Foxconn

Posted on by admin

Protests erupted at Foxconn the huge iPhone manufacturing plant in Zhenvgzhou China.Police in hazmat suits clubbed the factory workers protesting.

Last month, the factory was locked down due to rising COVID cases. Some workers scaled the fences to break out and go home. Former workers estimate that thousands have fled the factory campus. The company then recruited new workers with the promise of generous bonuses.

Rumors circulated that new recruits were being asked to share dormitories with workers who were Covid-positive. When new workers arrived they were told they would not get the bonuses promised until they had worked at the much lower pay for several weeks. One protestor via a live stream said, “They changed the contract so that we could not get the subsidy as they had promised. They quarantine us but don’t provide food.”

Foxconn has established closed loop operations at the plant, keeping it isolated from the wider city of Zhengzhou. Workers are not supposed to leave. The Zhengzhou plant employs more than 200,000 people. It is not known how many are infected with COVID. “It’s now evident that closed-loop production in Foxconn only helps in preventing COVID from spreading to the city, but does nothing (if not make it even worse) for the workers in the factory,” Aiden Chau of China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based advocacy group, said in an email.

Foxconn has apologized for a “technical error” in its payment systems, a day after its iPhone factory in China was rocked by angry protests. The iPhone factory apologized for the violence against employees. One new employee was paid 8,000 yuan ($1,120) and was set to receive another 2,000 yuan ($280).

China has recorded its highest number of daily Covid cases since the pandemic began,

 

COVID-19 Orphans

Posted on by admin

A paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association out of the University of Oxford, reported that 10.5 million children world wide have lost parents or care givers due to COVID-19 from January 1, 2020 to May 1. 2022. 7.5 million children were left orphaned with both parents dying from COVID-19. The Imperial College of London offers a daily report on the number of children who have lost a care giver on any given day. As of September 13, 2022 that number has risen to 10.6 million children.

40.6% of these children are in South East Asia, 24.3% are in Africa, 14% in the Americas, 14.6 in the Eastern Mediterranean, 4.7% in Europe, and 1.8% in the Western Pacific region. In India there are 3.5 million orphaned children due to COVID-19.

In America from April 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021, data suggest that more than 140,000 children under age 18 in the United States lost a parent, custodial grandparent, or grandparent caregiver who provided the child’s home and basic needs, including love, security, and daily care. Approximately 1 out of 500 children in the United States has experienced COVID-19-associated orphan hood or death of a grandparent caregiver. “Children facing orphan hood as a result of COVID is a hidden, global pandemic that has sadly not spared the United States,” said Susan Hillis, CDC researcher and lead author of the study.

With America’s COVID-19 relief funding being cut by the Senate across the board, there is no help for these children who have lost everything. Florida’s “Stunt Governor” Ron DeathSantis has vowed to coerce as many of Florida’s COVID orphans as he can onto a plane to Martha’s Vineyard to gain notoriety in his bid to run for president.

Grant School Dumont, New Jersey

Posted on by admin

I am teaching online students how to draw using two point perspective. I have decided to combine these tutorials along with the idea of sketching building from my past and my families past. Since my students and I are not on location, I encourage them to look up a building in their hometown on Google maps and then find a street view of the building to work from.

I attended Grant School 100 Grant Avenue in Dumont, New Jersey, from kindergarten through 1971 when my family moved to Tenafly New Jersey. I recall getting in trouble in kindergarten for refusing to take nap time. Some of my earliest art work was exhibited on the fence in front of the school. I used to sketch the Mercury space capsule over and over again as a child. I knew how to draw every knit bolt an rivet on the capsule.  It is a shame none of those space capsule sketches survived.

I remember it being a big deal when I was finally able to ride my bike to school.

The school is named for General Ulysses S. Grant who led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War in 1865 and thereafter briefly served as Secretary of War. Later, as president, Grant was an effective civil rights executive who created the Justice Department and worked to protect African Americans during Reconstruction.

Korean Military Fight Omicron

Posted on by admin

North Korea is battling an explosive COVID-19 outbreak. Experts are raising concerns that the virus could devastate a country where few have been vaccinated against the disease, medical supplies are limited and the health system in a dilapidated state.

Dictator Kim Jong Un, ordered the army to get to work “on immediately stabilizing the supply of medicines in Pyongyang”, where officials said the Omicron BA.2 variant was confirmed in at least one death last week.

As of 6pm on May 16, 2022, five days after announcing the outbreak, North Korea had reported a total of 1.48 million cases of ‘fever’, It also announced a further six deaths. It is almost guaranteed that those numbers are but a fraction of the actual totals since the dictator can in his own mind do no wrong.

The North Korean dictator had been offered assistance from South Korea, China, and the World Health Organization (WHO) but all help has been refused. Kim, who considers himself a god like figure, thinks that he is the only one who can help his people. Rather than accept vaccines from abroad, he thinks his nation will find the best cure for COVID.

Kim has said the outbreak is causing “great turmoil” in the country and on Sunday visited pharmacies neat the capital’s Taedong river, state media KCNA reported.

Despite the public health crisis, new satellite imagery indicates North Korea has resumed construction at a long-dormant nuclear reactor and officials in Washington and Seoul have warned that Kim is preparing to conduct another nuclear test.

Analysts have warned Kim could speed up nuclear testing plans to distract the population from the outbreak.

A huge military parade in North Korea on April 25, 2022 was likely a superspreader event that quickly spread the virus through the county. Send in the tanks.

Spring Plant

Posted on by admin

I had a request while back to do a simple spring scene. People want to believe the pandemic is over and return to life as normal. So what is this “new normal?” Deaths are trending down and we seem to have become comfortable with about 3oo deaths a day due to COVID-19.

However due to BA.2, cases are trending upwards once again. Since many test at home or do not test at all, it is impossible to fully assess this new approaching wave. America is fast approaching one million dead since the start of the pandemic. Globally the number of dead may be triple the numbers officially reported.

A bipartisan group of scientists and health and policy experts calling themselves the COVID roadmap group are releasing a blueprint Monday of how we could move into what they call “the next normal.” The world won’t return to a pre-COVID normal. Could the future see better testing and treatment for this airborne virus?

COVID is here to stay. The opportunity to contain the virus has long since been fumbled. We need to figure out how to live much more safely way with it. We need to do much better with testing. For example, one of the things we want to really achieve is what is called test and treat. So if you find you have symptoms of COVID, you should be able to get tested within hours. Then on the spot, you receive one of the prescriptions for very effective drugs. The problem is that the whole U.S health system is broken and getting instant treatment is only available for the rich and well insured. The costs involved will keep the uninsured form seeking treatment and the virus will continue to spread.

If COVID becomes endemic, and everyone lets their guard down, then there’s a risk that many more Americans will experience long COVID creating huge and lasting health impacts. This is the yet unrecognized terrible tale of COVID. As an artist I can not afford to live life with blinders. When I look I see.

Stealth Omicron Special Operation

Posted on by admin

COVID-19 is re-grouping in the North East for a renewed campaign of it’s “Special Operation.” The so-called Stealth Omicron (BA.2) variant is now the dominant COVID-19 strain in the United States, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

American however have let their guard down and turned their back on the enemy allowing for a full unchecked frontal attack.

A Trump appointed Federal Judge in Florida blocked the CDC’s masking guidelines on airlines. The CDC itself re-evaluated it’s guidance for the maps that shows where outbreaks are occurring. On top of that people are no longer using COVID testing sites instead relying on less accurate at home tests. Americans will simply not see this next wave coming. America has again decided to remain blind in fighting an enemy that can not be seen.

The Biden White House requested 22.5 Billion dollars to fight COVID-19 but that was cut down to 10 Billion allowing for no intentional aid. As long as the virus is anywhere in the world, it is everywhere in the world. This is a simple idea that legislators do not seem to understand. Of course all this aid will come too   late as the BA.2 variant begins it’s exponential growth in America in the coming weeks.

Vaccine Hunger Games

Posted on by admin

The botched United States Government roll out of the COVID-19 vaccine has been referred to as the Vaccine Hunger Games. After being sworn in, President Joe Biden found out that the former administration literally had NO PLAN for vaccine distribution. His administration will have to start from scratch. The former administration said there was a reserve of vaccines on hand to be used for a second inoculation for people who got the first shot and Biden decided to use that reserve to get more shots in arms up front. However once in office he found out that there was no reserve.

Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis has had a disjointed plan in distributing vaccines. The Governor said he is not smart enough to figure out how to best get vaccine shots in arms. He is leaving it up to hospital administrators. At first hospitals were assigned the task of giving the shots to essential workers but the governor’s plan quickly changed to include anyone 65 years and older. That forced health departments to scrap plans to inoculate grocery store clerks and teachers. By setting the age to 65 instead of 75 the Governor created a melee as thousands fought for the limited supply of vaccines. It would be survival of the fittest or most tech savvy.  Senior citizens sat in lawn chairs sometimes overnight to try and get the limited number of shots. People are facing dead phone lines and overloaded websites which crash from the overload. Many are having to travel to other counties in their quest for a shot. The statewide vaccination rate is less than 5 percent of the vaccine that was sent to the state. Since every state has its own plan the overall distribution has been chaos up until now. On top of this each state has no idea how many doses they will be getting which making it impossible to ramp up the distribution process.

On a positive note, it looks like the National case numbers are starting to fall from the height of over 250,000 cases a day earlier in January. I also post risk levels for each state each day and for a solid month every state was blood red meaning every sate was a high risk for COVID-19 infection. However over the last weeks several northern states have been showing signs of improvement. Today Maine turned green for the first time in months meaning it is moving in the right direction. The effects of vaccines on the numbers will not be immediate so the basic precautions, of wearing masks, social distancing and washing hands often, are the best defense of combating this virus until enough people are vaccinated. About 90% of the population needs to get the vaccine for herd immunity to protect everyone from the virus. The other 10% would be protected thanks to the virus’s inability to spread among the other 90% of the population. It will require a major campaign to convince 90% of Americans to get vaccinated.

My sister in South West Florida made it her full time job to get vaccinated and I am thankful that as of yesterday she succeeded. It was a log arduous battle for her but she won the Hunger Games.

 

A Very Dangerous Game

Posted on by admin

The world, especially countries like the United States, is playing a “very dangerous game” with the novel coronavirus, giving it more chances to mutate as the virus spreads, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said.

“We’re playing a very dangerous game with this virus right now,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead for the coronavirus response, told CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. “What worries us is that the longer this spreads the more opportunities it has to change.”

She pointed out that some countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, have done a better job controlling the virus. “It’s completely up to us to be able to bring the virus under control,” she said. “The virus is controllable, including these variants.”

The B117 variant of the COVID-19 virus was first seen in the UK. Scientists in the U.K. estimate that the new variant is 40-70% more infectious based on analysis of affected populations in Britain. It has since been found in the United states. This variation of the virus has become more contagious. A new study ha found that 60% of cases are spread by people who show no symptoms. The new strain has been found so far in 8 states and 33 counties. Florida reported its first case Dec. 31 in a Martin County man in his 20s with no travel history. That means the virus had been spreading freely by community transmission. The CDC said it expects the variant is already spreading among communities in multiple states, according to a report from The Washington Post. Currently, there is no evidence that this variant causes more severe illness or increased risk of death. However with more people being infected the hospital systems could become overrun. In California EMTs are being told not to transport patients in the ambulance if they don’t think patients can survive.

Election Asteroid

Posted on by admin

Asteroid 2018VP1 is approximately 6.5 feet in diameter and it is headed towards Earth. It is slated to be withing 300 miles of earth the day before the presidential election in November. NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory first identified  the asteroid at Palomar Observatory in California in 2018. That explains the 2018 in the name. Perhaps VP stands for Vice President?

The asteroid poses no imminent threat to the earth. Should it enter the atmosphere it would burn up in the atmosphere. The chances of the asteroid actually striking the earth are just 0.41%. But hey this is 2020 them seem like pretty good odds. The orbital graph does not show it hitting the earth. This year’s flyby will be the asteroid’s first close approach to Earth since it was discovered.

Another asteroid will make a close approach on Election Day itself, November 3, 2020. That space rock, dubbed 2020 HF4, is somewhat larger at 26 to 60 feet (8 to 18 m) across, but will remain much, much farther away, about 16 times the distance of the moon. Far more dangerous is asteroid Trump whose orbit if far more unpredictable.

When Donald Trump was asked if he would call on his supporters to stay calm and desist from civil unrest in the immediate aftermath of next month’s election., Trump responded, “I’m urging my supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully, because that’s what has to happen. I’m urging them to do it.” Since that remake by the president was made, the FBI launched a series of arrests of militia members and others plotting to kidnap the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, and attack law enforcement.

Don’t let Donald Trump and his minions scare you away from the poles on election day. You will have already survived a near miss from a refrigerator sized piece of cosmic dust.

Weaponizing QAnon

Posted on by admin

QAnon is a right wing  conspiracy theory that claims that dozens of Satan-worshiping politicians and A-list celebrities work in tandem with governments around the globe to engage in child sex abuse. The group also peddles in conspiracies about COVID-19 and mass shootings. None of the fan fiction is grounded in reality. Followers also believe there is a “deep state” effort to annihilate Trump. Lawmakers drafted a bipartisan resolution in the US House to condemn the organization.

The FBI determined the online cabal to be a potential source of domestic terrorism, the first time the agency had so rated a fringe conspiracy theory. In the age of the pandemic this has become an online form of a cult. A memo issued on May 30, 2019 by the FBI said, “These conspiracy theories very likely will emerge, spread, and evolve in the modern information marketplace, occasionally driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts.” West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center reported, “Though less organized than jihadi or far-right extremists, QAnon represents a novel challenge to public security,” it said, “QAnon also represents a militant and anti-establishment ideology rooted in an apocalyptic desire to destroy the existing, corrupt world to usher in a promised golden age,”

Trump had amplified QAnon messaging at least 216 times by retweeting or mentioned 129 Q Anon-affiliated Twitter accounts, sometimes multiple times a day. When asked directly, Trump praised its followers for supporting him and shrugging off its outlandish conspiracies. Trump responded, “I have heard that it’s gaining in popularity,” He followed with, “I don’t know much about the movement, other than I understand they like me very much. Which I appreciate.”

The campaign of Democratic nominee Joe Biden responded to Trump’s comments, accusing the President of “giving voice to violence.” QAnon has been connected to several incidents of violence or threatened violence.

In April 2020, an Illinois woman was arrested in New York City for driving onto a pier with a car full of knives in an apparent attempt to reach a Navy hospital ship housing COVID-19 patients. In a live stream of her travels, the woman threatened to kill Joe Biden over claims of sex trafficking. In June 2020, a Massachusetts man led police on a chase through Massachusetts and New Hampshire with his five children in the car. In a live-stream Facebook video of the event, the man discussed QAnon conspiracies. An Arizona man harassed and publicly broadcasting private or identifying information about locals he suspected of participating in the child sex trafficking ring at the heart of the conspiracy theory; and a Nevada man at the Hoover Dam whose truck was found to contain rifles and other ammunition, who was later discovered to have sent letters to President Trump containing references to the movement.

There have also been violent incidents related to a Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which claimed a pizza shop was running a child sex trafficking ring run by Hillary Clinton and other Democratic officials. One armed man entered a Washington pizzeria in 2016 to investigate the baseless theory; another man motivated by the conspiracy theory started a fire at the same pizza joint in 2019.

Mary Ann Mendoza an activist who was scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night August 25, 2020 was abruptly yanked off the program after it was reported that she had shared an anti-Semitic QAnon conspiracy theory on social media hours ahead of her scheduled appearance.

Facebook on Wednesday August 26, 2020 banned about 900 pages and groups and 1,500 ads tied to the pro-Trump conspiracy theory QAnon, part of a sweeping action that also restricted the reach of over 10,000 Instagram pages and almost 2,000 Facebook groups pushing the baseless conspiracy theory that has spawned real-world violence. The trouble is that policing on social media is difficult because the informaton can be shared in other less obvious pages and groups.

YouTube’s recommended videos algorithm, which offers content similar to what you’re currently watching, has also been identified as a radicalizing force for many who harbor extremist views, easily allowing users to go down a rabbit hole of misinformation by “slowly introducing you to ideas that are outside the norm.”

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told the Daily Dot, “I mean, the allowance of misinformation and disinformation to be widespread and frankly the Republican encouragement of that, has now kind of created this ecosystem that they no longer feel they have control of.” She listed other deep-standing issues as “the fundamental lack of trust in institutions, lack of trust in money and power that creates this very fertile ground for conspiracy theories to grow.” She added: “I think that we see how the president is weaponizing it. It’s very clear that he has identified this as an asset to him.” Simply put, the conspiracy theory helps Donald Trump’s goal of sewing division and his attacks on truth.