It will be at peak fullness at 10:49 a.m. on Saturday, Eastern Daylight Time. As the second full moon of October, it is called a blue moon.

Rituals for positive energy are best done before the peak of fullness.

Tonight my family will light a white candle, cast a circle, do some group breathing, perhaps with a bit of drumming.
Then we will work on raising energy for compassion, healing and protection for our troubled nation in the coming days.

***

Tomorrow is Samhain, when the gates between the worlds open and allow us to sense the spirits of ancestors and departed loved ones.

One wiccan tradition is the setting of the dumb (meaning silent) supper at the table and inviting the departed loved ones to partake of the feast. A place is set for the spirits, with a portion of the dinner. After welcoming the departed ones, the living eat silently, listening for any messages that might come.

I leave the food out all night along with a lit tealight candle. When day returns, I put the food out for the wild ones to enjoy.

Have a lovely full blue moon!

So relieved!

Physician sent me for a COVID-19 test yesterday to be on the safe side. I was tired and had a sore throat the past 3 days.

Last week I spent several hours in a hospital ER while at least one person who was COVID-positive was seated within 15 feet of me. He was masked and not coughing or sneezing. There were also two people who were maskless. I kept my own mask on, tried to not touch anything, used sanitizer and tried to keep away from others when possible.

Got my ballot yesterday, voted for Joe, etc. and dropped it off first thing this morning in the drop box outside the county Board of Elections HQ.

What a feeling of relief to get this done!

First, with a badly infected cat bite. But now I'm worried I could have been exposed to COVID-19 in the ER waiting area.

Poor old 17-year-old cat got a claw tangled in my shirt on Friday when I was carrying her. As I attempted to unhook it, she suddenly bit me, hard, in the left arm. She has never been a biter, so maybe it's age-related and I inadvertently hurt an achy area.

By Sunday afternoon, the puncture was red and puffy despite applications of Bacitracin. The urgent cares were closed, so my husband drove me to the ER. After a bit of a wait, they ran tests, found it hadn't gotten to the blood stream, and hooked me to an IV with an antibiotic. Unfortunately I had forgotten that it was one I'm allergic to. They also gave me a different antibiotic pill to swallow and sent me home after cleaning and re-bandaging the wound. Discharged after about 4 hours.

Next day I started itching all over. My primary care doctor's office said I should go back to the ER, so I did. And waited and waited and waited. Meanwhile my Benadryl wore off and I starting itching madly all over, with red hives. The ER was busy, because there were delays in getting patients admitted to beds upstairs. I think it was about 8 hours before they could see me. Finally hooked up with an IV of Benadryl. The doctors were trying to figure out which antibiotic they could safely give me, because I'm allergic or sensitive to so many of them. They finally chose one, gave me a dose and sent me home after calling prescriptions in to the pharmacy. Total time before being discharged - almost 10 hours. Got to sleep after 3 a.m.

One thing that bothered me was that the waiting area seemed lax about COVID-19 precautions, and my husband complained to the ER staff about it. I saw 2 people in the waiting area either without a mask or a mask slipped down below the nose. Both seemed to have mental health issues. One was wandering around the room touching everything, refusing to sit down, demanding to go to the bathroom but not going there when it was pointed out to him, and periodically scratching his crotch.

The other was a kid about 16 who wore a mask at times when his attendants reminded him. But after a while he took it off and remained without a mask. Nobody at the front desk tried to do anything and the security guard just sat there until the kid stood up and got into an aggressive stance with his fist up to punch one of his attendants. I scurried out of the way to sit next to the security guard's desk. At least this time he went to intervene. The kid got calmed down and was soon taken off in to the actual ER area.

But that's not all. There was at least one, maybe two people in the waiting area who had tested positive with COVID. They should probably have been moved to a separate seating area away from the rest of us, but nothing was done. At least those people wore masks.

Nobody was sanitizing the arms of the waiting room chairs or the vending machine. There was hand sanitizer available at the front desk, though.

When I went for a blood test at a different hospital a few months ago, I couldn't even get past the door without an immediate COVID screening - temp, oxygen level, short questionnaire about travel and possible symptoms. OK, this was at a separate facility that housed blood testing and oncology with a lot of frail cancer patients.

But at the ER there was nobody at the front desk half the time, so people coming in didn't know what to do. When the attendant came back, he'd send you to the registrar for insurance info. Then you waited to see the triage nurse, who took your temp and oxygen and sent you back to wait. And to sit right there among people not wearing masks, people with COVID, and many of them changing seats at various times.

While I was in the ER patient area, two doctors apologized to me about the unmasked people and said something would be done about it. Someone really needs to speak to the front desk attendants and the security guards about doing their jobs.

Today the hives are gone, the puncture looks much better. Need to get the new prescriptions picked up when they are ready.

Source: Raw Story

October 14, 2020
By Travis Gettys

A failed Idaho gubernatorial candidate was charged in the 1984 murder of a 12-year-old girl.

Steve Pankey, a 2014 Constitution Party candidate for governor who also ran in the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary in 2018, was taken into custody Monday on two first-degree murder charges, two violent crime charges and one second-degree kidnapping charge, reported KTVB-TV.

The perennial candidate became a suspect last year in the disappearance of Jonelle Matthews after her body was discovered at an oil and gas site home in Weld County, Colorado.

...

The 69-year-old Pankey, who promised during his 2018 campaign to “defund abortion” from the state budget and “return Idaho to the God of the Bible and Constitutional principles,” lived about two miles from the Matthews home and had attended the same church as them around 1978.

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2020/10/pro-life-republican-charged-in-cold-case/

Source: Salon via Raw Story

Published 1 min ago
on October 9, 2020
By Igor Derysh, Salon


Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon conspiracy theorist and Republican candidate who is expected to win her House race in Georgia next month, donated $450,000 to her own campaign after receiving a six-figure Paycheck Protection Program loan from the government for her construction company.

Greene, who has promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory and posted videos attacking Black people, Muslims and Jews, won the Republican primary in Georgia’s 14th congressional district in August despite opposition from Republican leaders. She is almost certain to take over the seat now held by retiring Republican Rep. Tom Graves, especially after her Democratic opponent dropped out of the race last month in a district President Trump carried by 50 points. Trump has since praised Greene as a “future Republican star.”

Greene’s bid was partially funded by a super PAC allied with the House Freedom Caucus, which has opposed additional funding to provide coronavirus relief to Americans. Greene has opposed additional spending as well, declaring in a Facebook video that “the best stimulus for Americans is allowing Americans to go back to work!”

Despite her opposition to the stimulus funding and the PPP, her family’s company, Taylor Commercial, received a six-figure PPP loan worth between $150,000 and $350,000 earlier this year. New York Magazine reported that her name had stopped appearing on the company’s registration forms in 2012 but was added back in 2019.


Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2020/10/self-funding-qanon-candidate-gave-own-campaign-450000-after-getting-ppp-loan/

Any others?

https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-54472053


Republican leader Mitch McConnell, 78, on Thursday revealed he had not been to the White House since August because of the way it has handled Covid-19.

The Kentucky senator said he spoke to the president frequently over the phone but had not visited since 6 August.

Mr McConnell, a polio survivor, contrasted the White House with the Senate, where lawmakers are urged to wear masks and social distance.

His comments come as the White House deals with a Covid-19 outbreak.

More at link