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Thursday, April 30, 2020

GOOD NEWS PAPER / RECOVERY DRUG CLEARED FOR USE WHILE OTHER COVID-19 VACCINE BEGINS HUMAN TRIALS


CNN HEALTH
FDA CLEARS REMDESIVIR FOR COVID-19 USE AFTER TESTING SHOWS POSITIVE EFFECT ON RECOVERY TIME.


CNN HEALTH
MORE ON REMDESIVIR


CNN HEALTH
PFIZER/BIO-N-TECH BEGIN HUMAN TRIALS FOR COVID-19 VACCINE



GOOD NEWS PAPER / A GALLERY OF POLITICAL CARTOONS TO OUTRAGE THE FAR WRONG


One political cartoon worth a thousand words.

But, we can change one word:  It's no longer the far right.  They're seldom right, especially when the orange in the White House is the liar in chief. Thus, until he leaves office not my president is the leader of the far wrong.


Wednesday, April 29, 2020

WORLD ARCHITECTURE / CHRISTIAN CHAPEL IN A LILAC FIELD


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Here is a visual 3-minute video presenting a story about the new Point Loma Nazarene University Chapel in San Diego on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean.   The short film explores the Holy Trinity of Architecture: form, space, and detail.  Architecture by Carrier Johnson in San Diego.  Video by Breadtruck Films. 




Tuesday, April 28, 2020

AMERICANA / MAJOR LEAGUE CATCHER TURNED COP DIES 17 YEARS AFTER BEING SHOT




Last week, a good man died.  He was 53.  This former San Diego Policeman’s end of watch was April 23, 2020.  His death was due to complications from his injuries.  

Officer Dan Walters was shot on duty 17 years ago while being a cop for us.  On November 12, 2003, he was paralyzed from the neck down and was wheelchair-bound until he died.

I shook hands with him once, I didn’t know him, but the whole town at one time knew him—no not the day he was shot—but when he played two years for his hometown team the San Diego Padres.

Big and burly [6-4, 225 lbs.], he got to live every boy/girl’s dream to play baseball to play ball at the highest competitive level.

Born in Brunswick Maine, he attended Santana High School in Santee.
His major league debut was June 1, 1992, in a Padres uniform.  He was 25.  His last game in the majors was May 23, 1993, also with the San Diego Padres.  A back injury forced his retirement from baseball. His MLB stats he played 84 games, he had 5 home runs, 64 hits in 273 at-bats, with a .234 batting average and 32 rbi.  During his rookie MLB rookie season, he shared catching duties with Benito Santiago and played alongside Tony Gwynn, Craig Lefferts, Gary Sheffield, Mike Maddux, Andy Benes, Bruce Hurst, Randy Myers and Fred McGriff.

Displaying heroism in coming to the aid of his on-duty partner, Walters was awarded several medals for his bravery.

Like I said I didn’t know the man. I met him once while he was on community service in North Park. He had a presence that instilled confidence.  You knew from his handshake this was a policeman we could depend on when things got tough.

Someday, hopefully in heaven he’s someone this citizen would like to meet again and introduce him to my dad, a lifelong Padres fan—then give Dan a big hug.  A hug from all San Diegans that he swore to serve and protect as a policeman.

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Video reflects the “Attention all units” end of watch radio call that is put out to all policemen on duty after a policeman dies.  Click here.


Writer Tom Shess is a former editor and founder of North Park News.

Monday, April 27, 2020

SAVE OUR NATION / SAY IT LOUD, SAY IT CLEAR: DONALD TRUMP NEEDS TO RESIGN OVER HIS HANDLING OF THE CORONAVIRUS




GUEST BLOG / Michael A. Cohen, Boston Globe Columnist.

Repeat: Say it loud, say it clear: Donald Trump needs to resign over his handling of the coronavirus.

The United States has just over 4 percent of the world’s population, but had about one-third of all global coronavirus cases and one-quarter of the fatalities, as of Friday.

This is a catastrophic failure that can be laid largely at the feet of President Trump. Editorial boards and politicians — both Democratic and Republican — should be calling on him to resign immediately.

It’s not just the catalog of screw-ups that led us to this point — the playing down of the threat, the lack of testing, the spread of misinformation and lies, and the government-wide inattention to the issue. It’s that Trump represents an ongoing danger to the health and well-being of the American people.

Consider, for example, the strange case of hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial drug that Trump began publicly touting several weeks ago as a potential treatment for the coronavirus. “What do you have to lose?” the president asked, about a drug that had not been approved by the FDA for that purpose. It turns out the answer is “your life.”

We already know of at least one couple in Arizona who took a related drug in an effort to ward off the coronavirus after hearing the president speak positively about it. The husband died and his wife ended up in the hospital. A new study of Veterans Health Administration patients, not yet peer reviewed, has concluded that COVID-19 patients who take hydroxychloroquine are more likely to die than those who do not.

Michael A. Cohen
As remarkable as it is for the president to be suggesting the use of unproven drugs, Trump topped it on Thursday when he suggested that ultraviolet rays and cleaning disinfectants, injected into the body, should be examined as possible treatments for coronavirus. These comments led public health experts and companies like Lysol to remind Americans of something we regularly tell children: They shouldn’t ingest cleaning products.

The Trump administration also allegedly forced out the official in charge of the federal agency responsible for developing a vaccine for the coronavirus after he says he raised concerns about money being directed toward hydroxychloroquine. Pushing aside qualified public officials and allowing politics to drive the development of a vaccine makes Trump not just an incompetent president, but a malevolent one.

There’s more. Trump has egged on the smattering of protests around the country pressing for an end to social distancing orders, with calls on Twitter to “LIBERATE” states run by Democratic governors. These demands directly contradict the Trump White House’s own guidance.

And his obsession with reopening the economy has likely been a catalyst for governors in red state America, such as Bill Lee in Tennessee, Henry McMaster in South Carolina, and Brian Kemp in Georgia, to weaken social distancing regulations. (Trump, who initially backed Kemp’s bizarre and dangerous order allowing hair salons, tattoo parlors, gyms, and restaurants to open, has since backtracked and is now openly criticizing Kemp.)

Trump isn’t even participating in the federal response to the coronavirus. He reportedly watches television most of the day, doesn’t attend coronavirus task force meetings, and then uses his daily press briefing — for which he barely prepares — as a platform to self-aggrandize and lie.

All of this has crippled Trump’s credibility: As one recent poll showed, less than a quarter of voters put a high level of trust in what Trump is saying about COVID-19.

When the president has lost the confidence of the American people and when his words and actions are doing far more harm than good, there can be little justification for him to stay in office.

Granted, we’ve never really encountered a situation like this before. In modern times, there were calls for Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton to resign. But those were for crimes in office, not incompetence. Mishandling a crisis has rarely been grounds for a president to resign. But we’ve never had a president like Trump, who is making the crisis worse simply by remaining in office.

I’m under no illusions that Trump is going to resign. But as I wrote in September when I argued that politicians should call for Trump to step down over the Ukraine whistleblower allegations, “A call for resignation is a statement of principle that Trump’s actions so clearly violate the public trust that his position in office has become untenable."

Demanding accountability would serve as a reminder that even in the wreckage of the Trump era some basic political norms still matter and we, as a nation, cannot become inured to having such a dangerous and unqualified leader in the nation’s highest office. It would also force Trump’s defenders to explain why his continued service is in the interest of the American people.

Anyone who has regularly watched Trump’s press conferences knows that the president is detached from reality, indifferent to the suffering around us, and more concerned about his political standing than the health and well-being of the American people.

Calling for the resignation of a president who muses about the use of household cleaning products to fight a deadly virus is not a partisan exercise or a futile plea for political sanity — it’s common sense.

Michael A. Cohen’s column appears regularly in the Globe. Follow him on Twitter @speechboy71.

Subscribe to the Boston Globe.  Click here.

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THE FOLLOWING VIDEO WAS AIRED JANUARY 24, 2017:
Amazing what we knew then and Trump is still in office.

“IT’S TIME FOR DONALD J. TRUMP TO RESIGN”
By Keith Olberman, Gentleman’s Quarterly  Click here