Massive Dumps

Posted on by Thor

Since loosing the presidential election the POTUS has been bunkered up in the White House and Tweeting up a storm. His claims of  a “rigged” election are having to be blocked by twitter.

On Tuesday November 17, 2020 he tweeted out a message that fired Chris Krebs, a Top U.S. cybersecurity official who states publicly that, “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.”

On Nov. 12, 2020 his agency Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) declared “there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”

Krebs has drawn praise from both Democrats and Republicans for his handling of the election, which generally ran smoothly despite persistent fears that foreign hackers might try to undermine the vote.

Nearly two weeks after Election Day, Trump has neither called Biden nor made a formal concession. Trump, without using Biden’s name, said that “He won” as part of a tweet that made baseless claims about a “rigged” election.This may be the only form of a concession the nation will ever get from this Tweeting grifter. Ron Klain, who is Joe Biden‘s new chief of staff said, “Donald Trump’s Twitter feed doesn’t make Joe Biden president or not president. The American people did that.”

Just about every day since the election more that 100,000 people have been infected by COVID-19 daily. Hospitals in the Midwest are nearing capacity.  We are entering the most dangerous phase of the pandemic since it is spreading out of control in all 50 state. Stay safe and steer clear of conspiracy theorists. They are bloody crazy, especially this guy with the toilet paper stuck to his shoe.

Waiting Room

Posted on by Thor

People are dying still thinking the COVID-19 virus is a hoax. When it is clear a COVID-19 patient will not survive, hospital staff can only stop the drips, turn off the ventilator and wait. I started this sketch after hearing that doctors had to use Halloween masks since they had run out of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE). Doctors and nurses resorted to using plastic page protectors as face shields as well as ski goggles, plastic garbage bags and duck tape.

If our first responders were sent to war they would be given  the necessary equipment like guns,  helmets and grenades but doctors and nurses had to make do with what they could find or cobble together. They had to rely on sewing circles to create cloth masks. It is a sad reminder of our countries priorities. The stock market seems more important than human life. Pfizer Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla sold company shares worth $5.56 million,  the same day the drug maker reported positive data on its experimental Covid-19 vaccine.

I began too wonder if vintage plague masks could be retrofitted to act as PPE. The beak-like masks were once filled with aromatic items like herbs, straw, and spices which were intended to protect the wearer from putrid air.

With hospitals across the county reaching a “tipping point,” where some patients have to wait for someone to die before they can be treated. Texas has the most COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the U.S., according to the COVID Tracking Project.  In Star County Texas, a committee was formed which would decide which COVID-19 patients are likely to die and those patients would be sent home to die with family. Most people die alone unable to be visited by family.

As of November 9, 2020, hospitalizations are rising in 47 states, according to data collected by The COVID Tracking Project, and 22 states are seeing their highest numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations since the pandemic began. Research found that a 1% increase of COVID-19 patients in a state’s ICU beds will lead to about 2.8 additional deaths in the next seven days. Hospitals in Northwest Wisconsin were full to capacity, as of November 12, 2020 with 100% of its beds filled in the region. Approximately 300 hospital staff in the area are on work restrictions due to exposure to Covid-19. The worst is yet to come.

Cluster 5 Killing 17 Million

Posted on by Thor

Denmark is the world’s biggest producer of Mink for the fur trade. Mink are raised on farms in tightly spaced cages. Mink on a farm caught COVID-19 from a human. Since they are packed so close together the 10,000 mink on this one farm were soon all infected, The virus spread like wild fire over the course of two weeks. It as then discovered that the mink could transmit the disease back to humans. “Cluster 5” is the name given to a mutated variant of the COVID-19 virus.

By Tuesday, November 10, 2020 COVID-19 had been reported on 237 farms in Jutland with further cases suspected on another 33. The Danish government decided they had to destroy all 17 million of the animals in the country. The government ordered a lock down of the effected northern jurisdictions. All cultural institutions, cinemas, theaters, sports and leisure facilities, and dine-in restaurants have been ordered closed, and travel into or out of the municipalities is prohibited.

The concern was that the virus would mutate when it was passes back to humans making it possible that this new strain might not be effected by any vaccine that might be developed.

After the mass murder had been started the prime minister admitted that there was no legal justification for the cull. Police and the armed forces have been deployed and farmers have been told to cull their healthy animals too -but the task will take weeks.

Mink are killed by forcing them into airtight metal boxes. CO2 is then used to gas the animals to death.My sister once had to euthanize a small mouse. It was put in a bucked and gassed. I could hear its tiny gasps and coughs as it threw itself against the side of the container in an attempt to survive. That memory still haunts me. How could it be possible to gas 17 million living beings?

They are then burned along with their fur. Huge trenches are being dug and the animals are being dumped into mass graves.

COVID-19 has infected Minks being raised  on farms in America as well. The census shows that there are 2836 Mink farms in America. 11 mink farms had Covid-19 outbreaks so far in America. On August 6, 2020 a mink farmer in  Utah, reported “deaths in numbers they’d never seen before.” Thousands of Mink have died in Utah and Wisconsin.  A necropsies on some of the the animals found, lungs that were “wet, heavy, red, and angry,” all signs of pneumonia. Researchers in America are now trying to determine whether these workers gave the virus to the mink, or vice versa. Mink suffer similar symptoms to humans. Difficulty breathing and the virus progresses rapidly, with most infected mink dead by the next day.

Now, scientists at University of Oxford, UK have reviewed the data say the mutations themselves aren’t particularly concerning because there is little evidence that they allow the virus to spread more easily among people, make it more deadly or will jeopardize therapeutics and vaccines. The Danish government still wants to kill all 17 million animals since they are so vulnerable to the virus and can spread it to humans. As always America seems to be on a “wait and see” holding pattern. Any Mink infected pose a risk to public health.

Yesterday This as Home: Bus Fire

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Sam was nervous that the driver might return with others capable of who knows what. The possibility existed that he might be lynched for not moving to the back of the bus.As he remembered his nervousness, I have a time lapse painting of a bus fire that occurred in the height of the civil rights movement. The freedom riders were, backs and whites who rode the bus together in solidarity but were beaten and the bus was lit on fire by white supremacists.

From this moment onward, the camera pans up and I painted smoke as it wafted out of the open bus door. This bus fire happened the month I was born and thus after the events that transpired in 1957. The Freedom Riders were attacked by a mob in Anniston, Alabama. The mob attacked the bus with baseball bats and iron pipes. They also slashed the tires. When the hobbled bus pulled over, the mob pulled riders off the bus and beat them with pipes. Then they set the bus on fire.

This film is now on display at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd Orlando FL) for the new exhibition, Yesterday This Was Home, about the 1920 Ocoee Voting Day Massacre. The exhibition is open until February 14, 2021. The 1920 Ocoee Massacre in Orange County, Florida, remains the largest incident of voting-day violence in United States history.

Events unfolded on Election Day 1920, when Mose Norman, a black U.S. citizen, attempted to exercise his legal right to vote in Ocoee and was turned away from the polls. That evening, a mob of armed white men came to the home of his friend, July Perry, in an effort to locate Norman. Shooting ensued. Perry was captured and eventually lynched. An unknown number of African American citizens were murdered, and their homes and community were burned to the ground. Most of the black population of Ocoee fled, never to return.

This landmark exhibition will mark the 100-year remembrance of the Ocoee Massacre. The exhibition will explore not only this horrific time in our community’s history but also historical and recent incidents of racism, hatred, and terror, some right here at home.

The content will encourage reflection on a century of social transformation, the power of perspective, and the importance of exercising the right to vote, and will ask what lessons history can inspire moving forward.

To promote safe distancing, the museum has implemented new ticketing procedures for this special exhibition. For the run of the exhibition, the museum will have extended operating hours to create a safe viewing experience for a greater number of people. On Sundays the museum will open two hours earlier at 10 am. and stay open two hours earlier until 7 p.m. And on Thursdays, we will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Putt the Lame Duck

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Joe Biden was elected president of the United States, but the lame duck Donald Trump is trying to tie up the transition of power with a glut of frivolous lawsuits. The lame ducks can do damage before slinking off on inauguration day, January 20, 2021. Things can get particularly dangerous in this time of COVID-19 crisis. Yesterday November 9, 2020 there were 135,574 new cases of COVID-19 with 1,345 deaths. There have been over 100,000 new cases every day since the election. With the lame duck in charge over 100,000 more people may die before the presidential inauguration.

Trump could encourage the rise of violent domestic terrorists that refuse to accept the outcome of the election while continuing to spread misinformation that the election is being “stolen” from him. Don Jr. has advised him to start having more rallies to incite his “base” and promote the stolen election fraud.

Trump just fired Mark Esper, the countries defense secretary. There is no possible reason for the firing except revenge. Mark Esper apologized to the American people for being seen in the president’s photo opportunity outside the White House when peaceful protestors were gassed to allow Trump to pose with a bible in front of a church. Esper has fought back against using armed military against United States citizens. Esper also backed the idea of renaming military bases named after confederate generals, who like Trump lost the war. Foreign nations are aware of America’s vulnerability during a time of presidential transition and it makes no sense for our defense department to be in turmoil as Biden takes office in January. Trump loyalists are being installed in positions of power in the pentagon. The pentagon might be a hot spot for some radical changes in the next 71 days. It has the smell of Trump trying to create a police state after his loss. Mike Pompeo said in a press briefing today that there will be a second Trump term. Trump’s GOP sycophants seem to be enabling the former president’s fiction that he won the election. They support his fantasy with their silence, fearing death threats from Trump loyalists should they cross him.

Whatever happens in the next two month’s, you can expect Trump to continue his tirade of lies. According to the Washington Post’s analysis, President Trump has made false or misleading claims more than 20,000 times between January 20, 2016 and July 9, 2020. He is likely to issue blanket pardons for himself and his family and destroy any White House documents that could be incriminating.

Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud are causing a continued slip of Americans trust in government. That trust is hard to regain. White supremacists are fueled by Trumps ongoing rhetoric. The Department of Homeland Security finds these domestic terrorists to be the most “persistent and lethal threat” in the US.

I frankly am hopeful that I will no longer have to pay attention to the lame duck grifter.

 

Winter Is Coming

Posted on by Thor

The next two months are going to be the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 100,000 cases have been reported every day since the election. The numbers are going to continue to climb in the next two months until we look back at 100,000 cases a day as the base of the mountain.

There’s a delay between case spikes and death spikes, which means there will be more deaths in the coming weeks and months. Though Joe Biden won the election, this is still Trump’s pandemic for the next two months until Joe is sworn in on January 20, 20201.

About 1,000 plus people are dying a day now and with 73 days until the January 20, 2021 inauguration that means at least  73,000 more deaths before Biden in sworn in. Since the numbers will rise with no control measures from the Trump administration, it is possible for over 100,000 deaths before the inauguration.

The nation is fatigued from seven months of the virus and many are letting their guard down. As we face Thanksgiving and Christmas families want to gather to celebrate and break bread together. Unfortunately, it is exactly these small family gatherings which help spread the virus. Experts are pleading, “Please don’t gather with more than a few carefully chosen people.” Gathering around the table with family for a holiday meal is one of the riskiest things to do this holiday. It is particularly risky since it involves several generations of people who could transmit the virus.

Trump has refused to concedes his loss. We face the following months with a president who is vindictive and abusive. Emily W. Murphy, a Trump appointee, has yet to sign off on a key document needed to formally begin the transition process. Trump is likely to execute a scorched earth policy making it difficult for the next administration to attach the health crisis from day one. Joe Biden has a COVID-19 task force picked out but they are on hold until Trump allows them work work along side his gutted COVID-19 task force.

On person on Biden’s task force is Rick Bright who tried to warn the Trump administration about the dangers of the virus. Back in May he warned that “2020 could be the darkest winter in modern history.” He damn well got that right.  Rick was demoted when he blew the whistle on the Trump administration when they tied to flood the streets with  an unproven drug touted by Trump, Hydroxychloroquine. The malaria drug was proven to have no benefit for COID-19 patients and in some cases was lethal. Had the administration listened to Rick Bright at the beginning of the pandemic, thousands of lives could have been saved.

Election Night Super Spreader

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White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows upstaged the petulant Donald Trump on Election Night. That night, I went to bed knowing full well that the results would take time to count. As I slept it turns out, Trump decided to hold a party in the White House where he threatened democracy by claiming he had won long before the votes had been counted. His fascist authoritarian announcement was pulled off the air by the networks since he was lying. News anchors reacted in horror at this small man’s predictable behavior. Twitter had to block his tweets which were also voter fraud.

Trump’s fascist party in the east room of the White House, was overshadowed by his chief of staff, Mark Meadows who tested positive for COVID-19 the day the after election night bash. The mask less Mark mixed and mingled at the indoor event which consisted of about 400 of Trumps ardent supporters, donors and staff. Despite health officials’ warnings about the risks of large gatherings amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump has continued to bring big groups of people together for outdoor campaign rallies and events at the White House.

The White House has become America’s most famous super spreader hot spot. The White House has been close lipped about exactly how many have contracted the virus in the White House but at least 5 staff have made their illness public. Mark Meadows is infamous for being dismissive of wearing masks. It was Mark who tried to keep news of the White House outbreak from becoming public. When he approached reporters in the White House halls, he took off his mask to speak and reporters reacted in horror. He stomped off refusing to speak to reporters with the mask in place. Meadows was in close contact with President Donald Trump after the president was diagnosed with Covid-19 in early October. Until now he had avoided contracting the virus. Meadows famously announced that the administration was going to do nothing to control the spread of the virus. Essentially the Trump administration had thrown up the white flag of surrender. As he said, “The US would not be able to get the coronavirus under control “because it is a contagious virus.” It is quite simple to to get the pandemic under control, by wearing masks and not holding super spreader events.

Mark Meadows was front and center as hundreds gathered in the White House on election night. He usurped Trump as the super spreader in chief. Guests were reportedly tested before the event began, but, a negative test result doesn’t mean it is safe to mingle with others. Those who were in attendance Election Night are now at risk of having been infected. New cases of COVID-19 have surpassed 100,000 a day every day since the election. America is entering the darkest phase of the pandemic since it began.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the presidential election but they do not take over until January 20, 2021. That leaves us 72 days with a president who ignores the pandemic. We need Biden’s new COVID-19 task force to step up immediately to do something, anything. The two co-chairs of the incoming administration’s task force are Vivek Murthy, the former U.S. surgeon general, and David Kessler, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

Others infected at Election Night Super Spreader Party:

Brian Jack, White House political director

Healy Baumgardner, a former White House Aide

Ben Carson, Housung and Urban Development Secratary

David Bossie, directed election legal challenge

Before these recent cases, at least 28 Trump campaign officials had tested positive for COVID-19.

Yesterday This Was Home: No

Posted on by Thor

This is a short sweet dialogue scene when the 12 year old Sam says, “No.” It is a defining moment when he refused to be moved to the back of the bus. The dialogue is on 4s, meaning each drawing holds for 4 frames of film. I thought that might look clunky, loosing the persistence of vision that makes animation convincing,  but it looks crisp and fast. I like the way it turned out.

This film is now on display at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 East Central Blvd Orlando FL) for the new exhibition, Yesterday This Was Home, about the 1920 Ocoee Voting Day Massacre.

The exhibition is open until February 14, 2021. The 1920 Ocoee Massacre in Orange County, Florida, remains the largest incident of voting-day violence in United States history.

Events unfolded on Election Day 1920, when Mose Norman, a black U.S. citizen, attempted to exercise his legal right to vote in Ocoee and was turned away from the polls. That evening, a mob of armed white men came to the home of his friend, July Perry, in an effort to locate Norman. Shooting ensued. Perry was captured and eventually lynched. An unknown number of African American citizens were murdered, and their homes and community were burned to the ground. Most of the black population of Ocoee fled, never to return.

This landmark exhibition will mark the 100-year remembrance of the Ocoee Massacre. The exhibition will explore not only this horrific time in our community’s history but also historical and recent incidents of racism, hatred, and terror, some right here at home.

The content will encourage reflection on a century of social transformation, the power of perspective, and the importance of exercising the right to vote, and will ask what lessons history can inspire moving forward.

To promote safe distancing, the museum has implemented new ticketing procedures for this special exhibition. For the run of the exhibition, the museum will have extended operating hours to create a safe viewing experience for a greater number of people. On Sundays the museum will open two hours earlier at 10 am. and stay open two hours earlier until 7 p.m. And on Thursdays, we will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Election Day Surge

Posted on by Thor

To date the United States has seen 235,000 deaths from COVID-19. That is 235,000 people who did not vote in the November 3 Election. That is why it is particularly galling to hear Rudy Giuliani claiming that the dead have been voting in the presidential election.  The Borat 2 star said he’d been sent to find out how many dead people had voted in Pennsylvania. It seems that calling the election process into doubt is the only hope for these demented souls.

North Dakota has seen a huge spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths.   David Andahl, a candidate for the “Be Legendary” State Legislature died in October, 2020 from COVID-19 but his name was still on the printed ballot. Andahl, 55, had been hospitalized and died after being sick for about four days. He won the election despite his death. There is now a dispute over what to do with his empty seat.

In Missouri an election judge supervisor was diagnosed positive for COVID-19 on October 30, 2020. No details about the worker, including age or gender, were released. He/she was told to quarantine for 14 days but did not follow that advice and worked at at the Blanchette Park Memorial Hall polling site in St. Charles on Election day, November3, 2020. There were nine other election workers at the polling place and they are being advised to get tested. Since He/she was a supervisor, it is believed that she did not work closely the 1,800 voters who entered the poling place on Election Day. Election workers were required to wear face coverings, such as shields or masks, and dividers separated voters in an effort to curb the virus’ spread. After the election this election judge died. Anyone who was in the precinct on election day is a risk and should monitor themselves closely for symptoms. This case is stark reminder that a positive COVID-19 test result requires that person to be responsible to others in the community.

On November 5, 2020   the US set a staggering new Covid-19 daily case record with more than 120,000 infections. The situation continues to get worse as the nation focuses on Election results.

Treading Water

Posted on by Thor

As of this writing the election for the President of the United States is still up in the air. Even if Joe Biden is elected into office, he will not take office until January 20, 2021. That means the United States will go through two more months with no leadership when it comes to handling the COVID-19 pandemic.

We as a nation have to tread water during a huge spike in COVID-19 cases. The worst is ahead of us. Waiting for the election results feels like dropping below the waters surface.

By late November to early December each state has its own deadline to certify the election. However, if ballot disputes, litigation or other factors delay the count, blowing this deadline doesn’t invoke a penalty in the presidential race.

December 8, 2020 is the safe harbor deadline. Congress can no longer challenge any state electors.

December 14, 2020 is the date when electors are required to meet in their states and cast their ballots for President.

December 23, 2020 the states electors are supposed to transmit their votes to Congress by this date.

January 3, 2020 the new Congress is sworn in.

January 20, 2021 the Constitution says a new presidential term begins.

So, until January 20, 2021 Trump is in charge and likely ignoring the pandemic as he always has. Over 100,000 American are now being infected each day, which is a new record, and death rates continue to rise as hospitals are strained to their breaking points. In recent weeks, Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci have become increasingly outspoken about the dangers of the president’s approach with the virus. Trump has pushed Birx and Fauci aside in favor of Dr. Atlas who is not an expert on infectious diseases and claimed masks do not work.  Masks do work, wear a mask.

If he’s elected, Biden’s COVID-19 advisory panel would work in parallel to President Trump’s diminished coronavirus task force. The task force would include former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler, New York University’s Dr. Celine Gounder, Yale’s Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, former Obama White House aide Dr. Zeke Emanuel and former Chicago Health Commissioner Dr. Julie Morita, who is now an executive vice president at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The team is expected to advise transition officials on managing the latest spike of Covid-19 cases, ensuring vaccines are safe, and protecting at risk populations. It is unclear how much this new task force can accomplish before the inauguration. The Biden transition team has also discussed contingency plans for the possibility that the Trump administration would refuse to cooperate and share information during a transition.

As of Election Day, the virus has killed more than 230,000 people in the U.S. and infected more than 9 million. In the 86 days until he inauguration, 100,000 more Americans will likely die from the virus if the president doesn’t shift course, said Dr. Robert Murphy, executive director of the Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, echoing estimates from other public health experts. Stay safe and keep treading water.