Thurs - He Defended OJ, Epstein, Weinstein & Previous Guy

US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 508 Million Shots  (Population 333 Million)





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The Nostradamus Society Just Called Me

They are revoking my membership.  They heard I predicted that we would be past the worst of COVID by the end of the year on this forum.
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A Biased Commentator.  Who Do They Think They Are Fox News?  CNN?

The BBC says an interview with lawyer Alan Dershowitz after the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell did not meet its editorial standards.

Maxwell was found guilty of recruiting and trafficking young girls to be sexually abused by late US financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Mr Dershowitz used to be a lawyer for Epstein and has himself been accused of sexual abuse by one of the accusers.

He denies the accusation. But the BBC said he was not "an impartial analyst".

Virginia Giuffre, who is one of Epstein's accusers, also claims she was sexually assaulted by Dershowitz.  Mr Dershowitz has countersued Ms Giuffre, saying she "defamed and intentionally inflicted emotional distress on him".

The BBC has now launched an investigation into its interview with Mr Dershowitz, which was broadcast on BBC World News and on the News Channel on Wednesday, shortly after the Maxwell verdict was announced.

He was introduced as a "constitutional lawyer" to provide analysis on the verdict - and his connection with Epstein and Ms Giuffre was not made clear in the interview. The interview was also featured on the BBC News live page about the trial, and was played twice on Newsday on World Service English, but those instances gave some context about who Mr Dershowitz was.

Who's the Genius Who Said, "Let's Use the Guy Who Defended O. J. Simpson, Jeffrey Epstein, Julian Assange, Harvey Weinstein, & Donald Trump"?  
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Dershowitz Probably Approved of This Defense Strategy

"Your honor, the government has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt and so there is no need for me to testify." These were the only words spoken by Ghislaine Maxwell during her two-week trial on sex trafficking and other felony charges. Seemingly content with the state of the evidence, the British socialite and her defense team rested their case on the assumption that the victims would not be believed. In fact, the entire defense strategy hinged on blaming, shaming and dismantling the testimony of the four women, who say they met Maxwell and the financier Jeffrey Epstein as children and who told jurors that Maxwell enabled and participated in their sexual abuse. (Maxwell denied all charges, pleading not guilty.) Jurors disagreed, finding Maxwell guilty on five of the six charges against her.

Elton John or a Kenny G Wanna-Be?

The Dean of Westminster personally appealed to Buckingham Palace to ensure Sir Elton John performed at Princess Diana's funeral, released files reveal.

The Very Rev Wesley Carr wrote that doing so would be "imaginative and generous" to the millions feeling "personally bereaved".

Sir Elton, who was a friend of Diana, performed a reworked version of Candle in the Wind at the service in 1997.

But papers from the National Archives suggest a back-up plan was in place.

Sir Elton's lyricist Bernie Taupin had just rewritten the song about Marilyn Monroe - Candle in the Wind - with new lyrics about Princess Diana, retitled England's Rose.

In a note to a senior member of the royal household, Dean Wesley Carr wrote that the song was being played "all the time" on the radio.

The dean recognised it would be unconventional, but urged "boldness", and the "inclusion of something of the modern world that the princess represented".

The abbey had arranged for a young saxophonist to be on standby to deliver a poignant solo, although the dean described this as "a very second-best shot".

A "Very Rev" Was Needed When an Ordinary Rev Wasn't Enough
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Something is Working.  It Seems to Be Americans.

America's latest report on unemployment benefits is proof that the US jobs recovery is still in full-swing.

The average number of weekly jobless benefits claims over the past four weeks fell to 199,250. That's the lowest four-week moving average since October 1969, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Last week alone, claims stood at 198,000, adjusted for seasonal swings. That was slightly less than economists had predicted but above the pandemic-era low.

The number of continued claims, counting workers who have applied for benefits for at least two consecutive weeks, stood at 1.7 million in the week ended December 18, the lowest level since March 2020.

All these data points are undeniably signs of strength in the labor market, even though the recent claims plunge might overstate the actual improvements in the job market.
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When The Media Talks About All the People Who Will Never Get Vaccinated, Remember This.

Around 300,000 Americans continue to get their first shot every day.  That's around 0.1% of the population.

Remember being told that 30% would never get vaccinated?  Around 78% of the eligible population has had a shot.  

And OVER 85% of those old enough to make their own decision have had a shot.

That is not enough fully vaccinated people to solve our problems, but vaccination "hesitancy" is exaggerated, because the worst of them are noisy.  The media LOVE noisy.
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Why Aren't More Experts on TV Talking About Which Mask to Wear and How to Wear It?

We don't want to see your freaking nose!  Cover it up!


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A Couple of More States Tell Gerry to Get Forked

Election experts are hailing new congressional maps adopted this week in Michigan and Virginia as major victories after voters approved ballot measures to overhaul the redistricting process.

Michigan's maps were finalized Tuesday by an independent citizens redistricting commission, which was established by a state constitutional amendment in 2018, while Virginia's were approved the same day by the state Supreme Court following the work of a bipartisan panel.

While neither state had an easy go of it, advocates nonetheless lauded the results as testaments to the power of election reforms and characterized them as significant improvements over previous maps.

"Compared to last decade, when Virginia had racially gerrymandered maps and Michigan had partisan gerrymandering? These are much fairer maps," said Michael Li, a redistricting expert and senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. "It's night and day between states that aren't reforming and states that did enact reforms."
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That Cute Little Omicron Might Still Bite Your Arm Off

When analyzed, it appears that the risk of the new variant is lower, but a study from Imperial College London published just before Christmas reveals that up to 40% of omicron cases could be people who have already had Covid-19, compared to 8% with delta. Both variants are highly contagious among the unvaccinated, but omicron is also capable of infecting a significantly larger number of people who already have good defenses, making it seem less serious.

The question is whether the new variant is in fact milder than previous ones. US biologist Marm Kilpatrick from the University of California puts it this way: “The short answer is that we don’t know yet.”

Why Is the Short Answer To Every Question the Same?  Because We Know a Lot Less Than We Would Like to Believe.
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Who's a "Hideous Hermaphroditical Character, Which has Neither the Force and Firmness of a Man, nor the Gentleness and Sensibility of a Woman"?

Jefferson's camp accused President Adams of having a "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman." In return, Adams' men called Vice President Jefferson "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father."

I Don't Think Previous Guy Was a Son of a Half-Breed Indian Squaw.  
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10 Years Isn't 10 Years in Louisiana If You Are Black

When A Prison Sentence Of 10 Years And 6 Months Turns Into Forever

Life sentences in Louisiana used to come with the opportunity of early release for good behavior. When the rules changed, these people were left behind in Angola and forgotten for decades.

Leroy Grippen thought he was going to prison for 10 years and six months. That’s what his lawyer told him, and that’s how it went. When you were sentenced to life in Louisiana, it didn’t really mean life in prison. With good behavior, life sentences were almost always commuted after 10 years and six months.

Besides, it’s not as if Grippen had much of a choice. It was 1970, and as a young Black man facing charges of armed robbery and aggravated rape in the South, he would have almost certainly faced an all-white jury that could convict him and sentence him to death by electrocution.

So Grippen, who had just turned 23, did what his lawyer told him to do. He took the plea deal and went to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola. There, he started counting down the days until he expected to walk free — sometime in the summer of 1981.

That day didn’t come until Oct. 5, 2021. By then he was 73 and had spent nearly 70% of his life in prison.

By the time the summer of 1981 rolled around, Louisiana had changed the rules. The understanding that people wouldn’t really spend life in prison, which was common in many states at the time, had been supplanted by new “tough on crime” laws. Grippen was abandoned in prison, forgotten along with the rest of the so-called 10/6 lifers.

There is no record of how many of the 10/6 lifers died in prison. Of roughly 65 who are still alive, the overwhelming majority are Black. Now, after spending decades longer in prison than they were told they would, some of them are finally getting out.
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Hermione & Draco Sitting in a Tree

Just in case you’ve been tangled up in an acromantula web in the Forbidden Forest for the past decade, Watson (who played Hermione Granger) has been pretty open about being smitten with Felton (who played Draco Malfoy) while they were filming the fantasy film franchise.
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Are You Ready For Some Football?

USA Today Tells You Which Games to Watch

The Baylor - Iowa State Hoops Game on Jan 1st Looks Good, Too.
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War Instant Tests, What Are They Good For, Absolutely Nothing Something

At-home rapid tests have proven to be a powerful weapon in the country's battle against the coronavirus and its latest variants, but the surge of the omicron variant has left U.S. consumers to contend with concerns about access, efficacy and rising costs among the numerous options on the market.

Health experts say rapid tests remain a useful tool as the country braces for the latest surge in cases, as long as they can be obtained and are considered in the right context. The tests sacrifice some accuracy for speedy results, but they can be an aid for making decisions and knowing when to get additional treatment.

The most accurate tests available are polymerase chain reaction tests, or PCR tests, which detect tiny snippets of the virus’s genetic material. Because the tests require specialized lab equipment, people can wait for days to get their results — particularly when there are surges, demand grows and logjams are created.

Rapid tests, on the other hand, detect molecules that are found on the virus’s surface, called antigens. They’re not as accurate, but they can be run at home and provide results in as little as 15 minutes.

The tests themselves are most accurate when a person has symptoms, studies suggest. While they are able to detect asymptomatic cases, there’s a greater likelihood for false negatives. Most experts agree that people get positive antigen results when they’re most contagious.

If a person imagines a bell curve of the infection, a PCR test is good at detecting the infection all the way through. A rapid antigen test is best at detecting within the hump of that curve, when a person is most infectious and poses the biggest risk to others.

Unfortunately, That Doesn't Mean a Negative Test Means You Are Not Contagious



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Ever Misread a Sign?

Yesterday I saw one that I read as "Contagious Medical Offices for Rent".  

It actually said "Contiguous Medical Offices for Rent".
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Is Pluto a Victim of Astrology?

A team of scientists wants Pluto classified as a planet again — along with dozens of similar bodies in the solar system and any found around distant stars.

The call goes against a controversial resolution from 2006 by the International Astronomical Union that decided Pluto is only a “dwarf planet” — but the researchers say a rethink will put science back on the right path.

Pluto had been considered the ninth planet since its discovery in 1930, but the IAU — which names astronomical objects — decided in 2006 that a planet must be spherical, orbit the sun and have gravitationally “cleared” its orbit of other objects.

Pluto meets two of those requirements — it’s round and it orbits the sun. But because it shares its orbit with objects called “plutinos” it didn’t qualify under the new definition.

As a result, the IAU resolved the solar system only had eight major planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — and Pluto was relegated from the list.

But a study announced in December from a team of researchers in the journal Icarus now claims the IAU’s definition was based on astrology — a type of folklore, not science — and that it’s harming both scientific research and the popular understanding of the solar system.

I Have a Suggestion for the Scientists:  “The short answer is that we don’t know yet.”
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Does de Blasio Think He is de Santis?

New York City will ring in 2022 in Times Square as planned despite record numbers of COVID-19 infections in the city and around the nation, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday.

“We want to show that we’re moving forward, and we want to show the world that New York City is fighting our way through this,” de Blasio, whose last day in office is Friday, said on NBC's “Today” show.

They Are "Fighting Their Way Through" By Letting a Bunch of Drunks Freeze and Infect Each Other?
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Want to See More People Willing to Go to Jail For Their Right to a Whopper?




























I Forgot.  Which Amendment Guarantees Your Right to Bear Whoppers?
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More Burger King Protestors




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