Bad News Monday

Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever has been found in four people in Florida. Long feared by the CDC and NIH that it would cross the Florida Strait from Cuba, Dengue has a 60% mortality rate and the many mutations of the illness have cumulative effect; the more times you get it, the more fatal it becomes. It has symptoms similar to Ebola. It is transmitted by mosquitoes and by touch. Assuming these are not the last cases, there will be more and death will follow. There is no treatment, no drugs or medication. The victim either fights it off or they die. It only seems to be in Tropical and Subtropical areas so you can physically flee from it to cooler weather, which makes it better than Malaria or West Nile, found all the way to the Arctic Circle.

Chemical Weapons used in Syria still apparently insufficient reason for USA to do more than send a "sternly worded letter". The Russians, who provided the weapons and are selling new ones hand-over-fist to Assad say that the USA will violate treaties if we do anything about Syria. Why are we listening to them?

Mass murder of protesters by the military coup oppressing Egypt is still getting illegal funding from Democrat-run USA administration. It is AGAINST THE LAW to give money to a coup. Democrats passed that law in the 1960's. Billions of our tax dollars are going to a regime that slaughters everyone standing up for Democracy. And Democratic voters continue to support murder. If a Republican administration was illegally funding this coup, there would be demands for impeachment. The Media pretends that its not important. After all, its just Egyptians. Its not like they have rights. Can you SMELL the racism?

USA still in Afghanistan, still feeding the bombers and their children, still supporting and enabling future terrorism. If we left, they would have no one but themselves to focus their violence on and the problem would solve itself. America is NOT the World Police. Didn't the current president run on a platform of ending those wars?

The Fort Hood Islamic terrorist was found guilty, but media refuses to call him a terrorist, and the US govt refuses to pay terror victim benefits to survivors and the families of the dead because that would admit that terrorism is still happening on US soil and that Islamics are potential terrorists and need to be treated as such for everyone's safety. Since Islam is not a race, bias against them falls under the same kind of thing as bias against Neo Nazis or Gang Members: self-identified potential threats to others. The Islamists might cut off our oil supply in retaliation. But what about the Monterey Shale in California? Do we still NEED to be nice to Islam? I don't think we do. Level the playing field.

The Rim Fire in Yosemite is now 224 square miles and only 7% contained. The little rain we got yesterday didn't seem to help down there. The fire threatens the hydroelectric dam at Hetch Hetchy reservoir, source of the power and water of the city of San Francisco via powerlines and aqueducts across the San Joaquin Valley and over the Coast Range mountains and under the Bay via a pipe through Newark beside the bridge there. San Francisco is a LONG WAY from sustainable. A good reason to discourage people from living there.

The American Fire near Foresthill continues to burn, though it is more contained. I smelled a faint trace of its smoke this morning but it gradually took over and the air is blue outside now. The birds don't like it much either.