Celebrating Martin Luther King, A Year After January 6 and A New President - What's The future

 It's been a while I've written and I apologize as some of my readers has been asking they haven't heard from me. Like most of all of you, I've been fighting I al lot of personal fires of survival. Life has been tough believe it of not. Yes, we we open the year with a high bar, high hopes with a new administration yet Covid-19 seem to proliferate our lives to the point that were all tired from it at this point,

I remember back then when it was Dr. King's special day I would write a blog remembering his fight on civil rights, remembering the march and his death. Well this year, right on the eve of this special holiday, I'm watching cable TV on a hostage situation in Texas on Jewish house of worship where the hostage taker took four (4) hostages. A law enforcement official earlier told the AP that the hostage-taker demanded the release of a Pakistani neuroscientist suspected of having ties to al-Qaida. The hostage-taker was heard demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani neuroscientist suspected of having ties to al-Qaida, the officials said. He also said he wanted to be able to speak with her, according to the officials. Siddiqui is in federal prison in Texas.  …Quoted from the Concho Valley News.. The event was livestream in Facebook initially so the worshippers was able to see it.

This story goes longer but in short, The Jewish community preys target in this case for this hostage taker as a reason and also as an exchange in is mind to release for this person stated above. January 6, is another story to tell that happen in regards to the republic and turn over of the new President.

I'm trying to remember the year but it's quite really hard to remember as there were so many things that happen. And much of them as I have mentioned at the start was mostly putting out fires which is one of the reasons I hardly had time myself to even write a blog. A lot of times is survival, stretching the wallet and time, fixing what needs to be fix as if there is always no time. 

There were so many calamities this year, I know they say unemployment numbers looks good in spite of the inflation we have never seen in decades. They also say that Americans had been quitting jobs in droves to look for new ones. There are also a lot of un-vaccinated dying of Covid-19 but do we know if all all of them are really non believers or because they do not have insurance and are not informed?  And if you are a real common lay person, you might agree you are just tired of fighting to survive everyday?

I know people sometimes get tired when I compare my destination visits but this is how I can see the changes that happen from time to time.

Last night, I decided to take the underground in San Francisco and explore the "Castro". I was hoping the grab a bite on a favorite Japanese restaurant I have not been to in about 7 months. The first thing I notice was on weekend the Castro looks like a Ghost Town even seeing some homeless by 18th St. Not only was favorite Japanese restaurant now closed so as some restaurant and shops that did not survive with this pandemic. From my qualified guess, either my favorite restaurant was not a recipient of the American Rescue Plan Package for Restaurants or they already exhausted it.  I know for a fact that even though you have received any kind of help before for the pandemic, it would have been exhausted by now.

When the pandemic started for example in California, one can file for Unemployment if you have lost half or part of you income. For example, in San Francisco, it is a convention and tourism city. So one can have multiple sources of income and employers. Nowadays, they have eliminated that option as a reason that you lost part of your income. So if your wondering why the unemployment numbers are looking good now and those that are filing for unemployment have gone down, here's one good reason why. Likewise, for some it's just complicated in reporting and they feel they make a mistake so might as well so forget it on filing.

Let me also touch a little on Immigration. I can't help but start on this with Afghanistan. I respect the fact that it was a necessary undertaking and that we needed to bring the refugees for relocation. At the same I was reading an online article last night a US resident stuck either in Europe or UAE with a wife about to have birth in 23 days. Luckily, he has news coverage trying to appeal to the State Dept. as the US Embassy where he was was still on locked down and he cannot be scheduled for interview so he can travel back to the US. What's my point here?  In the United States as we all know, Immigration Reform was on the list on the President's agenda when he took office. We now know that by now there is slim chances that this will pass through the US Senate. During the Covid-19 pandemic there are so many Approved I-130 Green Card Permanent Alien Petitions by US Citizens to their Immediate Families to be scheduled to US Embassies and Consulates Overseas that are on hold since 2019.

These petitions are from family members who have been waiting legally in the US to adjust their status as far 3o years. And since 2019 they still have to wait again due to covid-19 pandemic and all they get from the Dept. of State and USCIS are reminders that the interviews cannot be scheduled yet. 

New York (CNN Business)The US Chamber of Commerce is calling for doubling the number of legal immigrants into America as a way to ease inflation and the worker shortage.

"We need more workers. We should welcome people who want to come here, go to school and stay," Chamber of Commerce CEO Suzanne Clark told reporters during a press conference on Tuesday. "That is a place the government could be particularly helpful and we do believe it would be anti-inflationary."

Clark added that ramping up immigration would help to ease the supply chain disruptions that are at the heart of the inflation spike, including the shortage of truck drivers.

"If we can alleviate the worker shortage, it might be the fastest thing to do to impact inflation," Clark said.

Life moving forward 2020, a new hope out of the a year of the Covid-19 Pandemic

 

San Francisco, Ca 4 hours before the clock ticks to 2021 where the shelter in place is about to expire on Monday just got extended indefinitely in lieu of the looming crisis in the State's almost out of ICU beds. Meanwhile, local authorities has been vocally strict tonight on private gatherings that might trigger more unforeseen infections. I had to appreciate watching John Meyer on CNN's special New Year's broadcast while he plays the piano and sings live from LA as replacement of the annual fireworks display at the waterfront at the Embarcadero Pier. I started with the Anti-Masking Meeting photo image courtesy of the  ©newspapers.com/aschultz138 From the San Francisco Chronical, 25th January 1919 to give a little history on "Restricting what people can do is always hotly debated, and the recent debate in the press on the need to wear masks while in public spaces and on public transport is not a modern concern. Historian Samuel Cohen has referred to the ‘anti-mask league’ of San Francisco in early 1919, which gained backing from several thousand people opposed to wearing a mask" https://microbiologysociety.org  As we know all the way back in March San Francisco was the first city to place a shelter in place and tonight out of caution again hence is why it extended it's shelter in place indefinitely until the State's Covid-19 crisis is over. If you are resident of San Francisco or are familiar with the city you understand why SF is indeed highly cautious on this. Notwithstanding on the 1919 history, similar to what Los Angeles is now undergoing, the city is heavily dense with a large homeless population and also a lot of communities of color and minorities. It's like a time bomb in laymen's terms that especially with the new discovered strain of covid-19, when an area like the tenderloin neighborhood area gets hits for example, that alone will already take the whole infrastructure beds of the city's San Francisco General Hospital. 

American Crisis, author Gov. Andrew Cuomo ells the riveting story of how he took charge in the fight against COVID-19 as New York became the epicenter of the pandemic, offering hard-won lessons in leadership and his vision for the path forward.

When COVID-19 besieged the United States, New York State emerged as the global “ground zero” for a deadly contagion that threatened the lives and livelihoods of millions. Quickly, Governor Andrew Cuomo provided the leadership to address the threat, becoming the standard-bearer of the organized response the country desperately needed. With infection rates spiking and more people dying every day, the systems and functions necessary to combat the pandemic in New York—and America—did not exist. So Cuomo undertook the impossible. He unified people to rise to the challenge and was relentless in his pursuit of scientific facts and data. He quelled fear while implementing an extraordinary plan for flattening the curve of infection. He and his team worked day and night to protect the people of New York, despite roadblocks presented by a president incapable of leadership and addicted to transactional politics.

Cuomo, did what he had to do but we have to note also that prior to his actions, he did not think that Covid-19 was a problem. When he realized the problem and tackled it, he did his best as much of our state and local leaders. The pandemic response varied from state to state then. In California, for example Gov. Gavin Newsom was the first Governor to install the shelter in place and California had a good success in Spring to Summer of bending the pandemic curve on infections and hospitalizations.

As we end 2020. Newsom even has a recall battle due to the state restrictions on lockdowns and mask while the State of CA's had a total of 2,245,379 cases where there was  27,237 today and 428 deaths  out of a total death of 25,386.

One of the biggest challenge of the pandemic crisis  from acknowledgement, testing to now vaccinations really boils down to a  national body or response. It's been a pin pointing between the Federal and State levels of government. The promised 20 million vaccinations as we end 2020 was only 2 million. Meanwhile Astra-Zeneca's vaccine in the Uk just got approved and might get the English vaccinated by half of 2021. One of the debatable discussions is that the United Kingdom has a National Health Service.

Looking at the incoming Biden-Harris administration's Covid-19 plan, it talk's about:

Establish and fund a U.S. Public Health Service Reserve Corps to activate former Public Health Service Commissioned Corps officers to expand medical and public health capacity. By creating the Reserve Corps, we will have a larger team of health professionals to deploy across the nation to help train health care systems in detection and response, educate the public, provide direct patient care as needed, and support the public health infrastructure in communities that are often under-resourced and struggling.

Looking at this plan, I found the paid sick leave for Covid-19 where California's paid sick leave tax incentive for employers expires tonight when the clock ticks to 2021. 

The Biden Plan calls for an emergency paid leave program that will ensure that all workers can take paid leave during the COVID-19 crisis. It calls for passage of the Healthy Families Act with the addition of an emergency plan that will require 14 days of paid leave for those who are sick, exposed, or subject to quarantines—while also ensuring that employers will not bear any additional costs for such additional leave in the midst of this crisis. 

So let's hope, watch and see moving forward for a new hope this 2021.