MORNING STEW #38

Day 24 of my self-quarantine.

Supposedly I am safe. On the other hand, I worry. Will the virus get me? I am sure most others worry also as to their susceptibility.

Everything is coronavirus in the news. My notes pile up. When that happens, I do a Morning Stew. Merely report from my notes in the order they appear. No specific order.

This is one of those days. The only way I can catch up.

The Key West area has 2 senior facilities. Sixteen bed Bayshore Manor on Stock Island and 50 residence Poinciana Gardens in Key West.

God is good! So far neither has had a coronavirus occurrence.

The American Medical Association publishes JAMA Cardiology.

A recent article indicated coronavirus can lead to total heart failure. The publication reported “injury to the heart muscle can happen in any patient with or without heart disease, but the risk is higher in those who already have heart disease.”

The hard truth is that 70 percent of patients that had heart disease and developed new heart damage from the virus died.

One of the outstanding female performers in Key West is Bria Ansara. I have heard her sing many times at the A&B Lobster House and Bourbon Street Pub.

I was fortunate to be able to watch her perform last night from my home. I was searching Facebook and came upon what I would describe as a Bria Ansara podcast.

As most, Bria is not working because of the virus. Never the less, she opted to entertain her fans last night. From the porch of her second floor apartment at the corner of Eaton and Grinnell. Using her cell phone as the camera. Her porch lit with many lights.

Bria was far enough back from the cell phone that her performance took the entire computer screen.

Thank you, Bria! Do more shows! Your fans love you!

Bill Witters died. An American icon. He was 81.

Song writer and singer. Beloved even by Presidents. He performed at the Obama and Clinton inaugurations.

He touched America with Lean On Me, Lovely day, and Ain’t No Sunshine.

Questlove told Rolling Stone in a 2015 interview: “Bill Witters is the closest thing black people have to Bruce Springsteen.”

Tino and I were on a roll with photos of Tino performing as an extra in movies and TV shows being filmed in Chicago. Coronavirus has changed it all. Movie and TV shows not being produced during the virus crisis. Tino not performing for the time being.

What is this “our stockpile…..the federal stockpile.” Jared Kuschner began with the “our”thing. His father in law the President yesterday tried to explain it away. He seemed to agree with Jared however.

There is no federal stockpile of items required to fight the virus. The stockpile belongs to the people of the U.S. Taxpayer dollars payed for whatever is stockpiled.

The issue was 10,000 ventilators. I wonder how many N59 masks, gloves and other PPE items are federally stockpiled. Tell us, Donald. the people want to know.

It is a form of “hoarding.” Is Attorney General Barr aware?

The following is important. Amazing what is being discovered and what we are learning during the war on coronavirus.

The way a toilet is flushed can contribute to spread of the virus.

Coronavirus spreads in aerosolized feces. The lid should be put down before flushing after defecating.

Researchers have discovered the virus can travel in fecal matter that escapes into the air. As a human merely breathing propels a certain amount of breath into the air, an invisible toilet plume propels into the air that is shot upwards after a flush.

The message: Close the lid and then flush! Closing the lid prevents 80 percent of fecal matter from escaping into the air.

Key West has had its first coronavirus death. Keith White. Better known as “Mistah Keith.”

Mistah Keith was 55. Retired as a cook at teh Casa Marina recently after 23 years.

A friend said, “He touched a lot of lives. He was the kind of a person you could look up to.”

As of yesterday, Monroe County had 38 confirmed cases of the virus. Key West 19 of that number. The one death was Mistah Keith.

As many expected, the SBA loan program for small businesses was a total failure in its opening day. The government and banks not on the same page. Neither understands the needs of the small guy. The poor guy needing the money getting buried in paperwork and delay.

While Main street is on the verge of collapse, Wall Street is not. Specifically, Wall Street’s top guns.

Goldman Sachs CEO is David Solomon. Last year was not the best for Goldman Sachs. Not bad. Yet not consistent with normal results.

Two interesting things were “revealed”/”discovered” re Goldman Sachs’ financial dealings.

First, Goldman Sachs purchased 2 top of the line Gulfstream jets for $75 million each. The first time Goldman Sachs ever owned jets. They previously rented on an as needed basis.

Solomon did’t do bad. His compensation package for 2019 was $27.5 million. In not the best of years!

Broken down, he received $2 million in salary, $7.65 million in a cash bonus, and $17.85 million in long term incentives.

Bet he cam make his mortgage payment this month! Assuming he has one.

People are sick today. People were sick in 1918 with the Spanish flu epidemic. Everyone is off and on sick in varying degrees each year.

Poor May Johnson. She reported in her diary that on this day in 1896 she was sick: “…..taken with chills and fever. MUCH SICK.”

Chris Cuomo is Governor Cuomo’s younger brother. Fourteen years younger. The Governor refers to him as his “little brother.”

Chris has come down with coronavirus. Initially hospitalized, he is now in home quarantine. Still recovering.

He is still suffering. The nights are bad. He describes them as fear, shivering, hallucinating, beaten on like a pinata, body sweats, and tremors.

I have said this before and I say it again. There will be food shortages. We are already suffering from them. They will only get bigger.

The coming shortage is being described as a “hunger Crisis.”

Demand at food banks high. Saw a video on the internet. There had to be 150-200 cars lined up on a highway waiting to reach a food bank off the highway.

Last week, Spain suffered 950 deaths in one 24 hour period.

British Airways announced it is suspending 36,000 employees.

Coronavirus is now the #3 cause of death in the U.S. Heart #1, cancer #2.

The good news is if you are reading this, you are alive. May we all stay that way.

Enjoy your day!

 

 

10 comments on “MORNING STEW #38

  1. Yeowwwww! “Closing the lid prevents 80 percent of fecal matter from escaping into the air.”

    Only 80%!!!!!! It’s the escaping 20% that makes such a mess.

    Tee Hee.

    Kokomo Man

  2. There is an increasing amount of reports where state agencies are being out bid with American manufactures for Carona supplies by FEMA, who is apparently stockpiling these items and distributing them slowly and reportedly with political bias. One report says that Trump is on record for saying the NYS won’t get Carona supplies until they drop all financial investigations about him.

  3. 3 million masks purchased for the state of M@ssachusetts were taken away by an unnamed federal agency. In seizing the supplies, the government employed what state officials described as “force majeure” to breach existing contracts and carry off the goods.

    I thought the Donald said states were on their own to purchase supplies? Does he have two mouths? Does he know what he is doing?

  4. This is only the beginning of what will become a barrage of rumors, truths, untruths, accusations and outright lies disguised as facts as we muddle through this virus outbreak. How can anyone separate what is Truth and what is False anymore?

    “Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it,..”
    Jonathan Swift

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *