Raiderlegend Repost: Plague - Flu - Influenza

Soon the plague was everywhere. And no one was safe.

The sickness preyed on the young and the healthy. One day you are fine, strong and invulnerable. You might be busy at work in your office. Or maybe you are knitting a scarf for the brave troops fighting the war to end all wars. Or maybe you are a soldier reporting for basic training your first time away from home and family.

You might notice a dull headache. your eyes might start to burn. you start to shiver and you will take to your bed, curling up in a ball. But no amount of blankets can keep you warm. you fall into a restless sleep, dreaming the distorted nightmares of delirium as your fever climbs. And when you drift out of sleep, into a sort of semi-consciousness, your muscles will ache and your head will throb and you will somehow know that, step by step, as your body feebly cries out "no," you are moving steadily toward death.

It may take a few days, it may take a few hours, but there is nothing that can stop the disease's progress. Doctors and nurses have learned to spot the signs. Your face turns a dark brownish purple. You start to cough up blood. Your feet turn black. Finally, as the end nears, you frantically gasp for breath. A blood-tinged saliva bubbles out of your mouth. You die - by drowning, actually - as your lungs fill with reddish fluid.

And when a doctor does an autopsy, he will observe your lungs lying heavy and sodden in your chest, engorged with a thin bloody liquid, useless, like slabs of liver. 

excerpt from the book "Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It."

Book Review: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-374-15706-7

https://powellsplace.blogspot.com/2006/01/plague-flu-influenza-whatever-name-its.html

Harlem Globetrotter Passes - RIP Curly

Sliding, between the legs one-handed dribbles with a gleaming smile and A Shiny Bald Head. That's how I remember Curly from the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team. Curly and Mr. Clean were the men who made bald cool in the early 1970's. But while Mr. Clean was only an animated commercial, Curly was the real deal as he mesmerized and entertained audiences around the world.

He and Meadowlark Lemon were the two stars I remember most from my era of Harlem Globetrotters. The two of them played off each other well, causing gymnasiums to roar with laughter and applause. They were truly two great basketball players ahead of their time and can easily be compared to Golden State's Steph Curry and Draymond Green if you ask me. 

Steph's amazing dribbling skills and Draymond's generalship of the team on the court could have easily been a Harlem Globetrotter combination. Even comparing Draymond's three-point shot with Meadowlark's long shot shows similarities. Of course Meadowlark had the Half-Court Hook Shot he'd perfected over the years; if only Draymond were given the green light to take shots like that in a real game.

Meadowlark passed away in 2015 and Curly went to rest just two days ago.  They filled my childhood and many others with magical dreams and loveable memories that we'll all cherish for as long as we live. You can still catch episodes of the Globetrotters Saturday Morning cartoon show on YouTube.


Fred "Curly" Neal, We Thank You for your Service.

I Got PPE, But "I Want You To Do Me A Favor Though"

How To Get Face Masks to Doctors and Hospitals in Need


If the Commander in Chief is okay asking a foreign ally in desperate need of defense armaments against a common enemy to first do him a favor by helping in his re-election, then what will he ask of state governments looking for federal support and leadership to arm against an invading viral pandemic?

It might sound treacherous and/or treasonous, but our man in the white house is handling this deadly national medical crisis as if his re-election depends on it and not civilian lives. 

Instead of putting his best foot forward and giving American citizens the leadership and support it needs at this time, he has done what he's been crookedly doing since taking over the office previously held by democratic favorite, President Barak Obama; Lying, Denying, Misleading, Misinforming, Blaming, Blocking, Campaigning and all out making America less great than it ever was. And less safe.

His dismantling of Presidential values and candor has led to our government being incompetent and unable to stand strong ready to fight together. Today we find ourselves as a nation vulnerable to attack from outside forces with only ourselves to blame only because of who we as a country elected to lead. 

If only our man in the white house were not suffering from narcissism; a personality disorder reflecting selfishness, involving a sense of entitlement, a lack of empathy and a need for admiration. When you couple this narcissist condition with a national crisis you get March Madness 2020 - the Coronavirus Campaign. And as anyone watching daily presidential press conferences knows, Coronavirus, unlike Republican Senators, does not respond positively to Lies, Denials, Deflections or Blame coming from a narcissist. It just goes on infecting, sickening and killing the misled/misinformed citizenry of a country pregnant with crisis when it first arrived. 

Most Americans, knowing the shortcomings of our man in the white house, were rooting for him to succeed in handling this medical crisis, taking a "we're all in this crisis together" attitude. We needed to believe that our Republican Senators who acquitted him of impeachment charges saw something leader-like in him that maybe us citizens somehow were overlooking. Perhaps just maybe the Naked Emperor was donning an exquisite and expensively made invisible suit.

Well, here we are unprepared and unprotected against a pandemic that we knew was coming and deadly. Early on our man in the white house could have rallied the country and government forces to steady ourselves and prepare for what was forecast. But his narcissism, such a self-defeating disease, began whispers of hoax, conspiracy and re-election deterrence into his ear. And while he takes no responsibility for our late and limited response to the Coronavirus, state governors are showing their leadership medal by pulling together whatever limited supplies and support available. America, in the face of a world conquering coronavirus and incompetent (fill-in-the-blank), is showing its unconquerable spirt and fearless fight to survive.


As we pause in the cause of fighting this pandemic, let us bear in mind what we're seeing and not seeing from our leadership in the white house. For as much as we depend on our government to lead and protect against invaders, it is our duty to place persons sound in mind, body and spirit to fulfill our expectations of leadership at the highest levels of state and federal government.

Vote

Alyssa Milano
Calls on Donald Trump to convert his hotels to hospitals for coronavirus relief. Trump has hotels in the cities of New York, Washington D.C., Miami, Las Vegas, Waikiki, Chicago and Charlottesville with other hotels outside the U.S. in Scotland, Ireland and Canada.

The Golden Piper - Amazon Review

We've all seen or heard the storyline before; a dying old millionaire invites all his long detached heirs to his mansion for one last round of "who's the greediest of them all!"  But in "The Golden Piper," the old man plays his money-hungry heirs like a musician stroking just the right key on a new and eager instrument. You might even say he began to play God, or the Devil.

The author does a wonderful job painting the many characters with their monetary hangups, wants and needs. No two guests are painted the same and yet all came regarding the money, not for love of a dying relative. Some you may find redeemable but the promise of money tends to blur many a redeemable quality in individuals. 

The story flows along very orderly, revealing bits and pieces until everything and everyone is laid out bare for inquisitive readers to see and judge.  Then comes the coup de grace. You'll love it!

Sports On Lockdown - Sh!it Just Got Real Folks

Let me start by saying my heart goes out to all victims of the coronavirus to date. This world health crisis is something that we're all battling together. No human being is immune. With each passing day the realities of just how impactful and threatening a world pandemic can be on our daily lives is brought into focus. We are seeing unfold right before our eyes a social shift from living our lives bunched together to having to distance ourselves from one another for fear of contracting or transmitting a deadly virus. 

If like myself you live in a good size major city then you know it's almost impossible to distance yourself from others. Whether it be buses, trains, elevators, grocery stores, office buildings or, Lord forbid, hospitals, humanity is right there pushing up next to you and usually you're pushing right back.  It's something you learn to tolerate when living in a city, it comes with the territory, like homelessness. Same with those of us who enjoy large entertainment venues packed with thousands of people. Whether it's a music concert, sporting event or street festival, we brave the crowds for a few hours of cheerful ecstasy and harmonious entertainment. 

Well my fellow consumers of sports, music and cultural outdoor events, those days are cancelled while our society does battle with this deadly virus. When they cancelled the St. Patrick's Day Parade I figured oh well, some poor chap won't be dressing up in green and drinking himself silly, too bad. When the weekend Coachella music festival was recently postponed I thought, there's gonna be a lot of disappointed partygoers, oh well. 

Today, when it was announced that the NBA was suspending its season indefinitely I wasn't all that disappointed since my Warriors have basically taken the season off after five consecutive trips to the Finals. But that basketball news was followed up this afternoon with a bombshell headline.

"March Madness Cancelled Amid Coronavirus Pandemic"


Are they crazy? Don't they understand the significance of this annual college basketball tournament? What about my bracketology predictions? This is Madness! 

Then it hit me; March Madness 2020 will be remembered for more than any game or event. March Madness 2020 is the month and year that a flu-like virus named Coronavirus caused the civilized world to shrug and pause.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the president's task force on coronavirus, said Wednesday that the outbreak in the U.S. is only "going to get worse."

"Unexampled Courage" - Book Review

My Amazon Book Review

Courage Under Fire

A tremendous breakdown of the peoples, circumstances and legal cases that indirectly led to the 1954 landmark civil rights supreme court decision of Brown vs Board of Education (school desegregation). 

The story begins with one colored army veteran suffering racial discrimination when unjustly beaten and blinded by a southern police chief. From this one tragic thread the author creatively weaves together a multi-colored quilt of facts and fallout that ripple their way onto the highest stage of American justice.

Learning about the courageous civil rights efforts of a president (Truman), judges, supreme court justices, lawyers and many other professionals (Orson Welles), I still found the most courageous of all to be the blinded colored veteran Sgt. Issac Woodard, who moved on with his life and never let the brutal injustice he suffered define him as a man. 

One proud colored man in uniform helped encourage so many others to stand up and do what is expected of good leading men to do; uphold their oath to protect the constitutional laws of a country and when in doubt challenge what those laws stand for. 

If you're man enough to take an oath, be man enough to defend it when under fire.


NPR - All Things Considered

Daily Beast - Blinded by Justice

Face to Face - Remembering Isaac Woodard

Briggs vs Elliott

Democratizing the Economy - Public Banking

AB 857 signed into law by governor Gavin Newsom 

(Oct 2, 2019)

OPEN FORUM On Democratizing the Economy  
Banking On The People

By Marc Armstrong (2012)

A public bank functions like a private bank but the ownership resides exclusively with the government, whether state, county or city. Why would we even need to consider creating another bank, when we seemingly have one on every corner in many areas of San Francisco?

Bank of America has been occupying City Hall for far too long - it uses our public tax revenues for its own benefit. Maybe it's time to look at public banking as an alternative.

Don't confuse banks with available credit, something that is part of public policy in other countries, states and municipalities. As we saw in 2008 and continuing to this very day, it was a credit crisis that caused the recession. Many businesses ceased expansion and now hoard cash. Tax revenue shortfalls have led to the government balancing its budgets on the backs of the working class.

The bankers were bailed out by the American taxpayer in 2008 but, what about the City of San Francisco? Was it offered loans at 0.25 percent by the Federal Reserve? Did it receive 100 cents on the dollar for "poorly performing" assets? No? Well, maybe we should create a bank simply to level the playing field for all members of the public.

Why give our money to Bank of America, only to have it lend us our own money at high interest rates or with ridiculous fees? We could hold onto our money, save quite a bit in fees, and lend it back to ourselves and to the businesses and people of San Francisco at more affordable rates.

In 2008, Ellen Brown authored "The Web of Debt," an analysis of the U.S. banking system that now is even more pertinent in light of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The thesis is that the power to create money has been usurped by a private international banking cartel, which issues our money as debt and lends it back to us at interest. The cartel makes it appear that governments are creating our money, and governments get blamed when things go wrong; but they are just pawns of the cartel.

We the people can regain our government and our republic only by reclaiming the power to create our own money. We can use the same credit system that private banks use, but administer it as a public utility - that is, monitored and overseen by public servants on the model of libraries and courts. To be a sustainable system, profits need to be returned to the community rather than siphoned off into private coffers.

Other countries recognize that the money supply should serve both a private and public function. Germany's state-backed Landesbanks and smaller foundation-owned Sparkassen banks were able to dominate the credit market throughout post-war Germany. Switzerland has the WIR (from the German word Wirtschaftsring) Bank, a business membership exchange that funds loans in two currencies - the Swiss Franc and bank-issued WIR credits. And in North Dakota, the state-owned Bank of North Dakota has a commercial lending program that requires one new hire for every $100,000 that is loaned.

How's that for a job program? This is a public policy that uses credit for the good of the people.


Marc Armstrong is executive director of the nonprofit Public Banking Institute, the host of the "Future of Banking Summit" in Philadelphia in February.



Nov. 5 - Bank Transfer Day
Saturday has been dubbed Bank Transfer Day by grassroots activists upset with rising bank fees. Consumers are being encouraged by Bank Transfer Day organizers, including the Move Your Money project, to switch their accounts to credit unions or community banks on that day.

https://www.publicbankinginstitute.org/
Public Banking Institute is a partner of the Move Your Money project, a nonprofit campaign that encourages individuals and institutions to divest from the nation's largest Wall Street banks and move to local financial institutions.

the Beggar and the Diamond

A favorite story of mine that continues to reveal hidden wisdom as I age. I believe that Ramu represents living free from material wants and needs. He suffers and understands that suffering is something that one with faith in God simply endures; as opposed to avoids.

I believe he sometimes, when feeling helpless, wants more from God but knows he is only what God has given him and is once again grateful for life. 

Only a poor old beggar could curse God for his condition and then in the next breath repent and give thanks for still having at least the gift of good eyesight. Accepting one’s role in life, though others may question God’s favor or disfavor placed on you, is this story’s lesson. Ramu is a soul aware of his role and his God.

And that big, glittering diamond could be the very thing that distracts so many of us from God's grace and steers us toward chasing and worshiping that false and temporary God; money.

The Parable of the Beggar and the Diamond

Cheating Astros Should Forfeit A Season And/Or Series

The Astros organization used a video camera in center field to film the opposing catchers' signs to the pitchers.


I'm getting sick and tired of all the Cheating going on in our society today. From Corporations to Politicians to Professional Sports, the cheating has taken over the American idea of fair and ethical participation. And what's even worse is the penalty when caught, if any, does not fit the crime. Whatever happened to Truth or Consequences?

When the Houston Astros were playing championship baseball in 2017, I was happily rooting for them as they beatdown the Yankees and Dodgers. Though my SF Giants had to sit out the MLB Postseason I was locked into the games just to see the amazing Astros and their Giants-like push toward a World Series. They were a loveable bunch of players making clutch plays in thrilling games.

When it was recently revealed that the Astros used technology to steal pitching signals from opposing teams I was completely deflated. I thought, "come'on, say it ain't so Altuve." Then came the apologies, and confirmation that "Everybody was in the Loop." 

Nobody in the Astros organization can claim innocence. Silence in the face of cheating is complicity. The fact that they won a World Series should be proof that the cheating paid off. For the Astros owner to publicly state that he felt the cheating didn't affect the outcome is exactly what Corporate and Political cheaters do when caught with their hand in the cookie jar; deny the advantage that cheating gives. Don't they know that we know that's why organizations cheat in the first place? to gain an advantage over the competition.


My advice to Major League Baseball is to either have the Astros immediately "Forfeit" an entire baseball season and/or "Forfeit" the following championships:

2017 ALDS, ALCS and WS
2018 ALDS
2019 ALDS, ALCS


If the league continues to treat this factual cheating scandal with what seems like a Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney attitude, "We do that all the time; Get Over It!," I may find myself attending Little League Baseball games this season just to get a glimpse of what America's past-time was like before video cam cheating became the norm. Imagine what the tech-savy little leaguers are learning from this scandal; Cheating and Crime Pay$, time to get paid.

Come'on MLB, Your better than this. Whaddaya think this is, Trump's White House foreign policy? Its Baseball for crying out loud. And I can't just get over it.

#InspireChange

NFL Tackles Police Killings in Powerful Super Bowl Commercial



NFL "Inspire Change" Initiative

KOBE

Gone Too Soon

Michael Jackson

Like a comet
Blazing 'cross the evening sky
Gone too soon

Like a rainbow
Fading in the twinkling of an eye
Gone too soon

Shiny and sparkly
And splendidly bright
Here one day
Gone one night

Like the loss of sunlight
On a cloudy afternoon
Gone too soon

Like a castle
Built upon a sandy beach
Gone too soon

Like a perfect flower
That is just beyond your reach
Gone too soon

Born to amuse, to inspire, to delight
Here one day
Gone one night

Like a sunset
Dying with the rising of the moon
Gone too soon

Gone too soon

So Full of Artless Jealousy is Guilt

Words that define exactly why the 45th President of the United States has been Impeached and is facing removal from office.

" Guilt "

What do William Shakespeare's words "So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt." mean?

Guilt makes you so full of stupid suspicions that you give yourself away because 

you're trying so hard not to. 

"Guiltiness will speak." 

Curtis Lindsay, professional musician, arts administrator.

Shakespeare is saying — through the character of Queen Gertrude, in Act IV of Hamlet— that when a person feels guilty for something he has secretly done, he is likely to become extremely suspicious of others as a result. He may become hyper-vigilant, in fear that he will be exposed.

Does he know? How about her; does she know that I know that she knows?

Often other people can recognize this paranoid behavior, such that the guilty person ends up exposing himself through the attempt to protect himself.

A cousin to today's saying: "The cover-up is always worse than the crime."

Hamlet Blog

Shoeless Joe Judge

Either the New York Football Giants have exclusive insider information about newly hired head coach Joe Judge, or the city of Gotham has decided to gamble away their chances of fielding a winning team.

Say it ain't so Joe!

In the last decade the Giants have won a Super Bowl and lost a wild card game. They've won an average of seven games per season over that span and are going on their fourth head coach in five years. So what will it take to get the blue collar Giants back to respectability? 

Shoeless Joe Judge at the helm of course! A coach with no head coaching experience in college or pro, and no coordinator experience offense or defense. But look on the bright side, he's a helluva Special Teams coach and has dabbled in Receivers coaching duties as a backup.  The Patriots will surely miss him (wink,wink).

Bottom line: Somebody in New York has just decided to select Donald J. Trump to run the Giants football team, and damned the reports and history that shows he's not qualified. And Why! 

Follow the money, or lack there of.

The real Shoeless Joe Jackson was illiterate and I believe he loved the game of baseball too much to wanna throw the 1919 World Series. But this Joe is a Mississippi State graduate who briefly worked as a Kindegarten physical education teacher. They have PE teachers in Kindegarten???

Whatever the deal Joe Judge cut with the New York Giants, win or lose he'll need the patience of a Kindegarten teacher in order to deal with Gotham's football fans and news media. And don't even think about going Shoeless in NYC Joe; Sleepless maybe, but never shoeless. They'll be snapping at your heels chasing you from day one.

What a crazy, unexpected day for the New York Giants
- Big Blue View





READ THE INFO BELOW !
The orginal version of 'Say It Ain't So Joe' by Murray Head.
Other well known versions are by Gary Brooker and Roger Daltrey.

The story behind the song:
ACCORDING TO MURRAY HEAD:
Say It Ain't So Joe was provoked by a seventies documentary on Richard Nixon prior to his resignation.
The presenter was asking the editor of a small town newspaper outside Washington, how, in the face of conclusive evidence and proof, his readers could still show such undying support for the president they elected.
The editor likens the situation to a scandal in the twenties, when Joe Jackson, the famous baseball player, was rumored to have taken a bribe to sink his team in the final of the World series.
His fans hung around the stadium chanting "Say it ain't so Joe"

The song is about heroes and their "Clay feet'. It is also a plea from myself to the kind of 'Joe Public' who in fear of losing face, refuse to relinquish their faith in a fallen idol.

Minnesota Vikings Upsets - History in the Making

Though Bay Area media aren't talking about it, sports news in Minnesota has been all over the underdog Vikings 1987 Divisional Playoff game upset against the San Francisco 49ers. How can any football fan of that era forget the day that QB Joe Montana was "benched" for backup Steve Young; and the 49ers still lost the game 36-24.

In round two of the 2019 playoffs, the lowest seeded Vikings, just like in 1988 (1987 season), are coming off a huge upset victory over the New Orleans Saints. Their next opponent, just like in 1988, are the favored  #1 seed 49ers. It's an NFL Playoff game made for commentator historical flashbacks in the booth. The 1988 game ranks No.9 on the NFL's Top 10 Upsets of All Time list. The star of that game way back when, was none other than Vikings wide receiver Anthony Carter with 227 receiving yards. Lest We Forget:

1987 Alumni hoping Vikings 'Shock the World' again at San Francisco

Twin Cities Pioneer Press

Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Anthony Carter (81) runs with the ball for a good gain as San Francisco 49ers Cornerback Tim McKyer remains on the ground during the third quarter of their NFC playoff game at Candlestick Park, Saturday, Jan. 9, 1988, San Francisco, Calif. Carter gained 227 yards on pass receptions, breaking an NFL postseason record to lead the Vikings to a 36-24 upset over the 49ers. (Associated Press / Eric Risberg)


Come this weekend, Anthony Carter and Viking Country fans are hoping to see a repeat of their team's 1987 NFC Divisional Playoff game upset.  Sometimes in sports, history matters. The 49ers could be setup for a repeat of historical proportions. Time will Tell!