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Most of the time, blood clots are a good thing. When you get injured, you need your blood to solidify and clump together at the site to help stop the bleeding. But sometimes clots crop up when they’re not needed, and that can spell trouble—especially if they form in the deep veins near your muscles.
“When blood clots form in this deeper system, they can be painful and very dangerous,” says Luis Navarro, M.D., founder of the Vein Treatment Center in New York City. This kind of clot is called a deep vein thrombosis, or DVT. They’re like roadblocks on your blood highway, causing traffic jams in your circulation and prevent the blood flow that keeps your system up and running.
Swelling in one limb
A swollen leg or arm is one of the most common signs of a DVT. “Blood clots can block the healthy flow of blood in the legs, and blood can pool behind the clot causing swelling,” says Dr. Navarro.
It’s normal to overlook leg swelling as a symptom of a DVT if you always get large or stiff legs when you fly or during periods of immobility. But be suspicious if your bloated limb comes on quickly, especially if it shows up with a side of pain.
Leg or arm pain
Usually, DVT pain comes as a combo with other symptoms like swelling or redness, but sometimes it can stand alone.
“Unfortunately, pain from a blood clot can easily be mistaken for a muscle cramp or strain, which is why the issue often goes undiagnosed and is specifically dangerous,” says Dr. Navarro.
DVT pain tends to strike when you’re walking or when you flex your foot upward. If you have a charley horse you can’t seem to shake—especially if the skin near it is warm or discolored—have your doctor take a look.
Redness on your skin
While it’s true that a bruise is a type of blood clot, it’s not the kind you have to worry about. You can’t see a DVT. You might see some bruise-like discoloration, but you’re more likely to see red. A DVT causes redness in the affected limb and makes your arm or leg feel warm to the touch.
Chest pain
A pain in your chest may make you think heart attack, but it could be a pulmonary embolism. “Both a PE and a heart attack share similar symptoms,” says Dr. Navarro. However, PE pain tends to be sharp and stabbing, and feels worst when you take a deep breath.
Heart attack pain often radiates from upper areas of your body like your shoulders, jaw, or neck. The biggest clue is in your breathing—PE pain gets steadily worse with every breath you take.
Shortness of breath
A blood clot in your lung slows your oxygen flow, and that can leave you feeling winded. “You often won’t have the stamina or breath to make it up stairs. You feel lousy,” says George P. Teitelbaum, M.D., interventional neuroradiologist and director of the Stroke & Aneurysm Center at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif. Get help quickly, especially if this comes on suddenly.
Unexplained cough
Can’t stop hacking? If you’re also having shortness of breath, fast heart rate, or chest pain, it could be a PE. “The cough will be dry, but sometimes people can cough up mucus and/or blood,” says Dr. Navarro. When in doubt, phone your doc or go straight to the ER.
Heart disease, which has remained the leading cause of death at the global level for the last 20 years, is now killing more people than ever before, according to the World Health Organization.
The WHO said diabetes and dementia are also among the world’s top 10 causes of death.
The WHO’s 2019 Global Health Estimates, released on Wednesday, said non-communicable diseases now make up 7 of the world’s top 10 causes of death, an increase from 4 of the 10 leading causes in 2000. The new data cover the period from 2000 to 2019.
“Heart disease has remained the leading cause of death at the global level for the last 20 years. However, it is now killing more people than ever before,” the organisation said.
Heart disease now represents 16 per cent of total deaths from all causes and the number of deaths from heart disease increased by more than two million since 2000 to nearly 9 million in 2019. Diabetes and dementia enter the top 10 causes of death.
Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia are now among the top 10 causes of death worldwide, ranking 3rd in both the Americas and Europe in 2019. Women are disproportionally affected: globally, 65 per cent of deaths from Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia are women.
Deaths from diabetes increased by 70 per cent globally between 2000 and 2019, with an 80 per cent rise in deaths among males. In the Eastern Mediterranean, deaths from diabetes have more than doubled and represent the greatest percentage increase of all WHO regions.
The WHO said the estimates reveal trends over the last 2 decades in mortality and morbidity caused by diseases and injuries, clearly highlighting the need for an intensified global focus on preventing and treating cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, as well as tackling injuries, in all regions of the world, as set out in the agenda for the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
“These new estimates are another reminder that we need to rapidly step up prevention, diagnosis and treatment of non-communicable diseases,” Director-General of WHO Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “They highlight the urgency of drastically improving primary health care equitably and holistically. Strong primary health care is clearly the foundation on which everything rests, from combatting non-communicable diseases to managing a global pandemic.”
If you’re not happy with shaving, tweezing, or waxing to remove unwanted hair, laser hair removal may be an option worth considering.
Laser hair removal is one of the most commonly done cosmetic procedures in the U.S. It beams highly concentrated light into hair follicles. Pigment in the follicles absorb the light. That destroys the hair.
Benefits
Lasers are useful for removing unwanted hair from the face, leg, chin, back, arm, underarm, bikini line, and other areas.
– Precision: Lasers can selectively target dark, coarse hairs while leaving the surrounding skin undamaged.
– Speed: Each pulse of the laser takes a fraction of a second and can treat many hairs at the same time. The laser can treat an area approximately the size of a quarter every second. Small areas such as the upper lip can be treated in less than a minute, and large areas, such as the back or legs, may take up to an hour.
– Predictability: Most patients have permanent hair loss after an average of three to seven sessions.
Laser hair removal, like any other surgical procedure, should be done only after understanding the numerous dos and don’ts so that the treatment turns out just right. While there are various hair removal options — from waxing to shaving and tweezing — laser hair removal is known to last much longer.
If you are planning to opt for laser hair removal, here are some basic dos and don’ts that cosmetic a dermatologist suggested one should keep in mind before and after going for such a treatment.
Before going for treatment
– Do not thread, pluck or wax the area to be treated for at least two-three weeks.
– Stop using all active acne, anti-ageing and pigmentation products two days before your laser session.
– Avoid swimming and exposure to UV rays a week before the session.
After the session
– Apply calamine lotion or aloe vera gel to soothe the skin.
– Use sunscreen every three-four hours.
– Active creams and serums can be started after 48 hours.
– Apply a mild exfoliant like AHA/BHA lotion from the third day onwards.
– Gym and exercise after 12 hours.
It is important to keep in mind that while most people report a permanent reduction in hair growth, fluctuating hormones can make one’s hair grow back quicker, which is why individual results may vary.
Learning to trust in a new relationship
It takes a while to get to know someone. When we first enter a new relationship, many of us want to present the best version of ourselves – deliberately hiding certain aspects of who we are until we feel we’ve got to know the person a bit better.
And then later on, it may take a while before we’re truly willing to let them in – to know our insecurities, our hopes, our chequered family histories.
We often worry that our new partner won’t accept us warts and all – that they won’t like and accept us once they’re familiar with our quirks and faults.
But trust is an essential part of any relationship. It’s the foundation block upon which all the other good stuff – affection, intimacy, connection – is based.
How do we learn to trust someone?
It can be a scary thing to do. After all, when you begin to trust someone, you’re not just learning to rely on them – you’re giving up some of what you’ve learned in terms of relying on yourself. Trust can sometimes make you feel vulnerable.
Furthermore, lots of people find this difficult because of what they’ve been through in previous relationships. If you’ve been cheated on or let down – or if you grew up in an environment where you had to learn to look after yourself – it can take even longer to let down those defences. It’s common to worry that in doing so you risk being hurt all over again.
Talking it through
The first thing to say is that you can’t rush trust. Sometimes, it just takes time. If you’re finding it difficult, it might just be that you need to take things at a slower pace and see how you get on.
At the same time, it can be useful to think about any reasons you might have for finding it hard to trust a new partner. As mentioned, it could be memories from previous relationships or your family upbringing that are causing you to be cautious. There’s nothing wrong with this in itself – but it may be useful to talk this over with your partner so they know some of the challenges you’re facing (for tips on tackling difficult conversations with your partner, check out this article).
Ultimately, trust is about getting to a point where you feel you can openly communicate with your partner without having to worry – where you can be yourself and be confident you can say exactly how you’re feeling without thinking you’re going to be judged or dismissed. Bearing this in mind as a sort of ‘target’ can be useful.
Covid-19 can lead to a broad range of neurological complications, including stroke, seizures, movement disorders, inflammatory diseases and more, even in moderate cases, say researchers, one of whom is of Indian-origin.
For the study, published in the journal Neurology, the research team looked at people with neurological symptoms and Covid at a racially and socioeconomically diverse hospital.
“We found a wide range of neurological complications–spanning inflammatory complications, stroke and other vascular conditions, metabolic problems, exacerbation of underlying neurological conditions and more,” said study author Pria Anand from the Boston University in the US.
“Yet the majority of these people did not require critical care, suggesting that neurological complications may be common in people with moderate Covid-19 as well as those with severe disease,” Anand added.
The study involved 74 people who between April 15 and July 1, 2020, tested positive for Covid-19 and were evaluated for various neurological conditions at a large hospital serving underserved, low-income and elderly people in Boston. The average age was 64. A total of 47 people had a prior history of neurological disease.
At the time of hospitalization, 18 people had strokes, 15 had seizures and 26 people had a type of brain dysfunction that causes confusion and delirium.
Seven people had movement disorders, including five people with myoclonus, which involves sudden, brief twitching of the muscles. Three people had traumatic brain injuries due to falls in their homes after developing Covid-19. One person had signs of developing autoimmune encephalitis, a rare, complex disease where the body’s immune system attacks itself, yet these symptoms improved after the person received corticosteroids, the study said.
The findings showed that 10 people died in the hospital. The people who survived had a moderately severe disability, on average, at the time they left the hospital, compared to mild disability before their hospitalization.
A total of 27 people were able to return home with or without home health services, 20 went to skilled nursing facilities, including 11 who had previously been living at home, and nine went to acute rehabilitation centres, including eight who had been living at home.
Already burdened by a debt crisis, New York cabbies get shortchanged by government again.
NEW YORK (TIP): Bright and early this morning, cab drivers gathered in Lower Manhattan to embark on a multi-state caravan to Washington, D.C., where drivers rallied outside the U.S. Capitol for an extension of the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program – a federal unemployment benefits program for self-employed workers and independent contractors. That program, which provides assistance to more than 1.5 million people in the tri-state area, is set to expire at the end of this month. As the caravan made its way to the nation’s capital, it also picked up cabbies in Philadelphia and Maryland, creating a long, yellow motorcade down the New Jersey Turnpike.
To participate in the caravan, drivers sacrificed a valuable day of picking up fares in the city – a difficult task in these days of plummeting fare opportunities. As of last month, revenue for the taxi industry in New York City was down 81% year-over-year. Struggling to pay rent, insurance and loan payments – and, in some cases, even for meals – drivers are being forced to compete for hard-to-find fares just to make a fraction of what they brought in pre-pandemic.
They may be giving up a day of work, but for Dorothy Leconte, making the trip to D.C. to rally for federal unemployment assistance is worth it. “I get frustrated with this country,” Leconte, a yellow cab driver for over three decades, said. “The trillionaires, the billionaires, the millionaires – they look at little people (like they’re) nothing. They say, ‘You are from a Third World country, you don’t deserve no more than $60 a day to survive.’” Sixty dollars a day in fares has become the norm for some drivers. Before the pandemic – and before increased competition from ride-hail apps like Uber – Leconte said drivers could easily make $60 an hour.
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the federal program set to expire in less than three weeks, is meant to cover freelancers, gig workers and other types of self-employed people who aren’t covered by traditional unemployment insurance. Leconte said she made around $220 a week after taxes under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program. And while an extra federal unemployment assistance benefit providing another $600 a week helped her stay home from work through most of the spring and summer, that benefit expired at the end of July. Since then, she’s had to go back to driving.
Leconte has been back at work since August and has yet to make anywhere near enough money to pay her bills. “I have to come to work and risk all of the problems,” she said of the risk of contracting COVID-19 while driving. Leconte’s ex-husband, who was also a cab driver, died from COVID-19 in late March, she said. To supplement her reduced income, Leconte has also taken work driving for Amazon Flex and delivering groceries – but that work is low-paying, demanding and time-consuming, she said.
That’s why Leconte and other drivers – along with groups that represent them such as the New York Taxi Workers Alliance – are calling for a “people’s stimulus” from the federal government that would include extending Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, reinstating the extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits, and approving another round of stimulus checks, along with other measures.
Leconte also said drivers need debt forgiveness to address the crippling medallion loan payments that taxi medallion owners such as herself are still burdened by. Drivers have organized other caravans during the pandemic – creating similarly striking “seas of yellow” that shut down the Brooklyn Bridge – to rally for medallion debt relief, a separate, though not unrelated crisis facing the industry.
Congress continues to hammer out the details of a coronavirus relief bill and, as of today, the proposal appears to include an extra 16 weeks in all pandemic unemployment insurance programs, including Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. That may provide some relief for cab drivers and other self-employed workers, but it’s not close to what workers are asking for to help them survive the crisis. “I feel disappointed with the government,” Leconte said. “The treatment the government is giving poor people is very bad.”
US deaths from the coronavirus pandemic have surged past 2,000 for two days in a row as the most dangerous season of the year approached, taxing an overwhelmed healthcare system with US political leadership in disarray.
The toll from Covid-19 reached its second-highest level ever on Wednesday with 2,811 lives lost, according to a Reuters tally of official data, one short of the record from April 15. Nearly 200,000 new US cases were reported on Wednesday, with record hospitalizations approaching 100,000 patients. The sobering data came as the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday warned that December, January and February were likely to be “the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation.”
CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield told an event hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce that the United States could start losing around 3,000 people – roughly the number that died in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 – each day over the next two months. “The mortality concerns are real and I do think unfortunately before we see February, we could be close to 450,000 Americans that have died from this virus,” Redfield said. The US death toll since the start of the pandemic stands at around 273,000.
Meanwhile, the administration of outgoing President Donald Trump has yet to articulate an effective strategy to contain the virus beyond promoting the development of a vaccine, which could be rolled out later this month but faces an uphill battle amid a skeptical public and logistical challenges.
The Republican president’s few public appearances recently had been dedicated to efforts to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 election won by Democratic President-elect Joe Biden, who will assume office on Jan. 20. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, said he had been concerned about the transition between the Trump and Biden administrations, but he had grown more hopeful that the federal government response would not lapse.
“We’re in the middle of the worst battle of this war, and the hand-off has got to be smooth. We’ve got to work together. There’s got to be no politics in this virus,” he told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” program.
Hogan echoed Redfield’s warning, citing dark days ahead and noting even when vaccines are approved, there initially won’t be enough to even cover all of his state’s healthcare workers.
When Guru Nanak came to this world, paths to enlightenment were devoid of divinity; they were completely distorted towards unholy goals of the exploiters of people. The religious institutions had devised beauty shows with religious practices that were intended to attract innocent minds. For example, they invented deities with accompanying stories, idols with descriptions of their powers, recitations to invoke imaginary deities, and rituals that buttressed each other.
When Guru Nanak came into this world, humanity was in the midst of coming out of the realm of primitive homo sapiens, that was hitherto the animal world.
In their history, the people of that century were waking up from awful nightmares of animal life. As characteristic of human form, people were always engaged in fighting for food as the famines were the order of the day. People often lacked abilities to fight hunger and disease, and humanity was faced with those awful calamities on a regular basis. Their physical survival was challenged daily.
Basically, men were there to hunt for food and protect the family, while women were there only for bearing children.
It took thousands of years before those dreams of primitive times were coming to an end. Now, at the time of Guru Nanak, people were out of the dangers that the animal world faced, although their lives were still in the hands of homo-sapiens biology in their thinking. The people were only sluggishly advancing in their intellectual abilities along with taking care of their biological evolution.
With time, humanity was on its way to manage to rein on famine, plagues, or even heart diseases and some cancers. However, their minds would continue being overpowered by animal-like emotional tendencies. In the description of the human mind, Guru would still describe the condition of human beings as,
ਪਸੂ ਮਾਣਸ ਚੰਮਿ ਪਲੇਟੇ ਅੰਦਰਹੁ ਕਾਲਿਆ ॥ SGGS p. 1284
The human beings are nothing more than beasts, wrapped up in human skin; their minds were blackened within (with animal instincts).
Religions and Religiosities Before Guru Nanak
According to the Sikh theologian of the highest repute, Bhai Gurudas, as soon as human beings came out of the animal world, they began with formulating religions. Peoples invented religions that divided them, causing disputes and fights among and between the followers of both Judeo-Christian Religions of the West and Dharmic religions of Asia.
Thus, when Guru Nanak came to this world, paths to enlightenment were devoid of divinity; they were completely distorted towards unholy goals of the exploiters of people. The religious institutions had devised beauty shows with religious practices that were intended to attract innocent minds. For example, they invented deities with accompanying stories, idols with descriptions of their powers, recitations to invoke imaginary deities, and rituals that buttressed each other.
Clergies asked people to erect stunning buildings to house gods and promised accessibility to gods at precise times and places opened only through the expense of wealth, time, and inner energy. Altruism was perverted so that it only benefited clerics, their agents, and their business.
A class of religious leaders routinely concocted religious practices to thrust on people to serve many unholy interests. These interests were mutually supportive and were successful in designing a variety of concealed tricks to fool people who were seeking salvation.
Religious institutions were building cults of external marks and body wrappings to encourage murders and wars against those who did not toe the line, or who were members of competing enterprises.
Many other tricks were employed to speed a religion’s institutional agendas. For example, miracles were invented to convert people and influence human behaviors. The religious myths were invented to answer real questions and then safeguarded those miracles and myths by un-testable threats and promises.
People were asked to invest a massive amount of wealth, time, and mind in ritualistic illusions and also in corrupted beliefs such as, either converting others or serving clergy with wealth and flesh that would guarantee heavens no one had ever seen.
Above all, the self-appointed clerics used horrific fears to ensure compliance with all their tricks.
Guru Nanak Began His Ministry
Guru Nanak came out of his enlightening meditation at the Vein River with fervent zeal to spread what he said was inspiration from the ONE Creator. He then taught that human life was a result of the millions of years of history as well the experience from numerous life cycles of birth and death of their consciousness.
In the very first stanza of his very first composition JAP, Guru Nanak warned against religiosity consisting of practices promoted by the clergy class.
Liberation Not After-Life
Before Guru Nanak, and continued to date, we are told to look forward to achieving the goals of eternal peace and spiritual heights to be awarded in the next life, the life after the death of human existence. Both Judo- Christian religion of the west and Dharmic religions of the East promised the life of the fulfillment in the heavens reached only after death. Guru Nanak refused to accept that.
If You award me the salvation from all pains after I am dead, no one will know that I am liberated.
Throughout history, religions and ideologies did not sanctify life itself. They always sanctified something above or beyond earthly existence and were consequently quite tolerant of death. Indeed, some of them have been downright fond of the Grim Reaper. Because Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism insisted that the meaning of our existence depended on our fate in the afterlife, they viewed death as a vital and positive part of the life. Humans died because God decreed it, and their moment of death was a sacred metaphysical experience exploding with meaning to be realized after death.
When a human was about to breathe his last, this was the time to call Brahmans, priests, rabbis, Sikh granthis and shamans, to draw out the balance of life, and to embrace one’s true role in the universe. Just try to imagine Christianity, Islam, or Hinduism in a world without death – which is also a world without heaven, hell, or reincarnation. Modern science and modern culture have an entirely different take on life and death. They do not think of death as a metaphysical mystery, and they certainly do not view death as the source of life’s meaning. Rather, for modern people, death is a technical problem that the scientists of today are trying to solve, as people do not want to die to get rewards for their good deeds. Lengthening the human lifespan is a major thrust of scientific research today. We have already tripled human life span since the times of Guru Nanak.
In reality, however, humans do not die because the rewards and punishments for their deeds in this life are waiting to be fulfilled. Humans die because modern medicine could not save them from some biomedical glitch. The heart stops pumping blood. The main artery is clogged by fatty deposits. Cancerous cells spread in the liver. Germs multiply in the lungs and elsewhere. Nothing metaphysical about it. It is all currently insoluble technical problems. When some problems indeed are solved, humans begin to live longer. With the advances in technology, life expectancies are expanding from 20 yrs. at one time to now nearly a century in some societies. And life span of two century is within sight.
Sachiara As Human Life objective
In the JAP composition, Guru Nanak asks for becoming Sachiara meaning to be truthful as the objective of this human life. He used the Sachiara term right in the first stanza in the Guru Granth. Later, in the Guru’s hymns, other terms such as Mukta, Panch, Parvan, Pardhan, Gurmukh, are also used for achieving the same or a similar goal.
When asked as to how to achieve the human goal he prescribed, Guru Nanak answered the question by saying that one becomes Sachiara essentially when, under the guidance of the divine wisdom, one succeeds in suppressing and abandoning narcissism in favor of full commitment in Hukam, inculcation of the consciousness within that recognizes Divine blueprint for its creation.
How may one become Sachiara, the truthful? And how may the wall of falsehood (veil of illusion) be torn away? Says Nanak, walk on the path of Hukam, the laws of creation that are written in the systems of the creation, i.e., the Way of His Will.
Hukam may be simply defined as Creator’s blueprint for the creation as well as for its management. Hukam is a self-regulative teleological principle; the purpose of which is to serve rather than become the cause by which it may arise.
Sachiara begins to observe and appreciate Hukam in the working of the living environment as opposed to it being an illusion or imagination and achieved after death.
(The author is Professor and Chair Emeritus, University of North Texas Health Science Center. He can be reached at japji2050@gmail.com)
The Presidential Election on November 3, 2020 between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, in a perverse way, was somewhat akin to 9/11 – albeit, the conflict was internal – as our Republic was convulsing, our divisions deep
and open, and the very fabric of our nation laid bare and in conflict. Despite being the
preeminent nation of laws in human history, Law & Order was unwelcome to too many of our neighbors and fellow Americans. And a nation that was inhabited by those who abandoned a society encrusted with landed gentry for one that defined “fate” and “destiny” on the wings of “merit” alone – and called it the American Dream – was now seriously flirting with Communism’s more appealing sibling, Socialism – where all get what they need and want, by just taking it from those who got ahead. Sweet and Godly “compassion,” however, is not Socialism. Thrown in the dustbin created by hubris, these new American Leaders, like the Evil Queen in “Snow White” asking the “mirror,” “who is the fairest of them all,” these new Leaders – elected or community loud mouths – fancy themselves “perfect,” and issue mandates for removal of Monuments – even of George Washington; my favorite, Thomas Jefferson; the scoundrel, Alexander Hamilton; and even Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator. And then there are folks who have no chance like General Robert E. Lee, who honorably accepted defeat in our great Civil War, or John Newtown, a slave-trader, who found God, became a Preacher, authored “Amazing Grace,” and helped cause slavery to be outlawed in Great Britain. Amazing Grace today defines hope itself. You need not be a devout Christian to know that Judas, who in a singular act of betrayal, gave up Jesus to the Romans and caused Him to be crucified, and, later became the well-loved “Saint Jude” – the Saint, who helps you find things you lost. Indeed, we are lost – in materiality, ego and self, which Mother Nature, heated up by global warming, is ready to eradicate humanity to save the planet – which many leaders fight about what started the fire, when every firefighter knows first “put out the fire,” then look for arsonists. I know that hubris comes easily to the ignorant or the wicked. For our cherished Republic, a gift from Founders like Ben Franklin, either do harm; both together, are an existential threat – which about eighty (80) million Biden Voters and seventy-four (74) million Trump Voters have tasted together. It is now the American Spring, in full blossom – in ways similar to the Arab Spring, and yet, in answer to it.
President Donald J. Trump at a MAGA Rally
The Great Disrupter – has achieved much good, from Criminal Justice Reform to kick-starting Middle East Peace to Warp Speed Vaccine for a battle-weary population, and our fiscal house anemic and bleeding jobs and souls. But his cadre of disruption-amplifiers, from Steve Bannon, Steve Miller, and our own Rudy Giuliani, are headed for positions – personal and policy – that are more distant from “honor” and “truth,” but closer to the always sought-after “loyalty,” which weaves a path to the ever-attractive “consolidated power” – the very concept, and a goal – our cherished and honorable Founders deemed un-American, as it devalues American Exceptionalism – built, as it is, on the genius of purposefully separating “power,” by constitutional design, at every turn, and then again for benefits of redundancy – so as to deny “tyranny” a residence in these united States of America (“united,” being the humble lower case, yet more powerful, as an “adjective” always is over the proud and useless “noun.” Our original name was lower-case; our current, a noun).
To not concede the election, and to even block the Biden Transition from full access to government resources, as federal law mandates, is pure Trumpian joy to his base. By that simple statement, we have upon us a new Civil War, where slavery is not the bone of contention – for there can be no proponents of that economic model, even as slavery was not originally racist, but an aftermath of victory in war: pillage & plunder. As slaves could be of the same race. It is later, about 500 years ago that slave-trading, like Blood Diamonds, became an evil enterprise in, and with, Africa. Indeed, the bronze door knocker to my office in Manhattan is of William Wilberforce – the enlightened soul who successfully campaigned to abolish the African Slave Trade in England, supported as he was, by John Newton. Sadly, not a single person has recognized that Great Abolitionist door-knocker in my office..
This 2020 Civil War – is about Law & Order, and keeping the American Dream. They say, “[p]olitics makes strange bedfellows.” Well, no one can truly argue that Joe Biden is against Law & Order, or isn’t a great supporter of the American Dream, even as New York State Attorney General Tish James and New York County District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. appear to not only argue, but are in court dealing with President Trump, for his actions as a civilian. Of course, POTUS’ Attorney General Bill Barr has until 11:59a.m. January 20, 2021 to do likewise to President Barack Obama and inter alia, then-Vice President Joe Biden, for their official acts, etc. We are in a Twilight Zone, in more ways that desirable.
President-elect Joe Biden at a campaign rally
There is no doubt that Joe Biden will be sworn in on January 20, 2021, and Kamala Harris, as an African-American woman (and situationally, also Indian-American) as our President and Vice President, respectively. The world leadership has collectively let go and breathe deeply – independent of Eric garner and George Floyd who made that act famous, as each came loaded with baggage – as normalcy, defined by centuries of wisdom embedded in protocols, will re-emerge, an state secrets will again separate policy errors from policymakers, and leave public “respect,” at maximum strength as a calibrated tool, all the way to public “insult,” leaving “private insult” to be candidly used, with the percussion effect of a table smacked in anger for emphasis. But, I write to issue a “Surgeon General’s Warning” to the body politic here at home, and across the world: Donald J. Trump may have come down the escalator almost alone on June 15, 2015 to throw his hat in the ring to be POTUS 45, but on January 20, 2021 he takes with him almost 75 million Trump Voters, and 88.9 million Twitter followers. Poetically, I note that Trump-the-POTUS has 32.8 million Twitter followers. All prior Presidents over last 50 years or more, have largely remained silent and kept quiet after leaving the White House, and declining, in the main, to opine on their successor.
“Normalcy,” at Least Political and Geopolitical, Is Now Consigned to History.
Well I hate to say this, but President-Elect Joe Biden and leaders across the world, buckle up!
As Donald J. Trump, to the great delight of his large and effusive base, will not go quietly into the night and instead, will opine even more freely on matters big and small, public and private. Republicans, let alone Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy, also are not free to go back to “normalcy,” as Trump “owns” the Republican party’s base.
We are now blessed with an activated citizenry, which makes governance more transparent, and responsive. That, used to be good. It still will be, not because we, as Americans are better than other human beings, but because we live in a nation that our Founders created with an architectural design that exceeds the Pyramids, Parthenon, Colosseum, Great Wall of China, and the Taj Mahal. America is designed to harness competing and ambition-driven energy for self-gain, and turn it into enhancing the public good. Pure alchemy.
Politicians who wish to be shepherds of quiet and distracted sheep, as before, will have to be on top of their game, to figure out where the public wants to go, and then get there first, so as to lead. Perhaps, Lincoln’s Gettysburg recipe, Government of, by and for the people, will finally pay dividends to the most elusive of that trilogy: “for the people.”
The lab of global suffering -The Wuhan Lab
The great battle upon us is: Can Americans be safe without the Police, and can the merit-based American Dream co-exist with Socialism? And, in addition, another battle rages: Social Media, be it Big Tech or individual users, will they destroy representative democracy, as they did the media, and render it into merely Mob Rule, aka direct democracy – the one that killed the great Socrates in Athens for being a “nag” and asking the question, “why.” And, then, there is yet another battle that will render the above two irrelevant: the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Mao, a mastermind and globally under-estimated, created a 100 year plan, that included their “Golan Heights” (well before Golda Meir, born in Kyiv, seized it in 1973, and Bibi Netanyahu recently renamed, Trump Heights), with the secret 1949 Karachi Agreement land acquisition, the size of which would leave one breathless; followed up, by swallowing Tibet in 1958, etc.; and reviving Chinese’s Ming Dynasty’s Tribute System – as opposed to Western Nations’ Feudalism – is Commercial favoritism and tributes paid to China, the superior nation. Their OBOR, BRI, and inter alia, AIIB, has weaponized money-giving into land-grabbing in exchange for non-payment of debt – converting unpaid loans to seizure of land and assets that a traditional war could not achieve for China. Having weaponized debt, they weaponized reefs, as in Mischief Reef, and since late last year, they weaponized Viruses by lab-engineering them to bypass human auto-immune system with a “master key,’ the spike glycoprotein, a Trojan Horse, and gave it a deceptively harmless name of coronavirus or Covid-19, and used it to start an undeclared war against us, and the rest of the world.
Unleashing this Virus is a crime against humanity. It’s like a Bond movie, where they are playing for the world. Well, sadly and infuriatingly, 250,000 Americans have died, and more will in CCP’s Undeclared War on all of us. And yet, we do nothing, other than try to find a vaccine and accuse each other of not fighting the virus correctly. Leaving China unpunished and worse, un-stopped. I tried, and failed, to get Trump as president to cancel China’s debt here, as well as globally, just to offset, in part, the damage and injury China caused. War reparations can only occur – if we are willing to stand up – or will we profit our way into slavery, Ming Style?
The recent election was a fraud on the Voters. They were told we are fighting “an invisible enemy” (or “we were not fighting the Virus correctly”) No we are not. The virus is invisible; the enemy isn’t. Indeed, look at any map – from 1949 – and all of us can all find it. Show me a current map issued by China, aside from its breathless growth, partially, illegally, it is hard to miss.Hat tip to Marcus Aurelius: Neville Chamberlain Was an Honorable and Reasonable Man.
Finally, Neville Chamberlain was the epitome of normal leadership, and saw in Hitler, our own mistakes that created the disastrous Weimar Republic and gave birth to the Third Reich. He dealt with him, in a calibrated way. He lost. Churchill begged FDR to get involved, joined up with Stalin, no angel, and faced Hitler down. Chairman Mao, and his hand-picked successors, an unbroken line of the faithful High Priests of Maoism, with President Xi Jinping being an exceptional leader worthy of not only rejuvenating the Ming Tribute system, but a reincarnation of Chairman Mao in a Brooks Brothers Business Suit.
POTUS Must Do More.
President Trump – will you ignore the Trademarks given to you and the lovely Ivanka – and use your remaining days as America’s fiduciary and defend us – as FDR did after Pearl harbor – when we have now suffered more deaths than 100 Pearl Harbors?
Wolf Warriors Stay at Home and Safe, While Virus Kills Relentlessly.
President-Elect Joe Biden – will you stand up and defend us from the Wolf Warriors that stay comfortably at home, as their Virus does its damage unrelentingly, including, Denmark’s recent discovery of a mutant strain, Cluster 5, which the WHO says is drug resistant. That means the current vaccines – Pfizer’s and Moderna’s 95% effective – are not effective against it.
We are on the precipice of an Armageddon, death-by-virus and starvation-by-lockdown, while China seizes property and assets in exchange of “debt” for “equity.” Exactly what we didn’t teach the Russians after the Berlin Wall came down, which our CPAs and Attorneys know so well to keep the capital markets robust for capitalism to work, China created a different system, just as they are creating at every level, including, making our use of sanction-capacity as a punishment irrelevant. Just ask Russia, Iran and China how they do business, and settle the business accounts outside of “SWIFT”.
n God We Trust
Time to heal – may be premature – unless, President Biden can assure 74 million Trumpers that Law & Order is necessary for Public Safety, which is even more important than Public Health, and that the American Dream – meritocracy – is what our cherished separated-powers regime aimed to achieve in perpetuity. And, then, and only them, will E Pluribus Unum be a fact, instead of a slogan.
(The author is an eminent attorney based in New York. He can be reached at ravi@ravibatralaw.com Twitter @RaviBatra)
A UK research team’s innovative beard covering technique, dubbed as the ‘Singh Thattha’, which enables bearded medics to wear a well-fitting respirator mask while on frontline COVID-19 duties without the need for shaving has proved effective in initial trials.
The team, led by Professor Gurch Randhawa from University of Bedfordshire and Dr Rajinder Pal Singh, sought to work on a solution following numerous calls by Public Health England (PHE) to protect doctors from ethnic minorities, including Sikh, Jewish and Muslim communities, who tend to have beards for religious reasons.
“Because shaving was a mandatory pre-requisite for wearing respirator masks, many members of the faith-observant bearded community, such as Sikh, Jewish and Muslim, have been affected and have had to face the dilemma of redeployment from frontline healthcare jobs involving exposure to COVID-19,” said Randhawa, Professor of Diversity in Public Health at the University of Bedfordshire and Director of the university’s Institute for Health Research.
“Redeployment to other areas incurs a loss of skillset and need for re-training, and junior doctors have had their training impacted,” he said.
Randhawa recalls a similar situation in the US from back in 2005, when a faith-observant bearded Sikh man was denied the position of a corrections officer in California as the job required staff to occasionally wear a respirator mask. ‘NBC News’ reported at the time that Kamala Harris, the then Attorney-General and now Vice President-elect, was unable to support the appointment as the beard would pose a problem as the policy mandated gas-mask fitting. “In both of these scenarios, the common theme was that the beard was considered to be an impediment to the wearing of a respirator mask. The other common principle was the concern for the health and safety of the employee. There was no alternative choice, or maybe, it was unexplored,” recalls Randhawa.
Masks don’t impair lung function during physical activity
Wearing a facemask helps limit the spread of Covid-19 by reducing respiratory droplets and aerosols spewed into the air when people breathe, talk, laugh, sneeze, or cough, a new study suggests.
But the physical barrier created by masks has prompted concerns that they might impair the cardiopulmonary system by making it harder to breathe, by altering the flow of inhaled oxygen and exhaled carbon dioxide, and by increasing dyspnea — a medical term that describes shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, especially during physical activity.
In a new study, published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society, a team of American and Canadian researchers concluded that while sensations of dyspnea might increase, there is little empirical evidence that wearing a facemask significantly diminishes lung function, even when worn during heavy exercise.
“There might be a perceived greater effort with activity, but the effects of wearing a mask on the work of breathing, on gases like oxygen and CO2 in blood or other physiological parameters are small, often too small to be detected,” said the study’s first author Susan Hopkins, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and radiology at University of California San Diego School of Medicine. “There’s also no evidence to support any differences by sex or age in physiological responses to exercise while wearing a facemask,” added Hopkins, who specializes in exercise physiology and the study of lungs under stress. The single exception, the authors note, maybe persons with a severe cardiopulmonary disease in which any added resistance to breathing or minor changes in blood gases could prompt dyspnea great enough to affect exercise capacity.
When we are old, our feet must always remain strong. As we age, we should not be afraid of our hair turning grey or skin sagging or wrinkles appearing.
Among the signs of longevity, as summarized by the US Magazine “Prevention”, strong leg muscles are listed right on top, as they hold the rest of the body.
If you do not move your legs for two weeks, your legs will lose strength which will decrease your age by 10 years.
A study from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark found that for both old and young, during the two weeks of inactivity, the legs muscle strength got weakened by a third which is equivalent to 20-30 years of aging.
As our leg muscles weaken, it will take a long time to recover, even if we do rehabilitation exercises later. Therefore, regular exercise like walking, is very important.
The whole body weight/load falls on the legs. The feet are kind of pillars, bearing the weight of the human body. Interestingly, 50% of a person’s bones and 50% of the muscles, are in the legs.
The largest and strongest joints and bones of the human body are also in the legs.”Strong bones, strong muscles, and flexible joints form the “Iron Triangle” that carries the most important load on the human body.” 70% of human activity and burning of energy in one’s life, is done by the two feet.
Do you know this?
When a person is young, his thighs have enough strength to lift a small car! The foot is the center of body locomotion. Both the legs together have 50% of the nerves of the human body, 50% of the blood vessels and 50% of the blood flowing through them.
It is the large circulatory network that connects the body.
It’s only when the feet are healthy that the convention current of blood flows smoothly, so people who have strong leg muscles will definitely have a strong heart.
Aging starts from the feet upwards. As a person gets older, the accuracy and speed of transmission of instructions between the brain and the legs decreases, unlike when a person is young.
In addition, the so-called “Bone Fertilizer Calcium” will sooner or later be lost with the passage of time, making the elderly more prone to bone fractures.
Fractures in the elderly easily trigger series of complications, especially fatal diseases such as brain thrombosis.
Do you know that 15% of elderly patients die within a year of a thigh-bone fracture.
Exercising the legs, is never too late, even after the age of 60 years.
Although our feet gradually age with time, exercising our feet is a life-long task.
Only by strengthening the legs, can one prevent further aging.
Please walk for at least 30-40 minutes daily to ensure that your legs receive sufficient exercise and to ensure that your leg muscles remain healthy.
Lockdowns and other restrictions are starting to stem the spread of Covid-19 in some, but not all, European countries, authorities have said, and the continent’s hospitals remain under heavy pressure that is unlikely to ease for some time yet.
In Germany, which began a “lockdown light” on 2 November, Lothar Wieler, the head of the country’s disease control agency, RKI, said on Thursday, Nov 12, the infections curve was flattening, showing “we are not helpless against this virus”.
Measures such as social distancing and mask wearing were helping, Wieler said, after the country reported 21,866 new cases over the last 24 hours, fewer than the record 23,399 set on Saturday, with the reproduction or R number falling below 1 to 0.89.
France, which is a fortnight into a stricter lockdown, was also starting to regain control, the prime minister, Jean Castex, said, despite 60% of people surveyed in a poll published on Thursday, Nov 12, admitting they had broken the rules at least once.
Castex said infection numbers were down by about 16% this week compared with their level at the end of October, and that France’s R number had fallen below 1 to between 0.8 and 0.9. “Our lockdown strategy … seems to be producing the expected results, but we must remain cautious,” he said.
The prime minister said it would be “irresponsible to lift or relax the current measures in place … at the risk of having to return to lockdown in December”. France’s ICU wards were operating at 90% of their capacity before the crisis, he said. The peak of the pandemic in French hospitals should arrive early next week, hopefully leading to a gradual relaxation of lockdown measures from the beginning of December, allowing families at least to spend Christmas and new year together – but without big parties, he said.
The Netherlands, which last week was considering closing its high schools and imposing a curfew, has rowed back after seeing similar promising signs. The health minister, Hugo de Jonge, said on Wednesday the peak of the pandemic had passed, even if the number of people in hospital had risen slightly.
Ireland, which closed all bars, restaurants and non-essential shops and banned non-essential travel more than 5km from home, has cut its daily infections to 240 from more than 1,200 last month. “I think everyone is confident now that we will ease restrictions in December,” the deputy prime minister, Leo Varadkar, said.
Even in Spain, which has been among the hardest hit in Europe’s second wave, the proportion of hospital beds occupied by coronavirus patients in Madrid – where bars and restaurants remain open until midnight – has fallen from 42% last month to 36% this week, with the capital’s positive test rate declining from 20% to 8%.
While the Czech Republic, which returned to lockdown on 22 October, planned to reopen some primary classes next week after cutting its daily infections to 6,000 from more than 10,000 two weeks ago, Poland was expecting strict measures after recording 40% more excess deaths in October than the average of the four previous years.
And Italy on Thursday recorded 636 Covid deaths over the past 24 hours, the highest figure since April, with 37,978 new infections – 5,000 more than on Wednesday, Nov 11.
Addis Ababa (TIP): Ethiopia’s military has defeated local forces in the west of Tigray state, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Thursday, accusing his foes of atrocities during a week of fighting that threatens to destabilise the Horn of Africa. Airstrikes and ground combat have killed hundreds, sent refugees flooding into Sudan, stirred Ethiopia’s ethnic divisions and raised questions over the credentials of Abiy, Africa’s youngest leader who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. “The western region of Tigray has been liberated,” tweeted Abiy (44), who comes from the largest ethnic group the Oromo and once fought with the Tigrayans against neighbouring Eritrea.
“The army is now providing humanitarian assistance and services. It is also feeding the people,” he added.
With communications down and media barred, independent verification of the status of the conflict was impossible.
The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which rules the mountainous northern state of more than five million people, announced a local state of emergency against what it termed an “invasion by outsiders”.
Abiy accuses the TPLF of starting the conflict by attacking a federal military base and defying his authority, while the Tigrayans say his two-year rule has persecuted them.
The premier said some of his soldiers had been found dead in the town of Sheraro, shot with their legs and arms tied behind their back. “This kind of cruelty is heartbreaking,” he said.
He did not say how many bodies were found or provide proof.
Reuters could not verify his allegation and there was no immediate response from the TPLF, which has accused federal troops of being “merciless” in bombing Tigrayans.
More than 10,000 Ethiopian refugees have crossed into Sudan since fighting started and aid agencies say the situation in Tigray is becoming dire. Even before the conflict, 600,000 people there were reliant on food aid.
The United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said aid agencies were unable to restock food, health and other emergency supplies due to lack of access.
“Shortages of basic commodities are reportedly appearing, impacting the most vulnerable first and the most,” it said.
ARRESTS AND PROTESTS
The United Nations’ refugee agency’s representative in Ethiopia, Ann Encontre, told Reuters negotiations were under way with both sides for humanitarian corridors to be opened.
A “major emergency” may be brewing with so many people escaping to Sudan, she warned. About two dozen vehicles of non-essential U.N. and other workers were pulling out of Tigray and returning to the capital Addis Ababa in convoy. Abiy has so far resisted calls by the United Nations, the African Union and others for a ceasefire and talks.
His army chief of staff Birhanu Jula was quoted by state-affiliated Fana broadcaster as saying that the federal troops’ Northern Command had survived a five-day siege and was recapturing places including Dansha, Humera airport and Baeker. “I would like to thank these members of the army for being a model of our heroic defence force and their persistent battle, though deprived of food and water for four or five days,” he said, accusing the TPLF of using people as a human shield.
There was no immediate response to that accusation.
The army said the transitional rule would be set up in parts controlled by federal troops and urged local forces to surrender or fight the Tigrayan leadership.
“We are determined that this (TPLF) force has to either surrender or be destroyed,” said Belay Seyoum, head of the powerful Northern Command unit, which some Tigrayans are thought to have defected from so as not to fight their own people.
In a wider push against the TPLF, Ethiopia’s parliament stripped 39 members, including Tigray regional president Debretsion Gebremichael, of immunity from prosecution.
And the government’s newly formed State of Emergency task force for Tigray said about 150 “criminal” operatives for the TPLF had been arrested in the capital Addis Ababa and elsewhere on suspicion of planning “terror attacks”.
There are fears of reprisals against Tigrayans living around Ethiopia. Thousands marched in anti-TPLF protests in the Oromia, Somali and Afar regions, Fana reported, in what appeared to be a government-backed attempt to win the propaganda war over Tigray. Reuters
Beijing (TIP):China has hosted a vice-ministerial-level meeting with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka on controlling the COVID-19, expanding its first such meeting held in July involving Islamabad, Kathmandu and Kabul.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Luo Zhaohui hosted the virtual meeting. “To jointly defeat COVID-19, protect people’s life, safety and health, and accelerate economic and social recovery and development, China, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka convened a vice-ministerial-level video conference on COVID-19 response on November 10,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The five countries had “in-depth exchanges on cementing the political consensus on jointly fighting COVID-19, enhancing cooperation on containing the coronavirus and restoring economic development and movement of people and achieved positive results,” the statement said.
This is the second ministerial meeting held by China involving the South Asian region on COVID-19. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi held a similar meeting with his counterparts of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal in July.
China has pledged that COVID-19 vaccine development and deployment in China, when available, will be made a global public good, the statement said.
China is also ready to consider providing vaccines to developing countries positively, the other four countries included, it said. In the context of long-term COVID-19 containment, the five countries will uphold multilateralism, firmly support the World Health Organisation in playing a leading role in the global fight against COVID-19.
They reiterated their opposition to “politicisation and stigmatisation” by using COVID-19, and also agreed that the autumn and winter seasons are a crucial period for its containment and vowed to strengthen information sharing and coordination of policies and actions to cope with the impact of its second wave.
The Chinese side is ready to step up cooperation with the other four parties in testing, diagnostics, treatment and medicine, and continue to provide them with assistance of containment supplies, the statement said.
They agreed that countries linked by land ports should establish joint response mechanisms in border areas.
Standard operating procedures will be developed on COVID-19-related notification, border control, containment measures at points of entry and emergency response to prevent cross-border transmission. They also agreed on the importance of coordinating COVID-19 response and economic and social development, and will advance the Belt and Road cooperation to boost post-COVID-19 economic recovery and development, it said. “In a spirit of mutual trust, openness and win-win cooperation, the Five Parties welcome other regional countries to join the cooperation against COVID-19 and are ready to engage in dialogue and communication with them,” the statement added. According to Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker, the coronavirus has so far infected more than 52 million people and killed over 1.2 million others globally after it emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan last year. PTI
NEW YORK (TIP): As the City continues to expand testing capacity to ensure all New Yorkers get tested for COVID-19 often, the NYC Test & Trace Corps announced, November 12, a partnership with Etta Salon in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, to host a one-day mobile testing site for the local community. The outdoor testing site will offer nasal self-swab tests at no cost to New Yorkers from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with salon gift certificates available to the first 25 people to get tested. “We need to be fast and flexible as we work to fight back the second wave of COVID-19, and mobile self-test sites allow us to deploy quickly and make an impact across our neighborhoods in a short amount of time,” said NYC Test & Trace Corps Executive Director Dr. Ted Long. “We thank Etta Salon for stepping up to host a mobile self-test site, and engaging their Bedford-Stuyvesant community in this crucial effort with us.”
“While the large-scale testing sites we’ve been operating since May have proven successful, this new self-swab testing approach allows us to utilize our presence in communities, build new partnerships and bring testing closer to home in the neighborhoods that need it most,” said NYC Test & Trace Corps Chief Operating Officer Chris Keeley. “We know that accessible and accurate testing is essential to the long-term health of New York City.”
Trained staff from the Test & Trace Corps will help members of the community ages 4 and up self-administer the simple nasal swab test, with results returned by e-mail within 48 hours. Anyone who tests positive will be contacted by phone to receive the full range of free services they need to monitor their health and that of their loved ones, including resources to safely separate. Participation is confidential, and open to all regardless of immigration status. As an incentive to garner community participation, Etta Salon will provide gift certificates for the first 25 individuals who come and get tested to receive a free haircut at a later date.
“I felt the need to give back to my community, and what better way than by helping to bring testing to our own backyard. Everyone deserves access to easy, safe, and at no cost to them testing, close to home,” said Rachel Grunau, Owner of Etta Salon. The Test & Trace Corps is the City’s comprehensive effort to test, trace, and provide support for every case of COVID-19. Through a partnership with NYC Health + Hospitals and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Corps allows the City to immediately isolate and care for those who test positive for the virus and then rapidly track, assess, and quarantine anyone they may have infected.
To help all New Yorkers safely separate at home and monitor their health status, the Take Care pillar of the Test & Trace Corps also offers free hotel rooms with wraparound services for New Yorkers who are unable to safely separate in their own homes. For those safely separating at home, contact tracers perform daily calls and conduct in-person visits as necessary. These calls allow tracers to gauge the progress of cases, ensure proper compliance with separation protocol, and connect people to more supportive services as necessary. Today, 98% of all COVID-19 cases and 96% of contacts reported following isolation and quarantine requirements.
About NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest public health care system in the nation serving more than a million New Yorkers annually in more than 70 patient care locations across the city’s five boroughs. A robust network of outpatient, neighborhood-based primary and specialty care centers anchors care coordination with the system’s trauma centers, nursing homes, post-acute care centers, home care agency, and MetroPlus health plan—all supported by 11 essential hospitals. Its diverse workforce of more than 42,000 employees is uniquely focused on empowering New Yorkers, without exception, to live the healthiest life possible. For more information, visit www.nychealthandhospitals.org and stay connected on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NYCHealthSystem or Twitter at @NYCHealthSystem.
About Etta Salon
Etta Salon, a Davines Concept Hair Salon, established in 2015 is a full service salon located in the heart of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Etta Salon offers a wide-range of services such as Bridal Hair, Hotheads Hair Extensions, and Brazilian Bond Builder treatments all using ecofriendly and cruelty free products. For more information, visit www.ettasalon.com and stay connected on Instagram at @ettasalon.
The results of the Bihar elections have a message for all states headed for polls in the months ahead on taking on the BJP under Modi.
By Neerja Chowdhury
Bihar has sent a strong message to the Opposition parties. They will have to combine effectively to have any chance of taking on the Modi-led BJP in states going to the polls. The RJD’s alliance with the Left parties in Bihar— CPI(ML), CPI(M) and CPI— did well, leading to a high strike rate.
Even though Nitish Kumar has been weakened, the BJP will find it difficult to replace the chief minister with one of its own, having burnt its fingers in Maharashtra, where Uddhav Thackeray, denied the chief ministership, joined hands with the Congress and the NCP. The BJP is expected to tread more carefully in Bihar after the outcome.
Economic distress of an unprecedented kind, compounded by a health pandemic of the last nine months, the migrant march of lakhs of workers on foot with probably the largest number walking back to their villages in Bihar, incursions made into Indian territory by China in the last few months which could have created a nationalistic upsurge against the government, palpable anger against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar that was evident — if these could not bring about a change of government in Bihar, it only shows that the other factors were more dominant. This when, in this instance, there was a clear alternative in Tejashwi Yadav leading the charge on the Opposition side and getting a popular response.
Clearly, Brand Modi managed to slow down the Tejashwi chariot, though it was a closely run race. And Tejashwi, though not able to form a government in Patna, has established himself as a leader of the Mahagathbandhan at the age of 31. He set the terms of the poll narrative when he flagged ‘joblessness’ as the central theme of Bihar 2020, for the first time giving an economic — and aspirational — spin to caste which has determined poll outcomes in Bihar for three decades and more.
Given the downturn in the economy, creation of jobs is increasingly going to find resonance, particularly among the young, as also in other states going to polls in the next few months. The first phase of the election was going the Tejashwi way. The turning point came with Narendra Modi’s invocation of ‘jungle raj’ of the Lalu Yadav-Rabri Devi years. This sent those among the most backward castes and women, who were beginning to look at Tejashwi with new eyes — Yeh naya ladka hai— scurrying back to the NDA again. The upper castes are anyway more enamored of the Hindutva, nationalist theme than of any economic hardship, and stayed by the BJP’s side.
Bihar has reinforced the invincible image of Narendra Modi. He swayed the voters in national elections. This was not always the case in state polls. The BJP did not make it in many states, be it Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. In Bihar, the Prime Minister made a difference to the poll outcome. The Bihar strategy may help the BJP in states which are going to the polls in the coming months — in West Bengal, Assam, Punjab, Kerala and then UP in 2022. It combined Modi’s undimmed popularity and sharp articulation, with Hindutva and nationalism (Ayodhya, Pulwama, Jai Shree Ram) as not so covert a theme, undergirded by a subtle appeal to certain castes. The PM has for some time now emphasized the help given to the poor by his government at the Centre, through the programs he has initiated. So, if money was transferred to the people in Bihar during COVID-19 times, they saw it coming ‘from Narendra Modi’ and ‘not from Nitish Kumar’. In the handling of the pandemic, which exacerbated the problems of the migrants, the Central Government successfully managed to shift the responsibility to the chief ministers. In Bihar, the BJP went one step further. It even managed to distance itself from the Bihar CM, even though it was part of the government headed by him. By going hammer and tongs at only Nitish Kumar, and urging the people to vote for the BJP, Chirag Paswan helped shield the BJP while directing the popular ire towards the CM. The BJP’s seats went up substantially, and those of the JD(U) came down, equally substantially. The BJP as the senior partner in the government will have its obvious advantages, and will increase its clout in the decision-making process.
Even though Nitish Kumar has been weakened, the BJP will find it difficult to replace the chief minister with one of its own. Having burnt its fingers in Maharashtra, where Uddhav Thackeray, denied the chief ministership, joined hands with the Congress and NCP, the BJP is expected to tread more carefully in Bihar. For Nitish Kumar, with his reputation for doing ‘flip flops’, can always extend outside support to Tejashwi Yadav, if the BJP tries to replace him. Unless the BJP can, at a future date, break the JD(U), the Congress and wean away MLAs also from the RJD to form its ‘own’ government. But that does not seem to be on the cards for the moment.
Bihar has sent a strong message to the Opposition parties. They will have to combine effectively to have any chance of taking on the Modi-led BJP in states going to the polls. The RJD’s alliance with the Left parties in Bihar— CPI(ML), CPI(M) and CPI— did well, leading to a high strike rate.
Tejashwi Yadav might have just made it, had he not allowed Mukesh Sahni’s Mallah (Most backward)-based VIP party to leave the Mahagathbandhan over the issue of seat-sharing. This might have been possible had he given less seats to the Congress and accommodated the ‘VIP’ party and enabled Left parties to fight more seats, the ticket distribution based on the ground level strength of the parties today rather than on the position they enjoyed in the past. This Congress’ tally came down from what it was in 2015. While the RJD was able to transfer its votes to the Congress, the Congress could not ensure this for the RJD candidates. As it is, the Congress’ kitty does not have much to transfer.
The five seats won by Asaddudin Owaisi, who did well in the Muslim-dominated areas of Bihar (Seemanchal) should come as a wake-up call for the Congress. The Muslims, who feel beleaguered and apprehensive, particularly with the way they have been targeted by the BJP, after the NRC, CAA and abrogation of Article 370, have looked to the Congress as the only party which would be able to take on the BJP nationally. For them to turn to Owaisi’s party which was not in a position to form the government in Bihar, being part of the small so-called ‘Third Front’, and not to the Congress, shows their growing sense of alienation from the grand old party. This is not good news for the Congress.
The crisis — and drift — in the Congress is not likely to go away unless the party settles the question of its leadership, which is hanging out there unaddressed.
Given the Bihar outcome, will the Opposition parties look afresh at the new challenge being mounted by a BJP determined to increase its footprint all over India, state after state, and go for one-party dominance in the country? Or will it remain business as usual?
WASHINGTON (TIP): Indian American doctor Atul Gawande who has been included in US President-elect Joe Biden’s newly announced transition coronavirus advisory board on Monday, November 9 said he is grateful and honored to be asked to serve and contribute to ending the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 55-year-old Boston-based surgeon, who known for his writings and books about the medical field, expressed confidence that the virus can be brought under control, and lives and livelihoods can be saved.
“I’m grateful and honored to be asked to serve and to contribute to ending this pandemic. We have runaway spread right now. But I am confident we can get the virus under control, save lives and livelihoods, and bring people back together again,” Dr Gawande tweeted. A surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston he is also a professor at Harvard Medical School, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Gawande was a senior adviser in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under former President Bill Clinton. Before joining medical school, Gawande had been a part of Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign. He previously served as a senior advisor in the Department of Health and Human Services in the Clinton Administration.
In 2007, Dr Gawande led the World Health Organization’s global effort to reduce surgical deaths.
Gawande is a staff writer for The New Yorker and has authored four books, including “Being Mortal”, which deals with the subject of end-of-life care
In 2020, after two years as C.E.O., he was named chairman of Haven, a health-care venture focused on improving health outcomes, patient experience, and costs of care.Gawande”s father Atmaram Gawande who was born in Maharashtra and his mother Sushila Gawande who hailed from Gujarat met in New York during medical school. They got married and moved to Athens in Ohio to practice as doctors.
Born in Brooklyn and raised in Ohio, Gawande went to Stanford where he studied biology and politics and later was , a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, where he earned his master’s in philosophy, politics and economics in 1989..
His first book, Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, was a finalist for the 2002 National Book Award The Transition Covid-19 Advisory Board is co-chaired by former FDA Commissioner Dr. David Kessler, former Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy and Dr Marcella Nunez-Smith, Yale associate professor of medicine and epidemiology. In a statement, the Biden-Harris Transition announced the formation of the Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board, a team of leading public health experts who will advise President-elect Biden, Vice President-elect Harris, and the Transition’s COVID-19 staff. The leading scientists and public health experts of the Board will consult with state and local officials to determine the public health and economic steps necessary to get the virus under control, to deliver immediate relief to working families, to address ongoing racial and ethnic disparities, and to reopen our schools and businesses safely and effectively.
WASHINGTON (TIP): While several Indian-Americans, such as Richard Verma, Nisha Biswal, Sonal Shah and Seema Sadanandan, might figure in the new Biden administration to be announced around November 26, an American of the Indian origin will play a prominent role right away in the President-elect’s first initiative after beating Donald Trump. Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has been named to co-lead a 12-member group that will join battle with the raging Covid epidemic in the US that is registering over one lakh positive cases every day.
The “Covid-19 task force” will also be co-led by former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler and Yale University professor Marcella Nunez-Smith.Murthy, a registered Democrat, was the Surgeon General of the United States from 2014 – 2017. Biden was receiving briefings for months from health experts, including Murthy and Kessler, a former FDA commissioner. Other experts who have briefed Biden include Celine Gounder of New York University and Yale’s Marcella Nunez-Smith, according to US media reports.
“On Monday, I will name a group of leading scientists and experts as transition advisers to help take the Biden-Harris Covid plan and convert it into an action blueprint that will start on January 20. The plan will be built on bedrock science,’’ Biden said in his first President-elect speech on Saturday night. The Biden taskforce could start holding public briefings from next week till the Inauguration Day on January 20.
WASHINGTON (TIP): US President-elect Joe Biden has named more than 20 Indian Americans as members, including three as team leads, to his agency review teams (ARTs) that are responsible for evaluating the operations of the key federal agencies in the current administration to ensure smooth transfer of power. Biden’s transition team said this is one of the most diverse agency review teams in presidential transition history.
Days after he named former surgeon general Vivek Murthy to co-chair a task force to address the critical coronavirus pandemic issue, Biden rolled out several agency review teams (ARTs) with at least three Indian Americans as leads. Arun Majumdar of Stanford University heads the Department of Energy transition team; Rahul Gupta of March of Dimes heads the Office of National Drug Policy team; Kiran Ahuja of Philanthropy Northwest heads Office of Personnel Management team. There are at least 20 other Indian Americans in ARTs relating to the Departments of State, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Justice, Labor, and the Federal Reserve. The Biden transition team said the ARTs have been rolled out “to ensure a smooth transfer of power, and preparing for President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris and their cabinet to hit the ground running on Day One.”
These teams, it said, have been crafted to ensure they not only reflect the values and priorities of the incoming administration, “but reflect the diversity of perspectives crucial for addressing America’s most urgent and complex challenges.”
Other Indian Americans on the ARTs include Puneet Talwar for State Department, Pav Singh for National Security Council and Office of Science and Technology and Arun Venkatraman for Department of Commerce and USTR.
Pravina Raghavan and Atman Trivedi have been named for Department of Commerce; Shital Shah for Department of Education; R. Ramesh and Rama Zakaria for the Department of Energy; Subhasri Ramanathan for the Department of Homeland Security; Raj De for Department of Justice; and Seema Nanda and Raj Nayak for Department of Labor.
Reena Aggarwal, and Satyam Khanna have been named for Federal Reserve, Banking and Securities Regulators; Bhavya Lal for NASA; Dilpreet Sidhu for National Security Council, Divya Kumaraiah for Office of Management and Budget; Kumar Chandran for Department of Agriculture; and Aneesh Chopra for US Postal Service. Almost all of them are volunteers.
The transition team also disclosed that during calls from several foreign leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Biden told them that “America is going to be back. We’re going to be back in the game.”
Biden’s transition team said this is one of the most diverse agency review teams in presidential transition history.
More than half of the review team members are women, and approximately 40 per cent represent communities historically underrepresented in the federal government, including people of color, people who identify as LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities.
These teams are composed of highly experienced and talented professionals with deep backgrounds in crucial policy areas across the federal government.
“Our nation is grappling with a pandemic, an economic crisis, urgent calls for racial justice, and the existential threat of climate change,” said Senator Ted Kaufman, Co-Chair, Biden-Harris Transition.
“We must be prepared for a seamless transfer of knowledge to the incoming administration to protect our interests at home and abroad. The agency review process will help lay the foundation for meeting these challenges on Day One,” he said. “The work of the agency review teams is critical for protecting national security, addressing the ongoing public health crisis, and demonstrating that America remains the beacon of democracy for the world,” Kaufman said. Biden announced the ARTs even as President Donald Trump has declined to concede the election and the General Services Administration has so far denied access to the President-elect’s transition team.
Once the GSA Administrator ascertains the results of the election, the review teams will meet with former agency officials and experts who closely follow federal agencies, and with officials from think tanks, labor groups, trade associations, and other nonprofits.
Many of the ART members have had long careers in the federal agencies they will now help prepare for the incoming Biden-Harris administration, the transition said.
WASHINGTON (TIP): Sikhs across the United States have hailed the victory of President-elect Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris in the November 3 elections, saying America needed a leader who would set a positive tone in the nation and the world. “We are pleased with the results of these hard-fought elections. Finally, the nation can come together and move towards reconciliation during this very difficult time,” said Dr Rajwant Singh, chairman of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education (SCORE) and Founder of EcoSikh. “America needed a leader who would be serious about solving the biggest health challenge of COVID and would set a positive tone in the nation and the world. Joe Biden is such a person and it is a big plus to have Kamala Harris as the vice-president to guide this nation towards the right direction,” he said. Biden and Harris defeated incumbent President Donald Trump and his deputy Mike Pence on Saturday in the bitterly fought presidential election that attracted a record number of Americans to cast their votes. Harris will make history in myriad ways, becoming the first woman – and the first woman of color – to occupy the office.
“We are proud that Kamala Harris is the first women VP, first Black women, first Asian American and first Indian American to be elected to the high office in America. Those are a lot of glass ceilings shattered with this election,” Singh said. “Joe Biden has repeatedly said that he will the President for all Americans regardless of whether they voted for him or not. This is exactly the kind of leadership needed to create a sense of togetherness as the nation is facing a major spike in COVID cases and the resulting economic downturn,” he said.
Gurwin Singh Ahuja, the co-founder of the National Sikh Campaign, also congratulated Biden and Harris and said Sikhs are encouraged to see a woman elected to the high office in the United States.
“We look forward to President-elect Biden and his administration to set the right tone towards healing the soul of our nation. Our leadership must provide understanding and reconciliation in our deeply divided country,” he said. “We look forward to working with Biden transition team and administration on the important issues facing the Sikh community,” he added. Biden has always supported issues of concern to the Sikh community, Ahuja said, adding that they are confident that Biden’s White House will welcome Sikhs and other communities to play a role in strengthening the nation.
Wednesday marked new record for daily cases with 143,231 new infections and 2,005 deaths
NEW YORK (TIP): November is on track to be the worst month of the pandemic so far in the US as new cases and hospitalizations continue to surge to record highs. There were 143,231 new cases and 2,005 deaths in the US on Wednesday, November 11, according to figures recorded by Johns Hopkins University. It marked the ninth consecutive day of cases topping 100,000 and a new record for daily cases. It comes after the country recorded more than a million cases in the first 10 days of November. Total cases in the US have now r eached over 10.3m and 241,910 people have died, the highest totals in the world.Health experts have in part put the increase down to incoming cold weather driving people indoors and frustration with public health precautions such as masks. Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, said America can slow the spread by “doubling down” on precautions such as mask-wearing, avoiding crowds, keeping activities outdoors and social distancing – and that if people do so a national lockdown could be avoided.
“We would like to stay away from that [a national lockdown] because there is no appetite for locking down in the American public. But I believe that we can do it without a lockdown, I really do,” he told ABC on Thursday morning.
He added: “The best opposite strategy to locking down is to intensify the public health measures short of locking down. So if you can do that well, you don’t have to take that step that people are trying to avoid which has so many implications, both psychologically and economically.”
He urged the American public to “hang in there”, saying a vaccine should be on its way to highest priority people in December and to everyone else within the second quarter of 2021.
“The cavalry is coming. Vaccines are going to have a major positive impact … So if we can just hang in there, do the public health measures that we’re talking about, we’re going to get this under control, I promise you,” he said.
Daily cases are on the rise in 49 states, and deaths per day are climbing in 39.
North and South Dakota and Wisconsin are among the worst affected states, while Texas this week became the first state to record a million cases.
California is also heading towards the 1m mark, recording a total of 995,575 cases, according to Johns Hopkins data. In Los Angeles, the Dodger stadium is being used as a testing center.
A White House coronavirus taskforce report distributed to states on Tuesday, November 10 evening reportedly said: “There is continued, accelerating community spread across the top half of the country, where temperatures have cooled and Americans have moved indoors.”
It also warned of continued deterioration in the so-called sun belt states across the south and “the most diffuse spread experienced to date”, reported CNN.
Hospitalizations in the US broke records for a second consecutive day. The Covid Tracking Project recorded 65,368 people hospitalized on Wednesday – up from 61,964 the previous day and double the figure for a month ago. Amid healthcare staffing concerns in North Dakota, the governor, Doug Burgum, has said that asymptomatic healthcare workers with Covid-19 will be allowed to continue working in Covid-19 hospital units. In New York, where infection rates are on the rise, the governor, Andrew Cuomo, announced on Wednesday, November 11, that restaurants, bars and gyms would be required to close at 10pm, starting on Friday, November 13 and that gatherings at private homes would be limited to 10 people. “If you look at where the cases are coming from, if you do the contact tracing, you’ll see they’re coming from three main areas: establishments where alcohol is served, gyms and indoor gatherings at private homes,” Cuomo said. New York City was the world’s worst hotspot for the virus back in the early spring, then gradually got infections under control and is now urgently trying to ensure that the city and state do not experience a full-blown “second wave” of coronavirus.
Biden brings hope, but Trump’s regressive politics will certainly outlast his time
After trailing but steadily closing the gap since Election Day, Democrat and former Vice-President Joe Biden has seized the lead in the Republican-leaning swing State of Georgia, and in Pennsylvania, and winning them would guarantee his victory in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Mr. Biden is now poised to garner more than 270 votes in the Electoral College, with leads in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona, and wins in any two of them or in Pennsylvania alone should be enough. However, an obstacle in his path to the Oval Office comes from the scattershot legal action by the Trump campaign to stop the counting of votes after polls closed, on the unfounded allegation that mail-in votes were subject to large-scale fraud. Mr. Biden is also firmly on track to win the popular vote decisively, having secured more than a whopping 73 million, a fact that Democrats will no doubt seize upon in the days ahead to underscore the legitimacy of their potential mandate to govern. The nail-biting denouement of the contest belied earlier hopes on both sides for a landslide victory, with the fiercest contests playing out in the swing States of the Rust Belt, including Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and, further afield, Arizona, Florida, and Nevada. Under the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, a historically unprecedented surge in mail-in voting contributed to a high overall turnout, likely in excess of 68%.
In normal times, and with a predictable predecessor, Mr. Biden may have relished the prospect of preparing to enter office in January 2021. Yet the pandemic and the legacy of Mr. Trump’s administration imply that, should he win, Mr. Biden will have to make plans on an emergency footing, not only in the realms of health care and macroeconomic policy but also in terms of healing the painful divisions that have led to the emergence of two Americas, with radically divergent views on everything from tolerating pluralism to embracing globalization. On COVID-19, the U.S. will soon touch a grim milestone — 10 million cases; more than 230,000 fatalities have been recorded. This makes it imperative that the next President of the country respects science and advocates the use of masks, social distancing, and lockdowns. Similarly, experts concur that the pandemic-induced tailspin of the U.S. economy will need a pragmatic and bold fiscal policy, not fear mongering tweets denigrating immigrants. Finally, it is likely that “Trumpism” — which includes not only dog-whistles to white supremacists, retrograde views on women’s reproductive rights and an instinct to pander to unhinged nativism, but also concern for economically disenfranchised working-class Americans — will certainly outlast Mr. Trump’s time at the White House. If the U.S. is to have a hope of holding onto its superpower status, the mammoth task of bridge-building across the bitter polarization of the partisan divide must be the highest priority for the 46th President.
Leads in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and Pennsylvania
Results may take a few days to come
I.S. Saluja
NEW YORK (TIP): Joe Biden on Friday, November 6 evening maintained his lead over Trump in the battleground States of Georgia and Pennsylvania. Addressing the nation on Friday, November 6 evening, Biden said, “We’re not waiting to get the work done.”
As Joe Biden’s lead over President Trump continues to grow in states yet to declare a victor, the presidential hopeful said Friday night that while he’s waiting for the final election results, he is “not waiting to get the work done” on important issues facing the country. “Yesterday, Sen. Harris and I held meetings with groups of experts on public health and the economic crisis this country is facing,” Biden said. “The pandemic, as you also know, is getting more worrisome all across the country. Cases are skyrocketing. It’s believed we could see as many as 200,000 cases a day, and the death toll is approaching 240,000 lives lost. 240,000 empty chairs across America.” Biden’s speech came as the United States set a new record when it surpassed 125,000 daily coronavirus infections.
“We both know tensions are high,” Biden said. “They can be high after a tough election. One like we’ve had. But we need to remember, we have to remain calm. Patient. Let the process work out as we count all the votes.” Biden exuded confidence as his campaign inches closer to the White House while votes continue to be tallied in key battleground states.”We don’t have a final declaration of victory yet, but the numbers tell us it’s clear. We are going to win this race. Just look at what has happened since yesterday. Twenty-four hours we were behind in Georgia, now we’re ahead, and we are going to win that state. Twenty-four hours ago we were behind in Pennsylvania, and we are going to win Pennsylvania. And now we are ahead, but we are winning in Arizona, we’re winning in Nevada, and in fact our lead just doubled in Nevada. We’re on track for over 300 electoral votes, electoral college votes. And look at the national numbers. We’re going to win this race with a clear majority, with the nation behind us.”
Here are the latest figures at 11 PM ET on November 6.
Nevada: Biden leads (632,558) over Trump (609,901).
Georgia: Biden leads (2.456.845) over Trump (2,452,825)
Pennsylvania: Biden leads (3.337,069) over Trump (3.308,192)
Arizona: Biden leads (1,604,067) over Trump (1,574,206)
North Carolina: Trump leads (2,732,782 ) over Biden (2,656,303).
As of 11 PM ET on November 6 , Joe Biden has 253 delegate votes while Donald Trump trails with 213 delegate votes. 270 delegate votes is the magic number for a winner. The current trend favors Biden. It is a matter of days when the unofficial results will be available. The certified results will be available only in early December.
I am assuming Mr. Biden has won the presidency. Mr. Biden may have to wait a little to be certified a winner; may have to wait a little longer in view of the lawsuits the Trump campaign has filed. But, unless there is a divine intervention on his behalf, Mr. Trump stands a loser.
America has demonstrated to the world that the election system of the greatest democracy in the world is strong and fair. It was indeed a mammoth task to be handling voting and counting of votes which have outnumbered any in the past – a whopping 160 million-, up from 138 million in 2016. My friend Ven Parameswaran who has lived in this country for more than 60 years now, and has been closely studying elections, tells me it is a record percentage since 1900. On top of the numbers handled, the elections have been conducted in all fairness. It speaks of the integrity and efficiency of the huge number of officials involved in the management of elections. They deserve gratitude of the whole nation.
However, there have ben some murmurs that all is not right with the election. Well, if at all there is something wrong, it is not with the system or the people working in that system. It is a section of people who, instead of lauding a dynamic system, berate it just because the fairness of system has denied them their cherished dream of winning the election by hook or by crook.
The cries of “stop counting” remind me of the cries of “stop testing” when the rising numbers of coronavirus became a subject of concern for health officials and Americans. Mr. Trump was anguished that tests resulted in throwing up more positive cases of the disease. Similarly, when Trump found the number of votes going up in favor of Biden, he demanded a halt to counting. Between the first shout from him to now, we have seen how the number of votes for Biden have gone up in major battleground States, particularly, Georgia and Pennsylvania, leaving a bewildered Trump wondering where his lead has evaporated. It is all the because of mail-in votes which were counted after November 3 in person voting. And, all know, it is the Democrats who preferred to send in their votes by mail. So., there should be no surprise that Joe Biden came from behind and overtook Trump in many States. While Trump vented his frustration with the system, and threatened to litigate, his rival on the ascendancy, Joe Biden advised calm and patience to Americans, asking them to let the democratic process play out. But we cannot expect such restraint and patience from Mr. Trump , who until the other day, demanded from his base that they chant, not just four years more, but “twelve years more”. The egotistical sublime in him is hurt and hurt beyond words. Not to give in easily, and he has suggested it so often, Mr. Trump must play out all cards available to him even at the cost of the great American nation, the great American people, the great American institutions, including the great American Justices of the Supreme Court who , erroneously he thinks, will do his bidding because they are there because of him. He forgets that God Himself resides within a Judge and guides his / her conscience. Unfortunately for America, there are always a few around Mr. Trump (many have since distanced themselves from him seeing his imminent defeat, and have been criticized also), who, like Iago in Shakespeare’s “OTHELLO” driven by “motiveless malignity” must goad Trump into more crimes, , to heap on himself greater insult and ignominy. The world knows them. Only Mr. Trump does not. Alas!
And these people, I am sure, readers know them, are telling Mr. Trump to fight back the “perceived injustice” of the election system, the imagined wrong that the election is being stolen from him, without any evidence, whatsoever. They are not Trump’s friends. They have their own agenda which they want to play out. I wish Mr. Trump could understand their designs, show maturity, accept there are always opportunities, and bide his time.
And now, I am assuming Mr. Biden has won the presidency. Mr. Biden may have to wait a little to be certified a winner; may have to wait a little longer in view of the lawsuits the Trump campaign has filed. But, unless there is a divine intervention on his behalf, Mr. Trump stands a loser.
Let Mr. Trump accept that Americans preferred Mr. Joe Biden to him. They probably were not satisfied with what he gave them. By the way, in the long history of American democracy, Mr. Trump probably is the 4th sitting president, not to be elected for a second term, according to my friend Ven Parameswaran. Ford who was VP with Nixon , took up presidency after Nixon resigned. Technically, Ford was not an elected President. However, let us count him in. He ran for president but was defeated. Jimmy Carter was not re-elected for a second term. And, then Bush was not elected for a second term, again, according to the information provided by my friend Ven Parameswaran. Mr. Trump has certainly become a part of history.
Mr. Trump should have shown the grace befitting the President of America, as did the Democratic Presidential candidate Al Gore in 2000. Though Al Gore was a clear winner, the Supreme Court accepted the claim of George W. Bush who became the 43rd President of the U.S. Al Gore congratulated Bush, and “offered to meet with him as soon as possible to heal the divisions of the campaign and the contest through which we have passed”.
Almost a century and a half ago, Senator Stephen Douglas told Abraham Lincoln, who had just defeated him for the presidency, “Partisan feeling must yield to patriotism. I’m with you, Mr. President, and God bless you”.
I am glad Joe Biden asked people to be “calm” and “patient” and let the “Democratic process play out”. That’s being a leader.
President Biden faces a daunting task. He is inheritor of a divided nation. The first task for him will be to unite the people of America. It will not be easy. It is heartening to find Joe Biden pledging to be the President of all Americans. But mere words will not heal and unite. The world will keenly watch how Biden restores the exceptional American spirit of unity and brotherhood which makes America great. The second important task for Biden is to free Americans of the deadly pandemic which has been raging for months now and has claimed 2.36K American lives. As at the time of writing this comment, America has recorded 9.76 million cases, with 100,000 new cases being reported on a daily basis. The new administration must ensure the virus is contained, and Americans get back to their normal life. Still another and immediate task before President Biden is to provide economic relief to millions of people across all walks of life who have been battered by the long spell of the pandemic, rendering them unemployed, and without adequate means to sustain themselves. They need to be rehabilitated. Their dignity needs to be restored, so they take , once again, pride in being Americans.
Yet another immediate issue of concern to President Biden should be providing jobs to millions who have during the months of pandemic lost jobs and have not had enough to support their families., with many benefits having been withdrawn by the Trump administration.
Related to job creation is the question of wages. Even though t is the States which decide on minimum wages to workers in their State, Federal government should take initiative to persuade States to agree on a fair minimum wage, which then should be applicable across the nation. The guarantee of a uniform minimum wage across the nation will allow people to freely migrate to the State of their choice, fulfilling a basic strength of American democracy. Business and industry are other areas which need immediate attention of the new administration. America must bring back manufacturing to its shores, which alone can create jobs, and give to the nation self-reliance which are the crying needs of the present times.
Nobody can deny that environment is an important part of our existence. Mr. Biden has rightly announced that America under him will immediately rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, from which Trump had pulled out because he thinks climate change is “a hoax”, and may be, because it has President Obama’s stamp on it.
November 11 is Veterans Day. It makes me unhappy to think that we do not show the veneration the veterans deserve. They need not only veneration , but also better care. Hope, President Biden will come up with some idea to give the heroes their due. Related to Veterans are our brave soldiers. It is time to review US engagement in futile conflicts abroad. We must bring back our soldiers who have for long been involved in conflicts which are not ours in any way and serve no legitimate American interests. Let America initiate a new era of world peace and brotherhood of entire human world. In respect of friends and foes across the world which, in other words, means foreign policy, while there is need to further strengthen ties with friendly countries, including India, there is also an urgent need to have a fresh look at US alliances. The ruptured relationship with NATO countries must immediately be repaired.
In this context, the Trump administration’s failures in maintaining decent relationship with the United Nations and countries of the world should not be forgotten. All nations are equal partners in managing the world. They need to be treated with respect. It is the first requirement of civility. And America is a civilized nation.
It is my fervent hope that President Biden will keep his promise to be “the president of all America, and all Americans”, and as Senator Stephen Douglas , a century and a half ago said, “Partisan feeling must yield to patriotism”. Hope, the US Senate and the US House of Representatives will lend their bipartisan support to President Biden to restore the glory of America as the First and the Greatest Nation in the World.
God bless America!
(The author is Chief Editor of The Indian Panorama. He can be reached at salujaindra@gmail.com)
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