#Many law school the tests were by hand until COVID

[rahabs]

I was going to say I was happy I did all my schooling/degrees before the propagation of AI because now all the teachers and professors are going to be going back to writing exams and tests by hand due to the high potential for cheating, but then I remembered I’m old and in my decades of schooling the only times I was ever allowed to use a computer for any of my tests were during the COVID years. Everything else I did write by hand, and my professors and teachers despaired because my actual handwriting was and continues to be horrible.

[animentality]

not to be a boomer, but I do worry about the current generation of kids being raised with iPads.

first off. some of them literally can't hold a pencil because their parents never gave them physical toys to grip and play with, developing their fine motor skills.

you might ask why do we even need to learn how to write physically anymore- well, frankly, because if you're stranded on an island somewhere and you need to write HELP, you might not have the strength to hold a pencil, but you can at least hold a stick.

but on a more general note.

writing by hand helps you remember things better. it forces you to focus in a way that typing something word for word does not. a person can transcribe what a professor says without even thinking about it.

someone writing notes has to consider what to write and what to omit. it also activates more parts of your brain, forcing you to flex the parts of your brain related to learning and communicating, while also engaging the part of your brain dedicated to muscle control and precision.

but in general, I think the issue isn't even oh technology is bad and kids are getting dumber.

you can have PowerPoints AND take physical notes. that could help you learn even better than the olden days where you just had to remember everything that was thrown at you. or read very limited, out of date books.

the problem is that the generation that raised/is raising this generation of children just doesn't understand the true impact that all this technology will have on their kids. or they just don't care.

because our generation had the internet yes, but it wasn't widely accessible for most of us, sharing our computers with the entire family in the kitchen. it was also the internet in its infancy, where it wasn't quite so predatory, when it was lawless and disturbing, yes, but it wasn't weaponized by corporations trying to sell you things and steal your data, it wasn't flooded with bots and ai and all sorts of things that the human brain can't even distinguish as real or fake, especially when you're just a little kid.

that generation still played with physical toys. we celebrated when it snowed and we could stay home.

we also came from a gen that still, vaguely, cared about some form of community and had third spaces for kids to hang out.

90s children, who still had some memories of both playing outside on a playground and playing Mario Kart on the Nintendo 64 with their friends, who both went out to the mall and had a club penguin account.

we grew up with laptops and smart boards. maybe some of us had them in high school or college, but we still physically went to class and developed relationships. learned uncomfortable things about ourselves and others, the way humans do.

met new people and were exposed to new ideas, away from our parents. but not from some fucking influencer trying to sell us Sephora products.

we had to study for things, instead of just being able to Google shit for some bullshit online test.

which is also something that really concerns me. so many kids today can so easily Google answers for every test, and while tests don't ultimately matter in the real world, they still provide some basis for things that do matter.

like I'm just imagining medical students googling how to perform an appendectomy on the day of, and just using a YouTube tutorial to guide them through, and shuddering.

there are some things that the Internet can't teach you.

there always will be.

but I don't think my generation is really helping their kids find the balance that we were given naturally growing up.

the boomers and gen xers had fist fights and we had bullying someone online until they committed suicide.

and now kids use AI to spread fake nudes of girls.

but the laws haven't caught up with a lot of this stuff yet, and certainly won't while we have dinosaurs running our government. and culture takes even longer to change than laws.

I also worry because I know how badly covid affected kids worldwide. how they struggle to read and do math, because remote learning just isn't good for kids.

and I can't even blame them!! I literally teleworked for 4 years and even I can admit that I'm not nearly as good at focusing at home as I am in the office.

it's hard for kids with social anxiety and disabilities, yes I know, I know, trust me, I have social anxiety, and as a hybrid worker ATM, I highly doubt I'd be able to handle 5 days a week in the office.

but it's also not particularly good for kids to stay home ALL the time, entertaining themselves in their room and never being challenged, and never meeting people other than their parents.

the iPad is more of a symbol of that problem than the direct problem.

if your entire... world view is limited to what you can see on your iPad... I mean what a terrible world view you'll have.

you're a 10 year old using TikTok and all you ever see is the same opinion over and over until you can scarcely comprehend people who have an opposing opinion.

you see fake videos that seem so real. that must be real, and so comforting, aren't they, those videos that seem so real?

you let 30 year old influencers who are trying to grift people shape your world view.

and it's not even your fault.

your parents aren't doing anything to help you.

you're young and you're being barraged with entertainment and fake educational videos and how to guides that accidentally create mustard gas in your toilet.

your parents should be teaching you to find a balance between these things. they should be telling you what's real and caution you about the things you see.

they should limit your fucking time on the iPad actually. take you to a fucking park and let you roll in the mud or some shit.

and then when you're a teenager and a young adult, then you can start deciding for yourself what you believe.

but a lot of these weird millennial/gen z parents, man. just let your 1 year old scroll through vids on TikTok while you don't even talk to them or look at them once.

maybe it's because they don't see the harm in it, but I don't get it.

adults can watch TikTok all day and know, ahhh this is bad for me. I'm not doing anything I actually want to be doing.

adults can see other adults doing dumb shit and say ah you're sponsored. someone paid you money to say and do that. silly.

but kids are just kids.

they don't have discipline and frankly, that's not their responsibility. that is yours.

you should be teaching them that they can't have everything in life at their finger tips at all times, actually.

the iPad doesn't solve all of your problems, nor will it think critically for you.

so I worry about if humanity can really keep up with its own technology.

our species is still in its infancy, believe it or not.

so maybe these are just growing pains, and future generations will be able to look back on this era and know the proper balance.

but as someone living in 2024.

I wonder just how much pain is left before we really mature and either make it or break it.

[redheadinjapan]

JET Orientation in Tokyo: What To Expect

Even with my flight delay, there was so much to say about orientation I decided to make a whole post. Due to the delay, I missed half of the JET orientation in Tokyo, which meant I didn’t quite get the full experience. However, there was still plenty to do once we got there and since we didn’t get much information on what it would be like beforehand, I thought it was important to write about it.

The first day was more flight than orientation. Since everyone from one region goes on the same plane, you move through customs and baggage as a big blob of foreigners. At the end, JET representatives pick you up and bus you to the hotel. There might be a short information session or a welcome banquet that first day depending on the situation, but nothing more. They understand that everyone’s jet lagged, especially when most flights are several-hours long (mine was in the double digits!). But if you’re feeling up to it (once COVID isn’t a concern), then you can take some time to see Tokyo. Even though my group got there late, the JET orientation in Tokyo continued as scheduled since the other groups arrived on time, but we didn’t go to any sessions the day we arrived.

The second and third days were full of lectures to attend, dressed in business attire. We got handouts to help us follow along as well as a paper to hand in at each major session as a form of attendance. The second day in Tokyo (the one I missed) focused on general information, like Japanese law, the Japanese school system, and disaster preparation. There were some notes on helping in the classroom; however, most of that information came on day three during an in-depth dive into being an assistant language teacher (ALT). They walked us through some activities and gave us teaching tips. There was also an end-of-orientation survey to fill out that counted toward attendance, too.

Outside of the information sessions, there were other parts of orientation I appreciated. We finally got to meet some of the other JETs going to various places around the country (some of us for the first time). There are usually some in-person events before you leave, but, again, COVID so…yeah, not this year. Plus, they had cell phone company stands on the top floor until about 8 pm each day so you could get a Japanese phone number and pocket wifi. A Japanese phone number is important if you’re going to be in Japan for a long time because many forms ask for one. The day I went by, there were two companies: Sakura Mobile and Mobal. Both are big networks with wide coverage, but it’s best to get recommendations from your predecessor or other JETs in your area if you can.

The hotel we stayed at for the JET orientation in Tokyo was very nice. We each got our own room, though that might have been another COVID precaution. The halls for orientation were on the lower floors, and the extra stuff was on the top floor. There was also a desk on the top floor where we had to check in once a day as what I can only assume was yet another way to take attendance, though it might have also been to make sure you didn’t have missing paperwork or anything. On the bottom floor, there were restaurants and a convenience store. They tried to scare us into staying locked down with a story about someone testing positive for COVID at orientation the month before (suspiciously, the same story the people who arrived the month before heard…and the early arrivals from April too…). But some people went out anyway. It is Tokyo, after all.

I found the JET orientation in Tokyo to be very helpful. While some who had teaching experience complained about attending certain sessions, they were good for people with less classroom experience. As for the sessions my group missed, they asked us to watch them after arriving in our placement towns, though whether two weeks was enough time for that is up for debate. Not only did we start work immediately, but some unlucky people didn’t have wifi by then! Still, I managed to (mostly) finish the rest of the sessions and have been putting some of my new knowledge to use.

[90spumkin]

Love Knows No Bounds

Summary: This is just a cute little fic about Spencer being a Dad because I feel that we were rob of that.

A/N: So what do I do with my spare time after testing positive for Covid? I write this gem instead of doing my psychology homework or editing ‘Unexpected Switch Part Three’. I hope you all enjoy this though.

Warning: None... I don’t think...I’m always scared that I’m going to forget something and not warn ya’ll so like always if you see anything please tell me!

Word Count: 1501

Spencer Reid could say the word love in multiple languages. He could give you synonyms for the word that you would have to google to even know existed. But he found it hard to describe what love felt like, especially in this moment.

As he held his precious newborn baby daughter for the very first time, he realized the love he was feeling was so overwhelming hard to describe. As he ran his thumb across the baby’s soft cheek and smiled, he came to the conclusion that this love was just a pure love. It is so different from the love he has for his wife, his mom, or his BAU team.

 He looked up from the bundle in his arms to see his wife smiling from her hospital bed as she watched him bond with their baby. He smiled back and walked over and gave her a kiss on the forehead all while ushering her ‘to get some sleep’.

 The nurse walks in not long after to check the vitals of his wife and daughter and she notices that he couldn’t take his eyes off either of the sleeping females. She smiled and asks, “May I ask how you came up with the baby girl’s name?”

Spencer’s smile was so big it took up most of his face as he told the nurse, “Eliza is for my wife’s mother, Diana is my mother’s name, and Faith is for the faith we had that this pregnancy would be the one we longed for after two miscarriages.”

The nurse finished checking the vitals and told Spencer, “Well it is a very lovely name.”

Spencer just kind of laughed to himself and said to himself after the nurse was long gone, “It is the loveliest name for the loveliest girl.”

——

It has been 5 years since the first day Spencer held his baby girl for the first time. And the love he felt then seems to only get stronger every day if that is even possible.

As he sits in his favorite chair reading to Eliza and listening to his wife singe while she cooks in the kitchen after long week gone due to a case; Spencer is overwhelmed once again with love.

 He finishes the book only to have Eliza climb down from his lap and disappear into her room. She then comes running back with another book and says, “Please Daddy just one more?” She gives him her big brown puppy dog eyes that mirror his own and he can’t help but to sit her in his lap once more and begin reading.

All while this is happening his wife is watching and still quietly singing with a smile on her face while she to is overwhelmed with love.

————

Love can be shown in many ways and the worry and protectiveness Spencer was feeling right now was a prime example. Him and his wife new that Eliza would be special since a very young age, but it never once crossed Spencer’s mind that she would get bullied for it. He did not feel like a genius for not thinking of this considering he too got bullied in school for being “to smart”.

As Eliza sat between Spencer and his wife, he could hear her tiny sobs and her whispers of continuously asking, “Why do they hate me?”

This absolutely broke Spencer’s heart. His wife was smoothing their daughters hair down and soothingly trying to talk to her when Eliza sat up and look Spencer right in the eyes and said, “I blame you!” and stormed into her room and slammed the door.

Spencer was in so much shock that he hadn’t realized he had tears forming in his eyes. His wife got his attention and told me, “Spence go talk to her. She’s just hurt and needs her Dad no matter what she says.”

Spencer nodded, gave his wife a kiss, and walked to his crying daughters room. He knocked once he reached her door and when he got no response, he hesitantly opened the door. He found Eliza sitting on her bed with dry tear stains on her cheeks and small hiccups. She looked up as he entered, and she threw her arms around him and apologized over and over for saying what she did.

Spencer hugged his little girl back tightly and they sat on her bed and he began to tell her of all the great things she will be able to accomplish with her brilliant mind. He threw some funny stories in there so he could hear her sweet laugh and see her face brighten up as she smiled.

It did not take long till she had fallen asleep, worn out by all the crying. As he sat and watched his sweet Eliza sleep, he made a vow to do everything his power to never let her feel like this ever again.

———-

Spencer was once again recalling how love has many forms, and this time love was causing him pain. Eliza was in her 10th year of high school, and the youngest of her class she was bound to go through some phases. Well she was going through one heck of a rebellious stage.

“Eliza Diana Faith Reid get in here now!” He had to force himself to calm down trying not to get to worked up. His wife ran a hand across his back trying to calm him some before their daughter walked in.

She came into the living room and ask, “What?” with so much attitude it took everything Spencer had to not just ground her right then and there without getting an explanation for what he had summoned her for.

He held up a pregnancy test he had accidentally found while gathering the trash from her bedroom earlier that day.

“Do you care to explain why you have a used pregnancy test in your bedroom?” He asked as calmly as he possibly could.

Eliza stood there in fear, “It’s not mine I promise! Ummm, Teresa got involved with this senior and she was scared to take the test at her house, so she took it here. I did not realize she had thrown it away here. You have to believe me Dad!”

Spencer pinched the bridge of his nose as his wife says, “Teresa was here Tuesday it is very possible.”

The intelligent Doctor looked between his wife and daughter and realized that Eliza’s fear was not fear of consequences but fear of him not trusting her. Spencer nodded and whispered a small, “Okay I believe you.”

Eliza gave both her parents quick hugs before returning to her room.

Spencer practically threw himself onto the couch and his wife followed him. They looked at each other and began to laugh at the events that had just played out. Spencer thought how love had made it painful to accuse his daughter of a rebellious act, but how it made him happy knowing by the look on his daughter’s face she would never go that far to disappoint him.

——-

Love has made Spencer feel many other different emotions over the years and today was no different. As he sat watching his wife a daughter scream and jump with joy, what Spencer was feeling was pride.

His sweet Eliza was accepted to many different colleges across the U.S. and a few abroad, but none of them had been her dream school until her acceptance letter from Harvard came in.

“I can’t believe I got in! The Law School program at that!” Eliza all but squealed.

Spencer chuckled and said, “I still don’t see why you wasn’t this excited about CalTech?”

Eliza just rolled her eyes and groaned. Spencer once again chuckled and hugged his daughter and told her, “I am so happy for you and beyond proud of you baby girl!”

He looked up at his wife over their daughters’ shoulder and saw she was taking a picture to capture this love filled moment.

———-

As Spencer walked down the aisle to give his baby girl away, he remembered every moment he had with his daughter. His eidetic memory not letting him miss a single thing. He felt the same overwhelming love then as he had the first day he held her in his arms.

He stood at the alter to give his precious Eliza away to the man who would now get the chance to feel the love that knowing her brings. As he goes to part from her, she hugs him and whispers, “I love you more than you could ever imagine.” As they pull away with tears in bother their eyes he smiles and tell her, “I love you more than humanly possible.” She gives a small laugh as she joins her future husband he sits beside his wife. And she takes his hand and he kisses the crown of her head and listens to Eliza say her vows he cannot help but to agree when she says, “Love knows no bounds.”

*

*

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@criminalmindzjunkie​ @hendersonsshadow​ @brooklynxnicole​

[fandom-imagination-ss]

Authors Note: Hey! So this is a request. And it’s a Smut So perpare yourself. Sorry it took so long, between trying too write it. And Drama with life. I got too be a proud owner of a Shinny new Sickness! Lol 😂 I was in and out for a week. NOT COVID! My skull is swelling up, Long story short. The Doctor I delt with refused too take my Swollen Skull and my memory lost (which I was having ) as serious. He diagnosed it with I had a Bad reaction too a bug bite… been dealing with this issues since Feb before the bugs were out. He refused too do tests on me until there is Snow on the ground.. (I’m Dead serious! I have too wait until November/ December too have this be a taken seriously)It’s been a hassle. The stories alone about the Memory loss should be a different post cause in the. Short week I was having memory issues I got into weird situations. My head however now is better! Still slightly swollen and I’m on day 13 of headaches. Now that my personal excuse for why this is so late is explained I would like too also apologize if it’s Not what you wanted lol 😂 Smut isn’t something I’m use too writing and I struggled. So Hopefully it’s Good! And as requested It’s LONG on word it’s 12 pages long lol so Enjoy the length!

Did I Proof read?: Define proofread lol

Rating: Rating is Smut! So 18 +

Warnings?: unprotected sex, sub / Dom like behaviour (loosely) public sexual acts, adult Toys

Paring: Klaus and Y/N

Appearances by: Klaus mikelson, Kol and Elijah Mikelson

Length of imagine: 12 pages

Requested imagine:

You have had three encounter with Klaus Mikaelson, All awkward, strange and each time endings with you Begging and Hoping too Die from your embarrassment. Each time unsuccessful dying from it. But it gave your classmate Kol (who happens too be Klaus’s Brother) ammo too torment you. Kol being a classmate / friend / tormented. He was a friendenemy. You sort of got along, but he loved, LOVED teasing you! Especially after you met his other brothers.

The first encounter you had with Kol’s brother Klaus. was at a bar with Kol, a few of your friends from class. All of you were learning too be Lawyers. Studying for the Bar, extremely exhausted from your long week. You were dragged too the bar. Where you Drank. (If remembering correctly It was Kol who was shoving the shots too everyone) that’s when the Greek god creature came into the Bar an attractive man. Avenge height, possessing curled dirty-blond hair and dark blue eyes that contrasts with his pearl-white skin. he is well-built. With a delicate and yet masculine face, he dressed casually for the for bar. Wearing jeans, a shirt, and a jacket. He was at t he bar ordering a drink as you shamefully commented, “Now that is a bum I would like too Bite.”

Your friends roared with laughter noticing who you meant as Kol spoke loudly, ‘that my dear Girl Is my brother. Klaus! Come over here.”

Klaus walked over as he spoke, “Hello- what are you all. Up too?”

“being horrified.” Kol spilled your comment too he’s brother who just laughed as you gasped as Klaus Simply said thanks and walked off. You hit Kol hard on the arm for that.

After that Klaus was seen more often you didn’t interact with him much, you were polite but kept your distant cause the comments you made about his bum was still on full display in your mind.l too humiliated. It wasn’t until you were forced into a group session with Kol did you see him face too face again. This Time you stumbled right over your own foot. And he caught you quickly but he’s hand sliced all your buttons open on your blouse reveling your bright Pink bra that was a push up. You gasped quickly covering yourself as he’s other brother Elijah came in. And saw the scene. As he spoke, “I think Kol is in his room..”

“thanks-“ you hurried off trying too fix your shirt as you got upstairs. The next encounter you were sitting with Sasha a friend from school and talking about the famous Charming, extremely Hot brothers. The Mikaelson’s.

“Kol is a heartthrob.”

Sasha curled her hair tonight a rare occasion since she hated putting heat too it. But after hearing that the Mikaelsons could be at this Party tonight she spent hours perfection her looks. You spend the normal amount of time. Kol drove you crazy with comments and being a general Ass, Elijah was Far too Perfect. With the Jaw that could Cut thru metal! And with two embarrassing encounters with Klaus you had NO intention too get chummy with that family!

“Kol is just a player- probably catch something form him.” Sasha laughed as she spoke, “Klaus is hot- and Elijah you can’t say they aren’t!”

Noddig your head, the room was buzzing as you crossed your arms leaning forward on the table looking a t your friend / roommate.

“they are very attractive- But you got too admit Kol is a player.” ‘what is Elijah?”

“The marrying type.” She laughed as she poke “What about Klaus?” You rolled your shoulders again.

“Klaus is the sort of guy who is other going too break your heart unimaginably with the amount of Passsion and Zest too Life he has.. Or he is the Bad boy searching for his good girl too change his life- Or just a more Cunning player Like Kol.”

You both laughed until you heard a deep voice behind you.

“is that really what you think of me Luv?”

You didn’t need too turn- you knew your luck wasn’t great! Every time you mention Klaus out loud he was near. This just proved it! Turning too confirm you your nightmare. He was sitting alone having a Drink.he was smug about hearing your conversation So Smug that you just got up and left.

Hours later you were stumbling around their compound.the Party was loud, your friends were all over the place, everyone including yourself was very tipsy. Or on the verge of not remembering the events of the night. You were searching for a bathroom when you came across Klaus he was standing tall as he had a burnet hair women kneeling in front of him, her hair was being held up and twisted and held tightly by Klaus. He’s head was leaned backward in pure pleasure. You caught the sight better realizing he was being giving head. You heard the loud “Gulps” and moans from the girl pleasuring him. You gasped softly stepping over grabbing the door and slowly closing the door, klaus noticed you as he grinned weakly as you quickly closed the door.

The fourth time.. was the most awkward one of All. You recently graduated when Kol offered you a Job. It was odd too have a recent graduate offering jobs but he’s family owned the most respected law firm in New Orleans. And you weren’t giving many oppunities due too Kol being a Dick. He told every law firm in the city about your passions. You are a Cryptozoology, A fourth generation Cryptozoology! Your family has been in search of Bigfoot for generations basically since your ancestors stepped foot on American soil they were searching for the big Hairy creature that is Bigfoot. You studied the mystical creature for years until you turned too being a lawyer cause you were tired of living in a trailer and having barely any food. It was really a hobby. Vs a real job. Somehow Kol discovered your secret and he blacked balled you from every respectful law firm in the city. Making the offer too work with him and his’ brothers annoying. But bills. Won over self respect!

Klaus discovered you sitting at a desk one morning, you worked there for a week before he noticed you as he spoek, ‘what you doing here?”

“I was hired- by Kol and Elijah?”

He sighed heavily storming off into his office as Kol reached over pinching your arm. You yelped owe as he spoke, “how was that meeting?”

You shoved him off your desk as you fixed your paper he sat on. “He’s annoyed you didn’t tell him?’

“I tohught he would be amused about it- I mean you do make a complete ass of yourself in front of him. Must really like him.” You chuckled softly shoving Kol away as you went back too work. Getting up an hour later too hand some paper work too Klaus, you went too his Desk dropping off the papers when you felt your Phone slip out of your pocket, it hit the corner of your foot and slide on the carpet and slide right under Klaus’s desk. Great! You muttered too yourself going on your hands and knees too find your phone. You found it but couldn’t reach it so you crawled around too the Desk pushing the chair aside as you climbed under the Wooden Desk. When you heared Klaus’s booming voice. Telling he’s Assistant too not too be disturbed for an hour. You went too move but your skirt got caught on a nail under the desk and you couldn’t move. Klaus walked over too his Desk unaware of you as he instantly pulled out his cock from his trousers.

You were stunned seeing his manhood. You joked before about biting his bum but Never did you imagine too be in a postion like this. It was itches from your face. As he opened a drawer he was silent as he reached down giving himself a squeeze slowly awaking his half stiffen Cock. You realized NOW you couldn’t just announce yourself! It would be too awkward! So you watched. Hearing A faint sound of a video playing he had lotion on his hand as he was stroking his impressive cock. Completely unaware of you. Watching him treating himself. You couldn’t help but feel the tingle between your legs watching and hearing his faint soft moans. Hearing the door open eh shifted moving closer too his Desk cursing.

“I ASKED TOO BE ALONE!”

His hand didn’t leave his cock and now it was itches from your face you had too lean your head backwards to make sure too not touch his cock with your mouth he tuck himself tightly into the desk. Trying too conceal himself.

“Sorry but I was searching for Y,N?”

You watched as Klaus squeezed his cock tighter hearing your name he groaned other in frustration or pleasure as he snapped, “SHE’S NOT HERE GO!” You couldn’t just sneak out after this. Not from the office door now! You knew Klaus had a patio, and attached too it was a fire escape you plotted your escape as he kept his assault on his cock. He’s moans got slightly louder. You fought too join in or too touch yourself. It happened suddenly he cummed but he didn’t have a tissue and it went all over your face. And into your gaping mouth that was hanging watching the heated view of his cock. He cursed softly as he shuffled up, fixing himself and going out of the room propbaby too find tissues. You took that as your chance. You ripped your skirt too escape as you climbed out fast and thru his patio.whipping your face you stood ther stunned. Standing there covered in your boss’s cum. What surprised you was how instantly you swallowed his seed. He’s delicious seed. You didn’t marvel in his taste for long before you ran down the fire escape sneaking back into the building and using a bathroom too clean up.

Something about watching a Hot guy, who happen too be your boss rub one out inches from your face and explode all over your face that made you incredibly horny. You debuted on quickly teasing yourself off in a stall but you were already been missing from your desk. And didn’t think that was wise.

Using your brain over your body which wanted too have a quick orgasms just made your heat fester all day. Kol insisted too join in at the bar after work too get drinks. You almost refused until he asked what happened too your skirt. And you realized how torn it was. And that made you say Yes too just stop him from asking questions.

The Bar was typical, Kol got distracted by a pretty girl,and everyone invited from the office was other dancing awfully or at the bar ordering more drinks you were sitting in the back at the booth. You werent’ really in the mood too be socail you wanted too get close too Steven.. your vibrating dildo that was screaming for you. From your throbbing pussy beggging for a fuck. The thought crossed your mind too have a one night stand but too many of the people in here were from work and you didn’t want them too think you were THAT Sort. So you sat unsatisfied in the corner. You were surprised seeing Klaus slip in beside you as he spoke, “well looks who’s here.”

Glancing up into his beauitful blue eyes you spoke, “hey Klaus.” “You been a very naughty girl today Y/N.” he’s voice was low as he shifted slightly looking fulling at you.

“what you mean?”

He reached up putting a fabric on the desk. Seeing it was the chunk of your skirt that was missing he spoke, “did you enjoy the show?’

“I-I Don’t know what you mean?” Grabbing your torn fabric he reached over grabbing your hand as he spoke, “I saw you, mouth open, wide expression the hunger. I saw you take most of my load in your mouth.”

Gasping you turned too him, “why didn’t you stop?”

‘why ddin’t you announce yourself too get out of that situation? I was humiliated.”

Rolling your eyes as he grinned weakly, “Only fair tit for tat..”

Looking at him surprised as he spoke, “touch yourself..”

“well aren’t you a romantic.” He grinned weakly as he leaned closer, “I want you Y/N. in every sense, I want too cum in your mouth again, your pussy, your ass , all over your chest. And all over your body. I want too fuck you until you beg too stop.”

“well aren’t you not scared of Human Resources..” he grinned weakly at that. “Tell me No and I’ll never bring this up again.”

You bite your bottom lip nodding your head, “okay. Your place?”

He grinned weakly as he shook his head, “Not yet- soon.”

That surprised I shifted looking at him “what why?”

Klaus grinned shifted reaching over cupping your face making you look deep into his blue eyes. “I want too make sure your sure about this- but for now. I deserve too watch you don’t you think?”

Looking around you were pretty isolated over here, everyone was shifting towards the front looking at the TV Screen a game was on. Other football. Or a hockey game. You weren’t sure. Even isolated it was still Public, and it wasn’t something you ever done. Hell you never thought about Doing anything in public because it’s- well the public people are around. But having Klaus caress your cheek softly making your body. Bubbly. He made you debate about it. “We.. were in public Klaus. We could get in trouble. A lot of trouble.”

“we are lawyers we know how to get out of it. I wont be fucking you today but I will make you orgasm every day. Until I do.”

Biting your tongue hard, your brain forced you too work earlier the rest of your body decided right now. Not too listen too all the red flags as too why you shouldn’t do this. Ad found yourself slip your hand down to your lap pulling your skirt up, tugging your panties too the side you looked around making sure no one was watching before you slipped your finger inside teasing you clit. Klaus watched amused. Looking into his eyes as you slide your fingers deeper inside you. Your fingers were soaked. You pushed hard sliding your fingers deep inside as you you moan weakly as Klaus’s eyes got a sparkle of amusement. You leaned against the chair as you positioned yourself too take your fingers better as you slowly teased yourself. Reaching your orgasm. Minutes later it didn’t take long too reach it, your pussy has been begging for hours for this. Pulling your hand away from yourself Klaus reached over grabbing your dripping fingers and licked them. Tasting your sweetness.

“until tomorrow Y/N.”

With that he got up and left. You sat there stunned, Did he Really just convinced you too tease yourself in Public and NOT take you to his place? Or tried too take you into the back hallway too the bathroom or in the ally? What the Hell! The high from the orgasm dissapeared as you packed up and went home. The High was GONE! And now you were annoyed he didn’t take you home. What a Tease!

The next morning you got too the office, you were still stunned at yourself for 1) catching Klaus rubbing one out in his office, while you painfully and stupidly stayed hidden under his desk 2) agreed too eventually sleep with your New boss. / your somewhat friend’s brother. 3) fingered yourself in a public bar while Klaus watched and admired you. Getting too our desk you opened your drawer too get a pen when you noticed a small red box with a red lace ribbon around it. With a small white note on the box. You grabbed It and opened the note seeing it was handwritten and from Klaus.

“put these on, and give me yours.”

What the hell? You questioned until you opened the box seeing they were Red underwear. You slide the box into your purse as you quickly went too the bathroom too do what Klaus wished. Normally you weren’t the sort of girl who followed or listened too commands like this. But Klaus made you that sort of girl-other it was his Charm, He’s intensity, he’s hot throbbing looks, but something was making you listen too him and do things that you would NEVER Do. . And after yesterday and how honrier you got after your public displays last night. You were willing.

Sneaking off too the bathroom, you pulled the red panties out you realized they were heavier then you expected. After closer expection you realized why. Vibrating panties. You chuckled softly. Surly. He wouldn’t!

You put them on. Calling his bluff No way would Klaus use this in the office. He wasn’t that stupid! Not only could you get in trouble but he would too! And Elijah would Kill him. This was just a Test. Getting out of the bathroom you went too his office seeing the big grin on his face as you tossed him the red box. He grabbed it. Opening it seeing your pink not so fancy underwear. He grinned wider seeing them as you walked out.

An hour in and Nothing. It made you smile- you called his bluff and he did Nothing! Finally you had a small upper hand on this- Odd thing going on with you and Klaus. Elijah called a staff meeting in the confence meeting. You stood up and grabbed your notebook too write notes, when you felt it. A faint tingle down below. It made you jump high. You weren’t expecting it. A few people jumped seeing your reaction as a older lady asked if you were alright. You nodded your head fast. Trying too composure yourself as you force da smile, ‘Yea- sorry spider scared me.” Walking too the conference room you felt the faint vibration every step! Sitting down you caught Klaus wicked grin seeing you enter and sit down. Klaus started the Vibration too be slightly higher. It made you jump again as you quickly covered yourself saying it was another Bug.

Thru out the meeting he kept changing the intensity from low too high. Looking right at him as someone was taking he was enjoying it as you were fighting off a orgasm. Seeing him bite his lip sent you over the edge. As you felt the pressure going faster, you bite your tounge hard and gripped the side of your leg tightly trying not too make a Peep.

The orgasm was intense. It washed over you, feeling the vibrations still going, you realized one orgasm wasn’t going too be enough for Klaus. After the meeting you were called into Klaus’ office as everyone went off for lunch as he closed the door as he grinned.

“enjoying yourself.”

You breathed deeply hitting his arm, “Klaus ican’t believe you did that!” He chucked as he walked over too his desk as he leaned against it he crossed his arms as he spoke, ‘you put them on- you had too know I was going too play with it.”

Nodding your head you stepped over as you spoke, “I thought you were bluffing!” He grinned weakly as you spoke, “give me back my underwear.” He chuckled as he spoke, “Nope” you rolled your eyes looking behind you seeing the office was empty. You reached down grabbing the panties pulling them off. You let them fall too the floor as you stepped out of them .looking at Klaus. As you bent down grabbing them tossing it too him.

“what if someone caught me!”

“lucky them- luckily they were too busy too look at you.” Rolling your eyes again for that comment he stepped over grabbing them from you as he grinned. “Is your grievances because I used the app in public or because were at work? You had too of know these weren’t normal panties”

Crossing your arms tightly looking at Klaus you reached over grabbing his arm as you spoke, “At Work! At least if its publci it’s with strangers so if I’m caught I’ll die from embarrassment but I wont have too worry about the entire office knowing!” He nodded his head as he reached up gripping your sides, “then Let’s meet up tonight after work”

You smiled weakly nodding your head weakly. “Okay.” He chuckled saying okay. As you left his office.

The end of the day appeared like it always does. You walked over too the elevator seeing Klaus in beside you. He smiled weakly as he went too fix his shoe as the Elevator was empty closing as he traced his hand on your calf. He slowly stood up tracing his hand up your leg before reaching your butt and giving it a hard squeeze. You smiled weakly as he spoke, ‘let’s get dinner.”

Disappointed that he wanted too go too a restaurant vs his place or yours. But you smiled weakly nodding your head. “Okay sure, that sounds like fun.” He grinned as he held your ass the entire ride down. He told you where too meet him as he said he would meet you there. You agreed .as you realized after he wanted your oo take your car. You probably weren’t going too his place after dinner either. But you agreed pushing that thought too the back of your mind as you separated too get too your own cars and drive too this restaurant.

You arrived there before, Klaus so you went inside too get a table. You were lead too the back of the tiny restaurant you never even heard of. It was a hardly lite Restaurant, with candles mainly being the source of light, and Jazz playing in the background. Even those it was 7 pm it was Empty. So when you got too your table you went too text Klaus until you felt a hand on your leg. It made you shriek and jump till you looked down, moving the table cloth seeing Klaus grinning like a fool.

“Fuck Klaus you scared me!”

“Sorry,”

“what you doing down there/“ he grinned as he caressed your bare legs as he spoke, “I’m having my dinner..” you laughed softly hearing that response as he grinned reaching down kissing your knee softly.

“Y/N?”

Lifting your head up seeing Elijah you gasped, “Oh Elijah hey.” You started hitting Klaus in the head trying too Single him too get out from under the table. But he grabbed your hand instead and started kissing your inner thigh. You soon realized he wasn’t going too stop. Your only hope was too scare Elijah off before he realized he’s little brother was under the table about too have his “dinner” as he called it.

Elijah was wearing his suit, it fit perfectly on his muscular body as he spoke,” what you doing here alone?”

“oh you know, I was starving and I figured I would try this restaurant out. What brings you here?”

“Same- mind if I join you.”

Elijah has always been kind too you, he was the perfect one out of the three brothers. Before you could come up with a excuse he sat down as he spoke, “how is work? Klaus isn’t giving you a hard time is he?” Feeling klaus softly nibble on your inner thigh not even teasing your pussy he was taking his time. Teasing you. As you spoke, “he’s a ass sometimes but he’s okay.” Saying that made klaus bite harder on your inner thigh as you jumped slightly shocked as Elijah asked if you were alright.

“yea sorry. Cramp. How are you? How’s working with your brothers?’

The conversation was civilized and polite nothing too deep until the waitress came and took your orders as Klaus decided that was enough teasing as he lifted your skirt up. And reach over too your bare pussy. With all the teasing before barely touching you and maybe it was the aftermath of all the times you orgasmed earlier but you were still wet. He spread your legs as he reached down softly kissing your mould before sliding his tongue around your clit. You reached down grabbing his head. As he circled his tongue around your clit.

For the last half hour of talking and waiting for your food, Elijah realized you were nervous, then he’s hearing caught the sound of slurping and hitting something wet. The sound coming from under the table. When the noise started you bitting your cheek hard trying not too make a sound. As you forced yourself too talk about anything. Elijah glanced down at the table seeing the cloth hit the floor, when the meals arrived Elijah lifted the cloth up with his foot too see what he expected he’s brother Klaus under the table. He moved his foot. Elijah was furious that 1) Klaus would be so reckless and do this in public 2) make Y/N sit here and act like nothing was happening she was probably modified 3) knowing Klaus he didn’t think of sexual assault charges that could come up. What a idiot!

Elijah went too put a stop too it until he noticed your lip quivering. Seeing you in bliss and trying too stay quite. He thought back on this afternoon when you were in the meeting acting all jumpy. Elijah heard a vibrating sound but assumed it was a phone or something in someone’s pocket. He didn’t question it because he didn’t expect anything else. But realizing you and Klaus were having a sexual escapades in the office. He was surprised he didn’t see you doing that. And seeing you now trying too eat as the sounds of her wetness got louder. Made him. Horny. Elijah leaned back in the chair enjoying the show.

Klaus had two fingers pushing inside you as he kept his tounge on your teasing you and driving you crazy. Elijah was relax and calm as he talked about Spain. You trying too pay attention but the attack of klaus firm fingers and talent tounge took all your attention. When you felt a orgasm appearing. You tried too keep your mind clear trying too ignore it. It was working until Klaus curled his fingers slightly inside you hitting your G-Spot and it hit you. It was like being slapped in the face you moaned out, feeling your body hitting that sweet heaven your legs cramped around Klaus as you forgot too muffle your moans as you gripped onto his head tightly as your head leaned backward. Elijahs cock started stiffing watching your play time. When he heard the sweet sounds of your moans he grinned weakly. Looking around Not one of the staff members reacted. Clearly Klaus was smart enough too glamor them too not notice. Giving you some privacy minus himself of course.

The gentleman Righteous part of Elijah anted too leave too give you privacy, but seeing you quivering and moaning as you realized Klaus didn’t light up once hitting your orgasm. Elijah was jealous of his brother. The more he sat watching you. The more he wanted too be Klaus between your legs. Giving you that pleasure. He wanted you wrapped around him as he slide his cock into you burying it inside you.

There was no point pretending anymore. That you weren’t being serviced. You tried too come up with something but you saw Elijah relaxing more in the chair and you could notice his hard cock.it was making a very visible appearance against his trouser. You was pulled closer too Klaus as he spread your legs apart further as he started pushing his tongue deep inside you. Making his tongue skinny as he pushed in and making his tongue as fat as it could go as he slide his tongue out. You closed your eyes enjoying every movement as you heard shifting you opened your eyes realizing Elijah was trying too get comfy with. His stiff cock causing him discomfort in his trouser. You looked right at it realizing that was the problem, biting your lip you looked up at him nodding your head. Giving him permission he started too unzip his pants as he pulled his cock out with ease. Not caring about the staff. As he started stroking. You moaned softly trying too muffle his zipper as Klaus kept teasing. Feeling his thumb teasing your clit you were completely in heaven.

Elijah was stroking his cock as he watched you go completely clam , no longer scared someone would see her. The closed sign was out, the door locked, and the staff was in the back. The room was yours. The more Elijah saw you squirming and moaning softly the more he anted too take you right on this table. It surprised him when Klaus pulled out from under the table after Y/N second orgasm as he grinned seeing his older brother.

“see something you like brother?”

Elijah quickly put himself away as he spoke, “that was reckless Klaus.”

“that Is what I wanted.”

Elijah rolled his eyes as he spoke, ‘what if someone saw?”

“lucky them- Y/N see you tomorrow.”

“What?!” You gasped out as you spoke, “you aren’t going too take me home?”

Klaus grinned weakly as he stepped over kissing her head, “No.. but if your still in need of service perhaps my brother could attend too your needs. He was after all. Pawning himself.”

Staring at Klaus you walked over grabbing your purse, “your such a ass! Goodnight.”

“Night.”

Walking off you headed out of the restaurant and home.

The next day you decided too completely forget about Klaus. If he was just going too be a massive tease. 2 can play that game. You wore a tighter skirt and a white blouse you looked presentable for work. But just the bit more appealing. Nothing overly you weren’t going too dress like a hooker at work just too get back at Klaus. He would like that far too much! Getting too the office you went straight too work as you noticed both Mikelsons brothers (minus Kol who once again wasn’t in yet) were stealing glances at you. Normally you go towards Klaus if you needed help. And you walked up with your paper going towards his office. Too only stop at the water fountain too get a cup of water. Before walking off too Elijah’s office.

“hey Elijah you got a second?”

“of course- I wanted too- can you close the door.” You nodded your head stepping forward as you closed the door behind you as you walked over too his desk sitting down as he spoke, “I want too apologize for my actions last night. It- wasn’t proper..”

Shaking your head you looked at him, “No- but it was still.. stupidly hot.- Elijah if I wanted you too stop.. I would of told you too. And. You would of respected it.”

“Still- I’m you boss I shouldn’t want too-“ he stopped himself from finish that sentence as you rolled your shoulders. “Consider I had too force myself out that door before I did something Oh so stupid.. I get it.”

He grinned weakly as he spoke, “I dind’t know you and klaus.”

“we aren’t- he’s just a tease.. he gets me all hot and heavy and just bails… he’s the biggest tease in the world.”

“that is probably the first time I’ve ever heard someone call him that..” laughing at that you reached over grabbing his hand that was on the desk. “Forget about last night- I’m sorry I-“

“you did nothing wrong.”

Shaking your head weakly you slowly stood. Up as you stepped over too stand beside him as you sat on his desk. “No but I wanted too.’

That surprised Elijah as you spoke, “I wanted you both..”

Elijah was stunned as you reached over squeezing his shoulder. “But hey- lets just forget about it.”

He was stunned as you walked out. Walking out you went straight oo your desk as you focused on your work. Biting the tip of your pen you were focused when Klaus called you into his office just before lunch you walked over too his office as he told you too close the door. You did as he sat at his desk. “How are you?”

“Fine,” “you didn’t respond too my text.”

Rolling your shoulders, “Been busy”

“you been talking too Elijah.”

Seeing him jealous you titled your head seeing his all cramp up and annoyed. “You offered him to me yesterday. Didn’t think you would care I went too him.” Walking away he got up as he walked over too the windows closing his blinds as he walked over too you pinning you against the door you were surprised at the sudden reaction. But Klaus locked the door as he spoke, “I want you.”

Looking at him you rested your head on the door as you spoke, “do you? Because you only tease me.”

He stared at you stunned at your boldness as he reached up cupping your head. Hearing chairs shuffling outside everyone was going for lunch. He reached over kissing you deeply which brought your mind back too him as he pressed himself against you.

Feeling his hands on your chest as he ripped your blouse apart. The buttons fell onto the ground but you didn’t care you kept your lips onto him as you felt your body warming up as he kissed down your neck tracing down too your chest as he cupped your breast with one hand as he went too rip your bra off. And with how strong he was. You were convinced he could do it with one hand you spoke, “wait- this was experience” he grinned as you unhooked the bra from the back. He yanked it off as he pressed his lips too your breast kissing down too your nipples before wrapping his tounge around it and taking it fulling into his mouth. You closed your eyes enjoying the sensation. You weren’t the normal girl who had overly sensitive nipples. You read about girls who could have orgasms with just by playing with their nipples. You weren’t that sort of girl. But Kalus was Very gifted with his tounge. And you could now see how it was possible.

He moved from one too another making sure the other didn’t get too lonely.when he shifted up kissing your lips again you pulled his shirt making a few buttons fall off. As he helped you. You tugged at his pants as he obliged letting you undress him fully as he helped you out of your remaining articles of clothing. Standing naked he grinned reaching over kissing you deeply as you felt him hard. He’s cock was pressing against your thigh as he slowly positioned himself too enter you. Rationally you should of worried about protection but after 4 days of just being teased.your rational state of mind was gone. Klaus reached down teasing your clit as he slide his fingers down too slide them inside you. Feeling how wet you already were he grinned biting your neck softly. You moaned softly as he pumped his fingers inside you a few times before replacing his fingers with his waiting cock. Gasping feeling his length slide inside you. It was bigger then you expected as he gripped your neck softly making you look at him as he watched your reaction too taking his cock. He pushed. A few times slowly too. Let you get use too it as you eased he slowly started thrusting fast you looked at him as he reached back kissing you.

Being pinned against the door being fucked. You couldn’t believe this was acturally happening and as if he could read your mind he kissed you deeper. Softly whispering into your ear as he groaned softly, “I can’t believe we are doing this” As he reached down twisting your nipple as he picked you up. You instantly wrapped your legs around him as he carried you too his couch as he sat down as you gripped his shoulders as you started thrusting onto his cock. Riding it. As he kept his lips on you. Your neck, your shoulder, down too your chest.

Klaus hands cupped your breast as he soon shifted you too lay down on the couch as he towered over you as he kissed you deeply before thrusting faster. You moaned softly as he loved hearing you moan. It made him push deeper inside you as you leaned your head backwards. ‘Fuck.” You uttered as he reached down kissing you again.

“language miss y/l/n “

Rolling your eyes hearing his smart remark he chuckled he’s voice was so Soft and musical that you smiled weakly even those. It was slightly annoying. Feeling his hands gripping your neck softly as he pulled you into a kiss again, he’s hand lasted a second on your neck before he traced his hand down your body. Reaching too your pussy As he started playing with your clit with his thumb as he plunges deeper inside you. Feeling the new element. Your body started tensing up as he reached down kissing your neck as he moaned softly. “Cum for me baby.”

Hearing his voice was deepin your body agreed too his request as you turned your head reaching your arm up biting into your arm so you didn’t moan out. Klaus grinned weakly watching your back was arched, your breath was heavy as your legs, pussy and body clinched onto him as he hit his limit seeing you in pure bless as he hit his climax. Burring his face into your chest trying too muffle his own moans as you both.

A few minutes passed without either of you moving or even talking. Klaus stood up as he spoke, “that was incredible. Shall we do it again after work?”

You nodded your head weakly smiling getting up as you notice your shirt. “Shit! Klaus my shirt! You completely destroyed It!”

“I have a spare shirt you can borrow.”

Well at lest it’s better then going partly nude in the office.

[aventurasdeunatortuga]

Laredo Part 2 Day 22

So the border is officially ‘closed’ again. We keep getting a lot of conflicting and unclear information, but it seems that the border will be closed either until July 30th or August 21st. I’ve read different reports with both dates.

Essentially asylum seekers are being blamed for the rise in COVID cases in south Texas, and the shelters are also being blamed as well. The news has been wild lately with unfounded accusations that the shelters drop COVID positive folks off at the airport and have them walk around town which is simply not true. There has been a few folks coming to the shelters to yell at staff and even give death threats to staff. I haven’t seen any of that first hand but the security staff has been working overtime and we’ve had to block out all the windows and doors of Holding to prevent people from trying to yell at or take pictures of folks.

If there is any blame to be placed on rising COVID cases it should be placed on ICE, whose blatant disregard for safety precautions, refusal to test or properly isolate folks for COVID, and keeping of folks in cramped conditions for weeks at a time with limited access to hygiene products puts asylum seekers at risk. Not to mention the Texas government which lifted the mask mandate months ago and the large amount of anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers but I won’t go there.

This means that folks who are in detention will remain there until whenever ICE feels like releasing them and very very few new people will be allowed in. Today at Holding there were 7 people finishing out a quarantine but who will be leaving soon, and at La Frontera we had 10 people who all left today. We have no idea if there will even be anyone tomorrow or if ICE will randomly decide to release some folks.

I’m headed back home anyway the day after tomorrow. I’m bummed that border policy has taken this turn when there are so many people who are in such desperate need. Dumping all of this onto underfunded and understaffed shelters is not the answer but closing the border and keeping folks detained isn’t the answer either. There needs to be government funding and emergency relief funding allocated to support folks seeking asylum. They have a right to seek asylum as outlined by international law and as human beings we have an obligation to treat these folks with dignity and respect, not as criminals or ‘aliens’.

For today’s post I thought I’d get into some of the reasons why folks are being forced to leave their homes in the first place. This is a really complicated issue that people have spent their entire careers studying so please don’t take everything I say at face value, this is just what I’ve learned from my own research and from firsthand accounts of asylum seekers. I encourage folks to do their own research as well.

Most of the folks seeking asylum in the United States are coming from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. There has also lately been an increase of folks from Cuba and Haiti. Folks leave home for a variety of reasons. Frequently it is to escape extreme poverty and to find opportunities to work. Many folks leave because corrupt governments colluding with cartels have made their homes increasingly dangerous and unsafe. Many indigenous folks are persecuted by these governments and cartels as well. There has also been an increase of folks fleeing because climate change has caused natural disasters which make it impossible to stay in their homes (hurricanes, fires, flooding, water pollution, etc.).

It simply cannot be ignored that the majority of these conditions were caused directly by United States imperialism. The US government has a long and dirty history of interfering in foreign governments to suit their own purposes. Whether it is subsidizing corporations to buy up land and push out local farmers, inciting political instability through misinformation and funding of dangerous groups, or even in some cases assassination of democratically elected leaders in order to install another leader that would be more beneficial to US interests. This has happened all over the world (including but not limited to: Hawai’i, Puerto Rico, The Philippines, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Vietnam, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, the list goes on and on).

For background information on Guatemala, I encourage you to look up “The Banana Wars” ( President Eisenhower colluded with The United Fruit Company, the CIA, and Guatemalan cartels to assassinate the democratically elected President Guzman and install a cartel supported puppet government loyal to US interests, resulting in US companies owning a lot of agricultural land in Guatemala, increased cartel violence, and increased hostility towards indigenous Guatemalans)

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMdn6MHqd/

For background information on Honduras, look up Ronald Reagan’s involvement in Honduras in 1988, the U.S.S. Honduras of the 80’s, as well as Hillary Clinton’s involvement in the 2008 Honduras coup when she was Secretary of State.

https://theconversation.com/how-us-policy-in-honduras-set-the-stage-for-todays-migration-65935

For El Salvador, look up El Mozote Massacre and The Salvadoran Civil War. This war witnessed ‘death squads’ and fully trained militias that were paid for by the United States. There were militias of child soldiers recruited by the US government. The Carter and Reagan administration spent $1-2 million dollars DAILY to fund this war over the course of 12 years. This was supposedly to “prevent the spread of communism” but in reality it was to ensure that a government was installed that was loyal to US economic interests, particularly for coffee production. In 1980 Reagan sponsored a coup. The civil war continued until 1992 and its effects are still felt today.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvadoran_Civil_War

For Nicaragua, again look up Reagan’s involvement in the 1980s, the ‘Dollars for Bullets’ policy, and the Sandinistas (a resistance group of Nicaraguans). The Banana Wars were also fought in Nicaragua, and there was a formal US military occupation of Nicaragua on and off throughout the 20th century.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_occupation_of_Nicaragua

I won’t get into Cuba because this is an even more complex issue, but I encourage you to look into the effects that the current blockade has had on Cuba, the UN’s stance on the blockade, as well as the recent demonstrations against the Cuban government.

And finally, Haiti. Again super complex but I encourage you to look into the recent assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse as well as the natural disasters and flooding occurring due to climate change. I’d also recommend looking into the US occupation of Haiti in the 30s.

I could write a dissertation on this subject, and many already have. The long and short of it is that the United States is largely responsible for the conditions that are causing folks to be forced to flee their homelands. The US has manufactured economic and political instability and directly funded violent cartels and militias, installed dictators and assassinated presidents in order to protect US economic interests. We have absolutely no business denying them entry to the US or treating them the way we are treating them, not after what we have been doing to them for centuries.

I’ll get off my soapbox now I promise. But please if you have never heard of any of this before I encourage you to do some research on US imperialism. I took three advanced US history courses in high school and was never once taught anything about this.

Tomorrow is my last day volunteering at the shelters, and apparently a Texas state senator is planning on visiting La Frontera tomorrow morning to give a speech. I’m curious to see what they say.

I will try to post at least one more time before I leave on Saturday.

[gordonwilliamsweb]

If You Are Vaccinated, You Can Dance the Night Away

Marissa Castrigno was walking through downtown Wilmington, North Carolina, when she spotted the sign in the window of one of her favorite dance clubs. After months of being shuttered by the pandemic, Ibiza Nightclub was reopening April 30, it announced.

This story also ran on Raleigh News & Observer. It can be republished for free.

Thrilled, Castrigno immediately made plans with friends to be there.

About 50 miles north in Jacksonville, Kennedy Swift learned of Ibiza’s reopening on social media. He, too, decided to attend with friends.

But on the night of April 30, the two groups were in for a surprise — one they would react to in starkly different ways.

In addition to IDs, they learned, they’d need to show covid-19 vaccination cards for entry. The club was letting in only people who had had at least one shot.

“I was shocked,” said Swift, 21. He learned of the policy a few hours before the reopening, when the club posted it on its Facebook page.

He and his friends had to cancel their plans, since none of them was vaccinated.

“I’m not against [Ibiza] exercising their rights as a business,” Swift said. “I just think it’s foolish. … This will discourage a lot of former patrons from returning to the club.”

On the other hand, Castrigno and her friends, most of whom had been fully vaccinated since early April, felt the policy made their return to nightlife even better.

“There was raw excitement about going out to a place and feeling safe,” said Castrigno, 28.

Similar conversations are playing out across the country as vaccination rates increase and bars, clubs and other businesses navigate how to reopen. The concept of vaccine passports — which allow people who have been inoculated against covid and are at lower risk of contracting or spreading the disease to participate in certain activities — has been floated for clubs, cruise ships and other spaces where large groups gather in close quarters. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recent announcement that vaccinated people can safely gather indoors and outdoors without masks has reignited the idea. Yet these passports remain highly controversial and their implementation is largely piecemeal. Many private businesses are making their own decisions, and governments in different parts of the country are adopting varying stances.

In New York, for instance, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced in early May that places where proof of vaccination or a negative covid test are required can operate at a greater capacity. Some nightclubs there have implemented policies similar to Ibiza’s. In Florida, however, Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed a law prohibiting businesses, schools and government offices from requiring proof of vaccination, with fines of up to $5,000 per incident.

For Ibiza Nightclub in southeastern North Carolina — a political battleground state — the vaccine card requirement is proving to be a lightning rod. The club’s Facebook post announcing the policy had sparked 70 comments as of mid-May, and posts across other platforms echoed different sides of the issue.

“I am thrilled to see a personal business putting the health and safety forward in order to keep their business running,” one comment read.

Others took a markedly different tone: “This is pretty dumb!”

“Discrimination, expect lawsuits,” read another.

The Honor Code

Last week, after the CDC said vaccinated adults could largely live their lives mask-free, Raleigh restaurant owner Hisine McNeill felt a troubling pang of déjà vu. He owns Alpha Dawgs, a sandwich shop in southeast Raleigh, and said small businesses like his carried the burden of mask enforcement for much of the pandemic. Now, he said, they’re tasked with trusting adults who say they’ve been vaccinated. He isn’t ready to do that.

“I don’t have the luxury of taking chances on an honor code,” McNeill said. “If I have an outbreak because someone didn’t wear a mask and have to close down, who’s going to help keep me open?”

McNeill opened Alpha Dawgs in 2018 and, like most restaurateurs, he said, struggled through the pandemic, professionally and personally. He said he has lost friends and family members and doesn’t believe the pandemic is over.

“I know people personally in the ICU still recovering from [covid],” McNeill said. “I don’t need any more examples about how serious this is.”

So McNeill posted a new requirement on the restaurant’s Facebook page. He asked everyone to continue wearing masks unless they were prepared to show him a vaccine card.

“To whom it may concern,” McNeill wrote. “If you decide to come into my establishment claiming that you are fully vaccinated, I WILL ASK TO SEE YOUR CARD. If you don’t want to provide it then you will have to wear a mask in my store. And if you still don’t want to comply with either then I have the right to deny service. Thank you for your cooperation.”

The day after he posted that statement, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper eased most covid-related restrictions in the state, including its mask mandate. The Alpha Dawgs post stirred some online debate over masks and vaccinations and led to a few responses, including one from the Raleigh Republican Club.

“Should you be in the area…,” it read. “Eat somewhere else….”

McNeill felt the Raleigh Republican Club was calling for a boycott. Afterward, he noticed multiple one-star reviews pop up on Google, not from people who had been to the restaurant, but people accusing McNeill of discrimination.

“This is not political for me, this is a personal belief,” McNeill said. “I have an 85-year-old grandmother I see every other week. I’m going to make sure she’s protected.”

Raleigh Republican Club board member Guy Smith said the group’s post was written collectively, but he didn’t see it as a call for a boycott.

“Our philosophical position is it’s his business, the owner can choose to do what they choose to do within the confines of the individual business,” Smith said. “Our philosophical position is, to demand someone to demonstrate they’re vaccinated with a card, we think that’s out of bounds.”

Smith said the group also condemns writing bogus reviews of a business.

McNeill said Alpha Dawgs’ business has not suffered from the online dust-up.

“I haven’t had any problems,” McNeill said. “Only the online harassment.”

The Nightclub Expected Opposition

Charles Smith, general manager of the club, said he knew the policy would garner backlash, but “we’ve always put the health and safety of both staff and our patrons, and their families, first.”

Since opening as a gay bar in 2001, Ibiza has been a pillar of the LGBTQ community in Wilmington. Although its clientele has expanded over time, it’s still known for drag shows on Friday nights.

Last year, the club shut down March 12, about a week before Gov. Cooper ordered all North Carolina bars and restaurants to stop dine-in service. Ibiza remained shuttered for 14 months, using the time to renovate, Smith said, and leaning on federal and state assistance for small businesses.

When it came to reopening, he said, “the question was: How do we provide the absolute safest experience alongside the nightlife experience we’ve been known for?”

It wouldn’t be easy. Nightclubs are a perfect cocktail of covid risks: lots of people socializing and dancing in close quarters. Alcohol lowering inhibitions. Music forcing people to speak louder, releasing more droplets into the air.

“The concept of social distancing in a nightclub is an oxymoron,” Smith said. And the club’s staff didn’t want to be “the police of nightlife,” trying to separate people on the dance floor, he added.

The safest option, it seemed, was to require people to be vaccinated.

The club waited till all adults in the state were eligible for vaccines before reopening. 

Now Ibiza requires patrons to present their vaccine cards or photos of the cards for entry. On reopening night, the club asked customers to wear masks and limited its capacity to 50%, per an executive order from the governor. But as of May 14, the state lifted its capacity restrictions and masking requirements.

Castrigno, who’d been looking forward to that night for weeks since she saw the sign in the club’s window, said it was “the most jubilant I’d ever seen Ibiza.” Several performers put on a drag show. Customers took turns dancing on poles. Some people wore masks with rhinestones to match their outfits, she said.

She wasn’t surprised that many people took the vaccine requirement in stride. “Queer people are well versed in the risks of public health crisis and protecting the community,” she said, referring to the AIDS crisis, which devastated the community in the ’80s and ’90s.

For James Colucci, who has been a customer since 2016, supporting Ibiza’s vaccine policy is about protecting the club’s employees. Some of them have “spearheaded the [LGBTQ] movement, so we can get together and have events like this,” he said.

But others say the policy is discriminatory and injects the nightclub into people’s personal health care decisions.

Joey Askew, a 37-year-old from Greenville, wrote on Ibiza’s Facebook page, “I’ll never go back to this club until they lift this mandate!!”

In an interview with KHN, Askew said he’s not ready to get the vaccine because there haven’t been lifetime studies of recipients to determine long-term side effects. He’s willing to wear a mask and maintain physical distance, but a vaccine requirement goes too far.

“A mask is something I can buy from anywhere and take off whenever I choose,” he said. “But I can’t take a vaccine out. It’s a permanent choice that [the club] is involving themselves in, and it’s not their place.”

In between the people condemning the club’s policy and those applauding it are many who are conflicted.

Mark Russell, 29, is a nurse in Washington, D.C., who cares for covid patients and contracted covid last year. He plans on visiting Ibiza Nightclub in late May while attending a small wedding in North Carolina where everyone will be vaccinated.

The club’s policy makes him feel safer, Russell said. But he also worries about its effect on people of color, who in many places have faced barriers to vaccination.

“It’s a battle in my own brain, thinking those two things,” Russell said.

For Heidi Martek, 55, the policy raised a personal question. “What about those who can’t get the vaccine?” she wrote on Ibiza’s Facebook page.

She has an autoimmune disease, making her body hypersensitive to any vaccine, Martek said, even the flu shot.

But when commenters on Facebook suggested she sue the club, Martek pushed back. The club is facing difficult choices, she told KHN, and there’s no right answer.

“Whether I can go in or not, I support them,” said Martek, who’s been a patron at Ibiza for six years.

She wants the club to survive the pandemic, unlike other establishments that have closed in the past year.

“It’s not like Wilmington is overwhelmed with LGBTQ clubs,” Martek said. “Ibiza is really important.”

News & Observer reporter Drew Jackson contributed to this story.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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If You Are Vaccinated, You Can Dance the Night Away published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[purplesurveys]

1129

[created by: youvebeensurved - LiveJournal]

How often do you get fountain drinks from a gas station? I’ve actually never tried getting a drink from one of those fountains. I find them nasty, and the fact that gas stations aren’t the most hygienic of places certainly doesn’t help their case.

If you get online and look at graphics, what website(s) do you go to? I never find myself looking for graphics. The closest thing I search are vector icons, and for those I have an extension on Chrome that lets me look for icons to place on slides and such.

Who would you say your favorite celebrity is? At the moment it would be Rosamund Pike, but my all-time favorite would be Beyoncé.

Have you ever slept in your car? If so, explain. Sure, mostly when I took naps in between classes. There were also a few times I had late nights out and didn’t have a place to crash at, so I’d sleep in the car for the night before heading home in the morning.

If you were forced to murder one of your parents, which one would it be? This is a horrible question.

What song are you currently obsessed with? Find Me Here - Hayley Williams.

Explain your last run in with the police: Never happened.

Who was the last friend you hung out with, and what did you guys do? In terms of a physical get-together, I was with Angela, Hans, Pia, Kyelle, Al, Gab, and Sam and we had dinner and drinks at this gastropub that announced its impending permanent closure by the end of February. Virtually, I hung out with Andi, Peter, Carmel, Rita, Robin, Mik, and Elis to have a Jeopardy game night over Zoom.

What time do you usually go to bed and wake up? On weekdays I try to turn in anywhere between 9–11 PM and wake up by 6:30. On weekends, I try to stay up until midnight at the earliest, but I’m trying to make it a habit to stay up until like 2–3 AM just so I can catch up on my hobbies and shows. I wake up anywhere between 5–7 AM.

If you could have any job in the world, what would it be? What's stopping you? Lawyer, which is a route I seriously considered for a few years. I get extremely tense in arguments though so I doubt I’d be the best fit for that kind of career.

Do you have a friend that's in a horrible situation right now? Explain. Yeah, my college batchmate (who’s now also my co-worker) Aimee tested positive for COVID this week after being in and out of a fever over the last two weeks.

What was the last store you were in, and what did you buy? I suddenly needed plastic bags while I was packing groceries at the office the other week, so I went to the nearby convenience store to check if they had any. They didn’t, so I left without buying anything.

Who was the last person you texted, and what did this text say? I was texting some media friends to tell them some shoes we had ordered for them to try out are going to be delivered to their address within the day.

What is the reason for the last time you cried? A show I had been watching had an emotional scene.

Who is your favorite character in your favorite movie? Joanna, of course, mainly because that’s the character Audrey Hepburn plays.

What color did you last paint your nails? I can’t remember the color I chose the last time I had my nails painted 79472394348 years ago.

It's 112 degrees out today, describe your attire: A very thin tank top with airy shorts.

Do you have any friends that are currently in jail? Explain their situation. Not friends but I can think of a couple of relatives who’ve gotten ‘in conflict’ with the law. I won’t get into their cases but for both of them, it was because they got tricked by their respective abusive bosses, hence the quote marks.

Do you tend to take long or short surveys? I like taking those whose lengths are right in the middle - anywhere between 35-80 questions. Shorter ones look boring and I find the longer ones too time-consuming.

What do you currently desire? I changed my mind about La Creperie and will be going to Ramen Nagi instead since I just remembered they currently have a truffle ramen thing that’s only going to be around for a limited time, and I want to get my hands on it before they take it off the menu.

How often do you honk your horn? Depends on how stupid the people I’m driving with are on a given day.

For what reason were you last at a park? We don’t have too many parks here so there’s little opportunity to stay at one. I remember seeing one with Gab when we were at BGC a little over a year ago, but we only walked through it since it was part of the route we were taking to get to our actual destination.

What junk food can you never pass up? Salted egg chips and pizza.

If you're a girl, what is your favorite brand of feminine hygiene products? If you're a boy, what is your favorite brand of condoms? I don’t have a favorite.

Where was the last place you went on a walk to? Just around the neighborhood. I also wanted to make this morning’s route with Cooper a little longer so he could walk more, so we went to parts of the village we don’t normally reach.

How are you feeling today? I’m content :) It’s the weekend so I’m not too tense like I normally would be on weekdays. I also have plans to go out later today so I’m looking forward to that.

Do you ever make your own surveys? Never tried because I know I wouldn’t be able to come up with new and interesting questions.

How flexible are you? Not very. I can’t even reach my toes when I do stretches.

What is your favorite class? Any history elective. I also like biology, anthropology, and some aspects of political science.

What is your boyfriend's name? I don’t have one.

What is your favorite drink? Non-alcoholic, cold water. Alcoholic, Long Island Iced Tea for mixed drinks, and tequila.

Who is your best friend? Angela.

What time is it? 11:20 AM.

What is your middle name? My second name is Isabelle, but I’m not sharing my legal middle name.

What 3 websites do you visit daily? YouTube, Google Suite, and Twitter.

Where do you work? At home, haha. But under normal circumstances I’d be working in an office somewhere in Metro Manila.

What is your favorite band? Paramore.

How do you feel about abortion? Personally not a fan of the procedure for myself, but I am as pro-choice as it gets.

Do you want any kids? Very much so.

Have you ever microwaved soap? Nah, but I know what happens to it from watching YouTube videos hahaha. It’s so fun to see it gradually expand and become a pretty lil cloud.

Are there any new movies that you want to see? I Care A Lot, but I feel sooooooooo lazy about watching new movies. Idk if I’ll ever get around to it.

How many places have you lived? I’d say around five in total, including the house I currently reside in. I’ve lived in my parents’ apartment in Manila, then we briefly moved in with my dad’s parents, and then I spent most of my childhood in a duplex living with my mom’s side (and got to live in both houses), until we finally settled here when I was 10.

Do you have any health issues? Yeah, the main one I have to live with is scoliosis.

Are you texting anyone? Nope. And I don’t really text anymore, either. Most of my conversations take place on Messenger or Viber.

What do you drive? A Mitsubishi Mirage hatchback.

Have you ever had a crush on a teacher? Sure, both male and female ones.

Are you drinking or eating anything? Nope but I am starting to feel a bit hungry.

What color is your shirt? Yellow with some grey text.

Do you drink? Like...alcohol? Sure. I have the occasional soju night.

What year do/did you graduate? I graduated high school in 2016, and college in 2020.

Do you play any sports? Table tennis, though it’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to play. I got to take it as a PE elective on my last sem, but my time with it got cut off because of COVID :(

Do you pop your fingers? Yeah, I just cracked my knuckles a few minutes ago.

What is your shoe size? I can wear a size 6 or 7.

Have you ever had a UTI? Apparently I’ve had one, but all I got from it was a persisting high fever. I didn’t actually have any difficulties or felt pain in my urinary tract, though of course I felt scared to pee during that time because I thought it would hurt lol.

What was the last thing you baked? Cookies. A lifetime ago, since I don’t normally bake.

When was the last time you showered? Yesterday afternoon when I was finally able to clock out of work.

Would you rather go to the dentist or the doctor? Dentist. I actually find the procedures soothing. There’s a whole lot of issues that can be unpacked when you visit doctors, so I’m kinda scared of that.

Have you ever been in love? Yes. I miss the feeling and being able to act on it, but I’m liking being with myself too.

How do you feel about public speaking? I’m ok with it for the most part. I know I can speak well and generally have a good hold of my thoughts, so I don’t mind if I have to do it unless I have to talk about something I’m greatly unfamiliar with, like insurance or economics lmao. The latter situation is the only time I’d feel unprepared or scared of public speaking.

Do you see anything green? Yeah, since we have artificial plant accents on the coffee table.

What shoes do you usually wear? Sneakers or running shoes.

Do you take any birth control? Nope.

Who is the last person you talked to? My sister; I just asked her to turn the volume down on the TV.

Are there any fast food restaurants that you refuse to eat at? Just Tokyo Tokyo. I can take or leave Burger King but for the most part I find their burgers too plain.

Do you recycle? Whenever I can, yeah.

Do you know what you want to major in in college? I wanted to take up journalism. I suppose I don’t regret it, since I ended up wanting to be in a field that’s close enough to it anyway and I don’t feel like the skills I learned went to waste.

Have you ever snuck anyone in your room? Nah, I always let my mom know if I’m letting someone over since she doesn’t knock and would find out anyway.

Who was the last person in your bed besides you? Gabie.

Have you ever been in the hospital? Other than when I was born, yeah, at least once.

What's the last movie you watched? I watched Midsommar with Nina and some cousins last Christmas lol. We unknowingly downloaded the Director’s Cut, which we found out wasn’t as good as the main version since they added cheesy scenes to it, which ruined the suspenseful mood of the movie.

What's your favorite fruit? Avocado.

What do your bathroom walls look like? The bottom half has coral-ish tiles, while the top half is just a plain white wall. In the downstairs bathroom the setup is the same, but instead of coral tiles we have light blue wall tiles instead on the bottom half.

What do you spend most of your money on? At the moment, most of the money that I do take out of my account is the money I give to my parents every couple of weeks to help out with the bills. The next main thing I spend on is food, because I always have cravings I need satisfied haha.

Do you have any weird obsessions? Reading about serial killers and unsolved crimes isn’t really considered ‘weird’ anymore since a lot of other people have taken up the interest. But that’s probably the most out-there ~obsession that I have.

Do you bite your nails? I do but not obsessively.

What's the last color you dyed your hair? I’ve never tried dyeing my hair yet.

How do you feel about mustaches? Not my personal preference, but you do you.

Is there anyone that you really want to see in concert? Beyonceeeeeeeeeeeeee.

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Millions of hungry Americans turn to food banks for 1st time (AP) Hunger is a harsh reality in the richest country in the world. Even during times of prosperity, schools hand out millions of hot meals a day to children, and desperate elderly Americans are sometimes forced to choose between medicine and food. Now, in the pandemic of 2020, with illness, job loss and business closures, millions more Americans are worried about empty refrigerators and barren cupboards. Food banks are doling out meals at a rapid pace and an Associated Press data analysis found a sharp rise in the amount of food distributed compared with last year. Meanwhile, some folks are skipping meals so their children can eat and others are depending on cheap food that lacks nutrition. Those fighting hunger say they’ve never seen anything like this in America, even during the Great Recession of 2007-2009. The first place many Americans are finding relief is a neighborhood food pantry, most connected to vast networks of nonprofits. Tons of food move each day from grocery store discards and government handouts to warehouse distribution centers, and then to the neighborhood charity. An AP analysis of Feeding America data from 181 food banks in its network found the organization has distributed nearly 57 percent more food in the third quarter of the year, compared with the same period in 2019.

Covid Nomads (WSJ) Alan Frei lives the life of a backpacker. That is, all 62 of his belongings fit into a single backpack, which he carries with him as he travels and lives in different cities around the world—a total of 53 countries over the past three years. The 38-year-old Swiss entrepreneur in October got rid of his apartment near Zurich and all his furniture. Items he kept include his watch, a toothbrush, seven pairs of underwear, and sunglasses. Mr. Frei is an extreme version of a digital nomad, a person with no fixed address, who lives and works while traveling the globe. Today, their ranks are small, but they could become more common in the years ahead. “There will definitely be more digital nomads,” says Nicholas Bloom, professor of economics at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Before the pandemic, only about 2% of Americans worked from home full-time, Mr. Bloom says, but he expects that will rise to about 8% to 10% of workers. If just 10% of them travel and work remotely, that will still be enormous, he says. Scott Cohen, a professor at the University of Surrey’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, expects more countries will cater visa and tourism programs to digital nomads, as they seek an alternative to the standard business travel market. Chekitan S. Dev, a professor at Cornell University’s SC Johnson College of Business, School of Hotel Administration, says the trend was first driven by millennials; now older millennials are taking their families with them when they move around. By normalizing remote work and school, the pandemic has supercharged a trend. In the future, digital nomads may be middle-aged, rent or own homes for less time, want to go to more exotic destinations and move more quickly between destinations.

California Water Futures Begin Trading Amid Fear of Scarcity (Bloomberg) Water joined gold, oil and other commodities traded on Wall Street, highlighting worries that the life-sustaining natural resource may become scarce across more of the world. Farmers, hedge funds and municipalities alike are now able to hedge against—or bet on—future water availability in California, the biggest U.S. agriculture market and world’s fifth-largest economy. The contracts, a first of their kind in the U.S., were announced in September as heat and wildfires ravaged the U.S. West Coast and as California was emerging from an eight-year drought. They are meant to serve both as a hedge for big water consumers, such as almond farmers and electric utilities, against water prices fluctuations as well a scarcity gauge for investors worldwide. “Climate change, droughts, population growth, and pollution are likely to make water scarcity issues and pricing a hot topic for years to come,” said RBC Capital Markets managing director and analyst Deane Dray.

‘It’s a free-for-all’: how hi-tech spyware ends up in the hands of Mexico’s cartels (The Guardian) Corrupt Mexican officials have helped drug cartels in the country obtain state-of-the-art spyware which can be used to hack mobile phones, according to a senior DEA official. As many as 25 private companies—including the Israeli company NSO Group and the Italian firm Hacking Team—have sold surveillance software to Mexican federal and state police forces, but there is little or no regulation of the sector—and no way to control where the spyware ends up, said the officials. “It’s a free-for-all,” the official told the Cartel Project, an initiative coordinated by Forbidden Stories, a global network of investigative journalists whose mission is to continue the work of reporters who are threatened, censored or killed. “The police who have the technology would just sell it to the cartels.” [And then the cartels would use it against their enemies or those investigating them.] The nexus between state and criminal forces has fuelled a wave of targeted violence which have made Mexico the most dangerous country for journalists in the world, outside a war zone. At least 119 media workers have been killed in Mexico since 2000, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the inevitable fear for reporters is that surveillance could lead to more tangible dangers.

Pope makes surprise early morning prayer visit in rainy Rome (AP) Pope Francis on Tuesday made a surprise early morning visit to the Spanish Steps in Rome to pray for people worldwide struggling in the pandemic. With rain falling and dawn breaking, Francis popped up in the square at the foot of the Spanish Steps at 7 a.m. (0600 GMT), two hours after the end of Italy’s overnight curfew. Before heading back to Vatican City, where he resides in a hotel, Francis stopped to pray some more and celebrate Mass in St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome. Early in the pandemic, Francis made a similar pop-up visit to a little-frequented church in the heart of downtown Rome to pray, startling the few Romans who were in the area during exceptionally tight lockdown measures. In separate, written comments, Francis stressed the need for all to have employment when the world emerges from the pandemic. “How can we speak of human dignity without working to ensure that everyone is able to earn a decent living?” the pope wrote. He urged people to “find ways to express our firm conviction that no person, no person at all, no family should be without work.” As he has previously during the pandemic, the pope praised what he called the “ordinary people” who have kept the world functioning as it reels under the strain of the global pandemic. He cited those providing essential services—health care workers and shopkeepers, cleaners and caregivers and “so very many others.”

The Kremlin Is Offering Russians Free Vaccines, but Will They Take Them? (NYT) Aleksei Zakharov, a Moscow economics professor, got the Russian coronavirus vaccine injected into his upper arm over the weekend. Getting the shot was an easy decision, he said—not because the Russian government said it was safe, but because scores of Russians have shared their experience with it on social media. “I trust the grass roots collection of information far more, of course, than what the state says, at least before the testing results are available and published in a medical journal,” Mr. Zakharov, 44, said in a telephone interview Monday, already clear of a mild fever—a side-effect of the vaccine. Russia made its coronavirus vaccine available for free in recent days to teachers, medical workers and social-service employees younger than 61 in Moscow. But even more than in the West, a lack of trust is hobbling Russia’s rollout of a vaccine: the country’s scientists may well have made great strides in battling the pandemic, but many Russians are not ready to believe it. That distrust looms large as Russia races to roll out the vaccine while facing the fiercest onslaught of the pandemic yet, with some 500 deaths per day.

Mt Everest grows by nearly a metre to new height (BBC) The world’s highest mountain Mount Everest is 0.86m higher than had been previously officially calculated, Nepal and China have jointly announced. Until now the countries differed over whether to add the snow cap on top. The new height is 8,848.86m (29,032 ft). Everest stands on the border between China and Nepal and mountaineers climb it from both sides. Officials at Nepal’s foreign ministry and department of survey said surveyors from both countries had co-ordinated to agree on the new height.

China condemns new US Hong Kong sanctions, Taiwan arms sale (AP) China on Tuesday lashed out at the U.S. over new sanctions against Chinese officials and the sale of more military equipment to Taiwan. The U.S. actions are part of what critics see as an effort by the Trump administration to put in place high-pressure tactics toward Beijing that could make it more difficult for President-elect Joe Biden to steady relations. The Cabinet’s office for Hong Kong affairs expressed “strong outrage and condemnation” over the sanctions leveled against 14 members of the standing committee of China’s legislature, which passed a sweeping Hong Kong National Security Law earlier this year. Foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, meanwhile, demanded the U.S. cancel its latest arms sale to Taiwan and said China would make a “proper and necessary response.” President Donald Trump’s administration has incensed Beijing with 11 separate arms sales and closer military and political ties with the self-governing island democracy that Beijing claims as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. China has stepped up military flights near the island and pledged to punish U.S. companies involved in the arms deals in response.

Libya’s east-based forces seize Turkish-owned vessel (AP) Forces of a Libyan commander who rules the eastern half of the country and who was behind a year-long military attempt to capture the capital, Tripoli, have seized a Turkish vessel heading to the western town of Misrata. The development by Khalifa Hifter’s forces could escalate tensions in the conflict-stricken Libya, since Turkey is the main foreign backer of Hifter’s rivals, the U.N.-backed administration in Tripoli, in western Libya. Hifter’s forces stopped the Jamaica-flagged cargo vessel, Mabrouka, on Monday off the eastern port town of Derna, said Ahmed al-Mosmari, the spokesman for Hifter’s forces. Al-Mosmari said the vessel entered a “no sail” zone and did not respond to calls from the naval forces. It’s the second Turkish-owned vessel seized by Hifter’s forces this year, according to Ambrey Intelligence, a British private maritime intelligence firm. In 2020, Hifter’s forces have seized at least six ships.

[raisingsupergirl]

When 2020 Hands You a Staycation, Make... Everything

My family was looking forward to our trip for months. My mom was going to take all of us to a beautiful cabin at Kentucky Lake. It would have been the first time we've all gone on a family vacation in literally decades. And man, did we need it. But, of course, we forgot to consider the 2020 factor. So, literally days before we were supposed to leave, the air conditioning went out in my truck, my grandma broke her hip, my grandma-in-law was diagnosed with a terminal illness (and passed away soon after), and my mom tested positive for COVID-19. And so, in a twist of fate that we all should have seen coming, our vacation turned into a staycation. And this is how mine went…

Like any respectable week stuck at home, my family's started with donuts. And the food just kept coming all week. It was my fault, really. I decided I'd play Master Chef, and so I cooked and I cooked and I cooked, from scratch. Fettuccine alfredo, sushi (x 2), all the grilled things (including my world famous ribs with homemade BBQ sauce), breakfast yummies, pizza (for my wife's birthday), and Sunday piña coladas. We can't forget the Sunday piña coladas. My family will back up my claim that it was all wonderful (even if my wife complained about all the weight she gained), but if I'm being honest, by the end, I was a little sick of cooking. Okay, a lot sick of cooking. And that unexpected side-effect was kind of the theme of my week.

Along with cooking, I kept the Martha Stewart Living dream alive by starting an elderberry tincture, bottling up some flavored alcohol I've been working on, cleaning my fish tanks, fixing my wife's shower, and spending three days power spraying All the Things—little honey-dos and creative projects to keep my mind and body busy, to make me feel like the week wasn't completely wasted. Unfortunately, that mentality royally backfired. You see, the thing about projects is that there's an endless supply of them. There's no finish line to the things that need doing. And once you start digging into the pile, you realize just how deep it is. And then you quickly realize how little time you have left to do them before you have to go back to work for another year. At least, that's what happened to me, which tinted every day with this little feeling of desperation, like I wasn't in control of my time, my work, or my life. And as I got further into the week, I started feeling a little worthless, like none of the things I was doing, had done up to that point, or would ever do again, meant a gosh darned thing. And that kind of thinking is a royal bummer when you're on vacation, let me tell ya.

By the final Sunday, it got to the point where I was sitting on my back porch with beautiful weather, good music, a colada in my hand, my amazing wife by my side, and my kids squealing in the kiddie pool, and all I could think about as I stared up at the fluffy, white clouds was, "Why do I feel so bad?" And then I felt bad for feeling bad. At that moment, my life was perfect. So why was I searching for more? Why did I feel like I hadn't done enough on my vacation—enough work, enough relaxing, enough memory making? I'd done my best all week to stay in the moment and be appreciative of my abundant blessings. But for some reason, it hadn't helped. I'd kept dreading my return to the "real world" despite a pretty stinkin' successful staycation. So what was it? What was bothering me about that perfect week? Well, I can be a little slow sometimes. The obvious often eludes me. Remember the first paragraph of this post? The one where all the bad things happened? Yeah, I guess I had tried to bury that reality instead of deal with it. And there ain't no amount of sushi or power spraying or piña coladas that can bury 2020.

It's strange that it took me going back to work on Monday to gain some real perspective. The thing I had been dreading was the very thing that saved me—that helped me appreciate everything about my previous week spent at home. Not because work was bad or hard. Quite the opposite, actually. My first day back was busy, I felt scatterbrained, and I was thoroughly exhausted when I got home. But it felt great. Getting back with my patients and co-workers, doing what I knew so well how to do, falling into a rhythm. It all helped remind me of who I am and what all I'd learned from my staycation (yes, I'm repeating that ridiculous word to annoy everyone who hates it). And, as it turns out, I learned quite a lot.

First off, I do actually love my job. I love helping people (even if they exhaust me). I love what I do and who I work with. I get burned out from time to time, but there's no other career I would rather do on a full-time basis. It offers a sense of fulfillment and stability that I've never appreciated until now (which has also given me a greater appreciation for all those people stuck at home in quarantine. I guess putting your life on hold isn't as amazing as it sounds…). Secondly, I love my family. There are some real memories from this past week that I'll never forget. Those lazy afternoons in the back yard with my wife while my kids played in their tiny pool. The mornings getting sunburned at my six-year-old's soccer games. The movie nights, laughs, and cuddles. Oh so many cuddles. Despite the craziness and heartache looming just outside our little pocket universe, my family and I really did make the most of it. Oh, and the last thing I learned? When making homemade pizza sauce, don't add baking soda to lower the acidity and then mix the resulting science experiment in a sealed blender. That is, unless you're looking to redo your kitchen.

On the bright side, my wife figured out what she wanted for her birthday—a new blender! That, my friends, is what you do when 2020 strikes. You make lemonade out of lemons. Sure, tragedy continues to weigh on our planet, our country, our society, and our families. Yes, my grandma's hip is still broken. Yes, my family lost a wonderful woman last week, and the world will always be just a little darker for that loss. Yes, the pandemic continues to rage. Yes, my county is second in the nation for active cases, which means full protective equipment and precautions at work every day. And yes, I'm going to have to pay a few hundred dollars to have my truck's air conditioner fixed. But you know what? My mom has been essentially symptom-free as she battles the Virus Which Shall Not Be Named. In fact, she's been out doing yard work. That's the epitome of making lemonade, folks. And this past Monday, on my wife's birthday, just when I was starting to feel bad that she hadn't had the special day that she so greatly deserved because I had to work and then drop off my truck at the repair shop, something kind of neat happened. The summer rain cleared away, and a promise revealed itself—a rainbow, tip to tail. God's reminder that he's watching over us. That there is always an end to the heartache. That no darkness lasts forever. And that, even in the midst of it all, there is beauty. There is laughter. There is hope.

So keep hoping, y'all. Better times are coming. It might get choppier before things start smoothing out. The school year and the winter are going to be challenging. But it won't be the end. "If you're going through hell, keep going," seems like wonderfully appropriate advice. So let's keep going, together. Let's remind each other what we're fighting for. Let's keep praying and taking extra time to help each other out. Showing kindness and patience when both seem to be in short supply. Oh, and remember, if you're thinking about ending it all by adding tomatoes and baking soda to a blender, just say no. Instead, maybe take a deep breath and power spray a smiley face into your sidewalk as a gentle reminder that it’ll all be okay.

[etraytin]

Quarantine, Day 77

Very big day today! MIL got her test results in that prove that her mild fever really was just that nasty sinus infection (the fact that the antibiotics made her feel better immediately was a good sign, but the test was nice for corroboration.) Officially Fit for Outside once more, we embarked upon our greatest adventure yet: the shoe store! 

Now you may think that this trip is somewhat frivolous, but if you believe that, you have neither seen nor smelled my child's current pair of shoes. He has had them for six months, which is approximately one geologic age in ten-year-old's-shoes years, and they are basically ruined in every way. My shoes are less visibly ruined, but the sole is completely peeling off one of them and that is less than ideal. My mother in law, of course, had those two falls the other week because she was wearing slippy-soled shoes and has been wearing her sandals ever since despite the rainy weather. And my husband always buys the same pair of black shoes every time he shops, but that doesn't mean he doesn't need to try things on. And carry stuff. At any rate, we all needed shoes very badly, so we have been discussing the big Shoe Store Visit for literally weeks now. 

The trip was complicated from the outset by the fact that kiddo's shoes were not only visibly ruined but still completely soaking wet from yesterday's water adventures. We tried unsuccessfully to tumble dry them, but Nana's high-tech dryer cannot understand the wetness level of shoes and kept thinking it was done. I eventually just made him wear them the way they were and bring along a second pair of socks so he wouldn't be trying on shoes with wet socks. That is rude even in normal times. 

He was pretty excited because this was his first time in a store that was not a convenience store since March. I have gone out shopping an average of once per week, and my husband went to campus until the powers that be allowed him to remote teach from home (more than a week after they sent the students home), but we've kept the kiddo pretty much away from anyplace where he might give or get germs. Some people have to take their kids with them to shop, I figure, so it's better if everyone with the luxury to shop alone does so. He has his own mask with Dr. Seuss characters on it, but he's only really had to wear it when we stop for gas on our long car rides. 

Kiddo was not wild about wearing the mask in the store, not least because the mask is a little bit big for his face and he couldn't look down very well, but he was good about keeping it on. As things open up and we can go out more with him, I'm going to have to see about getting him some masks that fit better. it's possible that if schools reopen on schedule in the fall, he might have to wear a mask for some or all of the school day. If that's the case, it had better be comfortable! Anyway, we went as fast as we could, splitting up so everybody could get shoes with maximum efficiency. I had to measure his feet myself and wound up getting it wrong, but we figured out the correct size by trying on several pairs that did not fit (but remained totally dry!).

He got a cool pair of tennis shoes in size five and a half, (holy puppy-dog feet, Batman!) and a pair of red socks with cats on them. I tried on shoes faster than I ever have before because everybody was waiting on me by the time I finished with the kid, and got myself a comfortable pair of walking shoes with both soles firmly attached. My husband found a two for one deal in the men's department because I have trained him to spot a bargain, coming away not only with his usual plain black shoes, but also black winter boots. I was very proud! My mother in law got a new pair of shoes with much better soles, so overall we came away with all objectives accomplished in only about forty minutes. Nearly everybody in the store was wearing a mask and distancing well, and the fact that it is a massive warehouse-sized store helped. 

So that was our big thing for today, a quarantine milestone! Today's lunch was salsa chicken again because we had lots of leftovers, but I dressed it up by making fresh tortillas. Learning to make pasta has considerably improved my kneading and rolling game since the days when I lived in Laredo and try to make tacos to fit in. While I would not characterize my efforts as round in any form, they were substantially less like pita pockets than the ones I used to make. In Laredo they sell raw corn tortillas in the grocery store so you can cook them yourself at home. I miss that! Dinner was a recipe for "fancy Hamburger Helper" that my husband found in the New York Times, which was good, and the lettuce greens I picked up at the farmer's market this afternoon. Everyone at the farmer's market wore a mask. I read an article that said doing pretty much anything you'd normally do indoors outdoors instead reduces the risk of sickness, so a farmer's market with everybody in masks and the booths 20 feet apart  is basically the shopping ideal. 

Also, if you want to try and make tortillas, they are great quarantine food so long as you have flour. I bought lard specially to make tortillas with, but I am told margarine also works. Lard is cheap and it keeps for a long time, though! You basically whisk together four cups of flour, a half teaspoon of salt and two teaspoons of baking powder, then add two heaping tablespoons of lard and mix it with your hands until the lard is all spread throughout and has changed the consistency of the flour. Then you add a cup and a half of water and knead the resulting dough on a flat surface until it's smooth and stretchy. Then you divide it up into 24 little balls, roll them out individually, and cook them very quickly on a hot skillet, flipping them once each. It turns out that 24 tortillas is Very Many Tortillas for four people, so next time I will halve the recipe, but they were good! 

Also for some reason I spent nearly all day thinking today was Thursday. Eventually time will become real again, but it doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon. Oh and for the record, for the Me keeping score from the future, today is May 27, a Wednesday. Today is notable because it marks 100,000 COVID-19 deaths in the US. We have been in quarantine since the schools closed on March 12, and away from home since May 1. Wow, May went by _really_ fast. 

[sssuperbartola]

COVID-19: Update on Italy

To any non-Italian citizen currently on holiday and/or people visiting,

as many of you may have heard, the country of Italy has been declared the worst-affected country in Europe by numbers of COVID-19′s infected victims, and the second globally biggest contaminated country just after China. Due to these circumstances, urgent measures have been taken, as well as new emergency procedures that not only involve the most endangered zones, but also Italy as its whole. 

Specifically, in the earliest hours of the morning of Sunday 8th March 2020, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conti has approved and signed a new decree concerning the idea of putting the whole Northern Italy into a “red zone” of quarantine. The new decree focuses on enlisting the containment measures for said “red zone”, which regards the areas of Lombardia and the provinces of Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia, Rimini, Pesaro and Urbino, Alessandria, Asti, Novara, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Vercelli, Padova, Treviso, Venezia. From tomorrow and until further notice, these areas will be isolated and will be “closed” from external visitors.

The new decree states as it follows:

- For the “red zone”:

Avoid any sort of movement of physical people in and out of the territories hereby mentioned by this article, including movements inside said territories, with the exception of proved work- and/or health-related necessities

Subjects tested positive to COVID-19 are prohibited from exiting their household

Subjects who show flu-like symptoms and/or respiratory infection with a fever superior to 37.5 C° (99.5 F) are to stay home and to limit their social exchanges with the exterior, and to contact their family doctor

Suspension of sports events and competitions of every order and category, both in public and private places. Possibility for agonistic athletes to compete and train with closed doors (in the outdoors, without an audience and following the Covid-19 sanitary norms in effect on March 4th.

Suspension of activities on pubs, arcades, gambling rooms, Bingo rooms, dancing schools, and dancing-related clubs with the application of specific fees in case of law-break.

Suspension of events and shows of any nature, including those of cinematographic and theatrical nature performed in any place, private or public may it be.

Suspended opening of museums and any artistic institutions and places of culture

Suspension of religion and civil ceremonies (funerals included). The opening of places of worship is influenced by the adoption of measurements apt to avoid assembly of masses and to ensure the respect of the security distance of at least 1 meter ( ~3 feet)

Suspension of any form of organized gathering and manifestations, whether it be of ludic, sportive or religious reason.

Closing of schools, academies, university and any place dedicated to education of every order and grade until April 3rd.

Closing of gyms, sports centers, public pools, S.p.a., thermal centers.

Security distance of least 1 meter ( ~3 feet) must be respected

Senile people or people affected by chronic pathologies or suffering from immunodeficiency congenic or acquired are not to exit their homes, with the exception of  serious cases, and to avoid clogged places

Partners and/or escorts of patients recovered or in domestic quarantine are not allowed to stay in waiting rooms of the emergency departments and reception desks

Visitor hours for patients are now limited in structures designated to medical treatment.

Closing of shops and touristic landmarks on Saturdays and Sundays

Suspension fo school exchange programs and educational travels

-  For the rest of the national territory: 

Avoid any sort of movement of physical people in and out of the territories hereby mentioned by this article, with the exception of proved work- and/or health-related necessities

Subjects tested positive to COVID-19 are prohibited from exiting their household

Subjects who show flu-like symptoms and/or respiratory infection with a fever superior to 37.5 C° (99.5 F) are strongly suggested to stay home and to limit their social exchanges with the exterior, and to contact their family doctor

Suspension of sports events and competitions of every order and category, both in public and private places. Possibility for agonistic athletes to compete and train with closed doors (in the outdoors, without an audience and following the Covid-19 sanitary norms in effect on March 4th.

Suspension of activities on pubs, arcades, gambling rooms, Bingo rooms, dancing schools, and dancing-related clubs with the application of specific fees in case of law-break.

Suspension of events and shows of any nature, including those of cinematographic and theatrical nature performed in any place, private or public may it be.

Suspended opening of museums and any artistic institutions and places of culture

Suspension of religion and civil ceremonies (funerals included). The opening of places of worship is influenced by the adoption of measurements apt to avoid assembly of masses and to ensure the respect of the security distance of at least 1 meter ( ~3 feet)

Suspension of any form of organized gathering and manifestations, whether it be of ludic, sportive or religious reason.

Closing of schools, academies, university and any place dedicated to education of every order and grade until March 15th 

Closing of gyms, sports centers, public pools, S.p.a., thermal centers.

Security distance of least 1 meter ( ~3 feet) must be respected

Senile people or people affected by chronic pathologies or suffering from immunodeficiency congenic or acquired are not to exit their homes, with the exception of serious cases, and to avoid clogged places.

Partners and/or escorts of patients recovered or in domestic quarantine are not allowed to stay in waiting rooms of the emergency departments and reception desks

Visitor hours for patients are now limited in structures designated to medical treatment.

Suspension fo school exchange programs and educational travels

The aforementioned measures are to be followed by everyone, as well as follow the standard hygienic norms (wash your hands frequently, sneeze on your elbows, do not borrow or lend any personal object, etc...)

With that being said, if you or someone you know have the intention of going to Italy in the nearest future, I strongly suggest that you cancel your trip, especially if you wanted to visit the North. You can always earn the money back. A life is not that easy to get back. If you are already spending a significantly long period of time in Italy, follow these rules as well, you are not an exception and your well-being is important, too. 

Were any of you to manifest symptoms that may indicate you are contaminated with the coronavirus:

DO NOT PANIC: the virus is indeed extremely contagious, but its killing rate stands at 1-2%, which is way lower than the killing rate of the common flu, and has stronger outcomes in patients already sick and/or very old with a very low immune system. REMEMBER: the most dangerous characteristic of this virus is its spreading rate.

DO NOT go to the nearest hospital or emergency center, because this will only increase the possibility to contaminate more people. 

DO NOT CALL 122 or 118, as these numbers are the emergency numbers for ALL TYPES OF EMERGENCY and not just the coronavirus. These numbers should be always free and left for other emergencies-- call this number ONLY if the patient suffers from extremely severe breathing faculty.

CALL THE NUMBER OF PUBLIC UTILITY 1500 which was created to help possible infected victims and give them any instructions on how to proceed from there.

According to how serious your symptoms sound on the phone, the sanitary operators will personally perform a pharyngeal swab at your residence/place you stay at the moment, which then will be sent to a laboratory to be analyzed.

Under no circumstances you will go out during the verification test of the swab, for you may be infected and don’t know that.

If the first one turns out negative, the sanitary operators will perform a second swab after a period of 24H to confirm the absence of the virus. While all of this happens, one should remain in quarantine at home for a minimum of 14 days - the time of incubation of the virus, and let the medical staff perform periodical visits and monitoring (all of which will be determined by the staff and the staff alone according to your situation)

If both swabs are negative, and the symptoms subdue, I suggest you still stay indoor for precautions and await any further instruction by the medical staff that followed your case.

If the swabs are positive and/or your symptoms get worse, the procedure requires you, or whoever has been confirmed contaminated, to be collected and transported to the nearest hospital and get treated with an intensive cure.

Here are the numbers for emergency Region per Region

Bear in mind that this post is not exhaustive and that only contains a concise summary of what you should and should not do in this situation. 

Please follow these instructions and rules, and keep track of all the news for very little is now permanent and prolonged. News media can be confusing so this paper should help with the most important measures.

Stay safe

[deputyseal409]

Spasm

These words make me twitch: Corona, COVID, ‘the virus’, pandemic, safety, quarantine, distancing, ‘stay home’.

A pandemic is something that has a quick detrimental effect on a population, not a 60-year-old virus that kills less than 5% of the people it infects.  If anything anyone had done were actually helping anyone, then it wouldn’t have spread.  There is no way of knowing if it slowed anything down when the panic started before it even came to most areas in the US.  If you do anything drastic, it’s supposed to be after something bad happens, not before, because then it won’t prevent anything.

Safety is a word associated with immediate physical harm, not for potential eventual internal harm.  Wearing a helmet when you ride your bike is a matter of safety.  Washing your hands after handling meat is a matter of health.  Following traffic laws is a matter of safety.  Wearing a mask to filter the air from just inside your own car is not a matter of safety, but some people do it anyway.  That would be the equivalent of grabbing a tissue when you know you’re going to sneeze in two weeks.

Quarantine is a state of turning your living environment into a large hospital clean room.  Literal quarantine involves covering up doorways with plastic to keep the victim(s) from escaping, and disinfecting everything anything that goes in or out of the place before even touching it, at least with your bare hands.  True quarantine would mean everyone else buying your necessities, then disinfecting them before handing them over to you, and not leaving your house for anything short of going to the hospital, at least until the disease has been eradicated.  Staying away from germy areas outside and ordering all of your food and toiletries to your doorstep is not a quarantine; it’s barely isolation.  You’d have to be nearly cut off from civilization to be truly quarantined.  Our ancestors didn’t have electricity, or even a huge sturdy roof above their heads, and people today think the apocalypse looks like the nearest market running out of instant noodles and TV dinners.

To my knowledge, there has never been a virus that could be affected by how close you stand to someone, unless you’re close enough to touch them unintentionally.  If there were, wouldn’t they have mentioned any one of the other times there was a concern over any disease?  You can catch something from someone from touching the same object as them, without ever being so much as in the same building as them.  Unless someone else gets close enough to purposely breathe/sneeze/cough on you, standing away from them won’t protect you.  At best it’ll give you piece of mind, the same way not breaking a mirror will, or not letting your total be $6.66 at the store.  I may not be good at measuring, but I normally try to stay at least a couple of feet away from strangers most of the time, because it makes me a little uncomfortable to be close to someone I don’t know.  Yelling at people who are standing “too close” is only going to create anger and tension.

Staying home can only limit so much interaction with people outside.  Some people might wipe down everything that comes into their house, but what about the people in service jobs who need to leave home, and aren’t working at a medical institution?  Are they going to wipe down a police station top to bottom with sanitizer?  Every day?  With new people coming and going?  If it were a matter of safety, the whole country could’ve just about shut down for two weeks, similar to how an area reacts to a bad blizzard.  People could have lined up for testing, and the whole problem might have been eliminated in less than two months.  That would mean no money, though.  People working from home have had not drop in salary.  Most people who were fired are making more money now than they ever did working.  People (like me) who got a stimulus check are getting much closer to the financial life they want.  Teachers were the first people to be pulled from work, and they’re paid by the government.  People have been spending money left and right on things they may, or may not ever need.  They’re paying hundreds of dollars towards home projects that they’ve been putting off for years. 

Trump doesn’t care about people, but he does care about money.  Almost immediately after Trump was supposed to be impeached is when the orders came to start closing schools, and this was weeks before it even hit some areas on any level.  So many lines have been crossed that no one seems to remember where they started back five months ago.

[mikeo56]

SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes the disease we call COVID-19

COVID-19 is very contagious from person to person by air to lungs or by touch to eyes and nose and it can be fatal.

The COVID-19 virus is very new; it likely recently jumped from another species to humans and most every person can (and in the US, likely will) be infected by this new virus.

Of all the people infected, most people will have mild or even no symptoms and may never know that they were infected, but they are still highly contagious to others.

To understand the incredible present rapid and overwhelming COVID-19 infection rate compare the behavior of the past MERS infection to the COVID-19 infection. COVID-19 can be transmitted by infected people before they even show symptoms. People infected with MERS weren’t contagious until they were obviously sick and showing symptoms. Victims who show symptoms of disease before they have the ability to pass it to others gave health care workers a heads up and allowed a small but definite window of time for effective quarantine measures. COVID-19 does not offer us that luxury. COVID-19 victims can show NO symptoms while being highly contagious to others.

Of the latest preventative measures, masks are now considered a barrier to infection when worn by both uninfected and infected people. Washing your hands frequently and keeping your hands away from your face can protect you. Maintaining a distance from other people, avoiding groups especially in tight rooms, and keeping your hands off of public used surfaces are protective means.

Exercise is important to maintaining your health. Walking alone in the hot Florida sun is a healthy activity and the Florida sun with its intense UV radiation leaves little chance that a viral particle would survive more than a second. Most of what I write here is in line with what health authorities will tell you, but I disagree strongly on one point and that is the designation “stay at home”; it is simply an easy-to-say directive, but a monumentally stupid slogan. They should say, “Don’t Associate”.

Why antibody testing is important. The ability to determine if a person has antibodies for COVID-19 allows us to use this survivor’s plasma to save lives. We have used convalescent plasma for a hundred years; it has been used for many diseases and the Chinese have already done a small study with COVID-19 showing that is safe and works and no offense, but if you can’t do anything, then why wait on the Trump-Moron defunded CDC or the Big Pharma fellatiating FDA to weigh in, when again, convalescent plasma has been used for a century, safely!

Information and Understanding: Primarily, I would say that it is paramount that you educate yourself, and this cannot be stressed enough, considering the seriousness of this disease and the climate of disinformation, confusion, conflicting information, encouragement to ignorance promoted by our government and our media and horribly the depravity and indifference of our politicians who offer little more than superstition as opposed to guidance and to the extent even some of our politicians exhibiting the depravity to use American’s plight as a means to profit. Where does one turn? Our politicians are proving to be abject failures at best and indifferent and profiteering criminals at worst.

Authorities: In Florida where I live, Governor DeSantis has as of April 2d issued at “Stay at Home” directive. Again, most of what I write here is in line with what health authorities will tell you, but I disagree strongly on one point and that is the designation “stay at home”; it is simply an easy to say directive but a monumentally stupid slogan. They should say, Don’t Associate”.

The obvious multi-generational political incompetence, entrenched party ignorance and greed of our government authorities has certainly been starkly and painfully illuminated by the COVID-19 pandemic. To add to this sickening insult to injury we now have the disgusting “privilege” of a law enforcement presence associated with our “Stay at Home and Fester” directive from Governor DeSantis. In light of Florida County Deputies past and continued practice of robbing at gunpoint good Americans of their cash (euphemism - civil forfeiture), murdering people of color and watching children drink out of toilets, a forced association with these uniformed thugs is as comforting as catching the disease itself. But, remember many of those in uniform are sincerely trying to help even though they have no clue.

Offended? If you are law enforcement and you pull people over and steal cash from them after you have sworn and oath to the US Constitution (due process, junior), fuck you! You deserve NO respect. You are an armed robber; you know you are an armed robber; and you just don’t get to pretend “daddy” can give your lame ass “permission” to steal from those folks you have sworn to protect and serve.

We lie so fucking much in this country, encouraged by US Media and US Government, it is no wonder we stagger and stumble so mightily when as a fucking after-thought we make a rare and pathetic attempt at honest and urgent communication. Ours is a culture steeped in willful ignorance and obedience to assholes.

Websites Coronavirus Updates

Coronaviruses 101: Focus on Molecular Virology

[bountyofbeads]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/11/coronavirus-live-updates/

LIVE UPDATES: WHO DECLARES CORONAVIRUS A PANDEMIC; ITALY HALTS NEARLY ALL COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY

By Alex Horton, Miriam Berger, Lateshia Beachum, Hannah Knowles and Michael Brice-Saddler | Published March 11 at 7:19 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted March 11, 2020 |

The World Health Organization declared coronavirus a pandemic, with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus saying: “We are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity — and by the alarming levels of inaction.”

The WHO’s Wednesday declaration came as the number of known novel coronavirus cases surpassed 120,000 worldwide. Speaking on Capitol Hill, Anthony Fauci, the long-standing director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases declared “it’s going to get worse.”

President Trump said he will address the nation at 9 p.m.

In the United States, where there are now more than 1,000 cases, the White House is considering moving all of Europe to a Level 3 travel advisory, discouraging all nonessential travel to those regions. Meanwhile, Italy tried to stymie coronavirus’s spread by ordering a halt to nearly all commercial activity, aside from supermarkets and pharmacies.

HERE ARE THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS :

*The Dow reached bear-market territory on a nearly 1,500-point skid as panic intensified about the coronavirus, which threatens to debilitate global economies and bring on a recession.

*Ohio will limit large gatherings; Washington state introduced similar measures in a few counties. The NCAA announced that its basketball tournaments will be held without fans in attendance.

*India’s health ministry announced it was suspending all existing visas from across the world till April 15.

*German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Wednesday that up to 70 percent of her country could end up infected.

_____

08:19 PM: WORK-FROM-HOME AT GOOGLE EXPOSES CLASS DIVIDE: CONTRACTORS VS. FULL-TIME

Growing fears around the spread of coronavirus have exposed class divides in the tech industry’s two-tiered system for white collar workers, where contractors do similar work as full-time employees — such as engineering or product management — but often for no equity, less pay, and fewer benefits.

Google on Tuesday publicized extending safety protections to contractors, including establishing a covid-19 fund to provide paid sick leave for contingent workers if they have symptoms or are quarantined. The company also advised employees in North America to work from home until at least April 10, according to a Tuesday email viewed by The Post.

But some Google contractors say they are still in limbo, unsure if they can exercise those benefits. On Wednesday, Google’s office in Pittsburgh was a ghost town, save for contractors employed by HCL Technologies, who work on Google Shopping. HCL employees in Pittsburgh, who recently unionized, believe it’s technically feasible to perform their job from home, if given permission. However, workers were told Wednesday afternoon that HCL is still talking to Google and can’t provide an update for 24 to 48 hours.

In the midst of that uncertainty, one contractor whose wife had symptoms of coronavirus came into Google’s Pittsburgh office Wednesday, another HCL employee told The Post, noting that dogs are no longer allowed in the Pittsburgh office as a temporary precaution. “So even dogs are more important of a priority than us,” he said.

HCL did not immediately respond to request for comment. In a statement to The Post, Google spokesperson Jenn Kaiser said, “To serve our users and keep our products running, some work, performed by Google employees, temporary staff and vendors alike, can only be done by people physically present at offices. We’re taking all necessary and recommended precautions, including increased sanitization and social distancing, a public health best practice.”

By: Nitasha Tiku

____

08:04 PM: ELECTIONS OFFICIALS scramble for OPTIONS AS VIRUS WORRIES MOUNT

Elections officials have stocked up on hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes. Many are urging voters to cast absentee ballots or vote early to avoid crowds.

But as the coronavirus pandemic worsens, local and state officials are scrambling to identify other options if public health leaders ultimately determine that there are risks to visiting polling places — an assessment that could change the basic mechanics of running an election midstream in a presidential campaign year.

“If you’re talking about something on that level, then we’re clearly facing a crisis and not just an emergency, and public health and safety will have to dictate whatever we do,” said Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who said he would follow the advice of public health officials and law enforcement.

"One of the very few things that would take precedent over a free and fair election is public health and safety, right?” LaRose said, adding that such a move would be a last resort.

Read more about the effort to keep elections virus-free.

By: ELISE VIEBECK

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07:59 PM: NBA discusses coronavirus response but doesn’t immediately announce plan for games, fan attendance

The NBA’s Board of Governors held a conference call Wednesday to discuss the league’s coronavirus response options, but reached no consensus as to whether games should proceed as normal, whether they should be held without fans in attendance, or

_____

07:19 PM: U.S. EMBASSY EMPLOYEE IS JAMAICANS SECOND CASE

A U.S. Embassy employee in Kingston, Jamaica, has become the island nation’s second confirmed case of the novel coronavirus, Jamaican Health Minister Chris Tufton announced on Twitter late Wednesday.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Confirmation of the case came one day after Jamaica announced that a female British national, who arrived in the country on March 4, had tested positive for the virus.

Though far from the epicenter of the crisis, Jamaica is grappling with the fallout, facing a loss of 50,000 cruise ship passengers in recent weeks and a sharp falloff in some tourism-related business. The country has set up strict health protocols aimed at preventing the spread of the virus and has led at least one cruise ships to bypass its port in Ocho Rios. It has also effectively barred one vessel due to reports of sick passengers aboard.

Across Jamaica, nearly three dozen people remain quarantined after traveling to countries reporting large numbers of cases. The Jamaican government has also banned travel to and from China, Iran, South Korea, Italy and Singapore and suspended flights from Spain, France and Germany.

By: ANTHONY FABIOLA

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07:15 PM: HOW MUCH WORSE IS CORONAVIRUS GOING TO GET IN U.S.? NEW FORECASTS AND MODELS ARE GRIM

A rash of alarming forecasts about the coronavirus pandemic emerged Wednesday. The World Health Organization officially declared it a pandemic. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said 70 percent of Germany’s population could become infected. Meanwhile, new models painted a grim picture of what worst-case scenario might look like.

“Bottom line, it’s going to get worse,” Anthony Fauci, long-standing director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at a congressional hearing.

Experts have produced forecasts of likely infections, serious illnesses and death tolls, based on what is known about the novel coronavirus and how past epidemics have played out, and they suggest that the United States — which has surpassed 1,000 confirmed novel-coronavirus infections and 30 deaths — must prepare for a potentially historic pandemic.

One forecast, developed by former CDC director Tom Frieden at the nonprofit organization Resolve to Save Lives, found that deaths in the United States could range widely, depending on what percentage of the population gets infected and how lethal the disease proves to be. Frieden, who oversaw the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, the 2014 Ebola epidemic and the 2016 Zika epidemic, says in a worst-case scenario, but one that is not implausible, half the U.S. population would get infected and more than 1 million people would die.

But the model’s range varied widely from 327 (best case) to 1,635,000 (worst case). The deaths would not necessarily happen over a month or a year, but could happen in two or three years, he said.

By: JOEL ACHENBACH, WILLIAM WAN and LENA H. SUN

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06:57 PM: El SALVADOR BEGINS NATIONWIDE QUARANTINE DESPITE HAVING NO CONFIRMED CASES

El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, announced Wednesday that the country — which does not have a single confirmed coronavirus case — will begin a nationwide quarantine that will last for 30 days.

Schools will be closed for 21 days. “I know this will be criticized, but let’s put ourselves in Italy’s shoes. Italy wishes they could’ve done this before,” he said.

“Our health system is not at Italy’s level, it’s not at South Korea’s level,” he added.

Earlier, Bukele banned travel from China, South Korea, Italy, Iran, France, Spain and Germany.

By: KEVIN SIEFF

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06:35 PM: CAPITOL PREPARES TO SHUT DOWN PUBLIC TOURS

The Capitol is preparing to shut down public tours because of the growing coronavirus pandemic, according to two congressional officials.

The announcement is being prepared by the House and Senate sergeant-at-arms, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of the official notification. Between 3 and 5 million tourists, from both the United States and abroad, visit Capitol Hill each year, according to the Architect of the Capitol.

Lawmakers have generally resisted efforts to stop legislative operations even as the outbreak expands, continuing to hold hearings and conduct business.

By: SEUNG MIN KIM

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06:26 PM: PRESSURED BY TRUMP ADMINISTRATION, CRUISE INDUSTRY TO RESTRICT OLDER TRAVELERS IN RESPONSE TO CORONAVIRUS

Responding to a directive from the federal government, the beleaguered cruise industry has crafted a coronavirus response plan that will keep more people off its ships.

Passengers who are 70 and older will be required to produce a doctor’s note attesting that they are healthy enough to take a cruise, according to a source familiar with the plan who was not authorized to speak publicly about it. That person said keeping the most vulnerable population off ships was a priority of the Trump administration. About 14 percent of cruise passengers in 2018 — about 4 million people — were 70 or older, an industry report showed.

USA Today first reported details of the plan Wednesday.

Travelers will be warned frequently before a trip that anyone with underlying health conditions is heavily discouraged from getting on a cruise ship. Those who are obviously ill will not be allowed to board, according to the source.

All passengers will be subject to a temperature check before they can get on a ship, and those with a reading of 100.4 degrees or higher will not be allowed to sail.

The Cruise Lines International Association had previously announced that anyone who had visited Iran, South Korea or China, including Macao and Hong Kong, or areas in Italy subject to government lockdown, within the past 14 days, would not be allowed to board. The new plan expands that list to include all of Italy as well as Japan.

According to the source, the plan also addresses testing passengers for the virus while they are on ships and how cruise lines will pay for the care of sick passengers or crew so that the burden doesn’t fall on the U.S. government. The source described it as “a pretty hefty investment by the industry.”

By: HANNAH SAMPSON

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06:11 PM: HOSPITAL INDUSTRY ASKS WHITE HOUSE TO DECLARE A NATIONAL EMERGENCY

Hospital industry leaders are urging the Trump administration to declare the covid-19 outbreak a national emergency or a national disaster to “ensure that health care services and sufficient health care items are available to respond.”

During a Wednesday afternoon meeting at the White House with Vice President Pence and Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the American Hospital Association’s president and several hospital chief executives said the federal public health emergency declared at the end of January is inadequate.

The meeting echoed a letter to the vice president sent on Tuesday by Richard Pollack, the hospital association’s president. The letter explained that only with a national emergency or disaster could the government loosen a variety of health-care rules, helping to cope with a surge of seriously ill, infected patients.

According to the letter, a declared emergency or disaster would, for instance, eliminate a Medicare rule that patients need to have been hospitalized for at least three nights before the vast insurance program for older Americans pays for nursing home stays — freeing hospital beds more quickly for the sickest patients with the new virus. It also would help patients stay longer in certain types of small rural hospitals, as well as making it easier for doctors licensed in one state to pitch in elsewhere, where the outbreak is particularly severe.

The letter noted that the government has loosened such rules after major hurricanes and floods and during the swine flu pandemic a decade ago.

The hospital leaders also urged the White House to provide federal help for the testing and care of people exposed to the coronavirus who are uninsured.

By: AMY GOLDSTEIN

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06:09 PM: SENATE DEMOCRATS URGE TRUMP TO UTILIZE $40 BILLION IN DISASTER RELIEF FUNDS TO COMBAT CORONAVIRUS

Three dozen Senate Democrats on Wednesday sent a letter to Trump urging him to immediately consider state disaster declaration requests in order to release more than $40 billion in federal relief funds.

In their letter, the senators called on Trump to invoke the 1988 Stafford Act, which enables the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts. Members of Trump’s coronavirus task force have discussed doing so, officials have told The Washington Post in recent days.

“It is crucial that your administration employ a whole-of-government approach in responding to COVID-19,” the senators wrote. “This includes working closely with state, local, and tribal officials and providing necessary resources to those on the frontlines. We strongly urge FEMA to stand ready to provide emergency protective measures to prevent and mitigate the spread of disease, save lives, and protect public health and safety, should any state request assistance.”

The release of the letter comes hours before Trump is expected to address the nation in a prime-time address from the Oval Office.

By: FELICIA SONMEZ

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05:53 PM: FIVE MORE DEATHS AT ASSISTED-LIVING FACILITIES REPORTED IN WASHINGTON STATE IN ONE DAY

Washington state announced five more coronavirus fatalities on Wednesday, all linked to nursing homes or assisted-living facilities. The news pushed the nationwide death count to at least 36; 29 of those are in Washington state.

King County, where most of the deaths have occurred amid nursing home outbreaks, reported four more deaths and 44 new patients. The county, which includes Seattle, now has 234 confirmed cases.

The newly announced deaths include three residents at Life Care Center, the facility where the outbreak has been especially horrific and where staff say they have seen patients go from showing no symptoms to death in a matter of hours. Two of the deceased were in their 90s, one woman in her 60s.

Another King County woman who died in her 90s lived at the Redmond Care and Rehabilitation Center nursing home.

Snohomish County also reported Wednesday that a man in his 80s who was “connected” to an assisted-living facility, Josephine Caring Community, had died.

By: HANNAH KNOWLES

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05:44 PM: BIDEN CANCELS MORE CAMPAIGN EVENTS OVER VIRUS; PENCE STILL SET TO STUMP IN WISCONSIN

In response to the worsening coronavirus outbreak, Biden’s team has canceled additional campaign events in Illinois and Florida to “minimize health risks for staff and supporters” and will hold “virtual events” instead.

The decision comes as the former vice president plans to speak about the global pandemic Thursday. Ahead of those remarks, he has set up his own public health advisory committee with boldface names from the Obama administration, including Vivek H. Murthy, who was surgeon general under President Barack Obama, and Lisa Monaco, former homeland security and counterterrorism adviser to Obama.

The committee will provide “science-based, expert advice,” Biden’s campaign said.

“The campaign’s top priority is and will continue to be the health and safety of the public,” it said. “Members of the committee will provide ongoing counsel to the campaign, which will in turn continue to update the public regarding operational decisions.”

The former vice president’s approach stands in contrast to Trump, who has said that he would continue holding rallies and attending public events and has played down the severity of the spreading virus. In a Fox Business Network interview Wednesday, Trump campaign spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany claimed without evidence that political considerations — and not coronavirus concerns — are the reason Biden has canceled his events.

Meanwhile, Vice President Pence, who is running the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, is still planning to attend a campaign event in Wisconsin next week for a congressional special election as Democrats and many organizations cancel large events.

In a C-SPAN interview Wednesday, Pence was asked whether he was personally concerned about attending these large events.

“I’m not concerned,” he said, “but we’ll follow the facts every single day about what makes the most sense for the American people.”

By: COLBY ITKOWITZ

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05:37 PM: D.C. MAYOR DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY AFTER PERSON-TO-PERSON CORONAVIRUS TRANSMISSIONS

D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) declared a state of emergency in the nation’s capital because of coronavirus, giving herself the power to order mandatory quarantines and to crack down on price gouging. Health officials said six more people have tested positive for coronavirus in the District, including two cases where the cause of transmission is unknown. That brings the total number of cases to 10. Officials said person-to-person transmission has started in the District.

Bowser’s emergency declaration came hours after the District urged the cancellations of all mass gatherings through the end of March. Bowser said the city government was pulling all permits for public gatherings and that she could order closure of other gatherings if necessary.

After the rector of Christ Church Georgetown tested positive for coronavirus, the District has asked hundreds of people who visited the church to self-quarantine for 14 days after their last visit. D.C. health officials expanded the self-quarantine to people who visited the church through March 6 after the organist tested positive, including a Saturday funeral where he played.

Bowser has said the city has leased a private facility that can be used to quarantine up to 50 people, but declined to reveal its location. Officials said quarantine orders could be used for people at high risk of exposing the virus to others or those who do not comply with self-quarantine requests.

By: FENIT NIRAPPIL

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05:29 PM: ITALY HALTS NEARLY ALL COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY ASIDE FROM SUPERMARKETS AND PHARMACIES

ROME — Italy on Wednesday ramped up the severity of its national lockdown, ordering a halt to nearly all commercial activity aside from supermarkets and pharmacies, in the latest dramatic step to slow the country’s coronavirus spread.

With the decision, announced by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Italy has engineered nearly as thorough a commercial halt as seems imaginable.

Once the decree takes effect — Conte did not specify when — only the most essential parts of society will continue to function. Farms can still produce food, and factories can still churn out products, but people will have almost no reason to leave the house.

“You’re changing your life’s habits, making sacrifices, but these renunciations are offering a great, precious contribution to the country,” Conte said. “Italy is showing it’s a great community, united and responsible.”

On Monday, Conte had imposed a nationwide lockdown, limiting travel abroad and across regions. With it came other restrictions: the closure of theaters, museums, sporting events. But Italy had still been operating at a crawl. Gelaterias were open, with people lining up a few feet away from one another. Barbershops were open. Cafes were open, with limited hours and restrictions on the number of people allowed inside.

Conte received strong political pressure from politicians in the north, the region at the epicenter of the outbreak, to further tighten the measures as the number of coronavirus cases continues to accelerate. Italy has more than 10,500 active cases, and the number of people who have died of the virus has risen in three days from 366 to 827.

By: CHICO HARLAN

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05:22 PM: MAJOR UNION CALLS ON TRUMP TO PROVIDE TWO WEEKS OF PAID SICK LEAVE FOR EVERY AMERICAN WORKER

United Food and Commercial Workers, the largest private-sector union in the United States with 1.3 million workers in retail and health care, asked President Trump and Congress on Wednesday to pass a new economic aid package that would provide a minimum of two weeks of paid sick leave for all American workers.

The union’s proposed economic package also includes unemployment benefits for workers who have been laid off or had their hours disrupted, payroll tax cuts for lower- and middle-income workers, as well as protection from unfair termination or discrimination for workers suspected of being exposed to coronavirus.

UFCW President Anthony “Marc” Perrone outlined the policy proposal in a letter to Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). The letter noted that 80 million American workers, or 59 percent of the country’s workforce, are hourly employees who receive payment only for the hours they work.

“Respectfully, I am urging each of our nation’s elected leaders to develop immediate policies that ensure that workers — salaried and hourly — do not have to choose between work and health,” the letter said.

By: NITASHA TIKU

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04:45 PM: NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTS WILL OPEN WITH NO FANS

The NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will be played in nearly empty arenas because of concerns about the coronavirus, NCAA President Mark Emmert announced Wednesday afternoon amid swelling recommendations and orders from public officials, one of the most significant public actions in the face of the outbreak in the United States.

The games, which begin Tuesday night in Dayton, Ohio, will be played “with only essential staff and limited family attendance,” Emmert said in a news release.

“While I understand how disappointing this is for all fans of our sports, my decision is based on the current understanding of how covid-19 is progressing in the United States,” he said. “This decision is in the best interest of public health, including that of coaches, administrators, fans and, most importantly, our student-athletes. We recognize the opportunity to compete in an NCAA national championship is an experience of a lifetime for the students and their families. Today, we will move forward and conduct championships consistent with the current information and will continue to monitor and make adjustments as needed.”

By: ADAM KILGORE

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04:44 PM: WHEN’S THE LAST TIME THE WHO DECLARED A GLOBAL PANDEMIC?

The last time the World Health Organization declared a pandemic was during the 2009 H1N1 swine flu, and it triggered aggressive actions, such as millions in spending to buy vaccines.

But H1N1 turned out not to be as deadly and disruptive as feared, and a lot of governments were mad about buying vaccines that they ended up not using and harshly criticized the WHO for its declaration. Burned by that response, WHO got rid of the six-stage procedure that led up to it declaring that flu a pandemic.

“Each time they went up a stage, it raised alarm. When they finally reached pandemic stage it caused enormous panic,” said Lawrence Gostin, global health law professor at Georgetown University. “It was so dysfunctional and caused so much fear and panic that WHO abandoned that approach.”

The WHO’s current approach has been much more vague, essentially leaving it up to leaders to declare a pandemic when they deem it necessary. For weeks now, the WHO has hesitated to make the pandemic declaration for fear of inciting panic and causing some countries to sag in their efforts, even though many epidemiologists believed the coronavirus had already spread to pandemic levels.

“In many ways, whether we’re in a pandemic is a semantic question,” said Alexandra Phelan, a global health lawyer at Georgetown’s Center for Global Health Science and Security.

By: WILLIAM WAN

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04:40 PM: TRUMP CAMPAIGN CLAIMS WITHOUT EVIDENCE THAT BIDEN WAS ‘LOOKING FOR AN EXCUSE TO GET OFF THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL’

In a Fox Business Network interview Wednesday, Trump campaign spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany claimed, without evidence, that political considerations — and not coronavirus concerns — are the reason Biden has canceled his recent events.

“Joe Biden is looking for an excuse to get off the campaign trail, and let me just add, the media’s best hope is for Donald Trump to suspend his rallies,” McEnany said. “They’ve been wanting him to stop this, they know it’s his avenue to speak directly to the American people. So, we’re going to follow the president’s lead; we’re not going to cave to the media. And Joe Biden, we’re certainly not going to follow his lead as he tries to hide from the American people.”

Biden and Sanders called off their Tuesday night campaign rallies in Ohio after Mike DeWine, the state’s Republican governor, suggested that the campaigns to do so in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

McEnany also defended Trump’s decision to continue holding large campaign rallies despite the advice of experts, including Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“The president is the best authority on this issue,” McEnany said. “He takes into consult the words of everyone around him. That would include [Health and Human Services Secretary] Alex Azar; that would include Dr. Fauci; that would include others. So, I’ll leave it to the president. Right now, we’re proceeding as normal.”

She also said that there is no need for Trump to stop shaking hands with supporters, arguing that it’s part of the president’s job.

“He’s taking precautions, he’s washing his hands — we’re all doing that, but he’s a man of the people, he talks to the people, he shakes their hands. That’s the nature of the business,” she said.

By: FELICIA SONMEZ

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04:31 PM: HEALTH-CARE CLINICS FOR THE POOR FACE SHORTAGES OF PROTECTIVE GEAR

The nation’s community health centers, which care for some of the nation’s most vulnerable patients, are ill-equipped with masks and other protective equipment needed for workers to test and care for people who may have been exposed to the coronavirus, according to a new survey.

The survey in early March of more than 600 health centers in 47 states, sponsored by a private relief organization, found that 1 in 4 such clinics said they had a source that could provide and resupply N95 masks for the next month or two. Half said they did not, while the remaining clinics said they were not sure. Nearly two-thirds said they lacked a supplier to restock latex gloves.

The survey was sponsored by Direct Relief, a California-based aid organization that donated supplies to China early in the coronavirus epidemic and has been turning its attention lately to the United States.

Free clinics and federally funded health centers treat some of the country’s poorest patients. Under the Affordable Care Act, some of their clientele have gotten private health plans or have been able to join Medicaid. But the clinics still tend to be shoestring operations with many uninsured patients. And the federal funding that some receive is often uncertain in Congress until the last minute — as is happening again this year.

The survey found that only about 10 percent of the health centers said they were unconcerned about their ability to handle a surge of patients during the covid-19 epidemic.

By: AMY GOLDSTEIN

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04:27 PM: TRUMP SAYS HE WILL ADDRESS THE NATION TONIGHT

President Trump said he will address the nation Wednesday evening about the coronavirus and that his remarks from the White House will probably be at 9 p.m.

He gave no other details during a brief portion of a meeting with bankers that was open to reporters, other than that he will discuss both economic and health issues.

“We are talking about various forms of stimulus,” he said. Trump added: “The payroll tax would be great. Dems are not in favor of it. I’m trying to figure out why.” Many Republicans also oppose cutting the payroll tax.

Trump has spoken almost daily about the spread of the virus, but until now he had not done so in such a formal setting. The speech is expected to be from the Oval Office, a setting that underscores the national security implications of the spreading virus.

By: ANNE GEARAN

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04:25 PM: NATIONAL CATHEDRAL AND HUNDREDS OF OTHER CHURCHES IN WASHINGTON AREA TO CLOSE FOR TWO WEEKS

Episcopal churches in the District and the Maryland and Virginia suburbs — including Washington National Cathedral — are closing for two weeks because of the coronavirus, church leaders said Wednesday.

Bishop Mariann Budde, who oversees 88 congregations in the District and Maryland that serve about 38,000 people, said all buildings would be completely closed until March 25, a measure that includes weekday activities and Sunday services. Susan Goff, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, said 179 churches in the Virginia suburbs, with about 68,000 members, would do the same.

The announcement came hours after D.C. health officials asked organizations to postpone any “mass gatherings” involving 1,000 people or more in the city until at least March 31.

Goff said the last time that churches canceled en masse over health concerns was for the flu of 1918.

A spokesman for Budde said the diocese will stream services from the cathedral on Sundays — with no audience.

By: MICHELLE BOORSTEIN and SARAH PULLIAM BAILEY

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04:22 PM: STATE DEPARTMENT AND USAID SUSPEND NON-ESSENTIAL TRAVEL

The State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development have suspended nonessential travel for employees in response to the outbreak of the coronavirus, a move that requires diplomats and aid workers to receive sign-off from managers that future travel is “mission-critical,” said two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

The move demonstrates the urgency with which U.S. agencies view the spread of the disease even as President Trump downplays the threat posed by the virus. At the same time, the policy has created confusion within the State Department and USAID as various bureaus, embassies and offices weigh the importance of the thousands of trips, conferences and meetings U.S. personnel embark on every year.

One State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to discuss internal matters, said it was discouraging when an upcoming trip she viewed as critical to her job was canceled by her boss, who believed it did not meet that threshold.

By: JOHN HUDSON

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04:18 PM: DOW REACHES BEAR-MARKET TERRITORY ON A NEARLY 1,500-POINT SKID, ENDING RECORD 11-YEAR STOCK RALLY

Wall Street went into a deep slump Wednesday, falling so far and so fast that the Dow Jones industrial average officially tipped into a bear market, ending a record 11-year stock rally.

The bear market reflects a 20 percent fall from record highs, which the Dow hit less than a month ago, and came as the coronavirus officially became a pandemic.

The World Health Organization’s declaration Wednesday signaled that health experts believe efforts should shift from trying to contain the virus to mitigation.

The Dow — already deep in the red for the day — plunged further, tumbling almost to the 1,500-points-down mark, after the WHO announcement.

“Bear markets are ugly,” said Michael Farr, president of Farr, Miller and Washington. “They’re painful and they all last too long. Sadly, it seems that a new one is just getting started.”

All 11 S&P stock market sectors turned negative on Wednesday. Real estate, utilities and energy — often safe havens for nervous investors — were faring the worst. The health sector was the least affected by the sell-off. UnitedHealth Group was the lone component of the Dow‘s 30 blue chips to show a gain. Boeing shed 18 percent of its value.

By: TAYLOR TELFORD and THOMAS HEATH

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04:02 PM: DELAWARE REPORTS FIRST POSITIVE TEST; MORE THAN 40 STATES NOW CONFIRM INFECTIONS

Delaware on Wednesday announced its first positive test for the coronavirus, as more than 40 states report infections.

The Delaware patient, a man older than 50, whom officials say is “doing well,” lives in New Castle County and is “associated with the University of Delaware community,” the state’s public health department said in a statement. Before the case was announced, the university said it was “gearing up for online delivery of all of our courses in the event that we have confirmed COVID-19 cases on campus.”

The Delaware patient was exposed to the virus in another state, authorities said, and self-isolated at home right away when his symptoms began. Officials are working to identify contacts.

“We understand that news of a positive case in the state is concerning,” said public health director Karyl Rattay in a statement, “but this is something we have been preparing for over the last several weeks.”

By: HANNAH KNOWLES

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03:58 PM: AMTRAK RIDERSHIP PLUMMETS AMID OUTBREAK

The coronavirus outbreak has brought a steep fall in March passenger numbers and revenue for Amtrak, and the nation’s passenger rail company is warning of hard times ahead.

Ridership is down, cancellations are up by more than 300 percent, and future bookings have fallen by half, Amtrak said Wednesday, citing the public health crisis that has led Americans to cancel travel in recent days.

If the trend continues, Amtrak said revenue losses could be in the “several hundred million dollars” and throw off the company’s growth projections for this year. A plan to reduce spending is in place, and it includes service cuts and layoffs.

Ridership declines over the past few weeks have been sharp in the Northeast Corridor and on Amtrak’s National Network, and it is getting worse every day, Stephen Gardner, senior executive vice president and chief operating and commercial officer at Amtrak, said in a memo to workers on Wednesday.

“At this rate, we believe we will likely suffer the loss of several hundred million dollars in revenue during this fiscal year — and we might lose more,” Gardner said.

Amtrak has begun “aggressive measures to cut costs,” Gardner said.

“You should expect significant reductions in train service across portions of our network in response to the sharp drop in ridership. Shortly, we will begin rolling out our voluntary leave program for those non-mission critical employees that are willing to take time off on an unpaid basis,” he said.

This week, Amtrak canceled its Acela nonstop trips between Washington and New York to reduce service as demand dropped. The daily nonstop Acela service is suspended through May 26, the company said. More service could be halted across the network of about 300 daily trains nationwide.

The company has suspended change fees on all existing and new reservations for tickets purchased before April 30 to accommodate concerned travelers.

By: LUZ LAZO

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03:46 PM: OHIO TO LIMIT LARGE GATHERINGS IN DRAMATIC NEW MOVE TO FIGHT VIRUS

Ohio will limit large gatherings in a dramatic bid to combat the novel coronavirus, Gov. Mike DeWine (R) announced Wednesday, shortly after Washington state turned to similar measures in a few counties.

DeWine said he will soon issue an order enforcing Tuesday’s recommendation against mass gatherings and spectators at indoor sporting events but would not yet close K-12 schools, though he tweeted that “we may get to that point.”

“We are doing the things we are doing because we have the potential to become like Italy,” he tweeted, referencing the European country’s nationwide restrictions on movement. “We are taking the actions we are taking now to try to avoid that. The situation will get bad before it gets better, but it is in our hands to determine what the outcome will be.”

DeWine also said Wednesday that he will order that visitors to nursing homes and assisted-living facilities be limited to one per day per resident. The elderly are most vulnerable to the coronavirus, and outbreaks at nursing homes in Washington state have been deadly. Authorities in Ohio will require that all individuals who enter such facilities be screened for illness and have their temperatures taken, DeWine announced.

Four people in the state have tested positive, he said, as authorities called evidence of the virus’s community spread a “game changer" requiring more serious measures.

“You’re going to see us taking more aggressive actions now," said Amy Acton, the director of the state’s department of health. "Please know that we’re doing this to protect Ohioans and protect our healthcare system.”

“We shouldn’t panic, but we should take rational actions to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and others,” DeWine tweeted Wednesday afternoon.

Have you tried to get tested for coronavirus and been turned away? Share your experience with The Post.

By: HANNAH KNOWLES

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03:35 PM: WASHINGTON STATE’S CORONAVIRUS DEATH TOLL AT 25

Another coronavirus patient in Washington state has died, officials announced Wednesday, bringing the death toll there to 25.

The newly reported death occurred in Snohomish County, where officials say there are 68 confirmed cases of the virus. The county now has two recorded fatalities — still far less than King County, where almost two dozen have died as outbreaks hit nursing homes. The elderly are most vulnerable to the virus.

Snohomish and King are among the counties where Gov. Jay Inslee (D) on Wednesday imposed a ban on gatherings of more than 250 people, seeking to contain the spread of infection.

Nationwide, the coronavirus has killed more than 30 people and the number of cases has surpassed 1,000.

By: HANNAH KNOWLES

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03:27 PM: BOEING WILL CASH OUT $13.8 BILLION LOAN AND FREEZE HIRING AMID MARKET TURMOIL

Boeing plans to cash out a $13.8 billion loan meant to cover costs related to the grounding of the 737 Max passenger jet, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday, as recent market volatility creates new risks at a time when the company’s business is already in a historically fragile state.

Boeing declined to comment on the loan cash out, but said it would put a hold on all new hires pending a “review of priorities and critical needs.”

The company’s stock was down 16 percent by late afternoon Wednesday.

By: AARON GREGG

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03:20 PM: HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF STUDENTS SHIFTING TO ONLINE LEARNING IN NEW YORK, ONE OF SEVERAL NEW MEASURES ANNOUNCED BY CUOMO

New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) on Wednesday announced sweeping new measures to combat coronavirus, including distance learning for hundreds of thousands of students at public schools and paid leave for quarantined or isolated government workers.

New York also will start contracting with private labs to increase its testing capacity, Cuomo said as the state’s cases topped 200, adding that he spoke with 28 labs earlier in the day. Lawmakers and public health officials around the country have been frustrated with delays in rolling out widespread testing that could help show the full extent in the United States of what’s now a global pandemic.

[dcnativegal]

Day 9 of a National Emergency

Day 11 of a Pandemic

It’s Day 9 of a National Emergency, as declared by President #45. (On March 21, 2020)

There are many creative memes floating around the interwebs: this might be my favorite:

“Kinda feeling like the earth just sent us all to our rooms to think about what we’ve done.”

Valerie and I are in the house in Paisley, with Griffey the poodle and Moe the cat. We have fabric and yarn for making masks to protect people, including us, from the novel coronavirus known as Covid19, which popped out of the animal kingdom to the bipedal mammalian one known as humanity, in Wuhan China, in December of 2019. The deaths from covid19 in Italy have surpassed the ones in China where many more people were infected.

“A staggering 793 people died TODAY alone in Italy from the Coronavirus. That makes it the single deadliest day for any nation in the entire pandemic.” (Shaun King, Instagram.)

Although the medical system in Italy is sophisticated, the people and public health system were too slow. And the average age is higher than average? Iran is also devastated, while the USA screws down tighter with sanctions. The countries that have dealt with the virus while ‘flattening the curve’? South Korea, Singapore, and finally, China.

There are no positive tests in Lake County because there are no tests. There are a few people reporting the symptoms of sore throat, fever, shortness of breath, and fatigue. Valerie’s friend, who is also Valerie’s second husband’s eighth wife, but who’s counting, had a sore throat and just didn’t feel well, and went walking with Valerie and Griffey on the desert road by the Paisley airport, to my consternation. Valerie is 72, and is hale and hearty most of the time, but has this little flaw: an autoimmune disorder that kicks her butt, or rather the myelin sheath of her nerves, following any immune battle. I wasn’t around to forbid it, so all I can do is point out that Valerie is at higher risk than the average 60+ year old.

I might be, too, given my general lack of aerobic fitness and, um, insulin dependent diabetes. Also, sleep apnea and hypertension.

The person I worry most about is Toni’s husband, Al, who has been smoking cigarettes for 50+ years and uses oxygen now. He had just resurrected community theater in Paisley and we were rehearsing when the ‘social distancing’ directive from Governor Brown came down. I am to play Cora, a busy body and gossip in a small New England town, foil to the proper but also gossiping member of the welcome committee, Reba. And we both apparently dislike Willa Mae, played by Valerie.

The play will happen at some point. But I refuse to memorize my lines until I know when we start up rehearsals again.

Covid 19 would take out Al in a New York minute.

Schools are closed, restaurants are ‘take out only’. No one is traveling, with the exception of my sister’s youngest child, 19 year old Makoto, who flew east from Japan, to Los Angeles, to Philadelphia, cutting short his adventure as a student abroad. He became fluent in Japanese, and posted daily on Instagram. Now he’s in quarantine at his father’s home, just to be safe.

I have had moments in the past two weeks where I had trouble feeling at all safe or grounded. Join the club, Miss Lincoln. I sat in a meeting in a large circle of mostly women who all have an interest in helping ‘senior citizens’: the Aging Services Collaborative. And for me, there was a large elephant in the room that had my attention the entire time called ‘Coronavirus.’ It was Thursday, March 12. We were meeting in the Lakeview Senior Center, and the director got rather defensive when someone asked if she had shut down the lunch program. She said there’s be a serious backlash if she shut it ‘too soon.’  No such thing as too soon in the pandemic: by the next day, the senior lunch program was shuttered.

I was cranky and agitated in that meeting, and the younger women, new to the Collaborative, probably though I was a menopausal bitch. I wonder if they look back now, a week later, and think me prescient. Maybe a prescient menopausal bitch. At one point I said something to the effect of, we can choose to be South Korea or Italy. Let’s be like South Korea.

I also still get really wound up when the conservative Trumpian assholes in this county pipe up on Facebook about how the whole thing is a fraud, a hoax, a tactic to get to “Marshall Law.” Omigod. Like this guy:

Snowflake waving wildly here. If I could address this man directly, I would say the following:

Except we are not paying for it equally. Poor people always have a harder time.

Someone pointed out that, when this is all over, it will not be the CEOs and billionaires who saved us, but the nurses and janitors and grocery store clerks. Also, the truckers, the doctors and family nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants.

I can’t retort to the delusion MAGA Lake county resident because we who work for Lake Health District are frequently scolded about posting anything in social media about Covid 19 because we ‘represent the hospital.’ Hmf, I’ve been muzzled. I try to read less of ‘Lakeview Announcements’ and more NYTimes. Still, I overhear bullshit at work. It’s not good for my blood pressure.

I am trying to figure out how to be useful at work, and I’m signed up to be a ‘greeter’ at the front entrance, and staff the ‘hotline’ which means I call folks who have symptoms to see how they’re doing, and wait for calls. The clinics are closed, the acute care is cleared out for the most part, the Operating Room where Hope works is ‘emergencies only.’ People drive up to a tent in front of the hospital and get their temperature taken. They’re asked, by a medical assistant who has a high school education and some extra training, whether they’ve been traveling, have a sore throat or any other symptoms. If they answer no to all and have no fever, they may be allowed to proceed to the emergency room, clinic, or to an appointment with the staff, like the head of corrections who came by on my greeter shift. He’s an enormous man, married to a pretty woman who holds at least 3 jobs in Lakeview including a part time Area Agency on Aging gig that’s directed by the Klamath group. Many non profit or governmental entities are based in Klamath and have a partial oversight in Lake County, the red-headed step child of Klamath County. This woman, and a south Asian man nicknamed “avatar’ by the BLM staff because they couldn’t remember “Arvinder”, and I were to start working on developing a “Village” volunteer effort in Lakeview. Then, the virus.

There are some volunteer activities spontaneously springing up in Lakeview; one facebook group is called Helping Hands of Lakeview. There are helpful things going on in Paisley through informal networks. I have one primary volunteer job: to pick up books at the Lakeview Library that sit in canvas bags labeled Paisley. And drop them off to Jan, who I think is the informal town mayor. She knows everyone, and everything, and reared her kids here.

I saw this on twitter: 

Most of the volunteer stuff seems to happen via Facebook, a group called Lakeview Announcements. That’s where a lot of political bickering also happens. Missing dogs. Reports of ‘tweakers’ thieving around. Well of course they’re stealing, when no one will hire them, when the US of A punishes what is actually an illness, not a crime. An illness born of childhood trauma. But I digress.

No more crochet/ knitting/ rug hooking at the cavernous Bowling Alley’s party room. No more church, either.

We watched the marvelous Presiding Bishop Curry preach on our computers last Sunday, and listened to gorgeous church music and sonorous prayers, online from the Washington National Cathedral, one of my favorite Episcopal places. We’ll see what’s streaming again tomorrow, Sunday morning.  

The knitting group is contemplating making face masks. So is Valerie. I’ve been looking at ‘the literature’ and there is one and only one study, in 2013, looking at the efficacy of homemade masks versus ‘respirators’ or ‘surgical masks.’ Of course, they are not as good but they are better than nothing. And corvid 19 seems to go straight for the throat. I’m thinking, those Safeway employees have been working really hard, and they are more at risk at the moment than health care workers at Lake Health District.

It’s a very strange time, full of opportunity for goodness and for greed. I’m glad my kids are safe, we are healthy so far, and I still receive a paycheck. We’ll see how this evolves.

"Nothing has prepared us for this moment. All we have is each other. Your safety is my safety. Protecting myself means protecting you, too. We are one race. Human race." - Jose Antonio Vargas