Post by mhbruin on Mar 15, 2022 8:45:04 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 556 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
First time we have been below 50,000 cases since July 22nd.
↓ 44.7% Cases, two-week change
↓ 29.2% Deaths, two-week change
972,214 Total confirmed deaths
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California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday March 8)
There was some rain in the Nor Cal. A little more in the ten-day.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
Did They Check the Teeth on the Young Buck? A One-Day Suspension? That Should Teach Them.
A North Carolina school board voted unanimously Monday to approve an action plan after reported racial bullying in the district, including a student-organized mock auction of Black students.
A group of parents and community members had called on the Chatham County School District to make changes after several reported racial bullying instances at schools in the district.
In a Facebook post March 4, Ashley Palmer said her Black son told her that some of his classmates were sold in a mock slave auction at J.S. Waters School, which serves grades K-8.
"Our son experienced a slave auction by his classmates and when he opened up we were made aware that this type of stuff seems to be the norm so much that he didn't think it was worth sharing. His friend 'went for $350' and another student was the Slavemaster because he 'knew how to handle them.'" Palmer wrote in her post. She wrote that students also sang the n-word.
In a later post, Palmer said that the students involved in the auction received a one-day suspension, and alleges her son was assaulted by a classmate and has faced "continuous harassment" at the school since he reported the incident.
The QOP Thinks You Will Feel Safer When the Idiot Next To You Might Be Packing
AL and OH governors sign no-permit bills for toting concealed guns. GA and IN governors ponder same
By April 1, half the states in the nation may have added laws allowing people to carry concealed firearms without training or a permit. And that’s no joke.
But in two or three months, if the Supreme Court decides to make the broadest possible ruling in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, all 50 states could be forced to go down the same path.
It’s a path the supporters of so-called “constitutional carry”—particularly the Second Amendment absolutists of Gun Owners of America as well as the National Rifle Association (NRA)—have been treading state by state for the past 13 years with tremendous success despite the NRA’s recent financial and legal troubles. Even if the court chooses a more narrow ruling, it will almost certainly require several states to relax at least some provisions in their own concealed gun permit laws. That is as it should be, say advocates. They argue that no permit is needed to exercise First Amendment rights and none should be required for the Second Amendment either. Many law enforcement agencies and some police unions say the no-permit, no-training laws endanger officers and the public.
When You Pass a Terrible Bill, You Turn to Terrible People to Promote It
As horrifying, authoritarian, and fascist as Florida HB 1557 is—also known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill—outraged Floridians are forcing those endorsing it to turn to even more extreme measures. The latest was a town hall Monday with several state officials. The town hall was hosted by Brandon Straka, a convicted Jan. 6 insurrectionist.
Monday night’s event included a lineup of stellar anti-LGBTQ, MAGA-loving crazies, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Press Secretary Christina Pushaw and deranged right-wing kook Christian Walker, who is the son of Georgia senate candidate Herschal Walker.
They Got This Right.
The Winston-Salem Journal pulled no punches with a blistering critique of Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), shredding the Donald Trump apologist as “deplorable” and “North Carolina’s gift to Crazytown.”
Cawthorn’s widely condemned criticism of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “a thug” amid Russia’s invasion of Zelenskyy’s country had the newspaper “truly seeing red.” The paper also listed some of the extremist lawmaker’s other controversies, from his racist dog whistles to support of the pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol.
“The communities in our state’s 11th Congressional District have their share of problems, including the opioid crisis that has affected every other segment of society, underfunded educational resources and the challenge of drawing economic opportunities to help them thrive,” the newspaper wrote. “They would do better to elect a representative who addresses those issues rather than one who repeats Russian talking points and distracts them with culture wars.”
Setting the Russian Record of Previous Guy Straight
Previous Guy Doesn't Spin, He Picks
DC Police Get Their Man
A man wanted in a string of shootings targeting men experiencing homelessness in New York and Washington was arrested early Tuesday, police said.
The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, said in a tweet Tuesday morning a suspect was arrested in the district and being interviewed at the department's homicide offices.
At least five men were shot, two fatally, since March 3 in a series of attacks that police in both cities said were connected. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also said the shootings were connected.
Today's Terrible Headline - A Planned Parenthood Office is Not Just an Abortion Clinic
"Inside the fight for a new abortion clinic in one California city"
As soon as he learned abortion provider Planned Parenthood wanted to open a new clinic in the central California city of Visalia, resident Rod Greenfield wrote to all five city council members and urged them to deny the permit. Another area resident, retired public health official Merrilyn Brady, began mobilizing supporters of the proposed clinic, which aimed to provide primary care and abortion services in a part of the state where both are in short supply.
--------------
Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
Randy Rainbow Is Back! It's Based on "Dentist" From Little Shop of Horrors"
"Bold and Brave" is Not a Soap Opera
Why Did He Go Back to Russia? He Accomplished Nothing
The Russian authorities are seeking a 13-year prison sentence for opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a trial Kremlin critics see as an attempt to keep President Vladimir Putin's most ardent foe in prison for as long as possible.
--------------
Invasions Have Consequences
Oops!
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the West made a "terrible mistake" and let President Vladimir Putin "get away" with annexing Crimea in 2014.
Writing in the Telegraph, Mr Johnson said ending the West's dependence on Russian oil and gas was vital to end Kremlin "bullying".
It comes as the UK banned exports of luxury goods to Russia among other sanctions.
About 100 more people are also expected to be sanctioned under a new law.
Surrender or Die!
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on Russian soldiers to surrender.
In his nightly TV address, he said Russian forces had suffered worse losses during their invasion of his country than in the Chechnya conflict.
He said they had already begun to understand that they would not achieve anything by war.
"I know that you want to survive," he said, adding that those who surrendered would be treated "as people, decently".
Putin Gets the Urge to Purge
Putin has begun a purge in the sections of government that he blames for his failure in Ukraine and that is most likely to pose a threat to his rule. The security services and the military. The first head to roll was Sergey Beseda, head of the FSB foreign service, who was placed under arrest on Putin's orders. Anatoly Bolyukh, Beseda's deputy, was also arrested. The reasons given for the arrests are embezzlement of funds that were meant for FSB actions in Ukraine, and deliberately providing false information about the political situation in Ukraine. Since the entire Russian kleptocracy is guilty of embezzlement, with the #1 embezzler being Putin himself this is an easy to prove criminal offense that could be trotted out for any Russian government official who is suspected of even thinking about getting on the wrong side of Putin or of failing to execute his orders successfully.
In addition to the leadership of the FSB, it's being reported that 8 army generals have been purged.
Colbert Updates the Ukrainian Situation
Colbert even spotted a field kitchen truck the invading Russians abandoned that was filled with a curious selection of rations.
A Turkish Bath of Fire
The video shows a Russian missile launcher sitting in the open. Suddenly, it is enveloped in a huge fireball.
Ukrainian officials say what looked like a video game was actually the work of a small, relatively cheap Turkish-made drone that has made a surprisingly lethal impact on Russia forces.
A U.S. defense official said Monday that Ukraine has made “terrific” use of Turkish Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles, which can loiter over tanks and artillery and destroy them with devastatingly accurate missile fire. The official said the United States is working to help keep the drones flying.
Ukraine received a new shipment of the drones earlier this month, according to a Facebook post from Ukraine’s defense minister. He didn’t say how many. It’s unclear whether the United States has made efforts to facilitate the supply of the Turkish drone or other similar systems to Ukraine, in addition to the Javelin anti-tank and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles the U.S. is providing.
Before the war began, military experts predicted that Russian forces would have little trouble dealing with Ukraine’s complement of as many as 20 Turkish drones. With a price tag in the single-digit millions, the Bayraktars are far cheaper than drones like the U.S. Reaper, but also much slower and smaller, with a wingspan of 39 feet.
As so often has been the case in this war, however, the experts misjudged the competence of the Russian military.
“It’s quite startling to see all these videos of Bayraktars apparently knocking out Russian surface-to-air missile batteries, which are exactly the kind of system that’s equipped to shoot them down,” said David Hambling, a London-based drone expert.
The reason that is confounding, Hambling said, is that the drones should be easy for the Russians to blow out of the sky — or disable with electronic jamming.
Video of Russian - Ukrainian Confrontation
--------------
WTF Is Going On In Europe?
Two weeks after the United Kingdom dropped its last remaining Covid-19 mitigation measure -- a requirement that people who test positive for the virus isolate for five days -- the country is seeing cases and hospitalizations climb once again.
Covid-19 cases were up 48% in the UK last week compared with the week before. Hospitalizations were up 17% over the same period.
The country's daily case rate -- about 55,000 a day -- is still less than a third of the Omicron peak, but cases are rising as fast as they were falling just two weeks earlier, when the country removed pandemic-related restrictions.
Daily cases are also rising in more than half of the countries in the European Union. They've jumped 48% in the Netherlands and 20% in Germany over the past week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. But daily cases in Germany had yet to drop below pre-Omicron levels, and the Netherlands hadn't seen cases fall as much as they did in the UK.
The situation in Europe has the attention of public health officials for two reasons: First, the UK offers a preview of what may play out in the United States, and second, something unusual seems to be happening. In previous waves, increases in Covid hospitalizations lagged behind jumps in cases by about 10 days to two weeks. Now, in the UK, cases and hospitalizations seem to be rising in tandem, something that has experts stumped.
"So we're obviously keenly interested in what's going on with that," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN.
Fauci said he's spoken with his UK counterparts, and they have pegged the rise to a combination three factors. In order of contribution, Fauci said, these are:
-The BA.2 variant, which is more transmissible than the original Omicron
-The opening of society, with people mingling more indoors without masks
-Waning immunity from vaccination or prior infection
My Family Is Still Wearing Our Masks at Indoor Gatherings. Most People Are Not.
--------------
An Aircraft Carrier For a Dollar?
It was once the biggest symbol of American military power in the Indo-Pacific, battle tested from Vietnam to the Persian Gulf and a survivor of a collision with a Soviet submarine.
But the glory days of the former USS Kitty Hawk are over, and the retired supercarrier is on its final, 16,000-mile journey from Washington state to Texas, where it will be cut up and sold for scrap.
International Shipbreaking Limited of Brownsville, Texas, bought the ship last year for less than a dollar from US Naval Sea Systems Command, which oversees the disposal of retired warships.
--------------
Oh No! I Slept Through National Napping Day!
If you feel like calling it a day and dozing off for a bit, don't feel bad -- Monday, March 14, is National Napping Day.
I Guess It's the Day After the Clocks Spring Forward
--------------
Puerto Rico Exits. Russia Enters
Puerto Rico’s government formally exited bankruptcy Tuesday, completing the largest public debt restructuring in U.S. history after announcing nearly seven years ago that it was unable to pay its more than $70 billion debt.
The exit means that the U.S. territory’s government will resume payments to bondholders for the first time in several years and will settle some $1 billion worth of claims filed by residents and local businesses.
--------------
Listen Up Biden: If Congress Has a Good Idea, Don't Reject Because It Comes From Congress.
A bipartisan group of senators on Tuesday will release legislation calling for the Treasury Department to offer cash rewards for information that leads to the seizure of assets held by sanctioned Russian oligarchs, the latest attempt to escalate financial pressure against the Kremlin over the invasion of Ukraine.
The proposal would give President Biden the authority to make an emergency declaration enabling federal authorities to confiscate — and then liquidate — holdings of Russian oligarchs or other financial elites linked to the Russian government. The bill would also allow the money raised by selling those assets to then be given to the Ukrainian government to assist in that country’s reconstruction or finance its military. Typically, sanctions law allows the federal government to only freeze the assets of sanctioned individuals, not seize them.
The bill is being introduced by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). The United States and its European allies have tried to impact these financial elites by targeting the money they have stashed overseas, but the effect of those moves on Russian President Vladimir Putin remains unclear. The fate of the legislation is also unclear, with the administration so far resisting attempts by Congress to control Russian sanctions policy.
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Beware the Ides of March!
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First time we have been below 50,000 cases since July 22nd.
↓ 44.7% Cases, two-week change
↓ 29.2% Deaths, two-week change
972,214 Total confirmed deaths
New Cases 7-Day Average | Deaths 7-Day Average | |
| Mar 15 | ||
| Mar 14 | 32,458 | 1,186 |
| Mar 13 | 34,113 | 1,187 |
| Mar 12 | 34,253 | 1,210 |
| Mar 11 | 34,805 | 1,198 |
| Mar 10 | 35,269 | 1,197 |
| Mar 9 | 37,146 | 1,179 |
| Mar 8 | 37,879 | 1,161 |
| Mar 7 | 40,433 | 1,208 |
| Mar 6 | 42,204 | 1,259 |
| Mar 5 | 43,665 | 1,281 |
| Mar 4 | 45,555 | 1,319 |
| Mar 3 | 49,888 | 1,413 |
| Mar 2 | 53,016 | 1,558 |
| Mar 1 | 56,253 | 1,674 |
| Feb 28 | 68,480 | 1,832 |
| Feb 27 | 62,556 | 1,686 |
| Feb 26 | 66,053 | 1,719 |
| Feb 25 | 69,203 | 1,751 |
| Feb 24 | 72,111 | 1,720 |
| Feb 23 | 75,208 | 1,674 |
| Feb 22 | 79,539 | 1,602 |
| Feb 21 | 78,306 | 1,872 |
| Feb 20 | 98,012 | 1,872 |
| Feb 19 | 100,129 | 1,890 |
| Feb 18 | 103,462 | 1,920 |
| Feb 17 | 112,653 | 1,998 |
| Feb 16 | 121,664 | 2,020 |
| Feb 15 | 134,468 | 2,100 |
| Feb 14 | 146,921 | 2,208 |
| Feb 16, 2021 | 78,292 |
| At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | % of Vaccinated W/ Boosters | |
| % of Total Population | 76.6% | 65.2% | 44.2% |
| % of Population 5+ | 81.4% | 69.3% | |
| % of Population 12+ | 86.3% | 73.6% | 45.8% |
| % of Population 18+ | 88.1% | 75.2% | 47.6% |
| % of Population 65+ | 95.0% | 88.9% | 66.7% |
California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday March 8)
There was some rain in the Nor Cal. A little more in the ten-day.
| Percent of Average for this Date | Last Week | 2 Weeks ago | 3 Weeks ago | 9 Weeks ago | |
| Northern Sierra Precipitation | 84% (61% of full season average) | 87% (60%) | 93% (60%) | 99% (59%) | 170% |
| San Joaquin Precipitation | 74% (53%) | 76% (51%) | 80% (51%) | 86% (51%) | 170% |
| Tulare Basin Precipitation | 71% (51%) | 70% (48%) | 75% (47%) | 79% (46%) | 151% |
| Snow Water Content - North | 55% (52%) | 59% (53%) | 61% (52%) | 68% (53%) | 134% |
| Snow Water Content - Central | 59% (64%) | 58% (66%) | 71% (59%) | 75% (57%) | 148% |
| Snow Water Content - South | 60% (66%) | 54% (63%) | 67% (54%) | 74% (54%) | 158% |
--------------
Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
Did They Check the Teeth on the Young Buck? A One-Day Suspension? That Should Teach Them.
A North Carolina school board voted unanimously Monday to approve an action plan after reported racial bullying in the district, including a student-organized mock auction of Black students.
A group of parents and community members had called on the Chatham County School District to make changes after several reported racial bullying instances at schools in the district.
In a Facebook post March 4, Ashley Palmer said her Black son told her that some of his classmates were sold in a mock slave auction at J.S. Waters School, which serves grades K-8.
"Our son experienced a slave auction by his classmates and when he opened up we were made aware that this type of stuff seems to be the norm so much that he didn't think it was worth sharing. His friend 'went for $350' and another student was the Slavemaster because he 'knew how to handle them.'" Palmer wrote in her post. She wrote that students also sang the n-word.
In a later post, Palmer said that the students involved in the auction received a one-day suspension, and alleges her son was assaulted by a classmate and has faced "continuous harassment" at the school since he reported the incident.
The QOP Thinks You Will Feel Safer When the Idiot Next To You Might Be Packing
AL and OH governors sign no-permit bills for toting concealed guns. GA and IN governors ponder same
By April 1, half the states in the nation may have added laws allowing people to carry concealed firearms without training or a permit. And that’s no joke.
But in two or three months, if the Supreme Court decides to make the broadest possible ruling in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, all 50 states could be forced to go down the same path.
It’s a path the supporters of so-called “constitutional carry”—particularly the Second Amendment absolutists of Gun Owners of America as well as the National Rifle Association (NRA)—have been treading state by state for the past 13 years with tremendous success despite the NRA’s recent financial and legal troubles. Even if the court chooses a more narrow ruling, it will almost certainly require several states to relax at least some provisions in their own concealed gun permit laws. That is as it should be, say advocates. They argue that no permit is needed to exercise First Amendment rights and none should be required for the Second Amendment either. Many law enforcement agencies and some police unions say the no-permit, no-training laws endanger officers and the public.
When You Pass a Terrible Bill, You Turn to Terrible People to Promote It
As horrifying, authoritarian, and fascist as Florida HB 1557 is—also known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill—outraged Floridians are forcing those endorsing it to turn to even more extreme measures. The latest was a town hall Monday with several state officials. The town hall was hosted by Brandon Straka, a convicted Jan. 6 insurrectionist.
Monday night’s event included a lineup of stellar anti-LGBTQ, MAGA-loving crazies, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Press Secretary Christina Pushaw and deranged right-wing kook Christian Walker, who is the son of Georgia senate candidate Herschal Walker.
They Got This Right.
The Winston-Salem Journal pulled no punches with a blistering critique of Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.), shredding the Donald Trump apologist as “deplorable” and “North Carolina’s gift to Crazytown.”
Cawthorn’s widely condemned criticism of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “a thug” amid Russia’s invasion of Zelenskyy’s country had the newspaper “truly seeing red.” The paper also listed some of the extremist lawmaker’s other controversies, from his racist dog whistles to support of the pro-Trump mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol.
“The communities in our state’s 11th Congressional District have their share of problems, including the opioid crisis that has affected every other segment of society, underfunded educational resources and the challenge of drawing economic opportunities to help them thrive,” the newspaper wrote. “They would do better to elect a representative who addresses those issues rather than one who repeats Russian talking points and distracts them with culture wars.”
Setting the Russian Record of Previous Guy Straight
Previous Guy Doesn't Spin, He Picks
DC Police Get Their Man
A man wanted in a string of shootings targeting men experiencing homelessness in New York and Washington was arrested early Tuesday, police said.
The Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, said in a tweet Tuesday morning a suspect was arrested in the district and being interviewed at the department's homicide offices.
At least five men were shot, two fatally, since March 3 in a series of attacks that police in both cities said were connected. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also said the shootings were connected.
Today's Terrible Headline - A Planned Parenthood Office is Not Just an Abortion Clinic
"Inside the fight for a new abortion clinic in one California city"
As soon as he learned abortion provider Planned Parenthood wanted to open a new clinic in the central California city of Visalia, resident Rod Greenfield wrote to all five city council members and urged them to deny the permit. Another area resident, retired public health official Merrilyn Brady, began mobilizing supporters of the proposed clinic, which aimed to provide primary care and abortion services in a part of the state where both are in short supply.
--------------
Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
Randy Rainbow Is Back! It's Based on "Dentist" From Little Shop of Horrors"
"Bold and Brave" is Not a Soap Opera
Why Did He Go Back to Russia? He Accomplished Nothing
The Russian authorities are seeking a 13-year prison sentence for opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a trial Kremlin critics see as an attempt to keep President Vladimir Putin's most ardent foe in prison for as long as possible.
--------------
Invasions Have Consequences
Oops!
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the West made a "terrible mistake" and let President Vladimir Putin "get away" with annexing Crimea in 2014.
Writing in the Telegraph, Mr Johnson said ending the West's dependence on Russian oil and gas was vital to end Kremlin "bullying".
It comes as the UK banned exports of luxury goods to Russia among other sanctions.
About 100 more people are also expected to be sanctioned under a new law.
Surrender or Die!
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on Russian soldiers to surrender.
In his nightly TV address, he said Russian forces had suffered worse losses during their invasion of his country than in the Chechnya conflict.
He said they had already begun to understand that they would not achieve anything by war.
"I know that you want to survive," he said, adding that those who surrendered would be treated "as people, decently".
Putin Gets the Urge to Purge
Putin has begun a purge in the sections of government that he blames for his failure in Ukraine and that is most likely to pose a threat to his rule. The security services and the military. The first head to roll was Sergey Beseda, head of the FSB foreign service, who was placed under arrest on Putin's orders. Anatoly Bolyukh, Beseda's deputy, was also arrested. The reasons given for the arrests are embezzlement of funds that were meant for FSB actions in Ukraine, and deliberately providing false information about the political situation in Ukraine. Since the entire Russian kleptocracy is guilty of embezzlement, with the #1 embezzler being Putin himself this is an easy to prove criminal offense that could be trotted out for any Russian government official who is suspected of even thinking about getting on the wrong side of Putin or of failing to execute his orders successfully.
In addition to the leadership of the FSB, it's being reported that 8 army generals have been purged.
Colbert Updates the Ukrainian Situation
Colbert even spotted a field kitchen truck the invading Russians abandoned that was filled with a curious selection of rations.
A Turkish Bath of Fire
The video shows a Russian missile launcher sitting in the open. Suddenly, it is enveloped in a huge fireball.
Ukrainian officials say what looked like a video game was actually the work of a small, relatively cheap Turkish-made drone that has made a surprisingly lethal impact on Russia forces.
A U.S. defense official said Monday that Ukraine has made “terrific” use of Turkish Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles, which can loiter over tanks and artillery and destroy them with devastatingly accurate missile fire. The official said the United States is working to help keep the drones flying.
Ukraine received a new shipment of the drones earlier this month, according to a Facebook post from Ukraine’s defense minister. He didn’t say how many. It’s unclear whether the United States has made efforts to facilitate the supply of the Turkish drone or other similar systems to Ukraine, in addition to the Javelin anti-tank and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles the U.S. is providing.
Before the war began, military experts predicted that Russian forces would have little trouble dealing with Ukraine’s complement of as many as 20 Turkish drones. With a price tag in the single-digit millions, the Bayraktars are far cheaper than drones like the U.S. Reaper, but also much slower and smaller, with a wingspan of 39 feet.
As so often has been the case in this war, however, the experts misjudged the competence of the Russian military.
“It’s quite startling to see all these videos of Bayraktars apparently knocking out Russian surface-to-air missile batteries, which are exactly the kind of system that’s equipped to shoot them down,” said David Hambling, a London-based drone expert.
The reason that is confounding, Hambling said, is that the drones should be easy for the Russians to blow out of the sky — or disable with electronic jamming.
Video of Russian - Ukrainian Confrontation
--------------
WTF Is Going On In Europe?
Two weeks after the United Kingdom dropped its last remaining Covid-19 mitigation measure -- a requirement that people who test positive for the virus isolate for five days -- the country is seeing cases and hospitalizations climb once again.
Covid-19 cases were up 48% in the UK last week compared with the week before. Hospitalizations were up 17% over the same period.
The country's daily case rate -- about 55,000 a day -- is still less than a third of the Omicron peak, but cases are rising as fast as they were falling just two weeks earlier, when the country removed pandemic-related restrictions.
Daily cases are also rising in more than half of the countries in the European Union. They've jumped 48% in the Netherlands and 20% in Germany over the past week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. But daily cases in Germany had yet to drop below pre-Omicron levels, and the Netherlands hadn't seen cases fall as much as they did in the UK.
The situation in Europe has the attention of public health officials for two reasons: First, the UK offers a preview of what may play out in the United States, and second, something unusual seems to be happening. In previous waves, increases in Covid hospitalizations lagged behind jumps in cases by about 10 days to two weeks. Now, in the UK, cases and hospitalizations seem to be rising in tandem, something that has experts stumped.
"So we're obviously keenly interested in what's going on with that," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN.
Fauci said he's spoken with his UK counterparts, and they have pegged the rise to a combination three factors. In order of contribution, Fauci said, these are:
-The BA.2 variant, which is more transmissible than the original Omicron
-The opening of society, with people mingling more indoors without masks
-Waning immunity from vaccination or prior infection
My Family Is Still Wearing Our Masks at Indoor Gatherings. Most People Are Not.
--------------
An Aircraft Carrier For a Dollar?
It was once the biggest symbol of American military power in the Indo-Pacific, battle tested from Vietnam to the Persian Gulf and a survivor of a collision with a Soviet submarine.
But the glory days of the former USS Kitty Hawk are over, and the retired supercarrier is on its final, 16,000-mile journey from Washington state to Texas, where it will be cut up and sold for scrap.
International Shipbreaking Limited of Brownsville, Texas, bought the ship last year for less than a dollar from US Naval Sea Systems Command, which oversees the disposal of retired warships.
--------------
Oh No! I Slept Through National Napping Day!
If you feel like calling it a day and dozing off for a bit, don't feel bad -- Monday, March 14, is National Napping Day.
I Guess It's the Day After the Clocks Spring Forward
--------------
Puerto Rico Exits. Russia Enters
Puerto Rico’s government formally exited bankruptcy Tuesday, completing the largest public debt restructuring in U.S. history after announcing nearly seven years ago that it was unable to pay its more than $70 billion debt.
The exit means that the U.S. territory’s government will resume payments to bondholders for the first time in several years and will settle some $1 billion worth of claims filed by residents and local businesses.
--------------
Listen Up Biden: If Congress Has a Good Idea, Don't Reject Because It Comes From Congress.
A bipartisan group of senators on Tuesday will release legislation calling for the Treasury Department to offer cash rewards for information that leads to the seizure of assets held by sanctioned Russian oligarchs, the latest attempt to escalate financial pressure against the Kremlin over the invasion of Ukraine.
The proposal would give President Biden the authority to make an emergency declaration enabling federal authorities to confiscate — and then liquidate — holdings of Russian oligarchs or other financial elites linked to the Russian government. The bill would also allow the money raised by selling those assets to then be given to the Ukrainian government to assist in that country’s reconstruction or finance its military. Typically, sanctions law allows the federal government to only freeze the assets of sanctioned individuals, not seize them.
The bill is being introduced by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). The United States and its European allies have tried to impact these financial elites by targeting the money they have stashed overseas, but the effect of those moves on Russian President Vladimir Putin remains unclear. The fate of the legislation is also unclear, with the administration so far resisting attempts by Congress to control Russian sanctions policy.
--------------
Beware the Ides of March!
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