Trump banned from Facebook indefinitely, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says
Meanwhile the rest of us get punished for other peoples actions
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday that the social media giant is banning President Trump indefinitely, marking a dramatic escalation of the conflict between Silicon Valley and the White House after Trump weaponized the Web to help stoke a riot at the U.S. Capitol.
“We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”
Facebook’s suspension marked the most aggressive penalty that any social media company has meted out to Trump over his four-year term, a period in which he has repeatedly peddled falsehoods, attacked critics and spread divisive rhetoric online. Twitter on Wednesday evening also suspended Trump for 12 hours, but the company’s first-ever blockade lifted Thursday morning. By evening, Trump resumed tweeting — sharing a video that acknowledged the “new administration” soon to be inaugurated.
The tech giants each took the rare aggressive steps after a violent mob stormed the House and Senate Wednesday, forcing lawmakers into a lockdown and briefly interrupting their formal process to certify Joe Biden as the next president of the United States. In failing to act until after the deadly riot occurred, Facebook, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube have faced sharp criticism saying they should have done more, and sooner, to stop Trump from helping provoke the situation.
Twitter, Facebook lock Trump’s accounts amid D.C. riots
“While I’m pleased to see social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube take long-belated steps to address the President’s sustained misuse of their platforms to sow discord and violence, these isolated actions are both too late and not nearly enough,” Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) said in a statement. “Disinformation and extremism researchers have for years pointed to broader network-based exploitation of these platforms.”
Critics also noted that the moves by tech companies appeared politically expedient, coming as Democrats take full control of Congress and Trump prepares to depart the White House in 13 days.
original article here https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/07/trump-twitter-ban/
Elfen’s TBT R&B 1980 Music Video Michael Jackson rock with you
Michael Jackson was on EVERY ONES radio. Dj (Disk Jockeys) Play this on rotation. Michael Jackson got is big as he did simply because of the dish jockey he was the one who chose that particular song he knew that this song was going to be a hit just my instinct and boy were they right! Is stayed on the pop and R&B charts for four weeks
Kevin Hart Reacts to White protesters breaking into the capital if these were Black protesters they’ve been shot
This time I have to agree it’s right .
Ossoff scores victory over Perdue in Senate runoff
Democrat Jon Ossoff has defeated Republican David Perdue in the remaining Georgia Senate race — clinching control of the chamber for his party after fellow Democrat Raphael Warnock triumphed in the state’s other runoff election.
Ossoff, an investigative journalist and former congressional candidate, had 50.3 percent of the vote to Perdue’s 49.7 percent when The Associated Press called the race on Wednesday, with 98 percent of precincts reporting.
Ossoff’s victory resets the Senate’s balance of power at 50-50 and comes after Warnock vanquished incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler earlier on Wednesday — securing a Democratic majority for the first time since 2014 due to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s ability to cast tie-breaking votes in the chamber.
Democrats’ twin victories in Georgia have huge implications for President-elect Joe Biden’s legislative agenda, as he will not be forced to navigate a Republican Senate and negotiate with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell during the opening years of his administration.
The Georgia results also represent a triumphant coda for Democrats’ 2020 campaign season, which began last year with high hopes for wresting back control of the Senate.
Instead, Democratic candidates fell short in many battlegrounds across the country, while the races for Georgia’s two Senate seats proceeded to runoffs after no candidate earned more than 50 percent of the vote in the November election.
original article here https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/06/jon-ossoff-wins-georgia-runoff-455596
Los Angeles County ambulance crews told not to transport patients with little chance of survival
(CNN) — Los Angeles County has been fighting a brutal battle against Covid-19 for weeks now.
New infections have soared with about one in five residents who get tested for Covid-19 receiving positive results.
In a little more than a month, the county doubled its number of infections, climbing from about 400,000 cases on November 30 to more than 800,000 cases on January 2, health officials said Monday.
The case deluge has translated to a surge of Covid-19 patients, overwhelming hospitals and plunging intensive care unit capacity across the region to zero. There are now more than 7,600 people hospitalized with Covid-19 in in the county, 21% of whom are in the ICU, officials said
With no hospital beds available, ambulance crews in the county were given guidance not to transport patients with little chance of survival. And the patients who are transported often have to wait hours before a bed is available.
“Hospitals are declaring internal disasters and having to open church gyms to serve as hospital units,” Supervisor Hilda Solis said, calling the situation a “human disaster.”
And a person is dying of the virus every 15 minutes, Los Angeles County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer said.
But it will get worse. Officials say they’re headed into the feared surge stemming from holiday gatherings.
“The increases in cases are likely to continue for weeks to come as a result of holiday and New Year’s Eve parties and returning travelers,” Ferrer said. “We’re likely to experience the worst conditions in January that we’ve faced the entire pandemic, and that’s hard to imagine.”
Here’s just how bad things already are.
Ambulance crews given grim instructions
As hospitalizations climb, the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency (EMS) directed ambulance crews not to transport patients with little chance of survival to hospitals and to conserve the use of oxygen.
Before the pandemic, when healthcare workers and resources were more readily available, patients who were unlikely to recover could be transported by ambulance to the hospital for treatment.
But Los Angeles hospitals are now at capacity and many medical facilities don’t have the space to take in patients who do not have a chance of survival, the agency said. Patients whose hearts have stopped despite efforts of resuscitation, the county EMS said, should no longer be transported to hospitals.
“Effective immediately, due to the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on EMS and 9-1-1 Receiving Hospitals, adult patients (18 years of age or older) in blunt traumatic and nontraumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) shall not be transported [if]return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) is not achieved in the field,” the agency said in a memo issued to ambulance workers last week.
If there are no signs of breathing or a pulse, EMS will continue to perform resuscitation for at least 20 minutes, the memo said. If the patient is stabilized after the period of resuscitation, they would then be taken to a hospital. If the patient is declared dead at the scene or no pulse can be restored, paramedics will no longer transport the body to the hospital.
And the shortage of oxygen, given the high number of Covid-19 patients, has also pressured the system to conserve supply.
“Given the acute need to conserve oxygen, effective immediately, EMS should only administer supplemental oxygen to patients with oxygen saturation below 90%,” EMS said in a memo to ambulance crews Monday.
Ambulances wait for hours outside hospitals
And even after they arrive at hospitals, some EMTs have to wait outside for hours, as hospitals often don’t have enough beds to take the patients in.
“We are waiting two to four hours minimum to a hospital and now we are having to drive even further… then wait another three hours,” EMT Jimmy Webb told CNN affiliate KCAL.
Local officials have tried to encourage the public not to call 911 unless “they really need to,” Dr. Marc Eckstein, the commander of the Los Angeles Fire Department EMS bureau, told CNN affiliate KABC.
“One of our biggest challenges right now is getting our ambulances out of the emergency department,” Eckstein told the affiliate. “When our paramedics and EMTs transport a patient to an emergency department, there’s a transfer of care that has to take place. Patients who are unstable or unable to be safely transferred to the waiting room or to a chair, need a bed in the emergency department to be transferred to. And those beds are lacking right now.”
And while ambulances are waiting at hospitals, there are fewer of them to respond to other 911 calls that are coming in, leading to delayed responses.
“I think this next four-to-six week period is going to be critical with our system being taxed,” Eckstein added.
via: https://www.kmov.com/news/los-angeles-county-ambulance-crews-told-not-to-transport-patients-with-little-chance-of-survival/article_37ee45ba-8f8f-5599-b6b3-e9f84efee6c3.html
Photo Credit: kmov.com
Texas hospital offers workers $500 bonus to get COVID-19 vaccine
One of the largest health care centers in Texas is offering workers a $500 “bonus” if they get vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a report Wednesday.
Employees at Houston Methodist — the state’s third-biggest hospital system with 26,000 employees — is doling out the dough as a “thank you” for hard work during the coronavirus crisis, according to CNN.
“Eligibility criteria will include getting a COVID-19 vaccination, fulfilling our obligation as health care workers to lead the community,” hospital president Marc Boom wrote in an email obtained by the outlet.
“This bonus is a thank you for your perseverance throughout a difficult 2020 as well as something to look forward to, to provide hope, during the next couple of challenging months.”
He added that vaccinations aren’t currently required for workers at the hospital — but eventually will be.
It wasn’t immediately clear if any of the health care staffers have objected to the policy. But in New York, around 30 percent of medical workers have refused the vaccine, according to officials.
At the Texas hospital, 55 percent of workers have been vaccinated since it began administering the jabs on December 15, a hospital rep told the station.
In November, workers at the hospital also received a $500 bonus for their work during the pandemic.
via: https://nypost.com/2021/01/06/texas-hospital-offers-workers-500-to-get-covid-19-vaccine/
Photo Credit: @GregAbbott_TX
Iyanla Vanzant on exiting ‘Fix My Life’: ‘I don’t want that energy’
As a guest on Real Quick with Danielle Young, the host and life coach expressed positive thoughts on the ending of her show and made it clear that although the broadcast is over, the work does not stop.
“It is liberating. It is good. It’s good to have been able to do something with excellence and love, and then get the opportunity to say, let me do something else. It doesn’t define me. I’ve been doing this work for 34 years. I’ve been on TV for eight. It’s just part of the evolution,” she remarked. “I’ll be around, I’m just not doing Fix My Life anymore.
She also shared the sometimes negative behavior exhibited by guests as she attempted to work them through trauma is one reason she decided to wrap things up.
“The one thing that eight years of Fix My Life has taught me is how mean and nasty and unkind people can be. I don’t want that energy in my life anymore,” Vanzant remarked. “I don’t want people calling me names and talking about me. I’m just very sensitive to energy. I don’t deserve it and I don’t want it. So now, if you want a piece of me, you’ve got to come to me and you got to pay for it.”
Vanzant went on to explain how her own life has ups and downs, however, she is ready for what’s next.
“As long as you are alive, you’re going to have challenges, hurdles, and obstacles, but you’re also going to have joys and victories. I plan to be alive for a little while. My greatest challenge right now is trying to get my lashes on,” she shared.
“My life isn’t broken. My life is evolving and I am being prepared for things that I’m not prepared for now. I don’t know what’s coming to me. But I do know this, which is another reason I’m leaving Fix My Life. I have hit the apex of everything that I know. I’ve hit that apex. So it’s time for me to go to the next level. Which is a level of learning, growing, risking, and changing and evolving. And I don’t need to do that on television.”
In October, theGrio reported Vanzant’s decision to end her popular show. During a virtual press conference, she initially revealed the current and upcoming season would be her final. The six-time New York Times best-selling author excitedly shared the news.
“This is my last season. This is my legacy season, I’m out. We out. 2020,” she exclaimed.
“The only thing that I do on the show is act out things that I’ve been writing about and teaching for 38 years…Where’s my Nobel Peace Prize?” she laughed during the press event.
Iyanla Fix My Life is aired on OWN, the television network under the leadership and ownership of Oprah Winfrey. It premiered in 2012 and featured both famous and non-famous guests who sought to overcome issues of past or present with Vanzant’s guidance. DMX, Karrueche Tran, and Trina Braxton have all appeared on the show.
via: https://thegrio.com/2021/01/01/iyanla-vanzant-exiting-fix-my-life/
Photo Credit: thegrio
