were not shared widely on national media. What most people saw was a long shot as the towers burned and then fell. Americans don’t witness death. It is instead ignored and denied. 900,000 graves have been dug so far due to COVID. People protest for their freedoms rather than find ways to help the family’s who have been irreparably devastated because of this virus. Misinformation and ignorance continue to kill as the latest wave  subsides. We are all falling.

Surface

Posted on by Thor

As hospitalizations decline across America, politicians are once again in a rush to declare victory and lift all safety measures. It seems there is always a knee jerk reaction to the changing landscape of the pandemic and a high degree of acceptance of easily avoidable death.

Is it too early to lift all safety measures? Only about 27% of the US population has received a coronavirus vaccine booster shot, according to CDC data. The moves to phase out state mask mandates conflict with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‘s guidance to continue wearing masks in areas with “high” or “substantial” Covid-19 transmission, which includes about 99% of U.S. counties.

States lifting mask mandates include, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Rhode Island. The percentages of people vaccinated in these states are…

  • 66.8% in Delaware and Illinois
  • 68.2% in Oregon
  • 69.6% in California
  • 73.5% in New Jersey
  • 74.8% in New York
  • 77% in Massachusetts
  • 77.2% in Connecticut
  • 79.7% in Rhode Island
  • 59%. in Nevada

That means on average, over 25% of the people in those states are unvaccinated and therefor highly vulnerable to possible hospitalization and death. There are well over 100,000 new cases of Omicron a day. So why are states declaring victory over COVID? There is a new variant on the rise named Stealth BA.2 which spreads even move effectively than Omicron. This variant may create a new wave and stall the drop in hospitalizations as it has in the United Kingdom. In the next two weeks we should see just how bad BA.2 will become. It would make more sense to jump into the freezing water moments before a rescue is on the horizon.

Of 5 to 11 years olds, only 23% are vaccinated and they will be the first to be thrown under the bus. Omicron is more severe in children than adults. 1 in 7 kids can develop long COVID. Children infected then bring the virus home to their parents and grand parents.  There is likely to be another surge in the summer just as there was in 2020 and 2021.

Chris Hayes put out a Tweet saying, ” A big part of American Exceptionalism is just generally tolerating a lot more death and illness and violence and shorter life spans than other peer countries.” Over 900,000 deaths means less in America than it does for other nations. Politicians are fine with justifying the deaths of children, saying the children are dying with COVID rather than from COVID. That is a morally warped semantic perspective that seems to imply that children are expendable. Since the advent of a vaccine to combat COVID over 200,000 unvaccinated Americans have died needlessly due to an aggressive anti science sentiment.

History is once again repeating itself, we have been to this rodeo multiple times during this pandemic. America is unsinkable. This too shall pass, but stay safe in the mean time folks.