Post by mhbruin on Jan 26, 2022 9:37:25 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 537 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
--------------
California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday Jan 25)
We had a great December, but January has been pretty terrible. We have 3-4 months to get some significant rain.
There are no big storms in the 10-day forecast.
Reservoirs are still low, but they are filling up a bit.
--------------
Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
El Chapo's Lawyers Are Pretty Bad People, Too.
The conviction of the notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was upheld Tuesday by a U.S. appeals court that praised the trial judge for his handling of a case that drew international attention.
The decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected claims that Judge Brian Cogan made rulings allowing a jury to hear faulty evidence at Guzman’s 2019 trial.
Cogan “conducted the three-month trial with diligence and fairness, after issuing a series of meticulously crafted pretrial rulings,” the ruling by the panel concluded.
Let's Send Kids to School With No Vaccinations
The Trump Campaign Was Behind the Fake Elector Scheme
Steve Miller, serving as a ‘trump campaign senior advisor’, and therefore ostensibly speaking for the campaign and the president, made an appearance on Fox and Friends to allay the fears of the three dunderheads.
From Vaxxed and Boosted TucKKKer
Tonight on Tucker Carlson’s train wreck, lunatic anti-vaxxer and former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson tells Tuck’s audience not to get boosted and that mRNA vaccines need to be pulled from the market.
Death Sentence Wants to Keep Pushing Useless Treatment
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed Tuesday for coronavirus patients to continue receiving antibody treatments deemed ineffective against the omicron variant, vowing to fight White House health regulators in his latest feud with President Joe Biden.
The Republican governor’s comments came a day after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration pulled its emergency authorization for the antibody drugs from Regeneron and Eli Lilly.
DeSantis, who made the drugs a centerpiece of his virus response while resisting vaccine mandates and other safety measures, did not outline how he would fight the FDA decision and it is legally unclear how he would do so. His office did not immediately return an email seeking further clarification. The FDA has sole authority over drug regulation in the U.S.
What is the Point of Attacking the Power Grid?
Domestic violent extremists have been planning to try to disrupt the U.S. power grid and will probably keep doing so, according to a Department of Homeland Security intelligence bulletin shared with law enforcement agencies and utility operators Monday and obtained by CBS News.
"DVEs have developed credible, specific plans to attack electricity infrastructure since at least 2020, identifying the electric grid as a particularly attractive target given its interdependency with other infrastructure sectors," the bulletin reads.
It warns that extremists "adhering to a range of ideologies will likely continue to plot and encourage physical attacks against electrical infrastructure."
Still, the bulletin notes that, "Absent significant technical knowledge or insider assistance, small scale attacks are unlikely to cause widespread, multi-state power loss but may result in physical damage that poses risks to operations or personnel."
All Hat and No Crypto
Melania Trump began 2022 by announcing she’d be auctioning off a hat, along with two other items, for the low, low starting bid of $250,000.
Her website, MelaniaTrump.com, allowed the bids only to be made in cryptocurrency. Remember this. This will be important.
She called the auction the “Head of State” collection. It included the custom-made, wide-brimmed white hat she’d worn to meet French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, during the Trumps’ first state visit at the White House in April 2018 — autographed — plus a watercolor of Trump in the hat, and a non-fungible token, or NFT, depicting the image.
One year after leaving the White House, Melania Trump is remaking herself as an entrepreneur. In a vast departure from previous first ladies — but in keeping with her business trajectory before her husband became president, when she licensed her name to jewelry and skin care lines — she is reviving her personal brand for monetary gain.
--------------
Today's Best Person in the World Nominee Is ... What? Who? Geraldo Rivera?
Fox News’ Sean Hannity was taken to task on his own show by Geraldo Rivera for airing an attack ad accusing President Joe Biden of cognitive decline.
Hannity parroted the right-wing talking point that Biden is mentally unfit for office by comparing footage of the president’s speeches over the years with a new spot released by the Republican National Committee that highlighted his pauses during last week’s marathon news conference.
“I think the montage you put together of the 46th president was deeply insulting and highly political,” Rivera, a veteran pundit on the conservative network, told Hannity on Tuesday.
Conservative commentator Dan Bongino sided with fellow Donald Trump acolyte Hannity. “I cannot believe you’re going to die on this hill,” he told Rivera, later adding: “Admit the guy is cognitively compromised, drop the loss, and let’s move on. It is a dying argument.”
Rivera accused Bongino of being “shocking and outrageous,” calling the smear a “political diagnosis.”
--------------
Today's Worst Smuggler in the World
A man from Galveston, Texas, has pleaded guilty to smuggling two undocumented immigrants inside a damaged coffin that had been haphazardly draped with the American flag.
Zachary Taylor Blood, 33, told Border Patrol officials at a checkpoint near Falfurrias on Oct. 26, 2021, that there was a “dead guy, Navy guy” inside the coffin he was transporting in the back of his van.
But the agents became suspicious after spotting the “poor condition” of the crate and the American flag attached to its top with packing tape, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas Attorney’s said in a statement on Tuesday.
Two men from Mexico were found concealed inside the coffin. They confessed to “paying a smuggler to get them to San Antonio,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. “They claimed that after crossing the river into the United States, they were taken to a parking lot where Blood was waiting for them. He had them get into the coffin and began driving north.”
Blood pleaded guilty to one count of human smuggling. He faces five years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 fine. He’ll be sentenced on May 11.
--------------
Unfortunately One Type of Newt is Not Extinct
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) conservation group has published a list of 224 newly discovered species from the greater Mekong region.
They include a monkey with ghostly white circles around its eyes, frogs, newts and the only known succulent bamboo species, a WWF report says.
Some of the world's most endangered species in the area face extinction even before they have been identified.
--------------
Should Oprah Be Put in Charge of Free N95 Mask Distribution?
"You get a mask, and your get a mask, and you get a mask."
--------------
If You Don't Take the Vaccine, You Are Heart-Less
A US hospital has rejected a patient for a heart transplant at least in part because he is not vaccinated against Covid-19.
DJ Ferguson, 31, is in dire need of a new heart, but Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston took him off their list, said his father, David.
He said the Covid vaccine goes against his son's "basic principles, he doesn't believe in it".
The hospital said it was following policy.
Brigham and Women's Hospital told the BBC in a statement: "Given the shortage of available organs, we do everything we can to ensure that a patient who receives a transplanted organ has the greatest chance of survival."
A spokesman said the hospital requires "the Covid-19 vaccine, and lifestyle behaviours for transplant candidates to create both the best chance for a successful operation and to optimise the patient's survival after transplantation, given that their immune system is drastically suppressed".
--------------
Look Who's Talking
Saudi Arabia and Thailand have ended a 30-year row over a scandal involving stolen jewels and a string of murders.
The resumption of full diplomatic ties came during a visit to Riyadh by Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha.
A Thai cleaner working for a Saudi prince took the gems in 1989. A rare 50 carat blue diamond was never recovered.
Three Saudi diplomats were shot dead in Bangkok following the theft. Several top Thai policemen were implicated in the affair but never convicted.
The deal opens the way for Thais once again to find employment in Saudi Arabia, which says it needs millions of overseas workers.
It will also allow renewed co-operation in areas such as tourism and petrochemicals. Saudi Arabian Airlines has announced it will restart direct flights to Thailand in May.
Analysts say the dispute has cost billions of dollars in trade, and led to job losses for tens of thousands of Thai migrant workers. Before the scandal, as many as 300,000 Thais were employed in Saudi Arabia.
Most of the jewels were never found. The scarcity and value of blue diamonds is in part down to the fact so few places in the world mine for them.
The stones get their colour when the chemical boron is present during formation.
The origin of the Saudi blue diamond is unclear and no known photographs of it exist.
--------------
The Last Rule of Fight Club: The Government Always Wins
The ending to cult 1999 US film Fight Club has been removed for viewers in China, and replaced by a screen with a message saying the authorities won.
The original ending saw Edward Norton's narrator killing his imaginary alter-ego Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt, before bombs destroyed buildings in the climax to a subversive plot to reorder society, dubbed Project Mayhem.
In China, before the explosions, a message now says the police foiled the plot, arrested the criminals and sent Durden to a "lunatic asylum".
The new finale tells viewers: "Through the clue provided by Tyler, the police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding.
"After the trial, Tyler was sent to lunatic asylum receiving psychological treatment. He was discharged from the hospital in 2012."
--------------
Thailand Become High-Land
Thailand's narcotics board on Tuesday said it would remove cannabis from its drugs list, paving the way for households to grow the plant.
Thailand became the first Southeast Asian country to legalize marijuana in 2018 for medical use and research.
Under the new rule, people can grow cannabis plants at home after notifying their local government, but the cannabis cannot be used for commercial purposes without further licenses, Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters.
One Toke in Bangkok Make a Hard Man Stumble
--------------
Pencil In Pennsylvania as a Race to Watch
--------------
Is Joe Biden actually that unpopular, or is polarization distorting his approval rating?
G. Elliott Morris
Harry Enten, an elections and polling analyst for CNN, writes this weekend that “Only Trump was in worse electoral shape than Biden after his first year as president.” His article focuses on historical job approval ratings, and he writes::
Start out by just looking at his overall job approval ratings. Biden has an approval rating of only about 41% and a disapproval rating of 54% in an average of polls. This makes for a net approval rating of -13 points.
Biden's poor ratings are quite a turnaround from where he was earlier. In the middle of September, his net approval rating was -3 points. Biden stood at +11 points in the middle of May. His first net approval rating of his presidency was +19 points.
No elected president in the polling era besides Trump has ever had a negative net approval at this point in his presidency. Trump's was at -17 points and was actually improving. Biden's is stagnant if not down a touch.
Indeed. Here are the presidents’ approval ratings on this day in previous presidents’ tenures in office, according to my averaging of all available polling:
Biden: 42%
Trump: 39
Obama: 50
W Bush**: 80
Clinton: 56
Bush**: 78
Reagan: 49
Carter: 52
Ford: 44
Nixon: 63
*I’m stopping at Nixon because “modern” politics roughly starts in 1968.
**Double asterisks denote ongoing wars.
Source: FiveThirtyEight.com
So, Joe Biden’s approval ratings are certainly lower than the average for prior presidents’ But the question really isn’t Biden compares historically, but how he compares versus expectations. This is an important distinction because there is an extra variable we should account for, that most media analysts don’t really highlight: partisanship/political polarization.
It is not enough, in other words, to say that Biden is unpopular today. We would hypothesize, before even seeing any data, that the president’s approval ratings would be lower than, eg, Clinton’s or Reagan’s just by virtue of having a larger base of devoted opponents by default. Another way of saying this is that because there are fewer swing voters, it is more impressive now if a president manages to win over 60 or 65% of Americans than if they did it in 1960. Correspondingly, it is less disastrous if they hit 45 or 40%. That’s because the share who approve of them are much likelier to actually vote for them in upcoming elections.
Polarization means presidents have higher ceilings to their approval — because they have more opponents that are hard to sway by new events or evidence. But they also have higher floors.
Consider the math relating probability of approving of a president to voting for them. In less polarized eras, presidents may have been able to count on the support of 70% of their approvers and 30% of their disapprovers. That means a president with a 50% approval rating and 45% disapproval rating (with 5% of voters undecided) would win roughly (0.7 * 0.5) + (0.3 * 0.45) = 48.5% of the vote. But in polarized times, they might win 90% of their approvers and 10% of their disapprovers, equal to (0.9 * 0.5) + (0.1 * 0.45) = 49.5% of the vote. Polarization, in summary, means Joe Biden can win re-election with lower approval ratings than we’d predict based on the historical relationship between approval and actual vote share. That’s also why Donald Trump managed to get so close to re-election in 2020 while having a paltry 43% approval rating.
These are only simple, hypothetical demonstrations, but I think they make a good case for relying less on historical comparisons of presidential approval ¬— and paying more attention to quantitative models that can adjust vote-share predictions for the degree of partisanship and polarization in the electorate. And if you abstract that out, this is also an argument for paying less attention to pundits who have been steeped in the past conventional wisdom on presidential popularity and more to those who can update their priors about politics based on the reality of political psychology and voter behavior.
As far as Biden is concerned, the upshot is that he doesn’t need a 50-55% approval rating to win re-election. He would obviously prefer to have a higher rating — and there may be some things he could do to get there — but depending on his support among undecideds and the wishy-washiness of disapprovers, a 45% rating could do just fine.
--------------
Who Knew?
--------------
What's the Difference Between the "New Silicon Valley" (Austin Texas) and the Original Silicon Valley?
The California city of San Jose is set to become the first in the United States to enforce an ordinance requiring most gun owners to pay a fee and carry liability insurance.
In a statement on Tuesday night, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said the city's council had voted in favor of both measures, which are aimed at reducing the risk of gun harm and relieving taxpayers of the financial cost of gun violence.
The ordinance still needs approval at a final reading next month before it can take effect in August.
The funds generated from fees paid by gun owners will be funneled into "evidence-based initiatives to reduce gun violence and gun harm," Liccardo said. The fee is expected to be around $25, according to NBC News San Diego.
Meanwhile, having liability insurance is meant to encourage gun owners in San Jose to take safety measures, including having gun safes, installing trigger locks and taking gun safety classes.
The Original Is In California, Not Texas
--------------
Fighting Putin is a Gas!
The US has helped prepare for the diversion of natural gas supplies from around the world to Europe in the event that the flow from Russia is cut, in an effort to blunt Vladimir Putin’s most powerful economic weapon.
As fears of an invasion of Ukraine have grown, US officials said on Tuesday that they had been negotiating with global suppliers, and they were now confident that Europe would not suffer from a sudden loss of energy for heating in the middle of winter.
“To ensure Europe is able to make it through the winter and spring we expect to be prepared to ensure alternative supplies covering a significant majority of the potential shortfall,” a senior official said.
The preparation for bulk gas supplies deliveries is part of a campaign by the US and its European allies to show a united and coherent front to Putin in the hope of deterring him from invading Ukraine. Joe Biden said on Tuesday he would consider imposing personal sanctions on the Russian president himself.
--------------
So Far, It Doesn't Get It's Own Greek Letter
Even as the omicron COVID-19 variant continues to sweep the globe, scientists are now monitoring a new mutation of omicron, dubbed BA.2.
The World Health Organization maintains that BA.2 is not a "variant of concern," meaning there is no current evidence to suggest this new subvariant will worsen COVID-19 transmission, illness severity, or efficacy of vaccines and public health efforts like masking and social distancing.
BA.2 numbers around the world are rising, with at least 40 countries reporting cases to a global variant tracking database, but the subvariant has spread rapidly in Denmark and the UK, with almost half of recent cases in Denmark attributed to BA.2.
The subvariant has already been detected in several U.S. states, with Washington State confirming two cases Monday.
While over 8,000 BA.2 cases have been identified since November 2021, it is unclear where BA.2 originated. Even though the first sequences were submitted from the Philippines, numerous cases have since been detected in various places, from Europe to South Asia.
Given the rising numbers, health care organizations, like the WHO, are asking scientists to watch and study the new subvariant separately from omicron, to see if it behaves differently.
Let's Hope We Don't Get So Many Variants We Need to Use the Chinese Alphabet
--------------
The Kids Get It
Students in Washington, D.C., are taking a stand to demand change from D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) amid a wave of nationwide protests. Dressed in red for education, high schoolers from some of the district's top public schools walked out of class in protest Tuesday afternoon to push for safer schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The protest is the latest in a wave of walkouts by students in cities across the nation, including in Chicago, the nation's third largest school district; Denver and Oakland. Days after some students walked out of school in Montgomery County, Maryland, which borders D.C., the district's students held their own walkout and virtual rally over Zoom.
Brianna Stallings, a senior at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, helped organize the D.C. protest, which was started by a group called Students 4 Safe Learning. Brianna and other participants said they don't feel safe in school. They want their schools to ensure COVID protocols are in place, including 100% testing for students and staff, KN95 mask distribution and the option for virtual schooling.
Remember When School Kids Didn't Know What An N95 Mask Is?
--------------
What Are the Risk Factors For Long COVID?
Dr. Deeks said: “They’ve identified these four major factors. Each is biologically plausible, consistent with theories that other people are pursuing, and importantly, each is actionable. If these pathways get confirmed, we as clinicians can actually design interventions to make people better. That is the take-home message.”
One of the four factors researchers identified is the level of coronavirus RNA in the blood early in the infection, an indicator of viral load. Another is the presence of certain autoantibodies — antibodies that mistakenly attack tissues in the body as they do in conditions like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. A third factor is the reactivation of Epstein-Barr virus, a virus that infects most people, often when they are young, and then usually becomes dormant.
The final factor is having Type 2 diabetes, although the researchers and other experts said that in studies involving larger numbers of patients, it might turn out that diabetes is only one of several medical conditions that increase the risk of long Covid.
--------------
Good, But There are 7.8 Billion People in the World
The Biden administration plans to announce Wednesday that the U.S. has distributed 400 million doses of Covid vaccines globally, more than any country in the world, a White House official said.
White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients is expected to announce the milestone, said the official, who added that the U.S. is shipping more than 3 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine beginning Thursday to Bangladesh and more than 4.6 million doses to Pakistan.
This Is Not the Job Of Any One Country
--------------
Why Would You Announce Surprise Inspections?
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has unveiled plans to conduct unannounced inspections of plants suspected of air pollution violations in the heavily industrialized region in Louisiana known as Cancer Alley and other locations around the US south.
The move, announced on Wednesday morning alongside other significant new enforcement and monitoring actions, is aimed at reining in pollution in an area with much of America’s most toxic air.
--------------
Which Number Is a Better Representation? 567% Increase or Increase of 51?
San Francisco officials pledged to better protect Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders as preliminary data from the city’s police department showed the number of people who reported being the victim of an anti-AAPI hate crime in the city last year increased by 567 percent compared with the previous year.
There were eight anti-AAPI hate crimes reported to the San Francisco police in 2019 and nine in 2020. In 2021, there were 60. These numbers are considered preliminary until the California Department of Justice makes its final determination on hate-crime statistics throughout the state, police said.
--------------
CDC doesn't do a good job of reporting around holidays.
Doses Administered 7-Day Average | Number of People Receiving 1 or More Doses | Number of People 2 or More Doses | New Cases 7-Day Average | Deaths 7-Day Average | |
| Jan 26 | 962,958 | 251,518,114 | 210,850,212 | ||
| Jan 25 | 1,011,603 | 251,289,667 | 210,682,471 | 627,294 | 2,246 |
| Jan 24 | 1,201,186 | 250,964,433 | 210,459,963 | 692,359 | 2,166 |
| Jan 23 | 1,101,405 | 250,763,600 | 210,358,008 | 663,908 | 1,936 |
| Jan 22 | 1,002,322 | 250,568,431 | 210,229,586 | 686,715 | 1,939 |
| Jan 21 | 1,035,111 | 250,262,153 | 210,021,766 | 716,829 | 1,974 |
| Jan 20 | 1,094,988 | 250,028,635 | 209,842,610 | 726,870 | 1,843 |
| Jan 19 | 1,135,453 | 249,702,939 | 209,509,297 | 744,615 | 1,749 |
| Jan 18 | 1,158,537 | 249,393,487 | 209,312,770 | 755,095 | 1,669 |
| Jan 17 | No Data | 736,350 | 1,746 | ||
| Jan 16 | No Data | 771,131 | 1,851 | ||
| Jan 15 | 1,268,202 | 248,707,432 | 208,995,438 | 788,628 | 1,858 |
| Jan 14 | 1,286,773 | 248,338,448 | 208,791,862 | 798,335 | 1,784 |
| Jan 13 | 1,291,013 | 247,987,225 | 208,564,894 | 794,587 | 1,730 |
| Jan 12 | 1,234,672 | 247,695,845 | 208,182,657 | 782,765 | 1,729 |
| Jan 11 | 1,213,113 | 247,321,023 | 207,954,605 | 761,535 | 1,656 |
| Jan 10 | 1,307,445 | 247,051,363 | 207,796,335 | 750,996 | 1,633 |
| Jan 9 | 1,331,635 | 246,812,939 | 207,662,071 | 674,406 | 1,552 |
| Jan 8 | 1,286,783 | 246,447,823 | 207,452,448 | 680,330 | 1,544 |
| Jan 7 | 1,226,151 | 246,050,320 | 207,229,983 | 668,497 | 1,513 |
| Jan 6 | 1,164,127 | 245,653,518 | 207,016,514 | 614,552 | 1,350 |
| Jan 5 | 1,117,999 | 245,278,020 | 206,797,799 | 586,391 | 1,245 |
| Jan 4 | 1,093,005 | 244,947,293 | 206,581,659 | 554,328 | 1,238 |
| Jan 3 | No Data | 491,652 | 1,165 | ||
| Jan 2 | No Data | 438,082 | 1,174 | ||
| Jan 1 | No Data | 411,871 | 1,151 | ||
| Dec 31 | No Data | 391,098 | 1,135 | ||
| Dec 30 | 1,234,917 | 243,527,564 | 205,811,394 | 360,276 | 1,144 |
| Dec 29 | 1,042,911 | 243,182,423 | 205,638,307 | 316,277 | 1,100 |
| Dec 28 | 1,091,279 | 242,813,374 | 205,420,745 | 277,241 | 1,085 |
| Dec 27 | 1,034,442 | 242,433,620 | 205,196,973 | 240,408 | 1,096 |
| Dec 26 | No Data | 206,577 | 1,041 | ||
| Dec 25 | No Data | 196,511 | 1,053 | ||
| Feb 16, 2021 | 1,716,311 | 39,670,551 | 15,015,434 | 78,292 |
| At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | % of Vaccinated W/ Boosters | |
| % of Total Population | 75.8% | 64.5% | 40.4% |
| % of Population 5+ | 80.5% | 67.5% | |
| % of Population 12+ | 85.7% | 72.3% | 43.5% |
| % of Population 18+ | 87.6% | 73.9% | 54.9% |
| % of Population 65+ | 95.0% | 88.2% | 63.3% |
California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday Jan 25)
We had a great December, but January has been pretty terrible. We have 3-4 months to get some significant rain.
There are no big storms in the 10-day forecast.
| Percent of Average for this Date | Last Week | 2 Weeks ago | 3 Weeks ago | 4 Weeks ago | |
| Northern Sierra Precipitation | 124% | 134% | 149% | 158% | 170% |
| San Joaquin Precipitation | 110% | 121% | 138% | 156% | 170% |
| Tulare Basin Precipitation | 101% | 112% | 127% | 145% | 151% |
| Snow Water Content - North | 117% | 128% | 135% | 134% | |
| Snow Water Content - Central | 114% | 129% | 148% | 148% | |
| Snow Water Content - South | 121% | 135% | 160% | 158% |
Reservoirs are still low, but they are filling up a bit.
--------------
Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
El Chapo's Lawyers Are Pretty Bad People, Too.
The conviction of the notorious Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was upheld Tuesday by a U.S. appeals court that praised the trial judge for his handling of a case that drew international attention.
The decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan rejected claims that Judge Brian Cogan made rulings allowing a jury to hear faulty evidence at Guzman’s 2019 trial.
Cogan “conducted the three-month trial with diligence and fairness, after issuing a series of meticulously crafted pretrial rulings,” the ruling by the panel concluded.
Let's Send Kids to School With No Vaccinations
The Trump Campaign Was Behind the Fake Elector Scheme
Steve Miller, serving as a ‘trump campaign senior advisor’, and therefore ostensibly speaking for the campaign and the president, made an appearance on Fox and Friends to allay the fears of the three dunderheads.
From Vaxxed and Boosted TucKKKer
Tonight on Tucker Carlson’s train wreck, lunatic anti-vaxxer and former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson tells Tuck’s audience not to get boosted and that mRNA vaccines need to be pulled from the market.
Death Sentence Wants to Keep Pushing Useless Treatment
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed Tuesday for coronavirus patients to continue receiving antibody treatments deemed ineffective against the omicron variant, vowing to fight White House health regulators in his latest feud with President Joe Biden.
The Republican governor’s comments came a day after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration pulled its emergency authorization for the antibody drugs from Regeneron and Eli Lilly.
DeSantis, who made the drugs a centerpiece of his virus response while resisting vaccine mandates and other safety measures, did not outline how he would fight the FDA decision and it is legally unclear how he would do so. His office did not immediately return an email seeking further clarification. The FDA has sole authority over drug regulation in the U.S.
What is the Point of Attacking the Power Grid?
Domestic violent extremists have been planning to try to disrupt the U.S. power grid and will probably keep doing so, according to a Department of Homeland Security intelligence bulletin shared with law enforcement agencies and utility operators Monday and obtained by CBS News.
"DVEs have developed credible, specific plans to attack electricity infrastructure since at least 2020, identifying the electric grid as a particularly attractive target given its interdependency with other infrastructure sectors," the bulletin reads.
It warns that extremists "adhering to a range of ideologies will likely continue to plot and encourage physical attacks against electrical infrastructure."
Still, the bulletin notes that, "Absent significant technical knowledge or insider assistance, small scale attacks are unlikely to cause widespread, multi-state power loss but may result in physical damage that poses risks to operations or personnel."
All Hat and No Crypto
Melania Trump began 2022 by announcing she’d be auctioning off a hat, along with two other items, for the low, low starting bid of $250,000.
Her website, MelaniaTrump.com, allowed the bids only to be made in cryptocurrency. Remember this. This will be important.
She called the auction the “Head of State” collection. It included the custom-made, wide-brimmed white hat she’d worn to meet French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, during the Trumps’ first state visit at the White House in April 2018 — autographed — plus a watercolor of Trump in the hat, and a non-fungible token, or NFT, depicting the image.
One year after leaving the White House, Melania Trump is remaking herself as an entrepreneur. In a vast departure from previous first ladies — but in keeping with her business trajectory before her husband became president, when she licensed her name to jewelry and skin care lines — she is reviving her personal brand for monetary gain.
--------------
Today's Best Person in the World Nominee Is ... What? Who? Geraldo Rivera?
Fox News’ Sean Hannity was taken to task on his own show by Geraldo Rivera for airing an attack ad accusing President Joe Biden of cognitive decline.
Hannity parroted the right-wing talking point that Biden is mentally unfit for office by comparing footage of the president’s speeches over the years with a new spot released by the Republican National Committee that highlighted his pauses during last week’s marathon news conference.
“I think the montage you put together of the 46th president was deeply insulting and highly political,” Rivera, a veteran pundit on the conservative network, told Hannity on Tuesday.
Conservative commentator Dan Bongino sided with fellow Donald Trump acolyte Hannity. “I cannot believe you’re going to die on this hill,” he told Rivera, later adding: “Admit the guy is cognitively compromised, drop the loss, and let’s move on. It is a dying argument.”
Rivera accused Bongino of being “shocking and outrageous,” calling the smear a “political diagnosis.”
--------------
Today's Worst Smuggler in the World
A man from Galveston, Texas, has pleaded guilty to smuggling two undocumented immigrants inside a damaged coffin that had been haphazardly draped with the American flag.
Zachary Taylor Blood, 33, told Border Patrol officials at a checkpoint near Falfurrias on Oct. 26, 2021, that there was a “dead guy, Navy guy” inside the coffin he was transporting in the back of his van.
But the agents became suspicious after spotting the “poor condition” of the crate and the American flag attached to its top with packing tape, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas Attorney’s said in a statement on Tuesday.
Two men from Mexico were found concealed inside the coffin. They confessed to “paying a smuggler to get them to San Antonio,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. “They claimed that after crossing the river into the United States, they were taken to a parking lot where Blood was waiting for them. He had them get into the coffin and began driving north.”
Blood pleaded guilty to one count of human smuggling. He faces five years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 fine. He’ll be sentenced on May 11.
--------------
Unfortunately One Type of Newt is Not Extinct
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) conservation group has published a list of 224 newly discovered species from the greater Mekong region.
They include a monkey with ghostly white circles around its eyes, frogs, newts and the only known succulent bamboo species, a WWF report says.
Some of the world's most endangered species in the area face extinction even before they have been identified.
--------------
Should Oprah Be Put in Charge of Free N95 Mask Distribution?
"You get a mask, and your get a mask, and you get a mask."
--------------
If You Don't Take the Vaccine, You Are Heart-Less
A US hospital has rejected a patient for a heart transplant at least in part because he is not vaccinated against Covid-19.
DJ Ferguson, 31, is in dire need of a new heart, but Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston took him off their list, said his father, David.
He said the Covid vaccine goes against his son's "basic principles, he doesn't believe in it".
The hospital said it was following policy.
Brigham and Women's Hospital told the BBC in a statement: "Given the shortage of available organs, we do everything we can to ensure that a patient who receives a transplanted organ has the greatest chance of survival."
A spokesman said the hospital requires "the Covid-19 vaccine, and lifestyle behaviours for transplant candidates to create both the best chance for a successful operation and to optimise the patient's survival after transplantation, given that their immune system is drastically suppressed".
--------------
Look Who's Talking
Saudi Arabia and Thailand have ended a 30-year row over a scandal involving stolen jewels and a string of murders.
The resumption of full diplomatic ties came during a visit to Riyadh by Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha.
A Thai cleaner working for a Saudi prince took the gems in 1989. A rare 50 carat blue diamond was never recovered.
Three Saudi diplomats were shot dead in Bangkok following the theft. Several top Thai policemen were implicated in the affair but never convicted.
The deal opens the way for Thais once again to find employment in Saudi Arabia, which says it needs millions of overseas workers.
It will also allow renewed co-operation in areas such as tourism and petrochemicals. Saudi Arabian Airlines has announced it will restart direct flights to Thailand in May.
Analysts say the dispute has cost billions of dollars in trade, and led to job losses for tens of thousands of Thai migrant workers. Before the scandal, as many as 300,000 Thais were employed in Saudi Arabia.
Most of the jewels were never found. The scarcity and value of blue diamonds is in part down to the fact so few places in the world mine for them.
The stones get their colour when the chemical boron is present during formation.
The origin of the Saudi blue diamond is unclear and no known photographs of it exist.
--------------
The Last Rule of Fight Club: The Government Always Wins
The ending to cult 1999 US film Fight Club has been removed for viewers in China, and replaced by a screen with a message saying the authorities won.
The original ending saw Edward Norton's narrator killing his imaginary alter-ego Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt, before bombs destroyed buildings in the climax to a subversive plot to reorder society, dubbed Project Mayhem.
In China, before the explosions, a message now says the police foiled the plot, arrested the criminals and sent Durden to a "lunatic asylum".
The new finale tells viewers: "Through the clue provided by Tyler, the police rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding.
"After the trial, Tyler was sent to lunatic asylum receiving psychological treatment. He was discharged from the hospital in 2012."
--------------
Thailand Become High-Land
Thailand's narcotics board on Tuesday said it would remove cannabis from its drugs list, paving the way for households to grow the plant.
Thailand became the first Southeast Asian country to legalize marijuana in 2018 for medical use and research.
Under the new rule, people can grow cannabis plants at home after notifying their local government, but the cannabis cannot be used for commercial purposes without further licenses, Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters.
One Toke in Bangkok Make a Hard Man Stumble
--------------
Pencil In Pennsylvania as a Race to Watch
--------------
Is Joe Biden actually that unpopular, or is polarization distorting his approval rating?
G. Elliott Morris
Harry Enten, an elections and polling analyst for CNN, writes this weekend that “Only Trump was in worse electoral shape than Biden after his first year as president.” His article focuses on historical job approval ratings, and he writes::
Start out by just looking at his overall job approval ratings. Biden has an approval rating of only about 41% and a disapproval rating of 54% in an average of polls. This makes for a net approval rating of -13 points.
Biden's poor ratings are quite a turnaround from where he was earlier. In the middle of September, his net approval rating was -3 points. Biden stood at +11 points in the middle of May. His first net approval rating of his presidency was +19 points.
No elected president in the polling era besides Trump has ever had a negative net approval at this point in his presidency. Trump's was at -17 points and was actually improving. Biden's is stagnant if not down a touch.
Indeed. Here are the presidents’ approval ratings on this day in previous presidents’ tenures in office, according to my averaging of all available polling:
Biden: 42%
Trump: 39
Obama: 50
W Bush**: 80
Clinton: 56
Bush**: 78
Reagan: 49
Carter: 52
Ford: 44
Nixon: 63
*I’m stopping at Nixon because “modern” politics roughly starts in 1968.
**Double asterisks denote ongoing wars.
Source: FiveThirtyEight.com
So, Joe Biden’s approval ratings are certainly lower than the average for prior presidents’ But the question really isn’t Biden compares historically, but how he compares versus expectations. This is an important distinction because there is an extra variable we should account for, that most media analysts don’t really highlight: partisanship/political polarization.
It is not enough, in other words, to say that Biden is unpopular today. We would hypothesize, before even seeing any data, that the president’s approval ratings would be lower than, eg, Clinton’s or Reagan’s just by virtue of having a larger base of devoted opponents by default. Another way of saying this is that because there are fewer swing voters, it is more impressive now if a president manages to win over 60 or 65% of Americans than if they did it in 1960. Correspondingly, it is less disastrous if they hit 45 or 40%. That’s because the share who approve of them are much likelier to actually vote for them in upcoming elections.
Polarization means presidents have higher ceilings to their approval — because they have more opponents that are hard to sway by new events or evidence. But they also have higher floors.
Consider the math relating probability of approving of a president to voting for them. In less polarized eras, presidents may have been able to count on the support of 70% of their approvers and 30% of their disapprovers. That means a president with a 50% approval rating and 45% disapproval rating (with 5% of voters undecided) would win roughly (0.7 * 0.5) + (0.3 * 0.45) = 48.5% of the vote. But in polarized times, they might win 90% of their approvers and 10% of their disapprovers, equal to (0.9 * 0.5) + (0.1 * 0.45) = 49.5% of the vote. Polarization, in summary, means Joe Biden can win re-election with lower approval ratings than we’d predict based on the historical relationship between approval and actual vote share. That’s also why Donald Trump managed to get so close to re-election in 2020 while having a paltry 43% approval rating.
These are only simple, hypothetical demonstrations, but I think they make a good case for relying less on historical comparisons of presidential approval ¬— and paying more attention to quantitative models that can adjust vote-share predictions for the degree of partisanship and polarization in the electorate. And if you abstract that out, this is also an argument for paying less attention to pundits who have been steeped in the past conventional wisdom on presidential popularity and more to those who can update their priors about politics based on the reality of political psychology and voter behavior.
As far as Biden is concerned, the upshot is that he doesn’t need a 50-55% approval rating to win re-election. He would obviously prefer to have a higher rating — and there may be some things he could do to get there — but depending on his support among undecideds and the wishy-washiness of disapprovers, a 45% rating could do just fine.
--------------
Who Knew?
--------------
What's the Difference Between the "New Silicon Valley" (Austin Texas) and the Original Silicon Valley?
The California city of San Jose is set to become the first in the United States to enforce an ordinance requiring most gun owners to pay a fee and carry liability insurance.
In a statement on Tuesday night, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said the city's council had voted in favor of both measures, which are aimed at reducing the risk of gun harm and relieving taxpayers of the financial cost of gun violence.
The ordinance still needs approval at a final reading next month before it can take effect in August.
The funds generated from fees paid by gun owners will be funneled into "evidence-based initiatives to reduce gun violence and gun harm," Liccardo said. The fee is expected to be around $25, according to NBC News San Diego.
Meanwhile, having liability insurance is meant to encourage gun owners in San Jose to take safety measures, including having gun safes, installing trigger locks and taking gun safety classes.
The Original Is In California, Not Texas
--------------
Fighting Putin is a Gas!
The US has helped prepare for the diversion of natural gas supplies from around the world to Europe in the event that the flow from Russia is cut, in an effort to blunt Vladimir Putin’s most powerful economic weapon.
As fears of an invasion of Ukraine have grown, US officials said on Tuesday that they had been negotiating with global suppliers, and they were now confident that Europe would not suffer from a sudden loss of energy for heating in the middle of winter.
“To ensure Europe is able to make it through the winter and spring we expect to be prepared to ensure alternative supplies covering a significant majority of the potential shortfall,” a senior official said.
The preparation for bulk gas supplies deliveries is part of a campaign by the US and its European allies to show a united and coherent front to Putin in the hope of deterring him from invading Ukraine. Joe Biden said on Tuesday he would consider imposing personal sanctions on the Russian president himself.
--------------
So Far, It Doesn't Get It's Own Greek Letter
Even as the omicron COVID-19 variant continues to sweep the globe, scientists are now monitoring a new mutation of omicron, dubbed BA.2.
The World Health Organization maintains that BA.2 is not a "variant of concern," meaning there is no current evidence to suggest this new subvariant will worsen COVID-19 transmission, illness severity, or efficacy of vaccines and public health efforts like masking and social distancing.
BA.2 numbers around the world are rising, with at least 40 countries reporting cases to a global variant tracking database, but the subvariant has spread rapidly in Denmark and the UK, with almost half of recent cases in Denmark attributed to BA.2.
The subvariant has already been detected in several U.S. states, with Washington State confirming two cases Monday.
While over 8,000 BA.2 cases have been identified since November 2021, it is unclear where BA.2 originated. Even though the first sequences were submitted from the Philippines, numerous cases have since been detected in various places, from Europe to South Asia.
Given the rising numbers, health care organizations, like the WHO, are asking scientists to watch and study the new subvariant separately from omicron, to see if it behaves differently.
Let's Hope We Don't Get So Many Variants We Need to Use the Chinese Alphabet
--------------
The Kids Get It
Students in Washington, D.C., are taking a stand to demand change from D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) amid a wave of nationwide protests. Dressed in red for education, high schoolers from some of the district's top public schools walked out of class in protest Tuesday afternoon to push for safer schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The protest is the latest in a wave of walkouts by students in cities across the nation, including in Chicago, the nation's third largest school district; Denver and Oakland. Days after some students walked out of school in Montgomery County, Maryland, which borders D.C., the district's students held their own walkout and virtual rally over Zoom.
Brianna Stallings, a senior at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, helped organize the D.C. protest, which was started by a group called Students 4 Safe Learning. Brianna and other participants said they don't feel safe in school. They want their schools to ensure COVID protocols are in place, including 100% testing for students and staff, KN95 mask distribution and the option for virtual schooling.
Remember When School Kids Didn't Know What An N95 Mask Is?
--------------
What Are the Risk Factors For Long COVID?
Dr. Deeks said: “They’ve identified these four major factors. Each is biologically plausible, consistent with theories that other people are pursuing, and importantly, each is actionable. If these pathways get confirmed, we as clinicians can actually design interventions to make people better. That is the take-home message.”
One of the four factors researchers identified is the level of coronavirus RNA in the blood early in the infection, an indicator of viral load. Another is the presence of certain autoantibodies — antibodies that mistakenly attack tissues in the body as they do in conditions like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. A third factor is the reactivation of Epstein-Barr virus, a virus that infects most people, often when they are young, and then usually becomes dormant.
The final factor is having Type 2 diabetes, although the researchers and other experts said that in studies involving larger numbers of patients, it might turn out that diabetes is only one of several medical conditions that increase the risk of long Covid.
--------------
Good, But There are 7.8 Billion People in the World
The Biden administration plans to announce Wednesday that the U.S. has distributed 400 million doses of Covid vaccines globally, more than any country in the world, a White House official said.
White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients is expected to announce the milestone, said the official, who added that the U.S. is shipping more than 3 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine beginning Thursday to Bangladesh and more than 4.6 million doses to Pakistan.
This Is Not the Job Of Any One Country
--------------
Why Would You Announce Surprise Inspections?
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has unveiled plans to conduct unannounced inspections of plants suspected of air pollution violations in the heavily industrialized region in Louisiana known as Cancer Alley and other locations around the US south.
The move, announced on Wednesday morning alongside other significant new enforcement and monitoring actions, is aimed at reining in pollution in an area with much of America’s most toxic air.
--------------
Which Number Is a Better Representation? 567% Increase or Increase of 51?
San Francisco officials pledged to better protect Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders as preliminary data from the city’s police department showed the number of people who reported being the victim of an anti-AAPI hate crime in the city last year increased by 567 percent compared with the previous year.
There were eight anti-AAPI hate crimes reported to the San Francisco police in 2019 and nine in 2020. In 2021, there were 60. These numbers are considered preliminary until the California Department of Justice makes its final determination on hate-crime statistics throughout the state, police said.
--------------