Tues - Natural Immunity Only Protects You in a MAGA Hat

US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 497 Million Shots  (Population 333 Million)





--------------
Has the US Ended the South African Travel Ban?  I Cannot Find Any Evidence It Has.

The highly transmissible omicron variant is responsible for nearly three-quarters of new coronavirus infections in the U.S., according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a massive jump over just the week prior.

CDC data shows that omicron made up 73% of new coronavirus cases in the week ending Dec. 18, while delta cases dropped to over 26% of infections.

The agency reported last week that omicron was responsible for nearly 3% of U.S. coronavirus cases, though it has now revised the estimate for that week to over 12%.

The revised data means that omicron cases rose nearly sixfold in just one week. It’s a much faster takeover than the delta variant.

I Don't Think There Ever Was a Point to the Ban, But Is There One Now?
--------------
You Might Hear People Say It's About the Hospitalizations, Not the Case Numbers.

The latest surge that is driving up the number of Covid cases across the country is also putting more people in hospitals, even in highly vaccinated states.

Hospitalizations around the nation have risen 11 percent from Nov. 1, to Dec. 19, according to an NBC News analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services.

Unlike previous waves where vaccination rates were a good indicator of whether a state was experiencing an outbreak, this surge is different. Hospitals are filling up in states where people have shunned vaccinations, and also in high vaccination states like Delaware, Connecticut and New Hampshire.

It's Mostly the Cold-Weather States

But it's not the simple a picture.

How's your state doing?
--------------
Maybe We Don't Want to Fly on January 5th.

Bosses from the world's two biggest plane makers have called on the US government to delay the rollout of new 5G phone services.

In a letter, top executives at Boeing and Airbus warned that the technology could have "an enormous negative impact on the aviation industry."

Concerns have previously been raised that C-Band spectrum 5G wireless could interfere with aircraft electronics.

US telecoms giants AT&T and Verizon are due to deploy 5G services on 5 January.

"5G interference could adversely affect the ability of aircraft to safely operate," said the bosses of Boeing and Airbus Americas, Dave Calhoun and Jeffrey Knittel, in a joint letter to US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

The letter cited research by trade group Airlines for America which found that if the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) 5G rules had been in effect in 2019, about 345,000 passenger flights and 5,400 cargo flights would have faced delays, diversions or cancellations.

The aviation industry and the FAA have raised concerns about potential interference of 5G with sensitive aircraft equipment like radio altitude meters.

"Airbus and Boeing have been working with other aviation industry stakeholders in the US to understand potential 5G interference with radio altimeters," Airbus said in a statement.

Haven't They Been Advertising 5G Services for the Last Year? And They Are Just About to Deploy Them?
--------------
Need Some Extra Money?  Got a Few Unused Cells In Your Basement?

Kosovo has agreed to rent 300 prison cells to Denmark to ease overcrowding in the Scandinavian country's jails.

Denmark will pay an annual fee of €15m (£12.8m) for an initial period of five years, and will also help fund green energy in the country.

The rented cells are meant to house convicted criminals from non-EU countries due to be deported from Denmark after their sentences.

Danish laws would apply to any prisoners in the rented cells.

Kosovo has between 700 and 800 unused prison spaces.
--------------
Could Untreated HIV have Led to Omicron?

South African scientists - hailed for their discovery of Omicron - are investigating the "highly plausible hypothesis" that the emergence of new Covid-19 variants could be linked, in some cases, to mutations taking place inside infected people whose immune systems have already been weakened by other factors, including, though not limited to, untreated HIV.

Researchers have already observed that Covid-19 can linger for many months in patients who are HIV positive but who have, for varying reasons, not been taking the medicines that would enable them to lead healthy lives.

"Normally your immune system would kick a virus out fairly quickly, if fully functional," said Professor Linda-Gayle Bekker, who heads the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation in Cape Town.

"In someone where immunity is suppressed, then we see virus persisting. And it doesn't just sit around, it replicates. And as it replicates it undergoes potential mutations. And in somebody where immunity is suppressed that virus may be able to continue for many months - mutating as it goes," she added.
--------------
No One Seems Sure How to Pronounce Omicron.

Is it ōm′ĭ-krŏn′ like in comb?

Is it ŏm′ĭ-krŏn like in mom?

I think it is the latter.

It's All Greek to Me
--------------
Natural Immunity?  It Only Protects You If You Are Wearing a MAGA Hat

A Texas man, whose death was the first confirmed Omicron-related in the US, was unvaccinated and had previously been infected with the coronavirus, according to a press release from Harris County Public Health.

"The individual was at higher risk of severe complications from Covid-19 due to his unvaccinated status and had underlying health conditions," the release said.

County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced the death on Monday, saying the man was in his 50s. The case is the first known confirmed Omicron-related death in the US.
--------------
This Should Be Interesting

Republican Rep. Scott Perry on Tuesday declined the House January 6 committee's request to speak with him.

The committee asked the congressman to speak with them voluntarily on Monday. Perry's refusal raises the question of whether the committee will take the step to issue a subpoena to require him to testify.

The committee's reach out to Perry was the first known effort by investigators to talk to a lawmaker about helping former President Donald Trump in his efforts to undermine the election.

Has a Congressman Ever Been Held in Contempt of Congress?
--------------
Watch This Space.   Watch Outer Space

Is there life on other planets? How did the first stars form? What happened in the turbulent early days of the universe?

These are the tantalizing questions that the James Webb Space Telescope is meant to investigate.

After more than three decades of development, the tennis court-sized observatory is set to launch into orbit around the sun this month. It will be able to see deeper into space and in greater detail than any space or ground-based telescope to date.

The telescope’s mission is to unravel the most enduring mysteries in space, peering through more than 13 billion years of cosmic history with instruments sensitive enough to sniff out the atmospheres of exoplanets — including possibly faint biosignatures of alien life — and examine previously undetectable regions of space.

NASA is calling this an “Apollo moment” — a giant leap forward that could revolutionize our understanding of the universe and humanity’s place in it.

Some 40 million hours of work by thousands of scientists and engineers across three space agencies have gone into building the Webb telescope. And now, it is finally ready to come online.

It's Not a Blank Space


--------------
Joe Thinks Coal is Cool

Mr. Manchin, who defied gale-force political headwinds in 2010 by running for the Senate on his opposition to President Barack Obama’s climate change legislation, killed a provision in Build Back Better that would have imposed stiff penalties on electric utilities that continued to burn coal and natural gas.

But even with the stick dropped from the House’s bill, West Virginia’s coal interests were working hard to kill off the measure’s carrot, a package of tax credits to make clean energy more financially competitive, and, by extension, struggling coal even less so. Their lobbyists talked frequently to Mr. Manchin.



Coal Workers Don't Think Joe Is Cool

The main union representing U.S. coal miners urged West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin to reconsider his opposition to the Biden administration's $1.75 trillion climate and social spending bill to preserve measures that would have benefited its members.
--------------
Stephan Breyer Lives in a Disney Fantasy

If there is anyone in Washington, D.C. as stubborn, arrogant, and thick-headed as Sen. Joe Manchin this week, it’s Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer. The 83-year-old remains doggedly committed to the fantasy that if he says the judicial confirmation process should not be politicized, it won’t be. As if the last decade of Sen. Mitch McConnell flexing his power hadn’t happened.

Speaking of which, at least five Republican senators have confirmed to CNN that they absolutely will not allow President Joe Biden to have any Supreme Court confirmations if they retake the Senate in 2022. Funny how they’re not heeding Breyer’s admonitions about politicizing the court. That puts Democrats in a delicate position: If they push Breyer too hard now about retiring so Biden and a Democratic majority can get a solid, progressive replacement, he’ll be even more stubborn about staying on the bench. Because old, entitled white men get to do that. They get to dictate the terms of everything to satisfy their own egos at the expense of, well, everyone else.
--------------
She Meant to Say "Jello People"




She Thinks They Eat a Lot of Jello
--------------
Cops Are Enforcing "The Law" on Their Own Time

"OK. I’m going to report you, OK?" said the officer on the video. 5 On Your Side is not naming him at this time because he has not been charged with any crime. "You’re going against the law. You know that, right?" he continued. "There’s an executive order by Eric Schmitt saying you cannot wear a mask."

The confrontation happened last Friday. Earlier that week Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt put out a call for parents to report school districts still requiring masks after a Cole County court invalidated mask mandates by state and local health departments. Schmitt even called for parents to take photos and video of violations.

But Missouri's attorney general does not have the authority to issue executive orders and school boards across the St. Louis region say they have the authority to issue their own mandates separate from health departments. Rockwood said it requires masks on buses to comply with federal regulations regarding public transportation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This cop was not even on duty, and he was not even in his jurisdiction. Turns out according to the video he was patrolling his child’s school district. And he approached the bus armed.


--------------
Testing.  Testing.  Is This Thing On?

President Joe Biden is planning to announce Tuesday afternoon that half a billion at-home COVID-19 tests will be distributed free to Americans who want them starting next month, one of several new steps to combat the rapidly spreading omicron variant of the coronavirus.

A website under development will let Americans request rapid tests for their use, at no cost to them, that will be delivered through the U.S. Postal Service, according to a senior administration official who spoke to reporters late Monday.

Details, including how many tests would be available per household, are still being finalized, the official said, who added that a January time frame was chosen because that is when the tests will be available from manufacturers.

Damn!  I Was Going to Give My Wife a COVID Test for XMas.  Now It Seems Like a Chintzy Gift.
--------------
Here's an Xmas Gift for us All.  A New Jordan Klepper Segment.


--------------
Shh!  Don't Tell Joe Coal!

The Environmental Protection Agency tightened fuel mileage rules on new cars and light-duty trucks Monday, reversing a Trump-era policy and signaling how Joe Biden’s administration may end up cutting emissions while its efforts to pass a climate law stall in Congress.

The new rule will require automakers to achieve an average of at least 55 miles per gallon fleetwide by 2026, a sizable increase over the standard of 40.4 mpg set during Donald Trump’s presidency.

Though that two-digit difference seems small, the Trump-era rule — itself a rollback finalized during the pandemic last year of the standards set under Barack Obama’s administration — took a 10-digit toll on the climate. The standard set the stage for American automobiles to pump an additional 1 billion metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere over their life spans on the road. That nearly equals the annual emissions of Japan, the world’s fifth-largest source of planet-heating carbon dioxide.

Automobile tailpipes spew the largest share of the United States’ climate-changing pollution, in addition to loads of fine particulate matter that trigger breathing problems and shorten lives particularly in neighborhoods near highways.
--------------
Something There Is That Doesn't Love a Wall

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Monday it will use border security funding allocated by Congress to close wall gaps and pay for environmental and clean-up projects in areas of Arizona, California and Texas affected by barrier construction undertaken by the Trump administration.

The projects authorized by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas include installing drainage to prevent flooding, mitigating soil erosion, completing roads used by Border Patrol agents, demobilizing construction and equipment storage sites and discarding unused materials.

Mayorkas also authorized U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to erect barriers to close "small" gaps along some wall sections that were left open when construction was brought to a halt in January, saying the measures are necessary to mitigate safety concerns.

"There will be several places where barrier material will be used," a senior CBP official told CBS News. "We would say that that's existing barrier right there that we are addressing, like an open, unsafe construction situation, versus adding additional mileage, which would be adding new barrier."
..............
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
--------------
Bitcoin:  The Currency For Everyone ... The Few

Cryptocurrency has been touted as a new form of digital money not tied to government or a central bank and is therefore inherently free from bias and unequal distribution. However, a recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that bitcoin has developed its own group of one-percenters who will likely reap most of the gains in coming years.

The NBER study found that the top 10,000 bitcoin investors own a combined 5 million bitcoins, or roughly $230 billion's worth at recent prices. Those figures mean that, even though bitcoin launched in 2009, "participation in bitcoin is still very skewed toward a few top players even at the end of 2020," said finance experts Igor Makarov and Antoinette Schoar, who wrote the study.

Those top players represent a mere 0.01% of all bitcoin holders and yet they control 27% of the digital currency, the Wall Street Journal reported. That compares to the old-fashion dollar, where the top 1% controlled 30% of total U.S. household wealth, according to Federal Reserve data.
--------------
Booster?  Boo!

Donald Trump's admission that he received a COVID booster shot did not inoculate him from criticism by some fervent supporters.

More than a few boos greeted Trump after he confirmed his booster shot during a Sunday question-and-answer session in Dallas with the former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly.

Boo Hoo!
--------------