March 2, 2022

There was a passage about burn dumps in war zones exposing US soldiers to toxins & he linked it...

…to his son Beau’s fatal brain cancer. Mme Speaker’s hands clenched and were tense until he finished, when she stood and applauded vigorously.

Now, this is what I think: back during the BushCheney invasion of Iraq there was a journalist who I think was from San Francisco, i.e. her home district. His name and research into exactly that issue with burn dumps were all over DU.

(Here’s where I hope some old-timer jumps in and says they remember exactly who, where, and what — but for now you have to stick with my memory.)

In any case he started tracking down soldiers who had been rotated back to the US, some San Francisco unit. They had been stationed right next to a burn dump. And they were sick, every one of them. Some of their wives likewise got sick after they returned home. One of the wives told the journalist that children born before their fathers deployed were healthy, but “there has not been a healthy baby born since they came back.”

Nancy Pelosi was remarkably tense during just that passage of Biden’s SOTU, and it was all in how she held her hands. I think she knows something related to her own district that makes it personal.

March 1, 2022

Babi Yar by dissident poet Yevgeni Yevtushenko

Written 1961 to protest the USSR’s refusal to build a monument at Babi Yar, where 33,000 were murdered and dumped in the ravine in September 1941. The dissident poet reflects on that number, as he has just become 33 years old.

Dmitri Shostakovich’s 13th Symphony is based in part on this poem.

(I am still trying to find an English translation that I can copy here. For something I remember so well, it is turning out to be difficult to find when I want to.)

Meanwhile I leave you with this.

March 1, 2022

Another source of support for Ukraine: Direct Relief International

They are sending medical backpacks. Visit the website for further info about what they are sending and how to donate if you choose.

DIRECTRELIEF.ORG

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From the website

Direct Relief Mobilizing Emergency Aid for Ukraine
NEWS UKRAINE

Direct Relief over the weekend received a comprehensive list from the Ukrainian Ministry of Health of needed medications, which the organization is now mobilizing.

In addition to critical care medical items for blood pressure support, intubation/ventilation, IV antibiotics, fluids, etc., Direct Relief has received requests for Combat Application Tourniquets and bandages, indicating mass casualties.

Direct Relief has also received information indicating a dire need for tranexamic acid, which is used to control severe bleeding by blocking the breakdown of blood clots.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Health also requested at least 500 mobile medical outreach packs, which include items such as CAT-style tourniquets, among other trauma-focused items.

Oxygen supply in Ukrainian hospitals is another major issue and projected to get worse, as the conflict is compounding an already chronic problem.
There are currently 1,700 people being treated for COVID in Ukraine and the WHO estimates that demand for oxygen due to the conflict is going to increase by 20-25 percent.

REFUGEES AND CHRONIC DISEASE

Problems that arise when chronic disease conditions go untreated include worsening asthma leading to sudden attacks, spiking blood sugars from out-of-control diabetes, and high risk for stroke and heart attack because people do not have their cardiovascular medications. This inevitably creates a second wave of emergency medical needs.

Insulin and other cold chain medications are expected to be in short supply, with the Ukrainian Diabetes Federation reporting that there are some 15,000 children living with Type 1 diabetes in Ukraine.

On top of the chronic disease issues, acute problems arise with large fleeing populations. Examples include norovirus outbreaks, which can lead to severe vomiting and diarrhea in shelters, Tuberculosis, even Polio, HIV and COVID.

Ukraine has the second-highest rates of HIV/AIDs in the region and TB is a major challenge with high percentages of drug-resistant TB (DR-TB). In addition, Ukraine has been fighting a polio outbreak since late 2021. The disruption in access to medications and health services combined with the displacement of communities is going to negatively impact these and other public health challenges.

New and pregnant mothers and their children are also going to be exceedingly vulnerable as the fighting continues.

In certain areas, damage to gas and power infrastructure is also going to have a major impact, particularly with current temperatures hovering around zero.

DIRECT RELIEF’S ONGOING RESPONSE

Direct Relief, based in Santa Barbara, maintains the highest US accreditation as a whole drug distributor and is the world’s largest charitable distributor of donated medicine and medical supplies.

Direct Relief has been providing aid to Ukrainian healthcare providers, with a large shipment of diabetes supplies arriving last week. Since January 2021, Direct Relief has supplied Ukrainian healthcare providers with more than $27 million in medical aid.

Direct Relief will continue collecting and fulfilling medical needs as the crisis unfolds, and will post additional information as the situation evolves.

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February 25, 2022

How to help Ukrainians, from NPR, came in on my phone feed

I apologize, as I hate posting without links, but at least this is NPR and you can easily check it out and look up the agencies.

UNICEF

DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS

VOICES OF CHILDREN (in Ukraine)

SUNFLOWER OF PEACE (First aid medical tactical backpacks for paramedics and doctors)

INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS

SAVE THE CHILDREN

UN REFUGEE AGENCY UNHCR

CARE

INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS

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February 23, 2022

Regarding the ECONOMICS of Griswold/Roe and Male Resentment...

Ruth Bader Ginsberg went to Law school in an era where deans used to invite the young men students over for “tea” or dinner, as a way of socializing them, introducing them around, and so forth. Maybe they still do that at elite schools, where making connections is of paramount importance. But I doubt they still do this, as they did to RBG: Any woman who managed to make it past the huge barriers to be there in the first place would be asked, upon introduction to the group, to please explain why she felt justified in taking the place that belonged to a man..

As women gained personal control over their fertility and could choose when or if to have a child, they were increasingly able to move into education and job categories that men believed belonged to men.

And a great many men (not all, please understand) have resented it like hell. From pathetic incels to the dean of a prestigious law school, to the US Senate, that resentment has not gone away.

It affects the military, the civilian police and firefighters, all manner of well-paid blue collar skilled crafts. These are men’s jobs; what makes a woman think she belongs here? Harassment remains, both subtle and blatant.

It affects choices for the SCOTUS right now. It’s the misogyny in the Senate. As Shirley Chisholm once memorably said, she suffered worse from misogyny than from racism.

And if all else fails, there is always rape (see: US Military and Military Academies). Because rape is not about sex — it is about control and domination. And what does rape do? It deposits the seed of the dominator into the body of the conquered. That is why it is and always has been a tool of war.

To return and to be 100% explicit: allowing women to control their own fertility allows them to impinge on economic and social territory some men believes is theirs by right. Just as if those women had a right.

I’m better today. I’ve regained my footing, and I am angry.

This is how it hit me yesterday
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216379304

February 21, 2022

I'm shocked at how hard the news about Griswold being on the chopping block hit me...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216377373

Years ago I knew the fanatics were gunning for contraceptives as well as abortion — that abortion was just a smokescreen. A very, very emotional and effective smokescreen.

How did I know? The first time I saw that the most popular and most effective forms of contraception were being redefined as agents for causing abortion. Did you know that the Pill doesn’t prevent ovulation? It just causes the fertilized egg to die. Did you know that using an IUD is like having an abortion every month? And so on.

We focus on Roe to the exclusion of its antecedents. So today’s news that there are legislators and would-be attorneys general who are consciously going after Griswold was just a punch in the gut. From the SCOTUS decision that couples have a right to privacy under the Constitution flowed so much else — basically all of reproductive rights for individuals, not just married people — and gay marriage, and on to ramifications we can’t even foresee.

The old laws that were superseded by Griswold and Roe and Obergefeld — they are still on the books in the 50 states. Did you know that? They lie there like a rake in the grass — or if you prefer, a snake in the grass — because a rake may whack you, but a snake can kill you.

When my husband asked me why I looked so upset this morning, I tried to tell him and started crying. I would have sobbed outright, but he kept trying to talk long-range philosophy until I told him to just please stop. I love the guy, you know that, but really, this is a catastrophe in the immediate sense.

I’d call my best friend and have a mutual rant for an hour — but she just had a mini-stroke last week that affects her verbal processing and it just would not be kind.

So here I am, splashing on my iPad. Thanks, DU, for listening.

PS: WE TOLD YOU THE LAST 30 YEARS OF ELECTIONS WERE ABOUT SCOTUS. WE TOLD YOU.

February 14, 2022

Young Russian figure skaters & doping & their notorious coach Eteri Tutberidze ...

I’m reposting this from another thread, as I think it’s important information.

The coach is notorious for abusing/doping and then discarding rising young stars. They have no career when Eteri Tutberidze is done with them — a string of medals, yes. But also permanent injuries. They are children, when they begin training with this coach, and as such have little or no say about whatever “vitamins and supplements” are given to them. Then they hit “the Eteri expiration date.”

It’s a shocking article.

Russian athletes came into this Olympics already on thin ice, forced to compete under a neutral flag as a punishment for the state-sponsored doping coverup of the 2014 Olympics and subsequent persistent doping violations. The Russian doctor who accompanied the team to Beijing, Philip Shvetsky, was previously banned for doping violations by his own federation from 2007 to 2010.

The controversy has also fed long-standing concerns about Tutberidze, Valieva's coach, whose training methods have been widely criticized for leaving her very young skaters injured and with shortened careers.
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For years, members of the skating community have lamented what's known as the "Eteri expiration date" — when, at around age 17, injury or diminishing results bring the careers of Tutberidze's athletes to an abrupt end. Competitors have long voiced concerns that Tutberidze treats her athletes as "disposable."

"Eteri was smart in her approach: she was first to find a method to teach quad jumps to girls, and the method works, but only until age 17," Benoit Richaud, the leading choreographer among quad-less competitors, told Insider. "What are skaters supposed to do then?"


https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/winter-olympics/could-doping-spell-the-end-for-russian-skating-prodigy-kamila-valieva/ar-AATFGzN?ocid=entnewsntp

February 12, 2022

Based on what's come out over the years about FB and other social media, I agree about the Russians

They are far from the only source, but they have proven their ability to push narratives and to stir the pot.

Our American social contract has frayed and broken down. Education is breaking, and a common public education is or was part of our social contract.

The Media amplifies the loud, aggressive, hostile, ignorant minority for reasons of their own. However, a violent minority can still demolish a country.

I console myself that we Dems are in the majority. I despair that our system is as broken as it is.

I agree about the global crisis. A couple of years ago (pre-COVID) I realized there was a wave of populism sweeping across the globe, and that populists will end up voting for authoritarians in the end — a strongman to quell the chaos.

There’s a concept of historic cycles in Hinduism, called yugas. The most terrible and destructive is the Kali Yuga. I’m a mythologist, not a Hindu, so I don’t measure yugas by half-million year segments. But there I was, struck with the consideration that in the cycles of history that occur on a human scale, ours may be coming to a self-inflicted end — the climate crisis, and the rise of populism rooted in fear, anger, and ignorance. The so-called American Experiment, grounded in the mythos of the Enlightenment, may not survive. But what I see is world-wide, not just here.

As for nations that are already autocratic, what do they care? Russia and China both continually probe us for weakness — as does Iran, but I don’t know if they try to move in to our political structure the way China and Russia do. Recently I began to wonder if the way Russia is snuggling up to China might result in a pincer movement against us. (Last week, Fareed Zakaria called Putin’s Russia “a satrap of China,” which made me laugh like hell.)

I know this isn’t very cheery, but at least I’m not writing this at 1:30 a.m. at my psychological low ebb.

Haven’t seen you in awhile. Gave you a heart.

February 12, 2022

After years of oppression by a culture that demanded a minimum of decency & good manners...

…they were set free! Trump gave them permission to be their authentic selves — and this, by gods, is the result.

February 10, 2022

Well, we could go all French Revolution on everyone we hate & just litter DC with headless corpses....

Or, we could watch the DOJ and various State AGs go thru the tedious and painstaking — and did I mention tedious — process of creating a legally prosecutable case for a trial by jury, and subsequent to that we could watch all that trial by jury nonsense thru to its conclusion.