Day: March 25, 2020

20200325: CoronaCRISIS/China Crisis Daily Thread + Dear Congress, Please Get Your Act Together

For the time being, given our national emergency, we are switching to DAILY COVID-19/China Virus threads instead of weekly threads. Your comments and updates are most welcome. PLEASE continue to post your valuable information, hard source links, and local observations within these Daily Threads. Additionally, we will try to include links to government and official pressers, so those who no longer have cable can remain informed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08upmWPFnr0&feature=youtu.be

We’ll get through this crisis, together. As a group, there is probably no one better prepared than we are.

For our newcomers: The Q Tree community has been diligent in covering the threat of Coronavirus, COVID19, Wuhan FLU. We started accumulating information about this virus in mid-late January, in what became almost weekly threads. We’ve been weeks, if not months, ahead of MSM outlets to vet rumors and other medical papers, etc.

Primary Update Links:

In our past weekly threads, we assembled information on the following:

  • Primary update links. The dashboard from Johns Hopkins which counts “official” cases all over the world, the CDC, and WHO, and includes the links for our past threads.
  • Hard Data Medical Information- Explanation about testing, reliance on China for drugs, analysis of NE Journal of Medicine results and other published papers.
  • Vaccine and theraputics (new/old drugs to alleviate symptoms) news and updates 
  • Trump Administration response (the timeline and links to various agencies)
  • China Responses, timelines, research, attempt to cover actions, or secrecy in results discovered.
  • An aggregate of info/responses from other countries, listed by country.
  • Economic impact from around the world. A change in economic activity will indicate a “return to normal”.
  • Speculation/debunking on how the virus started
  • Media Bias, political response, and debunking section, like the article from AP News, overt bias from Politico, inflammatory headlines, etc.  
  • Other medical info to boost immune system, herbal remedies, ways to keep your house clean and NOT spread the virus to others. Excellent information to incorporate into daily lifestyle.
  • Hard links for OTHER valuable sources/blogs and a brief sentence or two about what they provide
  • Other news items

Our weekly updates. timelines, collection of valuable information, can be found here:

Please try to keep your sense of humor during this National Emergency, and remember, patience is a virtue.

Love to all!

For the Dems, it’s “The Enemy of My Enemy…….”

03-25-20 Midweek Musings

4 th Sunday of Lent
March 22, 2020

“The Light of Faith”

1 Samuel 16:1-3
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-38

My Brothers and Sisters in the Lord –

Most of us have heard the sarcastic statement that is applied to those who refuse to change their beliefs or behavior: “Don’t confuse me with facts – my mind is already made up!”

One of the tendencies that most people have is to remain steadfast in whatever seems to have worked for them in the past. We are creatures of habit. We get used to a comfortable routine – We resist those things which are unsettling – And this is probably as it should be. Because not every new thing is going to work. Moreover, new ways of thinking can sometimes be far from beneficial and even destructive for ourselves or for the world.

However, because of our natural resistance to most change, we can also resist or refuse something that God asks of us – something truly for our benefit or for the world! The scriptures for today have much to say in this regard.

King Saul had disobeyed God. He was no longer fit to be the leader of the Chosen People. God had a different plan, which Saul would resist – and the prophet Samuel understood this. It was for this reason that Samuel journeyed to Bethlehem on the pretext of offering a special sacrifice in that place.

Once there, Samuel discovered that none of the sons that Jesse presented were God’s choice. Ultimately, that choice was David, despite his youth and seeming lack of experience. However, we are told that when anointed, the Holy Spirit rushed upon David – the same Spirit of God that would sustain David throughout his career!

In the Gospel, Jesus heals a man who had been blind from his birth. At that time, the common belief was that any disability was because of sinfulness. Either the man’s parents were being punished for their sins – or the infant had, somehow, sinned and offended God. However, Jesus said that this belief was unfounded. Moreover, Jesus cured the man and demonstrated that not all of Jewish practice was unchangeable! Jesus healed on the Sabbath by making clay and applying it over the man’s closed eyes!

Sadly, the blindness and the hardheartedness of the Pharisees kept them from seeing the real purpose that was behind the Sabbath law of rest. It was to worship God and let the body be healed with the rest needed after a week of hard work. But what was far worse, was that the Jewish leadership could not accept that Jesus was sent by God to establish a whole new way of living and believing. The Lord was a God of mercy and love. He was gracious and forgiving. He had even sent His Son into the world to teach us how to become children of God ourselves!

Unfortunately, most of the world, today, continues to be in a great darkness of soul and spirit. We deny truth; we resist goodness; we substitute the grotesque for the truly beautiful. We are closed to God and to the ways of God. Because we cannot prove what we believe due to our inherent faith, many – perhaps most – contend that we have been duped and are to be pitied. But it really is the other way around – for they are the unfortunate ones! We have the Holy Spirit to enlighten us and to see what others refuse to see – to trust where they have no hope – to be secure when the world is in disarray and falling apart!

St. Paul experienced all that we have – and even more. He tells us that, like him, we were once in darkness, but now we are light in the Lord. Consequently, we must live as children of the light. In doing so, we will bring goodness, rightness, and truth to everything and to everyone in our sphere of influence.

Brothers and Sisters, we are truly blessed to live during the time after the coming of Jesus to the world – For Jesus is the Light of the World! Jesus, alone, gives meaning to life – and insight into the chaotic world in which we live. Jesus, alone, shows us how to rise above the evil and sin of the culture and the world, and remain steadfast in our obedience to God, our Father.

So, let us pray, today, that we truly become children of the light – May we open ourselves to all that God asks – And may we, somehow, see and understand what others refuse to accept or believe!

Amen.

March 22, 2020 Msgr. Russell G. Terra, Parish Homilies,
Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Church, Redding, CA
*http://www.stjosephredding.org/parish-homilies.html

Dear KAG: 20200325 Open Thread

Alright, time for one of my favorites. (And if you need some belly laughs, check out the movie “1941.”

And now for the obligatory message from our sponsors:

Here at the Q tree we believe in the concept of CIVIL open free speech and the discussion that fleshes out ideas. When commenting and participating in the OPEN discussion on this thread all comments MUST NOT CONTAIN personal threats, baiting, name calling, or other anti-social words fomenting hate, violence or destruction. Our host Wolfm00n has strict rules about that.

Fellow tree dweller Wheatie gave us some good reminders on the basics of civility in political discourse:

  1. No food fights.
  2. No running with scissors.
  3. If you bring snacks, bring enough for everyone.

In addition, it is requested that there be no swinging from the chandeliers, celebratory gunfire, messing around with the nuclear weapons, and, please, everyone wash your hands.

And, please, what ever you do, do not walk barefoot across San Francisco.

Those who have things to say that do not fit the generally accepted limits of “civil” discussion, Wolf has provided a venue known as the UTree. Please, venture over there for any such thoughts and comments. This sort of thing is always a possibility on that site:

A few other vital notes:

Please, review these rules that our host Wolfm00n outlined toward the beginning of the growth of the tree itself. it won’t take long.

Ridiculing the other side, on the other hand…well….

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From the Greek Canon, the Second Chapter of the Book of Wisdom:

For they have said, reasoning with themselves, but not right: The time of our life is short and tedious, and in the end of a man there is no remedy, and no man hath been known to have returned from hell: [2] For we are born of nothing, and after this we shall be as if we had not been: for the breath in our nostrils is smoke: and speech a spark to move our heart, [3] Which being put out, our body shall be ashes, and our spirit shall be poured abroad as soft air, and our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist, which is driven away by the beams of the sun, and overpowered with the heat thereof: [4] And our name in time shall be forgotten, and no man shall have any remembrance of our works. [5] For our time is as the passing of a shadow, and there is no going back of our end: for it is fast sealed, and no man returneth.

[6] Come therefore, and let us enjoy the good things that are present, and let us speedily use the creatures as in youth. [7] Let us fill ourselves with costly wine, and ointments: and let not the flower of the time pass by us. [8] Let us crown ourselves with roses, before they be withered: let no meadow escape our riot. [9] Let none of us go without his part in luxury: let us everywhere leave tokens of joy: for this is our portion, and this our lot. [10] Let us oppress the poor just man, and not spare the widow, nor honour the ancient grey hairs of the aged.

[11] But let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble, is found to be nothing worth. [12] Let us therefore lie in wait for the just, because he is not for our turn, and he is contrary to our doings, and upbraideth us with transgressions of the law, and divulgeth against us the sins of our way of life. [13] He boasteth that he hath the knowledge of God, and calleth himself the son of God. [14] He is become a censurer of our thoughts. [15] He is grievous unto us, even to behold: for his life is not like other men’s, and his ways are very different.

[16] We are esteemed by him as triflers, and he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness, and he preferreth the latter end of the just, and glorieth that he hath God for his father. [17] Let us see then if his words be true, and let us prove what shall happen to him, and we shall know what his end shall be. [18] For if he be the true son of God, he will defend him, and will deliver him from the hands of his enemies. [19] Let us examine him by outrages and tortures, that we may know his meekness and try his patience. [20] Let us condemn him to a most shameful death: for there shall be respect had unto him by his words.

As always, prayers for the fight against that which seeks to enslave us are welcome.

We ready for more “As the Swamp Turns”?