Ponietz
Ponietz's Journal2 geometric pieces from paper
#1 is 30” x 22”
an attempt at a non-local mandala—might make a good mural
https://imgur.com/gallery/eE6vdm9
#2 is 24” x 22”
https://imgur.com/gallery/lmTfY4P
(edits—sorry, can’t get the images to load)
Elizabeth Warren was made for this moment. Joe Biden should recognize that.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/22/elizabeth-warren-is-vice-president-country-needs-right-now/There’s little doubt the medical and economic catastrophe of the coronavirus pandemic will dominate the presidential race. On Wednesday, Axios published a Joe Biden campaign memo revealing his plan to make the case against President Trump, based on the president’s corrupt, inept and out-of-touch response to the coronavirus pandemic. The former vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee can strengthen his argument by selecting Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as his vice president. There is no one better equipped than Warren to help make the case Republicans are largely responsible for both the mounting death toll and economic carnage of covid-19.
In little more than a month, 22 million Americans have lost their jobs as economic activity ground to a halt. A Gallup poll conducted over the first half of April found 1 in 4 Americans agreeing it was more likely than not they would be unemployed at some point in the next year. And according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center, 3 out of 4 Americans say the economy is in either “poor” or “fair” shape.
The Massachusetts senator has the perfect background for this moment. Warren first achieved academic and public prominence studying bankruptcy, talking repeatedly with families plunged into a financial abyss through unemployment or a health crisis. She went on to co-write a seminal book about the financial plight of the American family, “The Two-Income Trap,” which even counts Fox News host Tucker Carlson among its fans. She offered advice and sympathy to financially overwhelmed families on daytime television shows. Like Biden’s talent for connecting with voters when the subject is grief and emotional loss, Warren’s ability to tap into Americans’ financial fears is all but unique among national politicians.
Then there is Warren’s ability to tie the financial plight of American families to the United States’ culture of legalized corruption. This connection has been grotesquely clear during the coronavirus pandemic. Multiple members of Congress sold off stock after receiving confidential briefings on the growing epidemic. Congressional debates over economic stimulus set off a corporate lobbying gold rush. The relief bills passed have repeatedly favored the richest and most connected, including what Warren called a $500 billion “slush fund” for the largest corporations, while leaving everyone else fighting over scraps. Most recently, a loophole in the Paycheck Protection Plan allowed publicly traded companies like Ruth’s Chris Steak House to get their oven mitts on money meant to help small businesses survive. As the inequities have piled up, Warren has remained vigilant, calling out Trump administration officials and warning them she’s keeping an eye on the money.
Warren can point to a long record of fighting corruption. Corruption, she said in 2018 while debuting a tough bill taking the all too ubiquitous issue on, is “like a cancer eating away at our democracy.” It was a centerpiece of her presidential campaign, too. Speaking in New York’s Washington Square Park last year, in the shadow of the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, she said of the first Gilded Age, “Business owners got richer, politicians got more powerful, and working people paid the price,” adding, “Does any of that sound familiar?” It should.
(continues)
How did covid-19 begin? It's initial origin story is shaky.
From David Ignatius at Washington Post—
...
“There’s a competing theory — of an accidental lab release of bat coronavirus — that scientists have been puzzling about for weeks. Less than 300 yards from the seafood market is the Wuhan branch of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers from that facility and the nearby Wuhan Institute of Virology have posted articles about collecting bat coronaviruses from around China, for study to prevent future illness. Did one of those samples leak, or was hazardous waste deposited in a place where it could spread?
“Richard Ebright, a Rutgers microbiologist and biosafety expert, told me in an email that “the first human infection could have occurred as a natural accident,” with the virus passing from bat to human, possibly through another animal. But Ebright cautioned that it “also could have occurred as a laboratory accident, with, for example, an accidental infection of a laboratory worker.” He noted that bat coronaviruses were studied in Wuhan at Biosafety Level 2, “which provides only minimal protection,” compared with the top BSL-4.
“Ebright described a December video from the Wuhan CDC that shows staffers “collecting bat coronaviruses with inadequate [personal protective equipment] and unsafe operational practices.” Separately, I reviewed two Chinese articles, from 2017 and 2019, describing the heroics of Wuhan CDC researcher Tian Junhua, who while capturing bats in a cave “forgot to take protective measures” so that “bat urine dripped from the top of his head like raindrops.”
...
“And then there’s the Chinese study that was curiously withdrawn. In February, a site called ResearchGate published a brief article by Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao from Guangzhou’s South China University of Technology. “In addition to origins of natural recombination and intermediate host, the killer coronavirus probably originated from a laboratory in Wuhan. Safety level may need to be reinforced in high risk biohazardous laboratories,” the article concluded. Botao Xiao told the Wall Street Journal in February that he had withdrawn the paper because it “was not supported by direct proofs.”
“Accidents happen, human or laboratory. Solving the mystery of how covid-19 began isn’t a blame game, but a chance for China and the United States to cooperate in a crisis, and prevent a future one.“
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/how-did-covid-19-begin-its-initial-origin-story-is-shaky/2020/04/02/1475d488-7521-11ea-87da-77a8136c1a6d_story.html
Senate approves historic $2 trillion stimulus deal amid growing coronavirus fears
Source: CNN
Washington (CNN) The Senate on Wednesday approved a historic, $2 trillion stimulus package to provide a jolt to an economy reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, capping days of intense negotiations that produced one of the most expensive and far-reaching measures Congress has ever considered.
The legislation represents the largest emergency aid package in US history and the most significant legislative action taken to address the rapidly intensifying coronavirus crisis, which is overwhelming hospitals and grinding much of the economy to a halt.
It will next go to the House for a vote. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced Wednesday evening ahead of Senate passage that the House will convene at 9 a.m. on Friday to consider the relief package. The plan is to pass the bill by voice vote.
President Donald Trump has indicated he will sign the measure.
The White House and Senate leaders struck a major deal early Wednesday morning on the package. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell formally announced the agreement on the Senate floor, describing it as "a wartime level of investment for our nation."
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/25/politics/stimulus-senate-action-coronavirus/index.html
free 10-week online course The Science of Well-Being offered by Yale University
Most popular course there, ever. There’s a mobile app to support the coursework.
https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being/home/welcome
Pelosi unveils 2.5 trillion counterproposal to GOP coronavirus stimulus
Source: Axios
“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled on Monday a sweeping counterproposal to Senate Republicans' $1.8 trillion coronavirus stimulus package.
“Why it matters: House Democrats' legislation — which comes with a $2.5 trillion price tag — comes after negotiations between Capitol Hill leaders and the White House broke down over the weekend, culminating in two failed procedural votes that have left the Senate Republicans' bill in limbo.
“The state of play: Democrats, who have asserted that the Senate GOP bill is a corporate slush fund that doesn't do enough to help American workers, are hoping that the release of this bill will give them more leverage in negotiations with Republicans.
“But Republicans have accused Democrats of playing politics during a national crisis by stalling action on their bill, calling this latest measure a "Democratic wish list" — as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell characterized it.“
Read more: https://www.axios.com/nancy-pelosi-coronavirus-stimulus-proposal-d7b4a9a0-610a-4324-a07b-6bb64e1f5c81.html
The Open Secret
None can die. None can be degraded forever. Life is but a playground, however gross the play may be. However we may receive blows and however knocked about we may be, the Soul is there and is never injured. We are that Infinite.
Thus sang a Vedantist: “I never had fear or doubt. Death never came to me. I never had a father or mother, for I was never born. Where are my foes?—for I am All. I am Existence, Knowledge, Bliss Absolute. I am It. I am It.”
However much the body rebels, however much the mind rebels, in the midst of uttermost darkness, in the midst of agonizing tortures, in uttermost despair, repeat this once, twice, thrice, evermore. Light comes gently, slowly, but surely it comes.
Many times I have been in the jaws of death, starving, footsore, and weary. For days and days I had no food, and often could walk no farther. I would sink down under a tree, and life would seem to be ebbing away. I could not speak. I could scarcely think. But at last the mind reverted to the idea: “I have no fear of death. I never hunger or thirst. I am It! I am It! The whole of nature cannot crush me—it is my servant. Assert thy strength, thou Lord of lords and God of gods! Regain thy lost empire! Arise and walk and stop not!” And I would rise up, reinvigorated, and here am I, living, today. Thus, whenever darkness comes, assert the reality and everything adverse must vanish. For, after all, it is but as dream. Mountain high though the difficulties appear, terrible and gloomy though all things seem, they are but maya. Fear not—it is banished. Crush it and it vanishes. Stamp upon it and it dies. Be not afraid. Think not how many times you fail. Never mind—time is infinite. Go forward. Assert yourself again and again and light must come.
—Vivekananda
Governor vetoes infrastructure bill as oil prices plummet
https://www.abqjournal.com/1429497/governor-vetoes-infrastructure-bill-as-oil-prices-plummet.html“ SANTA FE — A global oil price war had New Mexico lawmakers and other elected officials on edge Monday, as a prolonged price crash could zap a recent revenue boom and cause a state budget surplus to evaporate.
“The uncertainty prompted Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to veto a spending bill that would have appropriated $49.5 million to fund 216 road projects statewide, including funding for bike paths, safety enhancements and median landscaping in Albuquerque.
“We do not yet know the degree to which (the coronavirus) and declining oil prices will impact our state’s economy,” Lujan Grisham wrote in her veto message of Senate Bill 232. “Given this uncertainty, I bear a heightened obligation to ensure that all significant expenditures constitute a demonstrably sound investment in New Mexico.”
“She also said the spending on road projects whose scope and total cost is often clear was not warranted given the uncertainty over the plummeting oil prices and other economic factors.
“Meanwhile, some legislators said the plunging oil prices, if they don’t bounce back, could force the state’s cash reserves to be significantly drawn down — just three years after they were all but depleted during a previous economic downturn.
.....
“If those numbers hold through June, it’s unstable,” said Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, referring to the state’s current budget year.
”The stunning oil price decline also comes as Lujan Grisham is nearing a Wednesday deadline to act on a $7.6 billion budget bill — one that’s largely reliant on oil-generated revenue — that calls for a $536 million increase in year-over-year spending during the coming fiscal year.”
We have no reason to believe 5g is safe
“The telecommunications industry and their experts have accused many scientists who have researched the effects of cell phone radiation of "fear mongering" over the advent of wireless technology's 5G. Since much of our research is publicly-funded, we believe it is our ethical responsibility to inform the public about what the peer-reviewed scientific literature tells us about the health risks from wireless radiation.
“The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently announced through a press release that the commission will soon reaffirm the radio frequency radiation (RFR) exposure limits that the FCC adopted in the late 1990s. These limits are based upon a behavioral change in rats exposed to microwave radiation and were designed to protect us from short-term heating risks due to RFR exposure.
“Yet, since the FCC adopted these limits based largely on research from the 1980s, the preponderance of peer-reviewed research, more than 500 studies, have found harmful biologic or health effects from exposure to RFR at intensities too low to cause significant heating.
“ Citing this large body of research, more than 240 scientists who have published peer-reviewed research on the biologic and health effects of nonionizing electromagnetic fields (EMF) signed the International EMF Scientist Appeal, which calls for stronger exposure limits. The appeal makes the following assertions:
“Numerous recent scientific publications have shown that EMF affects living organisms at levels well below most international and national guidelines. Effects include increased cancer risk, cellular stress, increase in harmful free radicals, genetic damages, structural and functional changes of the reproductive system, learning and memory deficits, neurological disorders, and negative impacts on general well-being in humans. Damage goes well beyond the human race, as there is growing evidence of harmful effects to both plant and animal life.””
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/we-have-no-reason-to-believe-5g-is-safe/
New Mexico GOP headquarters hit by spray-painting vandal
https://www.abqjournal.com/1419067/new-mexico-gop-headquarters-hit-by-spray-painting-vandal.html?utm_source=abqjournal.com&utm_medium=sidebar+-+post+list+-+balloons&utm_campaign=post+list“ ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A spray-painting vandal has hit the headquarter of the New Mexico Republican Party, video footage showed.
Surveillance video shows a man tagging the Albuquerque headquarter around 2:30 a.m. Saturday before fleeing in an SUV.
Officials discovered Monday that the vandal had painted the words, “still traitors,” in front of the building.
New Mexico Republican Party Chairman Steve Pearce said the headquarters has been struck a number of times in recent months and the party has installed cameras.”
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Gender: MaleHometown: NM
Current location: Taos
Member since: Thu Jun 28, 2018, 06:04 PM
Number of posts: 3,322