Thestarider

ed we have very best healthcare in the world hands down, that is why everyone in the world comes here for our healthcare system. Universal healthcare is not the answer.... My wife battled cancer for over 5 years with 3 major surgeries 2 rounds of chemo and radiation. The very first time she went to the emergency room she was diagnosed with colon cancer and went straight to surgery that day. The next day she was in recovery when her oncologist paid his first visit and outlined the plan for her recovery, and within 2 weeks from that visit she was having her first round of chemotherapy. My total payments out a 1.7 million dollar medical bill was a little over 5 thousand dollars. I currently pay 12% federal taxes and 6.5 % States and local taxes for a total of 18.5% of gross income in taxes, now you tell what is right and what is wrong. I have a employee who's mother died while waiting in Great Britain waiting to see an oncologist after being diagnosed with stage four colon cancer. It was almost nine months later and still no plan to save her life. He will tell you the universal health sucks compared to the healthcare in America.

As far as I remember the twins never ever had a head or did they give head !!!!! 😉

Naga I would jump in bed with the two Blondes in heartbeat, but I am afraid the way they act the little head would have heart failure and would quit beating rather quickly in watching them. The limpy wimpy noddle syndrome.

Monica bailed on us again my friend, so it time to lay praise on the next "M" I desire.

I am not sure she really knows what that is happy 😈

Magnificent Mysterious Malia, we are still waiting for the magic to begin. It is there burning deep within your inner most desires. I know it is just waiting to be released, and to allow that burning desire out !!!

Who is the other dark haired girl in black ?

China recasts itself as global coronavirus response leader as US, Europe struggle It's an extraordinary transformation. In a matter of weeks, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Communist Party have apparently managed to convince the world to forget that they muzzled the coronavirus for months as it grew into what is now a global pandemic, silencing doctors and critics whose early alarms could have saved thousands of lives. Instead, the communist-run nation has now positioned itself as the country ahead of the coronavirus curve, even as they make unsubstantiated claims that the U.S. is behind the crisis. From denying its central role in unleashing the pandemic to baseless finger-pointing and finally, to casting itself as a global savior, China's makeover has been aided by a compliant media and allies such as Russia and Iran who are eager to help deflect the blame to the U.S. "Two narrative tracks that we’re seeing advanced by China is malign information trying to finger the U.S. as the origin of the coronavirus, and then the second narrative track is what we call ‘Brand China,’ which is the [Chinese government’s] effort to try and turn the crisis into a news story about the supremacy of the Chinese Communist Party as opposed to democratic systems that have allegedly mishandled the crisis,” U.S. Special Envoy Lea Gabrielle told The Washington Times. “So [it’s] basically a 'China' good, everyone else bad’ narrative.” Indeed, China has been mounting a very public -- and largely successful -- humanitarian campaign to come across as a strong world leader. It's a power move that has allowed China to take over a role the United States and Europe have dominated for decades. China's private and public sectors are working in lockstep to fast-track aid to countries that are in desperate need of it. "The Chinese government has been trying to project Chinese state power beyond its borders and establish China as a global leader, not dissimilar to what the U.S. government has been doing for the better part of a century, and the distribution of medical aid is part of that mission," Dr. Yangyang Cheng, a postdoctoral research associate at Cornell University, told The Intercept. Earlier this week, Xi pledged to send more medical experts to Italy, a country on track to surpass China in the number of coronavirus-related deaths when the numbers are tallied at the end of Thursday.

This is what is on my mind today. God Bless this great country and all those who made my life easier. It is my hope that everyone appreciate all those who gave so much so we could live such a wonderful life. I have lived a great life and I want to say thank you those who made it possible so that I would have such a good life. I talked with a man today, an 80+ year old man. I asked him if there was anything I can get him while this Coronavirus scare was gripping America. He simply smiled, looked away and said: "Let me tell you what I need! I need to believe, at some point, this country my generation fought for... I need to believe this nation we handed safely to our children and their children... I need to know this generation will quit being a bunch of sissies...that they respect what they've been given...that they've earned what others sacrificed for." I wasn't sure where the conversation was going or if it was going anywhere at all. So, I sat there, quietly observing. "You know, I was a little boy during WWII. Those were scary days. We didn't know if we were going to be speaking English, German or Japanese at the end of the war. There was no certainty, no guarantees like Americans enjoy today. And no home went without sacrifice or loss. Every house, up and down every street, had someone in harm's way. Maybe their Daddy was a soldier, maybe their son was a sailor, maybe it was an uncle. Sometimes it was the whole damn family...fathers, sons, uncles... Having someone, you love, sent off to war...it wasn't less frightening than it is today. It was scary as Hell. If anything, it was more frightening. We didn't have battle front news. We didn't have email or cellphones. You sent them away and you hoped...you prayed. You may not hear from them for months, if ever. Sometimes a mother was getting her son's letters the same day Dad was comforting her over their child's death. And we sacrificed. You couldn't buy things. Everything was rationed. You were only allowed so much milk per month, only so much bread, toilet paper. EVERYTHING was restricted for the war effort. And what you weren't using, what you didn't need, things you threw away, they were saved and sorted for the war effort. My generation was the original recycling movement in America. And we had viruses back then...serious viruses. Things like polio, measles, and such. It was nothing to walk to school and pass a house or two that was quarantined. We didn't shut down our schools. We didn't shut down our cities. We carried on, without masks, without hand sanitizer. And do you know what? We persevered. We overcame. We didn't attack our President, we came together. We rallied around the flag for the war. Thick or thin, we were in it to win. And we would lose more boys in an hour of combat than we lose in entire wars today." He slowly looked away again. Maybe I saw a small tear in the corner of his eye. Then he continued: "Today's kids don't know sacrifice. They think a sacrifice is not having coverage on their phone while they freely drive across the country. Today's kids are selfish and spoiled. In my generation, we looked out for our elders. We helped out with single moms who's husbands were either at war or dead from war. Today's kids rush the store, buying everything they can...no concern for anyone but themselves. It's shameful the way Americans behave these days. None of them deserve the sacrifices their granddads made. So, no I don't need anything. I appreciate your offer but, I know I've been through worse things than this virus. But maybe I should be asking you, what can I do to help you? Do you have enough pop to get through this, enough steak? Will you be able to survive with 113 channels on your tv?" I smiled, fighting back a tear of my own...now humbled by a man in his 80's. All I could do was thank him for the history lesson, leave my number for emergency and leave with my ego firmly tucked in my rear. I talked to a man today. A real man. An American man from an era long gone and forgotten. We will never understand the sacrifices. We will never fully earn their sacrifices. But we should work harder to learn about them..learn from them...to respect them.

Sounds like Bait Central to me.

Government official: Coronavirus vaccine trial starts Monday The first participant in the trial will receive the experimental vaccine on Monday, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the trial has not been publicly announced yet. The National Institutes of Health is funding the trial, which is taking place at a Kaiser Permanente research facility in Washington state, the official said. Dozens of research groups around the world are racing to create a vaccine as COVID-19 cases continue to grow. Importantly, they’re pursuing different types of vaccines — shots developed from new technologies that not only are faster to produce than traditional inoculations but might prove more potent. Some researchers even aim for temporary vaccines, such as shots that might guard people’s health a month or two at a time while longer-lasting protection is developed. The worldwide outbreak has sickened more than 156,000 people and left more than 5,800 dead. The death toll in the United States is more than 50, while infections neared 3,000 across 49 states and the District of Columbia. The vast majority of people recover. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three weeks to six weeks to recover.

This thread is now locked, please use the new thread Thanks

You are fear monger too Stone ???

This seems to be a good time then to start a new thread. This one is now locked, please use the new thread for B-4 Thanks

Please use the new thread for B-1 Thanks

Podiums At Next Debate To Be Equipped With Life Alert Buttons

Crescent Dunes: Another Obama Solar Failure The Nevada solar-energy plant Crescent Dunes has gone under after receiving a $737 million federal loan guarantee during the Obama Administration. Crescent Dunes, a 110-megawatt facility, was supposed to use molten salt to store heat from the sun, produce steam, and generate electricity even when the sun was not shining. The Department of Energy finalized its loan guarantee on Sept. 23, 2011—a week before the federal loan program expired. Just prior to the finalization of the loan guarantee, Nevada approved $119.3 million in tax abatements for Crescent Dunes over 20 years. The plant also received roughly $140 million in private investment. NV Energy, the largest electric utility in Nevada, agreed to buy the electricity under a 25-year power purchase agreement. Crescent Dunes began commercial operation in November 2015, missing the deadline established by its agreement with NV Energy. But, less than a year later, the facility went offline because of a massive leak in the hot salt tank. Crescent Dunes resumed operations in the latter half of 2017, but had frequent and prolonged outages. In the summer of 2019, Crescent Dunes’ hot salt tanks had a catastrophic failure, causing ground contamination and requiring the removal of the solar tower that is needed for the plant to generate electricity as designed, halting operations. The Department of Energy sent a formal default notice in September, followed by NV Energy terminating its power purchase agreement. Crescent Dunes was not cost-effective. Its average price was over $132 per megawatt-hour. In September 2011, the Energy Department indicated that Crescent Dunes would be the first of its kind in the United States and the tallest molten salt tower in the world based on Solar Two, a 10-megawatt test facility in the Mojave Desert decommissioned in 1999 that had shown it was technically feasible to use molten salt to store and generate power. However, in a 2006 report, the Energy Department said the pilot plant was never expected to be a viable commercial-scale plant and, in fact, did not validate economic feasibility. The Crescent Dunes project shows that government investments under the Obama Administration were based on politics more than feasibility. Like Solyndra, Abengoa, Crescent Dunes is another Obama Administration failure in solar energy development. Despite Crescent Dunes’ power being priced over 4 times as high as the nearest photovoltaic plant in Nevada, the Obama Administration chose to invest in it with taxpayers’ money to further its development of renewable technology. It is well known that the government has a poor track record for picking winners and losers, and Solyndra and Crescent Dunes are notable examples. Americans should be cautious about government attempts to pursue technology in the name of climate change, a recipe for many more Crescent Dunes fiascoes.

I am just floored as I see the Vampire Tourist have found out what the light switch is used for.

University of Tennessee scientists may have found coronavirus cure OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (WATE) - As the coronavirus outbreak edges closer to East Tennessee, a possible cure could be closer to coming from the region. Two researchers have discovered a chemical compound, which will be further tested soon, could stop the virus and prevent it from spreading further. Jeremy Smith, Director of the Center for Molecular Biophysics, a partnership between the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, explained their work is made possible by the “world’s most powerful computer,” or the Summit, at ORNL.

Do you believe that this influenza strain is the focus of the very best medical researchers in the world ? I do and before to long they will have it under control. Soon they will have a flu shot for this strain, and here in the US when you are over 50 you a get different flu shot than the younger crowd gets. The amount the older crowd gets is about 3 times what the younger crowd gets. I believe from Chinese now are beginning to get a handle on the outbreak in China, The smartest medical research personnel in the world are on this case and they will find a way to prevent a pandemic, this I am pretty sure of at this point,

The Media has blown this way out of proportion: Please everyone educate yourselves with truth and facts and not misconceptions and political scare tactics. Coronavirus Disease 2019 vs. the Flu Influenza “the flu” and COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, are both infectious respiratory illnesses. Although the symptoms of COVID-19 and the flu can look similar, the two illnesses are caused by different viruses. As of Mar. 8, 2020, the flu is showing much more of an impact on Americans than COVID-19. You can find up-to-date information on COVID-19 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Lisa Maragakis, M.D., M.P.H., senior director of infection prevention at Johns Hopkins, explains how the flu and COVID-19 are similar and how they are different. Differences: COVID-19 and the Flu Cause COVID-19: Caused by one virus, the novel 2019 coronavirus, now called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2. Flu: Caused by any of several different types and strains of influenza viruses. Transmission While both the flu and COVID-19 may be transmitted in similar ways (see the Similarities section above), there is also a possible difference: COVID-19 might be spread through the airborne route, meaning that tiny droplets remaining in the air could cause disease in others even after the ill person is no longer near. Antiviral Medications COVID-19: Antiviral medications are currently being tested to see if they can address symptoms. Flu: Antiviral medications can address symptoms and sometimes shorten the duration of the illness. Vaccine COVID-19: No vaccine is available at this time, though it is in progress. Flu: A vaccine is available and effective to prevent some of the most dangerous types or to reduce the severity of the flu. Infections COVID-19: Approximately 107,644 cases worldwide; 437 cases in the U.S. as of Mar. 8, 2020. Flu: Estimated 1 billion cases worldwide; 9.3 million to 45 million cases in the U.S. per year. Deaths COVID-19: Approximately 3,653 deaths reported worldwide; 17 deaths in the U.S., as of Mar. 8, 2020. Flu: 291,000 to 646,000 deaths worldwide; 12,000 to 61,000 deaths in the U.S. per year. The COVID-19 situation is changing rapidly. Since this disease is caused by a new virus, people do not have immunity to it, and a vaccine may be many months away. Doctors and scientists are working on estimating the mortality rate of COVID-19. Preliminary Cumulative Estimates of Hospitalizations in the U.S. 2019-2020 Flu Season