Tues - No Election After Insurrection. Doocy v Doocy

US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 527 Million Shots  (Population 333 Million)




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California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday Jan 11)

We had a great December, but January has been pretty bad.  There are no big storms in the 10-day forecast.


Reservoirs are still low, but slightly better.
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No-Vax Novak Has More Problems

Australian border officials are investigating whether Novak Djokovic's travel entry form included a false declaration, Australian media report.

Djokovic's visa was revoked on arrival in Melbourne last week before being reinstated by a judge on Monday.

But Australia's immigration minister still has powers to re-cancel the visa and deport the unvaccinated player.

Djokovic - who is hoping to defend his Australian Open title next week - has not commented on the latest reports.

The 34-year-old Serb player's entry form stated he had not travelled in the 14 days before his arrival on 6 January.

Social media posts appear to show him in both Serbia and Spain during that fortnight.

I Don't Really Care About Him, But I Couldn't Resist the Headline
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Stying Alive

A US man has become the first person in the world to get a heart transplant from a genetically-modified pig.

David Bennett, 57, is doing well three days after the experimental seven-hour procedure in Baltimore, doctors say.

The transplant was considered the last hope of saving Mr Bennett's life, though it is not yet clear what his long-term chances of survival are.

"It was either die or do this transplant," Mr Bennett explained a day before the surgery.

"I know it's a shot in the dark, but it's my last choice," he said.

If This Works, It is GREAT News.
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A Rat Isn't Exactly Man's Best Friend, But ...

Magawa, the famous mine-clearing rat who was awarded a gold medal for his heroism, has died at the age of eight.

In a five-year career, the rodent sniffed out over 100 landmines and other explosives in Cambodia.

Magawa was the most successful rat trained by the Belgian charity Apopo to alert human handlers about the mines so they can be safely removed.

The charity said the African giant pouch rat "passed away peacefully" at the weekend.


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Why Not Just Shoot Yourself and Get It Over With?

"Why not just get Omicron and get it over with? It's mild, right? And it can boost immunity?"

The fully vaccinated, boosted, well-educated friend who asked was sincere, echoing opinions heard on many social platforms.

The idea of intentionally trying to catch Omicron is "all the rage," said Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, with an exasperated sigh.

"It's caught on like wildfire," agreed Dr. Robert Murphy, executive director of the Havey Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

"And it's widespread, coming from all types of people, the vaccinated and boosted and the anti-vaxxers," he added, with a warning. "You'd be crazy to try to get infected with this. It's like playing with dynamite."

In case the thought had crossed your mind, here are five reasons why you should not purposely try to catch Omicron.

1. It's not a 'bad cold'

Significant fever, body aches, swollen lymph nodes, sore throats and heavy congestion are often reported even in milder cases of Omicron variant, Murphy said, leaving people debilitated for days.

2. You could get long Covid

Called "long Covid," the phenomenon is characterized by such debilitating symptoms as shortness of breath, severe fatigue, fever, dizziness, brain fog, diarrhea, heart palpitations, muscle and abdominal pain, mood changes and sleep difficulties.

Severe forms of long Covid can damage lungs, heart, liver, and kidneys, as well as your mental health and may qualify as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal statutes.

There Must Be 50 Ways to Lose Your Liver

3. You're spreading the disease to children

Just over half (54%) of children between the ages of 12 and 17 eligible for Covid-19 vaccines have been fully vaccinated. Only 23% of children between ages 5 and 11 have received their first dose, according to the CDC.

4. You'll stress the health care system
Over the weekend, nearly a quarter of the more than 5,000 hospitals that report into the US Department of Health and Human Services said they were suffering a "critical staff shortage." That's a larger number than any other time during the pandemic, the data showed.

5. Don't mess with Mother Nature

Was it ever a good idea to catch a disease on purpose? Those of a certain age will recall when parents used to host "chicken-pox parties" to expose their young children to an infected child. Because cases of adult chicken pox are more severe, the idea was to have your child catch it early to "get it over with."

"Oh, that was a bad idea too," Offit said. He told a story about an educational film on vaccines he made years ago, and the cameraman revealed he had a sister who had taken her child to a chicken pox party. Tragically, the child died from the infection.
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The Economy Is Doing Well.  So What Do Americans Worry About?

New polling from AP-NORC finds the economy is far outpacing COVID-19 as the chief concern for voters heading into this year's midterms.

Fully 68% of Americans named the economy as a problem they would like to see the government address in 2022—the exact same percentage who said that last year. Meanwhile, the share of respondents who named COVID-19 as a key issue needing government attention fell 16 points from last year to 37% this year.

Meanwhile, Back in the Reality

The United States reported 1.34 million Covid cases on Monday, according to an NBC News tally, with the daily case rate shattering global records as hospitalizations soared across the country.

At least 1,343,167 new Covid infections were identified on Monday, according to an NBC News' tally, sweeping past the previous record of 1,044,970 cases that had been set on Jan. 3.

Daily case counts are typically high on Mondays due to many states not reporting over the weekend. However, the number still suggests a dramatic rise in cases in the U.S. as the highly transmissible omicron variant continues to spread.
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Apparently the US Government Care More About Afghan People Than the Afghan Government

The United States announced Tuesday that it was giving more than $308 million in humanitarian aid to the Afghan people in an effort to support Afghans facing economic collapse under the new Taliban government.

The White House said the administration will also send one million additional Covid-19 vaccine doses to the country, which is grappling not just with the global pandemic but with widespread hunger in the wake of the militant group's takeover and the U.S. exit.

The United Nations and aid groups have repeatedly warned of a pending humanitarian catastrophe in the country of 38 million people.

Washington and its Western allies are attempting to help the Afghan people while bypassing their Taliban rulers. Countries that have refused to recognize the Taliban government have suspended foreign aid on which the state relied and frozen billions of dollars of Afghan assets abroad, mostly in the United States.
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Are You Telling Me Goldfish Drive Better Than My Niece?

An old joke goes like this: Two fish are in a tank and one says, "Do you know how to drive this thing?"

Israeli scientists appear to have found the answer.

A team from Ben-Gurion University has successfully taught goldfish to maneuver a robotic car on land, via a top-down camera that monitors their movements around a small fish tank.

The camera in the “fish-operated vehicle” uses motion sensing technology to send a signal to one of its four wheels whenever a fish swims close to a side of the fish tank. Over time the fish learned that their movements would correspond to the movements of the vehicle.

The fish were successfully trained to reach a pink target at the opposite end of a room in return for a fish food reward — something they could do repeatedly and even with obstacles in their way. 

Will the Next Tesla Come With Goldfish?  Will They Be Allowed to Play Video Games?
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Next They Are Going to Tell Us French Fries Don't Have to Come From France.  

Gruyere cheese does not have to come from the Gruyere region of Europe to be sold under the gruyere name, a federal judge has ruled.

A consortium of Swiss and French cheesemakers from the region around the town of Gruyeres, Switzerland, sued in U.S. District Court in Virginia after the federal Trademark Trials and Appeals Board denied an application for trademark protections.

The consortium said gruyere — often a mild, smooth-melting cheese that’s a favorite for fondues — has been made to exacting standards in the region since the early 12th century and cheese made outside the region can’t truly be called gruyere, similar to the argument that champagne can be only be applied to sparkling wines from the Champagne region of France.

But the U.S. Dairy Export Council and other groups opposed the trademark protection. They said American consumers understand the gruyere name to be generic, applying to cheeses of a certain style regardless of their place of origin.
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Good News and Bad Reporting

The Covid vaccination campaign in the United States cut hospitalizations and deaths by nearly half in the first six months of 2021, new research suggests.

The shots saved nearly 241,000 lives and prevented almost 1.2 million hospitalizations, according to a model published Tuesday in the journal JAMA Network Open.

But as 2021 progressed, the vaccines were met with a significant hurdle that blunted the shots’ effectiveness: People stopped getting vaccinated.

Nope!  Around 250,000 to 300,000 Get Their First Shot Every Day.
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Undercover Double Cross

Federal prosecutors say a key FBI informant in the alleged plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan was a “double agent” who was “working against the interests of the government” by trying to destroy evidence and prevent arrests.

The confidential informant, Stephen Robeson, played a central role in the investigation that led to the arrest of 14 men for allegedly participating in a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in October 2020. At the direction of his FBI handlers, Robeson reached out to potential targets, organized meetings, and paid travel expenses for people to attend such events.

Now the government appears to be disowning its own operative, saying he deceived the FBI and at times actively aided targets of the investigation.








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Are You Aiken For Something Better?









No You Don't Get 10 Votes on Each Voting Method
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No Election After Insurrection!

A group of North Carolina voters took dramatic legal action against Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s (R-N.C.) reelection bid on Monday, arguing that the Constitution prohibits insurrectionist lawmakers from holding office.

The nonprofit Free Speech For People filed a challenge with the North Carolina State Board of Elections on behalf of 11 North Carolina voters, stating that Cawthorn has violated Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Section 3 says that no person may hold political office “who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress ... shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion.” The section was initially aimed at lawmakers who had plotted or battled against the U.S. government during the Civil War.

The challenge says Cawthorn urged his supporters to “threaten” and “intimidate” members of Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. It also notes that Cawthorn and his staff were “in close contact” with organizers of the Jan. 6 rally that preceded the storming of the U.S. Capitol, and that Cawthorn himself spoke at that rally that day.
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Police Fired For Arresting a Snorlax and a Togetic.  

A California appeals court has upheld the firing of two Los Angeles police officers who shirked a call about an active robbery to play Pokémon Go.

Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell were fired for ignoring the call to respond to an April 2017 robbery at a mall in the Baldwin Hills community.

When questioned about the incident by LAPD Sgt. Jose Gomez that evening, the men claimed not to have heard the call, according to court documents filed Friday. However, an in-car recording of their conversation revealed that they had heard the call, spoke about it and decided not to respond, court records show.

“Aw, screw it,” Lozano reportedly said after a discussion about the call. Five minutes later, Mitchell allegedly told Lozano that a Pokemon character known as a Snorlax had popped up nearby.

For about the next 20 minutes, the officers could be heard on the in-car recording discussing Pokémon as they drove to different locations where the virtual creatures apparently appeared on their mobile phones, court documents said.

After capturing the Snorlax, the officers then traveled to another location to capture another Pokemon, known as a Togetic.
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Doocy Should Listen to Doocy

On Fox and Fiends, Peter Doocy's Father:

Here's the thing. You don't trust government and I get that, and a lot of people don't. However, you know who I trust? I trust my doctor. And in talking to my doctor yesterday about omicron and the you know, the thing about omicron is the vaccines have not been as effective with that as it was with Delta. And he said, Think about it this way, Steve. He said think of the vaccine as like wearing a kevlar vest. It is not going to – essentially what the kevlar vest is going to do. Is it going to stop a bullet, but it won't let the bullet kill you. And that's why people, that's why I trust the doctors. I trust the science. You know, it's the only game we've got right now is to get vaccinated and boosted. And unfortunately, this omicron is sweeping through the area. Yeah.

Like Father, Not Like Son:

White House press secretary Jen Psaki was forced to explain some basics about vaccines on Monday after Fox News reporter Peter Doocy tried to corner her with a question about breakthrough COVID-19 infections.

“I understand that the science says that vaccines prevent death,” Doocy said from the briefing room. “But I’m triple-vaxxed, still got COVID. You’re triple-vaxxed, still got COVID. Why is the president still referring to this as a pandemic of the unvaccinated?”

Psaki noted that she had experienced only minor symptoms when she tested positive for COVID-19 in October.

“There’s a huge difference between that and being unvaccinated,” she said. “You are 17 times more likely to go to the hospital if you’re not vaccinated, 20 times more likely to die. And those are significant, serious statistics. So, yes, the impact for people who are unvaccinated is far more dire than for those who are vaccinated.”
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It's About Time!

President Biden will endorse changing Senate rules to pass new voting rights protections during a speech in Atlanta on Tuesday, the most significant step he will have taken to pressure lawmakers to act on an issue he has called the biggest test of America’s democracy since the Civil War.
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It's Worthless At Half the Price

The future of Aduhelm, Biogen Inc's controversial and expensive Alzheimer's drug, may hinge on a decision due this week from the U.S. Medicare program on whether it will pay for the treatment.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has been working since July on a national coverage policy for the drug, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last June despite its questionable efficacy against the brain-wasting disease. Only one of Biogen's two pivotal trials showed Aduhelm can slow the rate of cognitive decline for Alzheimer's patients.

Many experts questioned the FDA’s rationale for Aduhelm's approval without more definitive proof of benefit and doctors have held back on prescribing it.

Several key healthcare providers, including the U.S. Veterans Health Administration, Cleveland Clinic and Mount Sinai Health System, have said they would not prescribe Aduhelm for patients.

Sales so far have been weak and Biogen last month cut the medication's list price by about half to $28,200 per year.

Isn't "Aduhelm" a Character in The Last Kingdom?
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They Want Me to Cuddle With My Oatmeal?

A British energy supplier has apologized for the "poorly judged and unhelpful" advice sent to customers which suggested they could snuggle up to their pets and exercise to cut back on their heating bills.

SSE, which is owned by OVO Energy, suggested 10 "simple and cost effective ways to keep warm this winter," according to the Financial Times, which first reported the story.

Eating bowls of oatmeal, doing star jumps and cuddling pets were among the recommendations on the now-deleted web page.

Maybe They Should Change Their Name to "Oh No Energy"
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50 Ways to Lose Your Liver

You just drink too much Jack, Mack

Listen to Fox News, Dude
Just follow Trump, Chump
Don't Listen to Fauci.

Ignore the Doc, Jock
You don't need the shot, Dot
Eat magic dirt, Curt
And get yourself free (of your health).