Souls, Saints, and the “Permanent Things” By James V. Schall, S.J. on Oct 31, 2020

 

View this email in your browser Our vocation to holiness and the wondrous variety of the saints By Fr. Charles Fox on Oct 31, 2020 07:45 pm Saint Augustine has referred to the Sermon on the Mount as the “charter of the whole Christian life.” The first part of the Sermon, the Beatitudes, is proclaimed at Mass on the Solemnity of All [...] Read in browser »   Souls, Saints, and the “Permanent Things” By James V. Schall, S.J. on Oct 31, 2020 09:27 am I. A seminary in Ireland, now closed, was dedicated to the training of priests for foreign missions, for strange places such as California. It was called “All Hallows”, that is, All Saints, November 1. Oxford [...] Read in browser »     Get today's Catholic news headlines at Catholic World Report Donate

In this mailing: Guy Millière: The Autocratic Future of the United States? Amir Taheri: US Elections: The Unasked Questions

 

In this mailing: Guy Millière: The Autocratic Future of the United States? Amir Taheri: US Elections: The Unasked Questions The Autocratic Future of the United States? by Guy Millière  •  November 1, 2020 at 5:00 am       If institutions of democracy -- the state, the judiciary, opposition parties and the free press -- suppress verifiable information instead of informing the public about it -- as has just taken place for more than two weeks regarding alleged financial corruption and the possible resultant compromise -- by China, Russia, and Ukraine among other countries -- of an allegedly financially compromised family as possible a national security threat -- these institutions of democracy instead become vehicles to sabotage a democracy. A danger to American democracy in the past years -- with threats to undo the Constitution by, for example, abolishing the electoral college, banning guns and, in 2014, eliminating free speech -- has therefore become imminent. There has been talk about killing the filibuster, to pass just about anything with a simple majority, and talk about enlarging the Senate by adding more states, presumably to enable one side to hold a permanent majority. Also on the agenda has been adding more members to the Supreme Court to turn it into a branch of legislative government, eliminating America's historic system of checks and balances. There are also plans to raise taxes on everyone (remember, "You can keep your healthcare"?), abolish fossil fuels and fracking, and establish a Marxist-socialist economy of redistribution to replace a free economy. (Image source: iStock) There seems to have been an attempt for the last four years to instill among the population a hatred of America and of the president, to present them both as a criminal and to try to overthrow them. In any event, it is the first time in American history that there has been an attempted coup d'état against a duly elected president. If institutions of democracy -- the state, the judiciary, opposition parties and the free press -- suppress verifiable information instead of informing the public about it -- as has just taken place for more than two weeks regarding alleged financial corruption and the possible resultant compromise -- by China, Russia, and Ukraine among other countries -- of an allegedly financially compromised family as possible a national security threat -- these institutions of democracy instead become vehicles to sabotage a democracy. Continue Reading Article US Elections: The Unasked Questions by Amir Taheri  •  November 1, 2020 at 4:30 am       The initial success of America's recent economic policy was based on three factors: a substantial tax cut, energy independence, and a more level playing field in foreign trade.... Will there be a high tax scenario at a time the economy is grappling with the crippling effect of Covid-19? Will he stop or curtail fracking and lose the status of number one global energy producer that the US has won for the first time since the 1960s? Will the US re-join the so-called Paris Accord on climate change even though none of the remaining signatories has complied with it? Will the US simply apologize and resume signing cheques for UNESCO and the World Health Organization (WHO) without insisting on reforms that most member nations regard as urgently needed? Will the US dismantle the build-up of troops and materiel that has bolstered the allies in Central and Eastern Europe? On strategic arms limitation schemes, will there be abandon recent demands to expand any agreement to include China or will he insist on a Cold War style check with Vladimir Putin? Will the US give the two fingers to Jair Bolsonaro and Narendra Modi, instead, hug Nicolas Maduro as Obama did with Hugo Chavez and Raul Castro? On the Middle East, will the US simply revive the Obama "nuke deal" with the Islamic Republic in Iran, lift sanctions and help the mullahs feed the monsters they have created across the globe in the name of exporting revolution? Will the US resume smuggling crisp greenbacks to Tehran to help "the moderate faction" smile more tooth-fully while "the radical faction" massacres Iranian protesters in the streets? Will the US stab long-term allies in the back in the hope of turning deadly foes into friends, as Obama tried to do with his infamous speech at Cairo's Al-Azhar University? (Image source: iStock) As millions of Americans prepare to go to the polls on Tuesday, joining the estimated 50 million who have already cast their ballots, they might take a few moments to ask themselves a simple question: What are we voting for? Going by the narrative peddled by a good chunk of the US media the election is all about one man: President Donald J. Trump. This is all well and good; all elections at such levels include a dose of personal consideration of the candidates. Visiting several cities across the states in 2008, many voters told us that they were casting their ballots for Barack Obama because they thought it was time the US had a black president. The fact that he had no record to present didn't matter. In 2016 it was Trump's turn to benefit from his status as the outsider. In both cases, however, Obama and Trump appeared like blank slates on which voters could draw cherished expectations. Continue Reading Article

 

Voters blame GOP and president slightly more for no coronavirus stimulus deal (This is All on The Democrats & Let's be 100% Honest on That) 

DENITSA TSEKOVA

Oct 30th 2020 9:26AM

Most voters want more stimulus relief regardless of their party affiliation, and now that a deal won’t happen before the election, slightly more blame Republicans and the president for the gridlock, according to two polls.

Forty-four percent of voters think it’s the president or the Republicans’ fault, while 41% think the Democrats are the reason for no deal, according to a new Morning Consult/Politico poll of 1,067 voters.

A September poll of 1,003 by North Star Opinion Research, also found that voters narrowly blamed Republicans more for the gridlock, with 26% blaming Republicans for the failure to get it done, and 23% blaming Democrats.

Read more: Here’s what you need to know about unemployment benefits eligibility

The Morning Consult/Politico poll largely fell on party lines.

“You are never going to find, given the tribal politics that we have, that Republicans are going to blame Republicans or Democrats blame Democrats,” said Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told Yahoo Money. “But it may have an impact at the margins on some voters.”

Morning Consult also conducted a second poll of 923 voters, lumping Republicans in Congress and the president together. In that poll, voters blamed the GOP and Trump even more, and among independent voters, the contrast is starker: 43% say it’s the fault of Republicans and the president, while 34% lay the blame on Congressional Democrats.

Another stimulus deal is incredibly popular among most Americans.

Nine in ten voters support more relief for small businesses and protecting jobs, according to an October survey of nearly 2,000 by The American Hotel & Lodging Association. An October poll from Yahoo News of 1,525 registered voters found that nearly 4 in 5 wanted lawmakers to approve another major pandemic relief package. 

“There are certainly people who have not been deeply affected in economic terms by what happened, but almost everybody has been affected in social terms,” Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told Yahoo Money. “If there's anything that's surprising here, it’s that the numbers in support are as low.” 

‘If there had been another round of stimulus checks’

The voters who may be swayed by no deal could be lower-income whites without college degrees. This demographic was the largest group of voters who voted for Obama in 2012 but switched to Trump in 2016, and they also are facing higher levels of housing insecurity and hardship during the pandemic, according to a new analysis by the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

“In 2016, Trump was able to run on social issues, and bring those to the forefront with his group,” Shawn Fremstad, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Economic Policy and Research, told Yahoo Money. “It seems like he could have a much harder time doing that [now].”

Instead this year, these voters may be more focused on their financial misfortunes as they head into the holiday season.

“If there had been another round of stimulus checks, just arriving this week or a real boost in unemployment two weeks ago, that would have made a big difference for a lot of people that probably would have rippled through,” Fremstad said.

 ‘Not getting that relief must be bringing economic concerns to the forefront’

Over 22 million jobless Americans are currently receiving some type of unemployment insurance. They have seen their benefits drop from around 130% of their pre-layoff wages to now 50% after the expiration of the extra $600 under the CARES Act and the extra $300 to $400 under the Lost Wages Assitance (LWA) program, an analysis from Evercore ISI found.

In August, the president did sign several executive actions including implementing the LWA program in an attempt to bypass stalled negotiations, but their impact was limited compared with what legislation passed by Congress could do. 

President Trump also has been vocal about supporting a stimulus deal — including a second round of stimulus checks — even saying that he’d go above the Democrats’ $2.2 trillion proposal. But nothing so far has come of it.

“Not getting that relief must be bringing economic concerns to the forefront,” Fremstad said. “It's something that's in keeping those economic concerns really salient for the voters who may switch back to a Democrat because they think that's more likely to help them economically.”

Denitsa is a writer for Yahoo Finance and Cashay, a new personal finance website. Follow her on Twitter @denitsa_tsekova.

READ MORE:

• Stock market highs, booming housing, and millions unemployed: A tale of two Americas amid the coronavirus pandemic

• Coronavirus stimulus: Wave of U.S. states run out of extra unemployment benefits as negotiations flounder

• Read more personal finance information, news, and tips on Cashay

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• Coronavirus
• gop
• stimulus
• Washington D.C.

 

Covid toes could last for 150 days, new research finds

KERRY BREEN

Oct 30th 2020 11:16AM

A new analysis shows that "long-hauler" Covid-19 patients may experience prolonged skin symptoms, with one patient reporting having "Covid toes" for nearly six months.

The analysis was conducted on patients listed on the International COVID-19 Dermatology Registry, the world's largest registry of coronavirus patients with dermatological symptoms. Nearly 1,000 cases are registered from patients in 39 countries.

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

While most dermatological symptoms lasted an average of 12 days, some patients reported longer durations.

"When we started looking at symptom duration, some of these patients are having really incredibly long-lasting symptoms," said Dr. Esther Freeman, the principal investigator of the registry and the director of Global Health Dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. "In particular, we saw that with chilblains, also known as Covid toes, where they've been having skin symptoms for more than 60 days."

Two patients had much longer times: One patient had Covid toes for over 130 days, and another had them for more than 150 days.

"They've had toe swelling and toe discoloration and toe pain for many months," Freeman said. "They've had this really kind of persistent inflammation." And sadly, there is not much doctors can do for these patients. There is currently no known treatment to address Covid toes, Freeman explained.

Courtesy of an anonymous patient

Other skin symptoms include hives, which lasted for about five days in most cases, and scaly papule and plaques, called "papulosquamous eruptions," lasting around 20 days. Different symptoms may indicate the severity of Covid-19 infections: Freeman said that only about 16 percent of patients with Covid toes were hospitalized, while 100 percent of patients with a condition known as retiform purpura (a rapidly spreading red or purple rash, displayed in a netlike pattern) were hospitalized.

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Freeman said that while the registry primarily tracked dermatological symptoms, they did also keep track of other symptoms that people with confirmed coronavirus cases were experiencing. Some with long-lasting skin symptoms also reported other symptoms, like coughs and persistent fatigue. Outside of the registry, there have been a myriad of long-hauler symptoms attributed to COVID-19 including heart damage, lung scarring, kidney abnormalities, hair loss, mental health issues, insomnia and neurological symptoms.

The analysis, which will be discussed at the 29th European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Congress, may have implications for understanding other prolonged symptoms in COVID-19 long-haulers, Freeman said.

"This data adds to our knowledge about how Covid-19 can affect multiple different organ systems, even after patients have recovered from their acute infection," said Freeman in a press release. "The skin can provide a visual window into inflammation that may be going on elsewhere in the body."

While some of the long-lasting symptoms may sound frightening, Freeman emphasized that it was only in a small number of patients and does not seem to lead to any significant health risk.

"(Covid toes) go away relatively quickly, and they go away on their own, and they don't seem to have a lot of long-lasting effect," she said. "I don't want people to panic. I think it's important to be reassured that this is generally associated with pretty mild disease ... It's just important to recognize that there is a subgroup of patients that seemed to have these really long-lasting persistent symptoms and that's a group we need to further understand."

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A rare COVID-19 complication was reported in children. Now, it's showing up in adults.
Why Black women face high rates of breast cancer
Most hospitalized Covid patients have neurological symptoms, study says