PANDERING TO DOMESTIC TERRORISTS—DEMOCRAT PLAYBOOK

How did we get to this place where shadows of rioters dance in front of the flames which shoot up in the night air across the nation, where the White House and DC are on lockdown?    And where terrorists— the domestic variety—yes thugs —are Left to burn, loot and destroy homes and apartment buildings.  Where mobs break in and torch libraries, police stations, pharmacies, gas stations, and restaurants—and leave desolation behind  in our major cities across the entire nation.

We can thank the Democrats and their far-left media supporters for where we are today. .  They began in 2016 (or earlier ) to secretly undermine a Republican candidate they did not like, then when he was legitimately elected, they initiated an FBI-led palace coup to unseat him.   When that failed they schemed up a phony investigation (Mueller) to set the stage for an impeachment which failed to achieve its ends as well.  More recently, they are trying to claim he is responsible  for the coronavirus pandemic.   And i’m sure he will be blamed for these incendiary race riots sparked by the tragic death of an unarmed black man at the hands of an out of control white cop.

The stage was set for this national tragedy and existential threat of  violent mobs raging across the nation by the Democrat-media- leftist schemes of  government, as well as “resistance journalism” all designed to undermine the rule of law so as to underscore and weaken a Republican president prior to election.  The Democrat plan of “total resistance” has resulted in a lack of respect— for our elections, for the office of the President, for our government and for our nation.  The constant stream of attacks and counterattacks initiated by the left has weakened us as a nation.  These leftsit folks in effect used the First Amendment protection  to shout out in a theater the proverbial  “run for your life—fire”.   And the pandemonium we see today is the result.

The chaos and the domestic violence we are experiencing can be laid at the door of those who have over the last three and half years weakened our government and our nation for their own base political purposes—-read:  Ms Pelosi, the clique of radical leftist in the House, and the Washington Post the NY Times and the left-leaning cable news outlets and their ilk and other misguided supporters.  

The phone video of a 17 year old bystander captured the ugly, unnecessary and tragic death of a black man being “subdued” by four white police officers in Minneapolis.  These officers had the man handcuffed but —being a big man —were unable to get him into the police van for transfer to the precinct.  One of these men used an illegal (and ultimately deadly method) to render him unconscious.  That officer and his colleagues should have been arrested and charged immediately  But the weak, vaccinating, pandering, left-wing pansy officials of the City of Minneapolis dragged their feet.  The let the anger fester. Then as the situation grew into violence and rioting—the major of the city and the governor of the state—forgot that their FIRST responsibility to the black community and to all the citizenry of Minneapolis was to maintain order and protect life and property.  But instead they went on a campaign of pandering to the original legitimate black protestors —and to CNN whose crew were detained by the police—and then in their weak vaccinating way they gave in to the local rioters as well as the “out of town” agitators and antfas  thugs, yes, as well as petty thieves, arsonists and “bad guys” who were attracted—like wolves to a wounded and defenseless moose—ready for the kill.

The governor and the mayor, the police commissioner exposed their home-city to deadly violence, looting,  pillage, destruction and arson.  They should be ashamed.  They abandoned the 3rd precinct police building and let it burn down.   They were following the playbook of the fart-leftists. That scripts reads: “We as white folks are collectivley ‘guilty of the crime of racism’—so let’s let the mob work out their anger on the innocent folks, black and white, of Minneapolis, as well as on the legimate businesses and infrastructure and cultural elements of the City.”

This far-left ideal  is a prescription for Continued violence, chaos and utter economic disaster.  Those two officials should be summarily fired or impeached.

The only way out of this situation is to meet lawlessness with the appropriate and justified force. The mob must be quelled and peace restored immediately—tonight.  No more riots..  Arrests must be made. If any protest turns violent.—the perpetrators must be arrested and jailed.

If you are in favor of this dystopian dream of the Democrats..where every minority demographic can act out violently to obviate and frustrate the legitimate function of government to protect its citizenry from mob route– vote them into power in November...  But make sure you have purchased your AR15 and a good supply of ammo..  You will be on your own for protection against the violent mobs that will be a constant threat to life limb and your well being.

You have just witnessed what the future will bring with a Biden Administration.
    .

ON: POLITICIZING CV19 MORTALITY DATA

Let’s take a quick look at how this pandemic is going world wide late in May 2020. .  Too many pundits and media outlets have taken to misrepresenting—politicizing—the sad death toll to further their own agenda.  This happens both on the left and the right.

Any time a pundit, media or columnist  presents mortality data as raw numbers you can be sure they are looking to hoodwink you or are motivated by a political agenda   The only meaningful way to make a comparison of mortality rates such as between countries or states is to examine the numbers per unit population.

Τhere is wide diversity in these values and there are probably many reasons for the variations observed.  The density of the population, age distribution (older populations are more vulnerable), general health, availability of care, how fast and effective  the original shut down took place, the number of nursing home patients, how effective was social distancing, is the nation a center of tourism, industry, or a world transportation hub?  etc. etc. But perhaps we might be able to tease some valuable information from these figures if we at least examine them in such as way as when the most prominent variable—total population—is accounted for.  One can not compare death rates in the UK  with its 60 million to the USA with more than five times that number at  320 million!

As of May 20, 2020. The USA is listed with the highest total deaths out of the world death figure (326,000).  At this date (May 20)USA has suffered 94,000 mortalities from the pandemic.  The next highest is the UK with 35,000 total deaths due to Cv19. . Youcan review these sad figures in many sites.

But when we look at those numbers relative to the size of the population, the figures are quite different.  In deaths per million population the USA has suffered 286 citizen deaths.

But that value is not the highest!

Deaths/Million Population
Belgium 800
Spain 600
UK 532
Italy 532
France 418
Sweden 376
Netherlands 333
Ireland 322
USA 286
Switzerland 222

What might cause the differences?  These are all nations with top of the line medical care—most have universal health care.  They are modern democratic industrialized nations, As noted above there must be many variables that may in part explain the differences such as population age, when, how and how effective was closing down the nation and its social distancing, how intimately was it tied to China and tourists and workers arriving from that nation—the source of the virus...etc. etc etc.

But it is clear that the USA does not have the worst record—as some in the media would have it.  Attempting to claim that we or our leaders are or were doing something wrong they often tout the raw data of deaths.  But in fact Sweden and Ireland have a greater number of deaths per unit population than we do.

It is noteworthy that Sweden, has the highest deaths/million population of the Nordic nations. It is up there with the central EU counties with close to 400 deaths per million.  Perhaps the reason is that Sweden chose NOT  to shut down its industries,  businesses, gyms and pubs and close its schools most of which remained open. But that strategy does not seem to have improved its numbers much at all.  Other nordic nations such as Denmark (95)*,  Finland (55), Norway (44)  all shut down businesses and schools and had much lower *deaths per million levels.

Germany, with about 96 per million is an exception worth noting. It’s response —strict shutdown—closures—and its0penchant for structure and conformity —was similar to the Nordic countries and has similar numbers.  Then too the pandemic seemed to strike a much younger demographic in Germany. Many were young healthy  skiers returning from trips to the Italian Alps where they contracted the disease. That may have kept their numbers lower at first. But strict social distancing and closures helped too.  Germany also reports its cases differently as well reporting only deaths which are confirmed as cv19 related if post mitten tests so indicate.

OBAMAGATE = WATERGATE = OBAMAGATE

OBAMAGATE = WATERGATE = OBAMAGATE

Many of you are too young to remember Watergate—the  infamous political scandal of 1973 during the Nixon Administration. The scandal revolved around the acts of the President and his conspirators who were conducting a spying operation on his Democrat opponent Sen George McGovern.  Nixon’s “plumbers” spied on the Democrat National Committee—taping phone conversations and stealing documents from offices in the Watergate Hotel. The operatives were discovered, the President was exposed, and then rather than face impeachment Nixon resigned in 1974.  

Obamagate—which the main-stream, left-leaning media like to term “an unfounded conspiracy theory” is in fact appropriately termed.  It is as much of an egregious misuse of executive power as was Nixon’s Watergate scandal.   Obamagate is the claim  that members of President Obama’s team in the White House, the FBI, the CIA, the NIA and other all conspired to spy on Mr. Trump’s campaign prior to the 2016 election.  Unlike Nixon they did not use  hireling “plumbers” but simply weaponized  the massive executive powers of government intelligence gathering to investigate their political opponents in the Trump campaign.  They tapped the phones and read the emails of Carter Paige—who was at the time a low level member of the Trump election campaign.  By listening to all of Paige’s conversations—personal, private and politcal—gave them access to the Trump campaign and its associates. They had an entree into information regarding the Trump team’s election strategy and its plans for the future. How is this any different than Watergate?  Or is it worse— more of an offense— because by prostituting the functions of government agencies, turning them into politicized agents willing to ignore long established protocols and the nation’s laws—these institutions are weakened and rightly lose the respect and legitimacy that they need to function properly in a democracy.    

But what motivated these conspirators?  After the shocking election of 2016 Democrats recognized their political plight.  In the 2016 election the Republican candidate, a businessman, former TV personality, novice politician, with weak communication skills and no political experience, handily beat the Democrat. Trump  spent less than half of what his well-funded opponent yet won an overwhelm victory  in the Electoral College.  (The only contest) that counts).  Mrs. Clinton the Democrat, had an extraordinary resume’ She was a well trained slick attorney, a former law clerk, served two terms as First Lady, spent six years as US Senator from New York and after her defeat by Obama in 2007, she served two terms as his Secretary of State. Furthermore, she was co-head of perhaps the most well-funded and  formidable political machine in US history—the Clinton Global Initiative!  She had the backing of powerful women’s movement, as well as that of popular President Obama as well as every Democrat politician and a good many Republicans.  She  was  supported by every media outlet, every poll taker, all of hollywood, and government officials in both parties.  Yet this powerful candidate flus with money lost to Donald Trump whom the anti-Trump conspirators considered a bufoon and unworthy candidate.  

One can almost feel sorry for the Democrats. At this juncture they must have realized how transitory President Obama’s Administation was, how hollow his oratory, how unable he was to pass on his near-cult status popularity to a successor and that he left a deeply polarized nation and they —-were left high and dry.  They were also faced with the harsh reality  of the Electoral College.   The Democrats under Obama  had maneuvered  themselves into a minority party position. They became owners of a coalition of minorities.  The political advocates of small disparate elements of our society—blacks, urbanites, illegal immigrants, feminists, urbanites, anti religious zealots  and other minorities—most of whom were confined to only several densely populated states on the nation’s coasts.  The Democrat strategy of knitting these together into a coalition—left  the vast majority of the heartland—where regular working folks, (and former Democrats) the “irredeemables”, who rallied around the “Bible, the flag and their guns” were ridiculed demeaned and abandoned by the left.  This is where Mr. Trump won the election—the vast heartland of the nation. 

Desperation drives politicians to desperate acts. In 2017–the Democrat future and the possibility of ever taking  the Senate back or winning  the Presidency looked bleak indeed.  The Democrats looking over the 2016 results realized that they were going to be relegated to a toothless, “seat-warmer” minority party with little or no chance of retaking the reins of power.   unless they began to play dirty and  use other means— other than legitimate elections— to gain that power.  The result of their schemes was the conspiracy President Trump has now baptized as “Obamagate”

The most egregious act of criminality government officials can commit in our democratic system of representative government is  the misuse the power we as voters have devolved upon our leaders.  The act of purposely undermining the  manifest will of the people and the misuse of  the awful investigative and legal powers of government  for base  partisan and political advantage is in effect, an  abrogation of the oaths every legislator and executive  take to uphold the Constitution—and the sacred compact they have with the citizenry they are sworn to represent.  

The power  to govern in our democratic system comes,  not from the Devine, or the head of some self appointed commission, or a communist commissariat, or a hereditary king.  It is the People who decide who will govern.  This concept of “people rule” is the very core of our system and of our Constitution.  Recall?  “We the People...” .  Our elections are sacrosanct since they are the vehicle by which we either  renew an existing compact with one administration or regime,  or throw that one out and give power to a new regime.  One administration leaves office and another take over.  This peaceful and willing passage of the baton of power from one administrative team to another  is what makes our Democratic Republic so exceptional.  We have actually been remarkably successful with this system over the more than. 340 years of our existence.  Over that period our quadrennial elections have successfully and peacefully handed power over from one administration to another. 

That is until 2016-2017 when the Obama Administration aware that their political position was weak — schemed to undermine the incoming Trump administration in an attempt to upend the results of the 2016 election, and the will of the People who had made their choice clear in their support of President Trump and his policies.

But instead of honoring the legitimate and manifest will of the People, the Obama team thought they could abrogate the votes of 63 million heartland Americans who voted for Mr. Trump all across this broad nation.  Instead this group the “crossfire hurricane” and crossfire “razor” campaigns and the  “insurance policy” to take down a duly elected President.  

A few days before the end of the transition and before Mr. Trump was to be sworn in (new documents reveal) that these hold-over elements of the Obama team  hatched a plan to undermine the incoming Trump transition team, spy on the new administrators, fire or undermine National Intelligence Chief General Flynn, cripple the new President so as to weaken his administration in an attempt to abrogate the election results and either  impeach the new president  or to so weakened him as to insure that he would be unsuccessful in his first term and to insure that he would serve out only one unexceptional term. 

This act was of course tantamount to treason..and all Americans—whether Republicans or Democrat should be aghast at such acts that undermine the very core of our beliefs.  The Democrats subsumed the welfare and benefit of the RO political party to the overall welfare of the nation as a whole.  Sadly the Democrats and their media co-conspirators would like to ignore these unpleasant facts. 

Sadly, The Obamagate team was successful in weakening the President, in dividing the nation in  misdirections our energies into wasteful costly investigations which were designed to politically kneecap the President and undermine his ability to successfully govern and to lessen his chances for reelection.  

Much of these efforts of the part of the Obamagate conspirators  came to naught,  The Trump Administration , though saddled with constant investigations and an impeachment inquiry still managed to keep the peace internationally, to make us self sufficient in energy, and to bring us unparalleled employment and and a burgeoning powerful economy. 

Now during the crisis of this Coronavirus Pandemic the Obamagate conspirators continue —and their media supporters—even when the nation is threatened with disaster of monumental proportions they continue with their political schemes designed to weaken their political opposition so as to strengthen their own party. They  use every means at their disposal to weaken our nation—both politically and economically—so as to advance their political opportunities in the coming elections. 

Obamagate is the real threat we face as a nation—not the corona virus.  We will overcome that biological  threat—but the  acts of these conspirators to attack the very core of our system, and the sanctity of our elections —have been almost completely ignored (Fox News and Glenn Greenwald excepted)) by those essential watchdogs  of our nation— the journalists— who sadly in this case —who practice a form of “resistance journalism” and studiously ignore the Obamagate conspirators.  

  

ON: CLUTTERED ATTICS, FLYNN -SCHIFF REVELATIONS

May 9, 2020. Somewhere in NYS in Covid 19 lockdown 

With so much “news” rattling around in the media, one’s mind becomes cluttered like Sherlock Holme’s attic analogy. Holme’s creator Conan Doyle famously has the world’s most famous  detective explain to  Dr. Watson how he  (Holmes) keeps his mind clear so as to be able to use his extraordinary powers of deductive reasoning methods efficiently . 

“You see Watson, a mind is like an attic”, said Holmes.  “Clutter it with too much old stuff you are not using, or things that are out of date and very soon you will not even be able to enter that place to find what you might really need.”    (Crudely quoted with apologies to “Holmes” and Conan Doyle) 

That’s what has happened to all of us in these last six weeks —our mind’s attics are cluttered with junk—politics, fake news, complex science, science heros, “new” cures, virology, fear of being dumb, statistics and wiggly charts we do not understand —so much clutter has been packed in our attics that useless stuff like  grandmas’ old oil lamp and that leather bound 24 volume Encyclopedia Brittanica from 1938-your mom asked you to throw out—and you couldn’t do it—are the last entries which are sitting right up to the attic trap door entrance in such as way so no one can even get a finger grip on the edge to get up there and find  something really important.    

So let’s dump some of that junk and make space for what IS important.  

Just yesterday,  we learned from news releases that the Justice Department was abandoning the case against General Flynn—new evidence has made clear that an early and  thorough examination of Flynn had revealed NO collusion with Russia —but top echelon members of the FBI ignored this exculpatory evidence and continued to interview Flynn in a clear attempt to entrap him leading to him revealing information about incoming President Trump that could be used against him.  (They threatened to investigate his son, at that point he finally agreed to plead guilty. ) The second shoe to drop was  that Rep Adam Schiff was forced to release the massive testimony from secret hearings of his “House ‘Intelligence’ Committee” that made clear that there was NO evidence of Russian-Trump collusion during the run up to the 2016 election but that Mr. Schiff part of the cabal to destroy the new Administation—continued to lie to the American public about that.  Furthermore,  it was made apparent   that the top echelons of our previous administration —the Obama Administration—were all involved in a plan to help undermine the election of 2016.

Yes all those on the left who were “whining and wingeing” about Russian interference in the 2016 election were in fact those whose were actually actively attempting to abrogate the will of the people as expressed at the polls in 2016 with an “insurance policy” that would undermine the Trump Presidency or set up an inquisition that would lead to impeachment and unseating of a President.     

A few elites in the former President’s office and in the FBI and CIA and intelligence bureaus had the temerity and hubris to think that they were “the government” and that they should decide who is to lead this nation.  Their Holmsian“attics”  were cluttered with so much self serving, politicized junk that our nation’s most cherished and core idea was no longer in the forefront of their thinking —-Our Constitution’s main concept —that it is the PEOPLE who decide in a valid election who is to lead the nation. 

These folks —and now  there is evidence that even President Obama was aware of what they were doing and may be culpable of the same form of hubris—conspired to take down General Flynn and thereby weaken and debilitate the new administration —and continue on with an “insurance policy” which would ultimately overturn a legitimate election—of the Trump Administration—the choice of the People—-from taking the reins of government and making a successful transition for the benefit of the nation as a whole. 

The offense these conspirators committed—Strzok, Paige, Comey, Brennan, Clapper, Yates, etc. etc. etc. were the most egregious crimes against the State short of those actual  traitors of history such as Benedict Arnold and Arron Burr—

They attempted to undermine the will of the People. That is our most precious freedom.  Whether you voted for Mr. Trump or Ms Clinton in that last election you did so with the confidence that your vote counted and that the Constitution protected your freedoms. 

These conspirators were willing to undermine and abrogate your vote.

That is what should not get mixed up in that cluttered attic. It should sit out on your front lawn and become the focus of you daily thought. 

ON: CUOMO’S DISASTROUS NURSING HOME MANDATE & THE 66%

May 8, 2020 

I read with interest yesterday (May 6, 2020 Health and Science, by Dunn and Brenuninger,  CNBC) that our governor, Andrew Cuomo was “ shocked”  to learn from a study of 100 NY hospitals  that 2/3 (66%) of the new admissions to the hospital for covid 19 were from New Yorkers who were sheltering at home. The next largest group was  elderly  patients from nursing homes (18%) and the reminder from homeless, inmates, and other facilities. 

Our governor was “shocked”  to learn this sad fact.  I was not.  

Governor Cuomo is apparently unable to “connect the dots”—dots which  he created himself.  

It was on March 25, a few weeks back, that Mr. Cuomo made the startling  decision to mandate that our state nursing homes accept elderly patients and those that were recovering or diagnosed with Covid19.  

Mr Cuomo, too eager to use the covid pandemic to build up his favorability ratings, may have spent too much time bantering with his brother on that sibling’s TV program and not enough thinking about his gubernatorial actions. As a result, he failed to realize the disaster he was creating by forcing nursing homes to accept covid 19 patients.  Cuomo’s act placed the most vulnerable to covid 19, in danger.  In doing so he also exposed thousands of health care workers and their families who were responsible for the care of this vulnerable population to disease.  I suggest here that his mandate can in good part explain the “ shocking fact” of 18% nursing home elderly being admitted to hospital, as well as the 66% new hospitalizations from those sheltering at home.  

Let’s take a look at the numbers.  There are estimated more than  600 nursing homes in New York State according to the 2006,  Elliot Spitzer report (Staffing Levels in  New York Nursing Homes).  According to that report more than a quarter million elderly patient were being cared for in those facilities.  State staffing requirements for licensed “care givers” in those facilities require a minimum of 3.2 hours/ day/patient.  Assuming an eight hour day for these workers who care for a quarter million patients we can estimate (250,000 x 3.2 = 800,000 hours/ 8 hours = 100,000) the State would require a minimum of 100,000 licensed staff members to serve these patients. This estimate does not include the large group of support staff such facilities require for maintenance, cleaning, cooking etc. etc.  Thus the 100,000 number is probably very conservative estimate for 2020.   

So what was the result of Governor Cuomo’s thoughtless mandate?  He introduced covid 19 patients into nursing homes which were woefully unprepared for such patients. These facilities had no trained staff to deal with this disease, no proper PPE for staff, no isolation wards, no negative air pressure rooms, and no help from the governor’s office.  The result caused a massive increase in disease in these facilities.  (Recent data “discovered” 1700 “new” cases of nursing home deaths. )   The NY hospital study claims that 18% of new hospitalizations came from nursing homes.  How is it that the Governor could not relate those two facts?  He sends covid 19 patients into nursing homes and then reports on a nearly 20% increase of new hospitalizations from these facilities! There seems to be an obvious correlation there.  

But what about the 66% of those who were “sheltering at home” that Gov. Cuomo was so shocked about. .  Could it be that the more than 100,000 workers in those nursing homes who were untrained and who were forced to care for covid 19 patients without proper PPE and in unsafe circumstance were more likely to infect themselves and to carry the covid 19 virus back to their homes and to their families and loved ones sheltering at home?   One hundred thousand virus carriers is no insignificant number and could well account for a surge in disease in the “home sheltering population” and hospitalizations of same.   

Another factor which points the finger at Cuomo and his mandate is that nearly half of the new hospitalization cases were Afro-Americans and Hispanics —the most likely ethnic groups to be employed in these nursing home facilities. 

Connect the dots!   Send covid 19 patients to nursing homes—- get a surge of elderly sick patients from said nursing homes—force untrained, unprotected workers to treat covid 19 patients —get a big surge of Hispanic and Afroamerican patients who were sheltering at home and may well have been in contact with or related to infected nursing home workers.  

What was Gov. Cuomo thinking?  Or as Gerry Seinfeld would say that it—“he wasn’t.” 

ON: THE BLUE MUSSEL MYTILUS EDULUS

If there was one species of animal that I would include on my family crest—if I had one—the beautiful, glistening Blue Mussel, just plucked from its bed and. encrusted with barnacles, squiggly tube worms, bits of green and brown sea weed—and with its  triangular, gracefully curved  blue-gray shell, still dripping with sea water, would be a prominent element of my imaginary escutcheon. 

Some of my contemporaries have built illustrious careers on the backs of wild animals.  They are legendary: Dianne Fossy made herself famous studying the mountain gorilla, Jane Goodall did it with chimps, Craig Packer is the world expert on African lions, and Gavin Maxwell (of “Ring of Bright Water” fame) made his mark with Scottish otters, etc., etc.  but who ever heard of Bob Kalin and Blue Mussels?  No one.  I attempt  to rectify that here below.

Sadly, or by the Fates, young Bob chose an animal hardly anyone could empathize with.  My future was sealed into anonymity when I was seduced at a very early age by…an invertebrate!   Yes these critters are the soft, slithery sort with no backbones often encountered when turning over a big stone on a beach at ebb tide.  These unassuming wrigglers simply do not have the same allure or inspire the interest which the higher beasts, such as those more closely allied to our own species. So right from the gate I was a late starter facing a heavy track. 

Now,  I’m not blaming the social status of the Blue Mussel in its scientific hierarchical ranking system for any of the twists and turns in my sinuous career route.  Those events can not be  attributed to a lowly invertebrate—which in some religious circles is even considered “unclean” and shunned as food.   However, after many years of intimate relations with this specie— my “totem” animal—one can not help but appreciate its singular and unique characteristics.  

This species is abounds  with ironic and unexpected characteristics.  For example, the seemingly common Blue Mussel (Mytilus edulus) has a stellar, nay regal connection—its genus name:  “Mytilus” which is derived from that of the 3rd century BC King Mytilus of Illyria who reigned over a City State on the shores of the Adriatic Sea in what is now modern day Albania.  The species name, edulus is Latin and simply records that it was known as highly edible and desirable . .

This species belongs to the Phylum Mollusca (Gr: μύλος = soft bodied), but ironically, its most distinguishing characteristic is its hard calcareous shell. Recently is has been designated as belonging to Class “Bivalvia” (meaning = having two calcareous shells joined by a hinge).  Most zoologists continue to place the mussel in the Class Pelecypoda (Greek: πέλεκυς =“hatchet,  πόδι = foot”) but its “foot” does not serve as a ”hatchet, or look like one at all.  In fact, its  well developed (but not too muscular)“foot” is not used  for locomotion —it can not walk—this critter is officially sessile (attached and stationary)   But paradoxically unlike most sessile organisms—it can detach itself and move from one location to another,  Its foot does have glands which produce a sticky fluid which upon contact with sea water harden into strong “byssus” threads—so characteristic of mussels—but more of that later.  The mussel  also has a nervous system and collection of nervous tissue one could call a“brain”, but this unusual animal has  no head.  And like a fish, it has gills—but which are only secondarily used for respiration.

Its bluish-purple shell is its most distinctive characteristic.  The shape is a of a rounded triangular form and the two half shells are held together by hinge. The shell interior is smooth and covered with a glossy “nacreous” iridescent layer.  The interior of both half-shells are marked with a prominent round scar where the powerful closing muscle (the adductor muscle ) is—or was— attached.     Once the shell is removed the soft body of the Mytilus is exposed making it apparent why this animal is included in the Mollusca. 

The soft body is completely encased in a brownish-colored thin layer of tissue termed the “mantle”.  The mantle has the ability to secrete a layer  of aragonite mineral (a variety of calcium carbonate) which produces the shell. But this secretion occurs only at the very periphery of the mantle.  As the animal grows within the mantle—this organ simply adds new shell material along the “lips” to keep the shell growing at the same rate as the animal enclosed within.  The growth rate is not continuous or regular.  The animal grows slower an,  in the winter and faster in the spring and summer.  Thus the shell  shows growth lines similar to a tree’s annual rings but are not strictly ”annual” 

The mantle also produces a smooth, pearly inner layer called the nacreous layer which  gives the inner surface of the shell its attractive smooth, irridescent surface.  If a small grain of sand or a tiny shell fragment  happens to get caught between the mantle and the shell, the mantle responds by covering this irritant over with a thin layer of inner shell material to protect the mantle from irritation.  These little smooth nacreous covered particles can sometimes grow quite large (to several millimeters). These are the “pearls” of the mussel.  Some are very attractive.  

The mussel’s gills are well adapted to filter tiny particles of food suspended in the seawater.  It is claimed that Mytilus is able to filter as much as 25 liters (almost 7 gallons) of water per day.  In the process of feeding they help clean the water.  The particles of plankton and other organic materials are moved along by the gills into to its mouth.  Tiny cilia on the gills direct the food toward the mussels’ mouth.  (The tiny Pea Crab -about as big as a pencil eraser—lives among the gills. They survive there by sharing the food the mussel filtered out of the sea. water.  One study of mussel growth does suggest that mussels infested with Pea crabs do not grow as well as ones not infected.)

In regard to the mouth of the mussel, please remember this critter has no head—so its mouth is dangerously close to the distal end of its digestive system—its anus.  Another oddity, It does not open its shell for ingestion—to eat. The adductor muscle keeps it closed tightly. It draws in and filters sea water, through a siphon (like a straw) fashioned from its mantle.

For all intents and purposes mussels are immobile, strapping themselves to the sea bed or pilings with thin sticky protein threads, like Prometheus chained to the rock.  The threads —we called them “beards”—are known as byssus threads (Greek for “fine yellow linen fabric”).  Though,  oddly with all these “promethean chains“ attached firmly to the sea bed,  a mussel can still adjust its position and actually move  around to repositon itself in the bed a small degree using the byssus threads as pulleys and drag lines.

And like Prometheus chained to its rock the mussel gave to man a great gift. It presented to man itself a delectable food. And that is how the mussel and I first became acquainted. 

My earliest and most pleasant recollections of this species of Phylum Mollusca, Class Pelecypoda (Bivalvia) was as a child mussel gatherer.  My grandfather,, a native of Bari on the  Italian, Adriatic coast, was, as are alll those who hail from that area of Italy, a connoisseur of shellfish. (King Mytilus lived on the opposite eastern shore of this sea).  Grandpa came to beach always prepared  to enjoy the abundant shellfish. On each foray he carried a tattered grey canvas tote bag from which poked the long crusty heel of a “bastone”-loaf of Italian bread. Within the bag one would find an ancient bone-handled pocket knife (the blade was rusted open) and always ”il lemone”, that fragrant Mediterranean fruit, the juice of which was essential for seasoning a raw clam, oyster or mussel—And is a child needed medication to sooth bee sting or to disinfect a knee scrape—the lemon was ready..   But an important tradition Grandpa insisted on was that that each grandchild had to eat at least one mussel on the half-shel with a squeeze of fresh lemon and a crust of bread.  

 On our summer family jaunts to the beaches on Long Island’s north shore in the 1950s  my young cousins and I were lured to the beach on a warm summer day expecting a refreshing swim in the clear blue waters of Long Island Sound—only to find that we most often arrived at ebb (low) tide—and rather than splashing and swimming in the foamy surf we were going to be put to work as shellfish gatherers.  Each was presented with a round wood-lath basket wedged  in the inner tube (with multiple colored patches) of an automobile tire.  Then we were directed out into the shallows to collect mussels.  Some of my cousins, having earlier experiences claimed illness, sore feet, or deep fears of crab-bitten toes, as well as cuts and scrapes on sharp, barnacle-encrusted rocks.  The girls got away with this more often,  but the boys more often had to brave the cold water and suppress their fear of the unseen crabs and imaginary threats to feet and legs.  Some with their baskets only nominally filled scuttled back to shore—often a good hundred feet away.   But I, no braver, but more curious and  fascinated with the panoply of diverse critters, so enjoyed the experience I persisted even ignoring the barnacle scrapes and water=wrinkled hands. Not always following directions exactly to Grandpas’ specifications about filling my basket—but I did work hard at discovery. 

In the waist deep water a few hundred feet off the beach on the sandy bottom we would encounter the well-camouflaged Calico Crab, an occasional swift-swimming Blue Crab, and I partly hidden among the waving sea lettuce, Irish moss, filmy red algae and brown rock weed—there were the banks of dark, blue/black mussels. The tight lipped dark shells, encrusted with barnacles, and tied to the bottom and to each other  with their tough byssus threads lay among the sea lettuce and rock weed spotted with barnacles and marked up with the white hieroglyphs of sea-worm tubes. Our water-wrinkled hands reached down, parting the algae with our faces close enough to the sea water so that little waves splashed to tease our lips with its salt.   We tugged at the biggest mussel we would could see through the undulating surface and pulled it others with it up. When the clump broke the surface,  its came alive  with tiny fluttering wriggling crustaceans copepods and amphipods which squirmed and slithered frantically back into the sea, and others which retreated among the adhering barnacles and patches of green sea weed.  

The mussel clumps had to be pulled up and then the individual mussels separated and dumped into the basket. This process often revealed larger Crustacea like sand shrimp, wriggling Blood Worms and the beautiful, red-legged polychete Sand Worm with its  curved large black fangs that could bite a kid’s finger. All these fascinating critters would tumble into the floating basket.  Most would settle down among the catch and then escape through the wood crevices back into the seawater.  There they would drift down to the sand bottom to wriggle or swim away among the waving sea lettuce and rock weed.. 

On occasion a pipefish—closely related to the sea horse would come up with a mussel clump More often we would pull up the face legged red star fish.  I never failed to turn these animals of the Phylum Echinodermata (spiny skinned) to watch with amazement the thousands of little foot- siphons sucking eagerly for water on the undersides of their “legs”.  I did try to throw them far from the mussel beds because it was with this thousands of sucking feet they they eventually opened the tightly closed shell of the mussel—extruded their stomach into its shell and ate the poor mussel in its own shell.   

There was so much life among those mussel beds! 

Once I stepped on a big slippery summer flounder buried in the fine sand between clumps of mussel beds. It wiggled energetically and then slippery—it erupted from under my foot to swim off and disappear. Another time a big Tautog (Blackfish) dashed out from among the waving greens as I reached down to part  them and swam away in a puff of sand to bury itself in a more distant clump of sea weed.  

Soon the baskets were full and the mussel gathering kids all waded to shore.  On the way we felt with or are feet in the sandy patches  for the occasional hardshell clam of even better, according to grandpa,  the tall bulge of a buried  Busycon or Channled Whelk—he called it a “scungilii”— and favored it for its flavor and size among the many others shellfish we collected.. 

On the beach, the baskets were emptied next to a large rock or a wave and sand smoothed log which had floated up on shore  and the entire family got busy cleaning the beautiful blue mussels of their encrustations of sea life in anticipation of the feast to come at home.  Grandpa was very particular about this.  The mussels had to be completely cleaned of all encrustations.  

In the 1950s on Long Island’s North Shore the local residents all favored the Quahog or hardshell clam, the steamer clam or the oyster.  No one knew that the beautiful Blue Mussel was edible.  Grandpa liked it that way.  So we had instructions to respond to the question (“Say what do you do with those? Are they edible?”) posed by locals who might stroll by while we were on the beach happily cleaning our catch: we were instructed to say:  My response was:  ”No” (I often smiled here as if the query was a really dumb  one. ) “NO. WE USE THESE FOR FISH CHUM—we crank em up and throw em over the side of the boat”. That last seemed to satisfy my questioners—it seemed rational and fit in with their preceptions. So everyone was happy.

I hated to lie. I think I was.more offended to besmirch the reputation of our lovely mussels than the telling an untruth.  These folks believed us.  Fortunately for Grandpa—mussels did not become a popular shellfish food until decades later.  

A good fifteen years later, I remembered that untruth I told about the edibility of Mytilus edulus when I was working in New York City for a publishing house as a science copy editor.  To celebrate a successful series publication the owner of our company invited all of his small editorial staff out to dinner in a swanky Italian Restaurant.  There, our very sophisticated boss recommended that we all try the fabulous shellfish on the menu that night. The great platter came out with fanfare —and to my surprise—there in all its encrusted glory was my Blue Mussels—this time slathered in a fragrant and tasty tomato sauce.  All my colleagues eagerly dig in—licking  their fingers and making their lips sla over a shell fish I once claimed were inedible and used for bait.  Grandpa would not have appreciated the fact that the mussels seemed to have come from the sea to the plate with very little attention at scrubbing the shells clean of encrustation.   No one seemed to notice.

What an introduction to invertebrate zoology I was so lucky to have had at such an early age. The fascination with the sea shore and its creatures has never left me—or abated or the taste of a nice plump mussel just freshly picked from the sea.  

So as well as these unusual characteristics that attracted me and forged my life long relationship with the Blue Mussel (Mytilis edulus)—it is also a highly desired and delectable food source.  It is eaten raw, baked on the half shell (my favorite), cooked in sauces, in paellla, smoked, dried, salted, etc. etc.  But I must add even beyond its attraction as a food it has also been a source of recreation, curiosity and and satisfying discovery for much of my life.  

But in my professional life—there were no mussels to ponder or study.

Besides being beautiful and a gustatory treat, the Blue Mussel is—like all of us Americans —an immigrant species. It must have arrived here attached by its unique byssal threads—we called them “its beard” the strong strands of thread each with a little circular patch where it adheres to a rock, piling, other mussel, or sea bed —these must have attached this Adriatic Sea and European native to the wormy and barnacle encrusted hull of every Old World vessel while in their  home port and then hitched  a long sea voyage —happily feeding and growing on the months-long sea voyage. In the New World it its juveniles settled here on North American rocks. 

As a professional archeologist working most of my career on prehistoric sites on Long Island I have dug numerous coastal Prehistoric Native American sites, but never once came upon a single  mussel shell—among the myriad of shells easily observed in the sometimes massive prehistoric shell mounds. In these site the Quahog, soft shell, Credipula, jacknife or razor clams and others all were apparently collected and avidly eaten by the Algonquian natives, who resided for thousands of years along our shores—there were no mussels. (At least on Long Is;and)  As a food source the Blue Mussel was easier to exploit,-no digging necessary— with more fat and protein per kilogram of live weight, and better tasting than some of the critters that were exploited.  So like other immigrants the Blue Mussel may have arrived with the Pilgrims or perhaps the Norsemen—but were not here for the aboriginal early Americans of Long Island from Montauk to western bays of Long Island Sound. 

ΟΝ CV19: SOME OBSERVATIONS ON DEATH RATES, NURSING HOMES

We can not escape the Media’s obsession with the Covid19 pandemic.  It sells copy and boosts viewership figures,  but too often these data are used  only to exaggerate politicized claims of one side or another.  Too often the headlines are:the “USA has the highest figures for Covid Deaths”.  

Mortality Rates Selected Natons April 30,2020

Country	Covid 19 Mortality	2020 Population	Mortality/Population	Mortality/Million
China	4,633	1,400,000,000	0.000003	3
Japan	442	126,000,000	0.000004	4
So. Korea	247	51,000,000	0.000005	5
Iran	5,877	84,000,000	0.000070	70
Germany	6,314	84,000,000	0.000075	75
Canada	3000	38,000,000	0.000079	78
Hubei Province Ch	4,633	59,000,000	0.000079	79
USA	59,266	320,000,000	0.000185	185
Netherlands	4,566	17,000,000	0.000269	268
UK	21,678	68,000,000	0.000319	318
France	23,660	65,000,000	0.000364	364
Italy	27,359	60,000,000	0.000456	455
Spain	23,822	47,000,000	0.000507	506
Belgium	7,331	12,000,000	0.000611	610
			μ = 216	216
Note that data fro China is represented twice
	Mean= 216,	MED = 172	Range=607	N=14

Figure 1. Chart of Covid 19 death rates for selected nations with crude data on mortality.

So what about the common use of raw cv19 mortality values  bandied about in the press as if these some how represented the nation’s state of epidemic readiness, political intention or technical ability, or as a means to characterize how a nation leadership is functioning  relative to the pandemic. 

Sadly the USA has experienced over 60,000 deaths (May 1, 2020) attributed to Coronavirus.   Italy is next with almost 30,000 deaths and France and Spain both record about 23,000 deaths. Belgium seems a bit better with only 7,000 deaths.  But what does this mean?  Not much.  

The raw figures are not “comparable”. They do not take into account the most obvious variable-the size of the population of the nation being evaluated.  . For a more meaningful look at these data one must take the population of that nation or entity into account by dividing the deaths (numerator) by the population (denominator) and multiplying by some standard value. In Figure 1 I chose to use the unit value of one million population. 

Figure 1 above records the raw data as well as a calculation of the deaths per one million population.  Population figures were taken from standard sources.  Rates of Covid 19 (cv19)  were resourced on the internet in various postings for April 29, 2020. . 

The Chinese values are those  reported in the media.  They at first seemed suspect since they were so far off values  for western democratic nations.  But when compared to other nations in Asia they apoear to be similar to those vales. So I included them.   I also included a calculation of the mortality/million population from  Huawei Province, China, (provincial capital city is Wuhan) since the Chinese reported that they actually encapsulated Wuhan and its surroundings in the early days of the outbreak.  Hubei’s provincial population values are those of a small nation. As well , they tend to coincide with several other nations of approximately the same size.  I included these data as well. They seem to suggest that China's data may have been reported accurately. The ability to ruthlessly seal of a province may have protected the rest of the nation from large scale outbreak of the disease. 

What stands out is that the USA,  though it has the highest raw number of deaths attributed to cv19  it is just about average (185/mill) when its population size is accounted for  on a per /million basis.

Casual evaluation of these data seem to reveal three different groups of nations.  The “Asian Group” which has reported single digit vales for deaths per million.  The “Canadian Group” with double digit figures for deaths/million and the “USA-Eu Group” which has values in the hundreds ranging from almost two hundred (USA) to 600 for Belgium . 

There must be many factors controlling these results.  One of these certainly is how the data is collected.  China for example as noted above is an authoritarian regime which can make decisions such as completer shut down and isolation of a province. That ability certainly must have had its effects on the outbreak.  Germany for example only records  Coronavirus deaths if the postmortem tests indicate the presence of the Covid 19 virus. That may skew it’s values to lower results. Other nations may over-counts cv19 deaths. Some claim Belgium does this. Iran’s  numbers are very close to those of Germany—both nations have near identical populations.  But two very different levels of medical care and care availability. Some claim that Iran’s figures may be  skewed by recording data from large city hospitals, while deaths in the countryside are largely underreported.  This seems very likely.  

Its obvious from what we now know of the virus that the age of the population is a powerful factor in mortality.  Older populations suffer more deaths. Further refinement of these data in Figure 1.  might be enhanced by evaluating the average age of the populations of nations, etc. .  In addition, we know that obesity and diabetes are important factors in mortality rates.  The Asian group may have lower mortality due to the fact that Asian populations are known to suffer very low rates of these two conditions which are very common in the USA-European group.  A glaring disparity between the Asian and USA-Eu groups may be the higher rates of diabetes and obesity in the latter countries.  Such evaluations should be pursued. 

Finally, the striking differences in mortality vales between  Asian and USA-EU nations may also be in good part attributed to the way western nation  treat the elderly.  In general, Asia cultures tend to hold the elderly in high respect and when they become infirm are cared for at home..often by family members.  In the west that is not the case.  In our modern society where everyone works there is no one home to care for the elderly.  Nursing homes and care homes have become  a major industry in the  modern era.  With the exception of Germany, where there are estimated two million elderly, but the vast majority (70%) are cared for at home by family members—the rest of the EU is quite different story.  Long term care homes  (UK) and nursing homes (USA) are a very large part of the social system. 

In the USA there are 15,600 nursing homes occupied by 1.4 million patients.  France has 7000  nursing homes /care homes where 600,000 elderly are cared for.   Belgium has 140,000 beds in nursing and care homes.  In Belgium it is claimed that as much as one half a of all deaths from cv19 occurred in nursing homes.  In Spain where there are 5,400 nursing homes 20% of cv19 deaths occurred in these homes.  In the UK there are 17,000 nursing homes and 400,000 residents.  

These nursing homes and care facilities have been hit very hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Here in New York State, in one of our most isolated communities, Greenport, Long Island on the eastern tip of the North Fork...a string of several deaths in a large nursing home in this community was reported when  the disease was unknown on the Island and very early in the pandemic.  In a suburb of  Syracuse, NY— far from the NY City hot spot—, a care facility there with 140 residential apartments were found to have ten percent of the residents infected with cv19.   Then too in NY State Gov. Cuomo (who famously observed that the virus was having a “feeding frenzy” in nursing homes) nevertheless mandated that recovering covid 19 patients be placed in nursing homes to complete  their recovery period. The results of this action were tragic.  These ‘recovering”  covid 19 patients —many still symptomatic and shedding viruses—were transported to nursing homes where the staff and facilities were not equipped with PPE or with trained personnel to protect the most vulnerable elderly residents from a deadly disease.  Thousands of these old and vulnerable folks tragically died in their beds.  So far gov. Cuomo has not been taken to task for this horrible error in judgement.  The USA has not tabulated the total deaths from nursing homes but they must be sizable. 

The toll on elderly trapped in nursing and care homes has not been confined to NY State or to the USA.  All over Europe we have herd of similar reports of dozens of elderly dying in nursing and care homes.  In Spain there were reports of many elderly dying in their beds and being abandoned there.   

Thus in conclusion is appears that the disparity in rate of deaths may be as many have said related largely to the health and age of the populations infected as well as cultural factors such as how we treat our elderly.