Post by mhbruin on May 14, 2022 9:35:08 GMT -8
US Vaccine Data - We Have Now Administered 581 Million Shots (Population 333 Million)
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California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday May 10)
We had some rain up north this week.
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A Joke Doesn't Become a Dad Joke Until It's Full Groan.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
Texans Will Once Again Enjoy the "Benefits" of Having Their Own Power Grid.
The operator of Texas' power grid asked residents to conserve electricity Friday after six power plants went offline amid soaring temperatures.
Brad Jones, CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, said in a statement that the company had lost roughly 2,900 megawatts of electricity — or enough to power nearly 600,000 homes, the Texas Tribune reported.
Jones referenced the unseasonably hot weather, saying it was driving the demand for power across the state. Temperatures approaching 100 degrees were forecast from Austin to Dallas over the weekend and into next week.
Jones did not say why the plants went offline, and a spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Friday evening.
The executive asked customers to set their thermostats to 78 degrees and avoid using large appliances in the afternoon and early evening.
The non-profit energy organization, which manages power for 90 percent of Texas' electrical grid, faced blistering criticism last year after blackouts left millions without power for days during subfreezing temperatures.
On Top Of This Poor Susan Collins Had Her Sidewalk Viciously Attacked by A Chalk-Bearing Extremist
One Telegram channel features a roster of targets accompanied by an eye-grabbing graphic with an assault-style gun, complete with their photos, bios, and personal contact and address information, including two federal judges appointed with Democratic backgrounds: a Barack Obama appointee of color, and a Midwestern judge of Jewish ethnicity. Joining them on the roster are people like Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, several bankers, and officials who served on a federal vaccine board.
According to Makuch, this particular channel has been repeatedly taken off Telegram, only to promptly reconstitute itself. Now in its fifth iteration, he reports that federal law enforcement is aware of the channel and is investigating the threats.
The anti-abortion right’s entire track record of protest, in fact, is brimming with case after case of violence and the politics of menace. Between 1977 and 2020, there have been 11 murders of health care providers, 26 attempted murders, 956 reported threats of harm and death, 624 stalking incidents, and four kidnappings, accompanied by 42 bombings, 194 arsons, 104 attempted arsons or bombings, and 667 bomb threats.
Meanwhile, right-wing pundits are frantically indulging in groundless claims of imminent left-wing violence: “Pro Abortion Advocates Are Becoming Violent After Supreme Court Leak,” read a Town Hall headline over a piece that documented some minor shoving incidents outside the Supreme Court building among the protesters there.
He Wants Us to Put Babies in Cages and Then Starve Them. Who Does He Think We Are? Russians? Republicans?
The first of these got started when Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) posted photos depicting baby-formula shortages in stores. Despite these hardships, she complained, “they” are sending “formula to the border.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) then amplified the claim. The administration is providing “baby formula to illegal immigrants,” he railed, “while mothers and fathers stare at empty grocery store shelves in a panic.”
Except it’s a crock. As Glenn Kessler shows, in supplying formula to migrant kids, the administration is following the law, which requires temporarily holding them before transfer to guardians. That includes mandated nourishment. The Trump administration did the same.
Republicans don’t say outright that starving detained migrant kids is preferable, that Biden should take formula away from them and give it to American parents. So why link the two developments at all?
I Think "The Pedo Grifters" Is a New Netflix Series
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who describes herself as “pro-life,” blamed the White House and mysterious “pedo grifters” on Friday for America’s infant formula shortage — and called for denying formula to migrant’s babies.
The “White House, House Dems, & usual pedo grifters are so out of touch with the American people that rather than present ANY PLAN or urgency to address the nationwide baby formula crisis, they double down on sending pallets of formula to the southern border,” Stefanik wrote in a tweet.
The “usual pedo grifters,” who were unidentified, appeared to be a reference to a particularly outlandish QAnon conspiracy theory that an international ring of child sex traffickers is being operated by Democratic leaders. A Stefanik spokesperson insisted to The Independent that the imagined “pedo grifters” also included Republicans.
From Worst Cook to Worst Foster Mother
The winner of a Food Network cooking show competition has been found guilty in the beating death last year of a 3-year-old foster child in her care.
The jury deliberated for about an hour before delivering the unanimous verdict Thursday against Ariel Robinson, 30, of Simpsonville, news outlets reported.
She made no comment before Judge Letitia Verdin sentenced her to life in prison on a charge of homicide by child abuse.
“In my 13-14 years as a judge, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Verdin said. ”Not even approaching it.”
Verdin acknowledged Robinson’s attorney’s statement that his client snapped but asked, “Why let this child suffer?”
Victoria “Tori” Smith died Jan. 14, 2021, in Robinson’s home after suffering blows to her legs and abdomen because she did not eat her pancakes fast enough. The child died from blunt force injuries and internal bleeding, officials said.
No Clarence, Your Wife, Bad Rulings, and the Shadow Docket Have Eroded Trust, Not a Leak
Clarence Thomas says Supreme Court leak has eroded trust in institution
Chrisley Steals Best. E! Loves Their Criminals.
A federal trial for reality television stars Todd and Julie Chrisley on charges including bank fraud and tax evasion is set to start Monday in Atlanta.
The trial is getting underway just days after E! announced that it is moving forward with a new dating series, “Love Limo,” hosted by Todd Chrisley and weeks after the announcement that reality shows “Chrisley Knows Best” and “Growing Up Chrisley” have been renewed on USA Network and E!, respectively.
The Chrisleys were initially indicted in August 2019 and a new indictment was filed in February of this year. Prosecutors allege that the couple submitted fake documents to banks when applying for loans. Julie Chrisley also submitted a false credit report and fake bank statements when trying to rent a house in California, and then the couple refused to pay rent a few months after they started using the home, the indictment says.
The Chrisleys also used a film production company they controlled to hide income to keep the IRS from collecting unpaid taxes owed by Todd Chrisley, prosecutors say.
Both Chrisleys are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, five counts of bank fraud, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of tax fraud. Julie Chrisley is also charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of obstruction of justice.
Sometimes Israelis Are Really Dumb
Attacks by Israeli forces on mourners of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh have sparked condemnation, with the United Nations and the United States describing the scenes as “deeply disturbing” – although the US stopped short of explicitly condemning Israel for the violence.
Thousands of people gathered in occupied East Jerusalem on Friday for the funeral of the veteran Al Jazeera journalist, two days after she was shot dead by Israeli forces while covering a raid in the occupied West Bank.
As her body left St Joseph Hospital, Israeli police attacked the funeral procession – nearly forcing pallbearers to drop Abu Akleh’s coffin. Israeli forces seized Palestinian flags from mourners and later smashed the window of the hearse carrying Abu Akleh’s body and removed a Palestinian flag.
The Jerusalem Red Crescent said 33 people were injured in the attacks and six were hospitalised. Israeli authorities said six people were arrested after mourners threw “rocks and glass bottles”. (The pall bearers weren't throwing rocks. There is evidence one bottle was thrown.)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply disturbed” by the violence, according to a spokesman.
The European Union said it was “appalled by the violence in the St Joseph Hospital compound and the level of unnecessary force exercised by Israeli police throughout the funeral procession”.
Here's What Al Jazeera Has to Say
On Friday, May 13, The New York Times website ran the headline “Israeli Police Attack Funeral of Slain Palestinian Journalist”, which was then updated to “Israeli Police Attack Mourners at Palestinian Journalist’s Funeral”. The journalist in question, of course, was 51-year-old Shireen Abu Akleh, the veteran Al Jazeera reporter shot in the head and killed by Israeli forces on Wednesday in the occupied West Bank.
As the Times reported, Israeli police officers had commenced “beating and kicking mourners” at the funeral procession in Jerusalem, thereby “forcing pallbearers to nearly drop the coffin”. This, at least, was mercifully straightforward information coming from the same news outlet that had just days before opted to use the noncommittal phrase “Dies at 51” in its announcement of Abu Akleh’s murder.
The US newspaper of record has also been known for such journalistic perversions as reducing the 2014 Israeli military slaughter of four Palestinian children playing football in the Gaza Strip to the following headline: “Boys Drawn to Gaza Beach, and Into Centre of Mideast Strife”. One might well have expected a May 13 summary from the Times along the lines of: “Coffin Nearly Falls at Journalist’s Funeral, In Regrettable Embodiment of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict”.
Over the course of her dedicated career, Abu Akleh herself embodied Palestinian humanity by speaking truth to power. Now, the occupying power has spoken back by shooting her in the head and attacking her mourners – a response that can only be classified as acute and multitiered state savagery, in keeping with Israel’s modus operandi of refusing to let Palestinians live, die, or be buried in peace.
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
What's Cuter Than a Baby Giraffe?
Custom-made brace helps heal baby giraffe
When baby giraffe Msituni was diagnosed with a limb disorder, vets in San Diego, California, came up with a creative solution to treat her.
The calf is now healed and back living with her herd.
It's Not Their Fault
SIDS refers to the unexplained deaths of infants under a year old, and it usually occurs while the child is sleeping. According to Mayo Clinic, many in the medical community suspected this phenomenon could be caused by a defect in the part of the brain that controls arousal from sleep and breathing. The theory was that if the infant stopped breathing during sleep, the defect would keep the child from startling or waking up.
The Sydney researchers were able to confirm this theory by analyzing dried blood samples taken from newborns who died from SIDS and other unknown causes. Each SIDS sample was then compared with blood taken from healthy babies. They found the activity of the enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) was significantly lower in babies who died of SIDS compared to living infants and other non-SIDS infant deaths. BChE plays a major role in the brain’s arousal pathway, explaining why SIDS typically occurs during sleep.
Previously, parents were told SIDS could be prevented if they took proper precautions: laying babies on their backs, not letting them overheat and keeping all toys and blankets out of the crib were a few of the most important preventative steps.
While safe sleep practices are still important for protecting infants, many children whose parents took every precaution still died from SIDS. These parents were left with immense guilt, wondering if they could have prevented their baby’s death.
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Invasions Have Consequences
Day 80
Fighting
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said although Ukrainians are doing everything they can to drive out the Russians, “no one today can predict how long this war will last”. “This will depend, unfortunately, not only on our people, who are already giving their maximum. This will depend on our partners, on European countries, on the entire free world.”
Zelenskyy said talks with Russia on getting wounded defenders out of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol were very complex, adding Kyiv was using influential intermediaries.
The deputy commander of the Azov Regiment, the last Ukrainian army unit holding out in the ruined port city, said his troops will resist Russian forces “as long as they can” despite shortages of ammunition, food, water and medicine.
The Ukrainian army said Russian forces continued their offensive in the country’s east, attacking new towns and villages.
More than six million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began, according to the UN.
Diplomacy
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone for the first time since late March.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called for an immediate ceasefire when he spoke by telephone to his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu for the first time since Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, the Pentagon said.
Topical international security issues were discussed by Austin and Shoigu, including Ukraine, TASS news agency quoted the Russian defence ministry as saying.
Ukraine’s foreign minister says his country remains willing to engage in diplomatic talks with Russia to unblock grain supplies and achieve a political solution to the war.
The United States accused Russia of using the UN Security Council to spout disinformation and conspiracy theories about biological weapons in Ukraine to distract from its war against its smaller neighbour.
Economy and NATO
Foreign ministers from the G7 group of rich nations backed giving more aid and weapons to Ukraine in what Germany called a “powerful sign of unity” to deepen Russia’s global isolation.
The world will not be left short of oil even with lower output from sanctions-hit Russia, the International Energy Agency said. It cut its predictions for supply losses to one million barrels per day (bpd) compared with 1.5 million bpd predicted last month.
The European Union is hopeful of a deal to impose a phased embargo on Russian oil this month despite concerns about supply in Eastern Europe, diplomats said.
Natural gas prices rose after Russian state-owned exporter Gazprom said it would no longer send supplies to Europe via a pipeline in Poland.
Swedish membership of NATO would boost national security and help stabilise the Nordic and Baltic regions, Sweden’s foreign minister said, a day after Finland said it would seek to join the US-led alliance.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country is “not favourable” towards Finland and Sweden joining NATO, indicating Turkey could use its membership in the Western military alliance to veto moves to admit the two countries.
The Incredible Shrinking Invasion
Apparently Putin planned a great pincer movement. Then a less great pincer movement. Then a modest pincer. Now a teeny, tiny pincer.
This long article explains it really well
Nuking Paris. Hilarious!!
How many seconds does it take for a ballistic missile to reach London, Paris or Berlin?
That’s the question pundits on Russian state TV were pondering as the war in Ukraine entered its third month.
The eerie estimates were accompanied by a graphic showing the trajectories that Moscow’s intercontinental ballistic missiles would take to reach the capitals of European nations that supply Kyiv with the most military aid.
All the while, pro-Kremlin host Olga Skabeyeva and the experts on her “60 Minutes” show on the Russia-1 TV channel were nonchalantly joking about how the West should tune in.
Just months ago, the graphic, the rhetoric and the seeming casualness of such conversations would have been shocking, even by the standards of Russian propaganda.
Giving the Finger to Moscow's Finger
In “Riga City Council Votes To Dismantle Soviet Victory Monument”, RFE/RL reports today that the city council of Riga, Latvia’s capital, voted yesterday to dismantle a controversial Soviet-era monument that most Latvians see as a symbol of the Soviet Union’s occupation of Latvia in1940 and its reoccupation of Latvia in 1944, rather than its ostensible purpose of commemorating the liberation of Riga and Latvia from Nazi Germany. Locals call it “Moscow’s Finger” (“Maskavats pirksts” in Latvian).
The city council’s move followed the Latvian legislature’s approval the day before of a bill allowing the city council to order the monument demolished. The city council’s vote was 39–13.
Deal Me In
Decks of playing cards featuring pictures of suspected Russian war criminals are on their way to Ukrainian soldiers, replicating an idea used during the Iraq War.
General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces, in a Facebook post Friday announced the release of the two decks he said were developed by international intelligence nonprofit InformNapalm. The cards come as Russia's invasion against Ukraine enters a phase that's brought more attention to alleged atrocities carried out by Russian forces.
Not Even Rand Paul Can Stop This
The European Union has announced a package of another 500 million euros ($520m) for Ukraine to buy heavy weapons in its fight against Russia, the bloc’s foreign affairs chief has said at a gathering of Group of Seven nations in Germany.
“We [EU] will provide a new tranche of 500 more million euros to support the military of Ukraine. It will make about two billion euros in total,” Josep Borrell told reporters on Friday in Weissenhaus, on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast.
He's a Sick Sicko
Ukraine's head of military intelligence, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, told Sky News that Putin was in a "very bad psychological and physical condition and he is very sick."
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Russian leader Vladimir Putin is "very ill with blood cancer' it has been reported. An oligarch with close links to the president has reportedly been recorded as giving the information during a conversation with a Western venture capitalist.
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Speculation: IF this is true, he is likely deteriorating so quickly that he may not live long enough for the surgery he supposedly needs, or might not survive the operation. Or forces in the Kremlin may decide he is too ill to continue to rule (ruin) Russia any longer.
Best scenario if that happens is the new ruler(s) will declare the Ukraine invasion was all Putin’s fault and was clearly a product of his declining health. More likely, though, is that one of the hard-liners he has surrounded himself with will demand that the “special military operation” continue.
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COVID Isn't Exactly Over, But ...
North Korea? Who Cares About North Korea?
North Korea's rapidly spreading Covid-19 outbreak is a "great disaster" for the country, its leader Kim Jong-un has said, according to state media.
Mr Kim called for an all-out battle to tackle the spread of the virus during an emergency meeting on Saturday.
It comes after officials announced the first confirmed cases on Thursday - although experts believe the virus has likely been circulating for some time.
There are fears a major outbreak could have dire consequences in North Korea.
Its population of 25 million is vulnerable due to the lack of a vaccination programme and poor healthcare system.
And on Saturday, state media reported that there had been half a million cases of unexplained fever in recent weeks. The country has limited testing capabilities so most Covid cases are not confirmed.
But There Is No COVID in North Korea. Kim Jong-un Told Us, and He Sent Previous Guy A Wonderful Letter.
North Korea said Friday that six people died and hundreds of thousands of others fell ill amid an explosive spread of fever across the nation, a day after it acknowledged a Covid-19 outbreak in a largely unvaccinated population for the first time since the pandemic began.
The true scale of the coronavirus outbreak is still unclear, as North Korea — which lacks Covid-19 diagnostic kits and other medical equipment — said it hasn’t found why the fever has happened. But some experts say the outbreak can cause major consequences because the country’s health care infrastructure remains broken and many of its 26 million people are unvaccinated and malnourished.
Why Aren't Deaths Rising?
Covid-19 cases are surging yet again in the United States, but unlike previous waves, a substantial rise in hospitalizations and deaths isn't following yet.
The U.S. reported nearly 140,000 Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, marking the third day in a row daily cases have exceeded 100,000, according to an NBC News tally.
Nationwide, cases have climbed by roughly 58 percent over the past two weeks as the omicron coronavirus subvariant BA.2 and an offshoot of that strain, called BA.2.12.1, continue to spread. (When will we have BA.2.12.1.47.88.1652? What a dumb naming convention!)
The last time confirmed cases exceeded 100,000 was in mid-February, when the winter surge, fueled by the original omicron variant, BA.1, began to subside.
However, in the Northeast, where the vast majority of cases are being reported, the rate of hospitalizations and deaths aren’t as high as expected, a senior administration official told NBC News earlier this week.
And with a large number of Covid infections going undercounted because of the use of at-home rapid tests, the rate of severe cases looks even more hopeful, experts say.
Usually, when infections begin to rise, "we see a rise in hospitalizations around 10 days later, and a rise in deaths around 22 days later," the official said.
In fact, hospitalizations are rising to nearly 20,000 per day, up 20 percent over the past two weeks, according to an NBC News analysis of Health and Human Services data — but officials say that metric is becoming less of a reliable indicator.
In Massachusetts, for example, while Covid hospitalizations have gone up, two-thirds of the people hospitalized are so-called incidental Covid cases, meaning they were hospitalized for other ailments but also tested positive for the virus, according to the state's Department of Health.
Meanwhile, deaths across the country have dropped to an average of 301 fatalities per day, down roughly 17 percent over the past two weeks, according to an NBC News tally, and down from more than 2,600 per day during the omicron winter surge.
The lower rate of severe illness in the Northeast may reflect the region’s high vaccination rate, the prevalence of testing and the use of antiviral drugs, such as Paxlovid, which has been shown in clinical trials to cut a patient’s risk of hospitalization and death by 89 percent, the official said.
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease physician at the University of Toronto, said that as communities continue to build up immunity against the virus, people should expect new variants to have less of an impact.
The U.S. has acquired a high level of immunity from Covid through a combination of vaccinations, boosters and prior infection. Nearly 60 percent of people in the country had been infected by February, including roughly 75 percent of children and teens, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported recently.
More Evidence From South Africa
South Africa is experiencing a surge of new COVID-19 cases driven by two omicron sub-variants, according to health experts.
For about three weeks the country has seen increasing numbers of new cases and somewhat higher hospitalizations, but not increases in severe cases and deaths, said Professor Marta Nunes, a researcher at Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Analytics at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto.
“We're still very early in this increase period, so I don’t want to really call it a wave,” Nunes said. “We are seeing a slight, a small increase in hospitalizations and really very few deaths.”
South Africa's new cases have gone from an average of 300 per day in early April to about 8,000 per day this week. Nunes says the actual number of new cases is probably much higher because the symptoms are mild and many who get sick are not getting tested.
South Africa's new surge is from two variations of omicron, BA.4 and BA.5, which appear to be very much like the original strain of omicron that was first identified in South Africa and Botswana late last year and swept around the globe.
That All Sounds Good, But ...
A month or so ago, people stopped wearing masks. I was one of them. They basically said that the new variant is mild and if you are vaccinated, you will be fine.
I started to really feel awful. I was exhausted, all my muscles ached. I had a fever, my skin was tingling like I had a thousand ants crawling on them. My eyes hurt. I would close them and it would seem like the lights were still on and there was a ceiling fan was spinning, blocking the light creating a strobe light effect. I couldn’t sleep. My body was fighting this disease and was acting like if I fell asleep that I would never wake up. I have a Fitbit and it says I got 59 minutes of sleep that night.
My tingling skin turned into small rashes that looked like little patches of poison ivy. They did not itch but were super painful if you popped them. They mainly formed on my hand and ankles.
I was able to call my doctor and schedule a video visit. They would not let me come in since I was COVID positive. I explained my symptoms and inquired about being put on the new antiviral drug Paxlovid. He really hesitated and made it feel like this should only be given in extreme cases. He said the fact that I am under 65 without any co-morbidities that I was not a suitable candidate. So, he said that I would be fine. Drink lots of water but if I started to have trouble breathing, if I couldn’t keep any food down, or if my oxygen levels were constantly in the 80s, go immediately to the ER. Luckily, It never got to that. My lowest oxygen reading was 92.
I really felt awful over the next couple of days. I really didn’t feel like eating anything and I was constantly nauseated.
I was very upset in that I got all my vaccines and I still got so sick. My booster was back in November and I know the efficacy wanes after three months. What made things more frustrating was a friend that was 88 years old tested positive around the same time and all he got was a mild cough. I was extremely happy that is all that happened to him because when you are 88, it can be deadly.
The point is that it feels like the Omicron completely got around the vaccine. It turns out that I most likely contracted the new variant BA2.12.1. I have read that it is better at evading detection and can have more severe symptoms than BA1 and BA2. I really believe this. If I could have prevented this by wearing a mask that night, I would have done that, no question. I believe this new variant is more evasive, stronger, goes deeper into the lungs and is highly, highly transmissible. Like measles transmissible. This is a warning that we need to keep masking and distancing. It’s not over and I really regret not taking it more seriously.
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Crazy for Crypto
The cryptocurrency bitcoin, which saw stunning gains last year, lost more than half its value over the past six months.
Since ratcheting up to more than $64,000 in November, the price of one bitcoin has now fallen more than 50 percent. On Friday it was trading around $30,000, after falling as low as $26,000 earlier in the week.
The sell-off is tied in part to rising interest rates and inflation that sits at 40-year highs, which has sent the broader stock market reeling. But the extent of bitcoin's decline may come as a shock — especially to some investors who bought bitcoin during its most recent price run-up.
A host of online narratives, some of which have been echoed in mainstream business publications, had proclaimed bitcoin to be untethered to the traditional investment markets, and even to be a trustworthy hedge against the kind of inflation the U.S. and other parts of the world are now experiencing.
But this week's bitcoin sell-off came amid a wider market downturn — something that appears to disprove the notion that bitcoin is walled-off from conventional market pressures, analysts say.
Broke From Crypto
A few days before Christmas last year, Philip Martin sat in front of his computer to check his cryptocurrency balance. It was the beginning of what would become, for him, an ongoing nightmare.
Martin told NBC News he thought he was typing the web address for his cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, the biggest and best-known company for consumers to store their digital money. But in fact, he says, hackers had spoofed the url, changing it so slightly that it even fooled his web browser — which prompted him to automatically enter his log-in and password.
The crooks now had all the information they needed to steal his life savings — and they did. Martin became the latest victim in what has been a wave of cryptocurrency hacks and thefts, one that experts say raises questions about whether better regulation is needed.
“It’s been very frustrating,” said Martin, who is out $165,000 worth of Ethereum, a popular cryptocurrency. “I’ve had panic attacks.”
Martin said he was able to trace where the thieves transferred his stolen crypto, given that all Ethereum transactions are published on a public ledger. He contacted both local and federal law enforcement. But to add insult to injury, the FBI field office in Los Angeles ultimately told him his loss was not large enough to merit investigation.
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A Crappy Idea Got People Pissed
It seemed like Goop’s crappiest idea yet.
Earlier this week, Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle company posted a photo of its new disposable diaper, “The Diapér,” which cost $120 for a pack of 12.
Goop described the diaper on Instagram as lined “with virgin alpaca wool and fastened with amber gemstones, known for their ancient emotional-cleansing properties.”
So, naturally, people got pissed … but it seems that was precisely the point.
Paltrow posted a video Thursday revealing that she’s well aware of Goop’s notoriety and had used it against everyone for a pretty solid troll.
“Goop launched a luxury disposable diaper at $120 for a pack of 12 and there was a lot of outrage. Good,” Paltrow said in the video. “If treating diapers like a luxury makes you mad, so should taxing them like a luxury.”
She then confirmed that “The Diapér” was fake, and meant to anger people to draw their attention to another issue.
The video’s caption urged people to donate to the organization Baby2Baby “to help provide diapers, formula, and other essentials to families in need.”
“Despite the absolute necessity of diapers, in 33 states, they aren’t treated as an essential item,” the caption read. “They’re taxed as a luxury good. (We priced our fictional Diapérs at $120, because that is what the diaper tax could cost families annually).”
The caption added:
“Right now, many families in need are also struggling as a result of the nationwide formula shortage.”
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Where's Woodie Guthrie When You Need Him?
Hurricane-force winds tore across the U.S. upper Midwest Thursday evening, sending walls of dust across cities and rural towns, causing widespread property damage and killing at least two people.
Straight-line winds up to 105 miles per hour (169 kph) reached from Kansas to Wisconsin, pushing waves of farmland topsoil across the horizon and plunging communities into darkness, according to meteorologists and soil experts.
The wall of dust evoked images of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, said farmers, with winds dropping storage buildings onto tractors and flipping cars on highways.
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Could We Finally Be Seeing DeJoy Go?
USPS board’s governors now mostly Biden picks following latest Senate confirmations
The Postal Service is adding new members to its board at a time when the agency is looking to implement sweeping reforms and advance one of the largest acquisitions of vehicles in the federal government.
The Senate, in a voice vote Thursday, confirmed President Joe Biden’s two latest members to the USPS Board of Governors.
Dan Tangherlini, the former head of the General Services Administration, will serve a term that lasts through December 2027. Derek Kan, a former deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, will serve on a term through December 2028.
Once Tangherlini and Kan are sworn in, a majority of the nine presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed seats on the USPS Board of Governors will be Biden nominees...
I'll Have What She's Having
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Editorial: Max Weber Wrote The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in 1904-5
In it he wrote:
"It’s the intoxication of the pursuit of power, the intoxication of building a huge corporation, the obsession with self-affirmation that is at the root of all this, and it’s the belief in the value of one’s own work, not only because work is something moral, but because building the corporation is the ultimate good, and because anything that resists building it out is bad."
I just finished watching Super Pumped on Showtime about Travis Kalanick and the start of Uber. Max Weber could have been writing about Kalanick, who saw no tactic out of bounds to go after the "enemies" of Uber. It was all about winning and crushing everyone and everything in your way. Max Weber could have been writing about Kalanick.
But them, Weber could have been writing about Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Page & Brin, or Mark Zuckerberg. For that matter, he could have been writing about Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, or Leland Stanford.
There are very few people who create great corporations without crushing lots of other under their feet at they rise.
OTOH, aren't our lives better because of the Model T, US Steel making skyscrapers and railroads possible, Amazon, personal computer, and the smart phone? (I am still looking for the real value in Facebook.)
Are the great entrepreneurs great heroes or great villains? It would be nice to live in a black and white world. Unfortunately, these men (like most men) are some of each. There are people who's evil massively outweighs the good. There are also some genuinely good people, who are never perfect.
The real question to me is not whether to admire or hate people like Kalanick. I don't agree with Karl Marx that capitalists are inherently evil.
The issue we face as a nation is how to best allow corporations to grow and thrive while limiting the abuses of power and money that come along with it. It's a damned tough problem, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to solve it.
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New Cases 7-Day Average | Deaths 7-Day Average | New Hospitalizations 7-Day Average | |
| May 13 | 87,831 | 266 | |
| May 12 | 87,382 | 272 | 2,731 |
| May 11 | 84,778 | 272 | 2,652 |
| May 10 | 78,236 | 326 | 2,629 |
| May 9 | 74,712 | 323 | 2,597 |
| May 8 | 66,564 | 323 | 2,510 |
| May 7 | 67,561 | 335 | 2,310 |
| May 6 | 68,807 | 340 | 2,396 |
| May 5 | 67,263 | 341 | 2.363 |
| May 4 | 64,780 | 334 | 2,267 |
| May 3 | 61,712 | 325 | 2,219 |
| May 2 | 60,410 | 318 | 2.214 |
| May 1 | 57,020 | 307 | 2,072 |
| Apr 30 | 56,581 | 310 | 1,882 |
| Apr 29 | 56,166 | 308 | 1,946 |
| Apr 28 | 54,696 | 311 | 1,955 |
| Apr 27 | 53,133 | 334 | 1,941 |
| Apr 26 | 48,692 | 299 | 1,889 |
| Apr 25 | 47,407 | 330 | 1,840 |
| Apr 24 | 44,416 | 314 | 1,779 |
| Apr 23 | 45,413 | 315 | 1,629 |
| Apr 22 | 44,308 | 311 | 1,642 |
| Apr 21 | 40,744 | 346 | 1,647 |
| Apr 20 | 42,604 | 375 | 1,609 |
| Apr 19 | 40,985 | 385 | 1,582 |
| Apr 18 | 37,132 | 380 | 1,564 |
| Apr 17 | 35,212 | 373 | 1,542 |
| Apr 16 | 34,972 | 379 | 1,532 |
| Apr 15 | 34,778 | 399 | 1,510 |
| Apr 14 | 35,475 | 446 | 1,490 |
| Apr 13 | 31,391 | 409 | 1,477 |
| Apr 12 | 29,401 | 452 | 1,463 |
| Apr 11 | 30,208 | 483 | 1.447 |
| Apr 10 | 28,927 | 500 | 1,443 |
| Feb 16, 2021 | 78,292 |
| At Least One Dose | Fully Vaccinated | % of Vaccinated W/ Boosters | |
| % of Total Population | 77.7% | 66.3% | 45.9% |
| % of Population 5+ | 82.6% | 70.4% | |
| % of Population 12+ | 87.4% | 74.7% | 47.7% |
| % of Population 18+ | 89.1% | 76.2% | 49.5% |
| % of Population 65+ | 95.0% | 90.4% | 68.8% |
California Precipitation (Updated Tuesday May 10)
We had some rain up north this week.
| Percent of Average for this Date | Last Week | 2 Weeks Ago | 4 Weeks Ago | |
| Northern Sierra Precipitation | 80% (75%) | 80% (74%) | 81% (74%) | 73% (63% of full season average) |
| San Joaquin Precipitation | 65% (61%) | 66% (61%) | 67% (61%) | 65% (57%) |
| Tulare Basin Precipitation | 61% (57%) | 61% (57%) | 62% (57%) | 61% (53%) |
| Snow Water Content - North | 29% | |||
| Snow Water Content - Central | 26% | |||
| Snow Water Content - South | 9% |
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A Joke Doesn't Become a Dad Joke Until It's Full Groan.
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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees
Texans Will Once Again Enjoy the "Benefits" of Having Their Own Power Grid.
The operator of Texas' power grid asked residents to conserve electricity Friday after six power plants went offline amid soaring temperatures.
Brad Jones, CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, said in a statement that the company had lost roughly 2,900 megawatts of electricity — or enough to power nearly 600,000 homes, the Texas Tribune reported.
Jones referenced the unseasonably hot weather, saying it was driving the demand for power across the state. Temperatures approaching 100 degrees were forecast from Austin to Dallas over the weekend and into next week.
Jones did not say why the plants went offline, and a spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Friday evening.
The executive asked customers to set their thermostats to 78 degrees and avoid using large appliances in the afternoon and early evening.
The non-profit energy organization, which manages power for 90 percent of Texas' electrical grid, faced blistering criticism last year after blackouts left millions without power for days during subfreezing temperatures.
On Top Of This Poor Susan Collins Had Her Sidewalk Viciously Attacked by A Chalk-Bearing Extremist
One Telegram channel features a roster of targets accompanied by an eye-grabbing graphic with an assault-style gun, complete with their photos, bios, and personal contact and address information, including two federal judges appointed with Democratic backgrounds: a Barack Obama appointee of color, and a Midwestern judge of Jewish ethnicity. Joining them on the roster are people like Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, several bankers, and officials who served on a federal vaccine board.
According to Makuch, this particular channel has been repeatedly taken off Telegram, only to promptly reconstitute itself. Now in its fifth iteration, he reports that federal law enforcement is aware of the channel and is investigating the threats.
The anti-abortion right’s entire track record of protest, in fact, is brimming with case after case of violence and the politics of menace. Between 1977 and 2020, there have been 11 murders of health care providers, 26 attempted murders, 956 reported threats of harm and death, 624 stalking incidents, and four kidnappings, accompanied by 42 bombings, 194 arsons, 104 attempted arsons or bombings, and 667 bomb threats.
Meanwhile, right-wing pundits are frantically indulging in groundless claims of imminent left-wing violence: “Pro Abortion Advocates Are Becoming Violent After Supreme Court Leak,” read a Town Hall headline over a piece that documented some minor shoving incidents outside the Supreme Court building among the protesters there.
He Wants Us to Put Babies in Cages and Then Starve Them. Who Does He Think We Are? Russians? Republicans?
The first of these got started when Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) posted photos depicting baby-formula shortages in stores. Despite these hardships, she complained, “they” are sending “formula to the border.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) then amplified the claim. The administration is providing “baby formula to illegal immigrants,” he railed, “while mothers and fathers stare at empty grocery store shelves in a panic.”
Except it’s a crock. As Glenn Kessler shows, in supplying formula to migrant kids, the administration is following the law, which requires temporarily holding them before transfer to guardians. That includes mandated nourishment. The Trump administration did the same.
Republicans don’t say outright that starving detained migrant kids is preferable, that Biden should take formula away from them and give it to American parents. So why link the two developments at all?
I Think "The Pedo Grifters" Is a New Netflix Series
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who describes herself as “pro-life,” blamed the White House and mysterious “pedo grifters” on Friday for America’s infant formula shortage — and called for denying formula to migrant’s babies.
The “White House, House Dems, & usual pedo grifters are so out of touch with the American people that rather than present ANY PLAN or urgency to address the nationwide baby formula crisis, they double down on sending pallets of formula to the southern border,” Stefanik wrote in a tweet.
The “usual pedo grifters,” who were unidentified, appeared to be a reference to a particularly outlandish QAnon conspiracy theory that an international ring of child sex traffickers is being operated by Democratic leaders. A Stefanik spokesperson insisted to The Independent that the imagined “pedo grifters” also included Republicans.
From Worst Cook to Worst Foster Mother
The winner of a Food Network cooking show competition has been found guilty in the beating death last year of a 3-year-old foster child in her care.
The jury deliberated for about an hour before delivering the unanimous verdict Thursday against Ariel Robinson, 30, of Simpsonville, news outlets reported.
She made no comment before Judge Letitia Verdin sentenced her to life in prison on a charge of homicide by child abuse.
“In my 13-14 years as a judge, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Verdin said. ”Not even approaching it.”
Verdin acknowledged Robinson’s attorney’s statement that his client snapped but asked, “Why let this child suffer?”
Victoria “Tori” Smith died Jan. 14, 2021, in Robinson’s home after suffering blows to her legs and abdomen because she did not eat her pancakes fast enough. The child died from blunt force injuries and internal bleeding, officials said.
No Clarence, Your Wife, Bad Rulings, and the Shadow Docket Have Eroded Trust, Not a Leak
Clarence Thomas says Supreme Court leak has eroded trust in institution
Chrisley Steals Best. E! Loves Their Criminals.
A federal trial for reality television stars Todd and Julie Chrisley on charges including bank fraud and tax evasion is set to start Monday in Atlanta.
The trial is getting underway just days after E! announced that it is moving forward with a new dating series, “Love Limo,” hosted by Todd Chrisley and weeks after the announcement that reality shows “Chrisley Knows Best” and “Growing Up Chrisley” have been renewed on USA Network and E!, respectively.
The Chrisleys were initially indicted in August 2019 and a new indictment was filed in February of this year. Prosecutors allege that the couple submitted fake documents to banks when applying for loans. Julie Chrisley also submitted a false credit report and fake bank statements when trying to rent a house in California, and then the couple refused to pay rent a few months after they started using the home, the indictment says.
The Chrisleys also used a film production company they controlled to hide income to keep the IRS from collecting unpaid taxes owed by Todd Chrisley, prosecutors say.
Both Chrisleys are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, five counts of bank fraud, one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one count of tax fraud. Julie Chrisley is also charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of obstruction of justice.
Sometimes Israelis Are Really Dumb
Attacks by Israeli forces on mourners of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh have sparked condemnation, with the United Nations and the United States describing the scenes as “deeply disturbing” – although the US stopped short of explicitly condemning Israel for the violence.
Thousands of people gathered in occupied East Jerusalem on Friday for the funeral of the veteran Al Jazeera journalist, two days after she was shot dead by Israeli forces while covering a raid in the occupied West Bank.
As her body left St Joseph Hospital, Israeli police attacked the funeral procession – nearly forcing pallbearers to drop Abu Akleh’s coffin. Israeli forces seized Palestinian flags from mourners and later smashed the window of the hearse carrying Abu Akleh’s body and removed a Palestinian flag.
The Jerusalem Red Crescent said 33 people were injured in the attacks and six were hospitalised. Israeli authorities said six people were arrested after mourners threw “rocks and glass bottles”. (The pall bearers weren't throwing rocks. There is evidence one bottle was thrown.)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply disturbed” by the violence, according to a spokesman.
The European Union said it was “appalled by the violence in the St Joseph Hospital compound and the level of unnecessary force exercised by Israeli police throughout the funeral procession”.
Here's What Al Jazeera Has to Say
On Friday, May 13, The New York Times website ran the headline “Israeli Police Attack Funeral of Slain Palestinian Journalist”, which was then updated to “Israeli Police Attack Mourners at Palestinian Journalist’s Funeral”. The journalist in question, of course, was 51-year-old Shireen Abu Akleh, the veteran Al Jazeera reporter shot in the head and killed by Israeli forces on Wednesday in the occupied West Bank.
As the Times reported, Israeli police officers had commenced “beating and kicking mourners” at the funeral procession in Jerusalem, thereby “forcing pallbearers to nearly drop the coffin”. This, at least, was mercifully straightforward information coming from the same news outlet that had just days before opted to use the noncommittal phrase “Dies at 51” in its announcement of Abu Akleh’s murder.
The US newspaper of record has also been known for such journalistic perversions as reducing the 2014 Israeli military slaughter of four Palestinian children playing football in the Gaza Strip to the following headline: “Boys Drawn to Gaza Beach, and Into Centre of Mideast Strife”. One might well have expected a May 13 summary from the Times along the lines of: “Coffin Nearly Falls at Journalist’s Funeral, In Regrettable Embodiment of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict”.
Over the course of her dedicated career, Abu Akleh herself embodied Palestinian humanity by speaking truth to power. Now, the occupying power has spoken back by shooting her in the head and attacking her mourners – a response that can only be classified as acute and multitiered state savagery, in keeping with Israel’s modus operandi of refusing to let Palestinians live, die, or be buried in peace.
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees
What's Cuter Than a Baby Giraffe?
Custom-made brace helps heal baby giraffe
When baby giraffe Msituni was diagnosed with a limb disorder, vets in San Diego, California, came up with a creative solution to treat her.
The calf is now healed and back living with her herd.
It's Not Their Fault
SIDS refers to the unexplained deaths of infants under a year old, and it usually occurs while the child is sleeping. According to Mayo Clinic, many in the medical community suspected this phenomenon could be caused by a defect in the part of the brain that controls arousal from sleep and breathing. The theory was that if the infant stopped breathing during sleep, the defect would keep the child from startling or waking up.
The Sydney researchers were able to confirm this theory by analyzing dried blood samples taken from newborns who died from SIDS and other unknown causes. Each SIDS sample was then compared with blood taken from healthy babies. They found the activity of the enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) was significantly lower in babies who died of SIDS compared to living infants and other non-SIDS infant deaths. BChE plays a major role in the brain’s arousal pathway, explaining why SIDS typically occurs during sleep.
Previously, parents were told SIDS could be prevented if they took proper precautions: laying babies on their backs, not letting them overheat and keeping all toys and blankets out of the crib were a few of the most important preventative steps.
While safe sleep practices are still important for protecting infants, many children whose parents took every precaution still died from SIDS. These parents were left with immense guilt, wondering if they could have prevented their baby’s death.
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Invasions Have Consequences
Day 80
Fighting
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said although Ukrainians are doing everything they can to drive out the Russians, “no one today can predict how long this war will last”. “This will depend, unfortunately, not only on our people, who are already giving their maximum. This will depend on our partners, on European countries, on the entire free world.”
Zelenskyy said talks with Russia on getting wounded defenders out of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol were very complex, adding Kyiv was using influential intermediaries.
The deputy commander of the Azov Regiment, the last Ukrainian army unit holding out in the ruined port city, said his troops will resist Russian forces “as long as they can” despite shortages of ammunition, food, water and medicine.
The Ukrainian army said Russian forces continued their offensive in the country’s east, attacking new towns and villages.
More than six million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began, according to the UN.
Diplomacy
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone for the first time since late March.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called for an immediate ceasefire when he spoke by telephone to his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu for the first time since Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, the Pentagon said.
Topical international security issues were discussed by Austin and Shoigu, including Ukraine, TASS news agency quoted the Russian defence ministry as saying.
Ukraine’s foreign minister says his country remains willing to engage in diplomatic talks with Russia to unblock grain supplies and achieve a political solution to the war.
The United States accused Russia of using the UN Security Council to spout disinformation and conspiracy theories about biological weapons in Ukraine to distract from its war against its smaller neighbour.
Economy and NATO
Foreign ministers from the G7 group of rich nations backed giving more aid and weapons to Ukraine in what Germany called a “powerful sign of unity” to deepen Russia’s global isolation.
The world will not be left short of oil even with lower output from sanctions-hit Russia, the International Energy Agency said. It cut its predictions for supply losses to one million barrels per day (bpd) compared with 1.5 million bpd predicted last month.
The European Union is hopeful of a deal to impose a phased embargo on Russian oil this month despite concerns about supply in Eastern Europe, diplomats said.
Natural gas prices rose after Russian state-owned exporter Gazprom said it would no longer send supplies to Europe via a pipeline in Poland.
Swedish membership of NATO would boost national security and help stabilise the Nordic and Baltic regions, Sweden’s foreign minister said, a day after Finland said it would seek to join the US-led alliance.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country is “not favourable” towards Finland and Sweden joining NATO, indicating Turkey could use its membership in the Western military alliance to veto moves to admit the two countries.
The Incredible Shrinking Invasion
Apparently Putin planned a great pincer movement. Then a less great pincer movement. Then a modest pincer. Now a teeny, tiny pincer.
This long article explains it really well
Nuking Paris. Hilarious!!
How many seconds does it take for a ballistic missile to reach London, Paris or Berlin?
That’s the question pundits on Russian state TV were pondering as the war in Ukraine entered its third month.
The eerie estimates were accompanied by a graphic showing the trajectories that Moscow’s intercontinental ballistic missiles would take to reach the capitals of European nations that supply Kyiv with the most military aid.
All the while, pro-Kremlin host Olga Skabeyeva and the experts on her “60 Minutes” show on the Russia-1 TV channel were nonchalantly joking about how the West should tune in.
Just months ago, the graphic, the rhetoric and the seeming casualness of such conversations would have been shocking, even by the standards of Russian propaganda.
Giving the Finger to Moscow's Finger
In “Riga City Council Votes To Dismantle Soviet Victory Monument”, RFE/RL reports today that the city council of Riga, Latvia’s capital, voted yesterday to dismantle a controversial Soviet-era monument that most Latvians see as a symbol of the Soviet Union’s occupation of Latvia in1940 and its reoccupation of Latvia in 1944, rather than its ostensible purpose of commemorating the liberation of Riga and Latvia from Nazi Germany. Locals call it “Moscow’s Finger” (“Maskavats pirksts” in Latvian).
The city council’s move followed the Latvian legislature’s approval the day before of a bill allowing the city council to order the monument demolished. The city council’s vote was 39–13.
Deal Me In
Decks of playing cards featuring pictures of suspected Russian war criminals are on their way to Ukrainian soldiers, replicating an idea used during the Iraq War.
General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces, in a Facebook post Friday announced the release of the two decks he said were developed by international intelligence nonprofit InformNapalm. The cards come as Russia's invasion against Ukraine enters a phase that's brought more attention to alleged atrocities carried out by Russian forces.
Not Even Rand Paul Can Stop This
The European Union has announced a package of another 500 million euros ($520m) for Ukraine to buy heavy weapons in its fight against Russia, the bloc’s foreign affairs chief has said at a gathering of Group of Seven nations in Germany.
“We [EU] will provide a new tranche of 500 more million euros to support the military of Ukraine. It will make about two billion euros in total,” Josep Borrell told reporters on Friday in Weissenhaus, on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast.
He's a Sick Sicko
Ukraine's head of military intelligence, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, told Sky News that Putin was in a "very bad psychological and physical condition and he is very sick."
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Russian leader Vladimir Putin is "very ill with blood cancer' it has been reported. An oligarch with close links to the president has reportedly been recorded as giving the information during a conversation with a Western venture capitalist.
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Speculation: IF this is true, he is likely deteriorating so quickly that he may not live long enough for the surgery he supposedly needs, or might not survive the operation. Or forces in the Kremlin may decide he is too ill to continue to rule (ruin) Russia any longer.
Best scenario if that happens is the new ruler(s) will declare the Ukraine invasion was all Putin’s fault and was clearly a product of his declining health. More likely, though, is that one of the hard-liners he has surrounded himself with will demand that the “special military operation” continue.
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COVID Isn't Exactly Over, But ...
North Korea? Who Cares About North Korea?
North Korea's rapidly spreading Covid-19 outbreak is a "great disaster" for the country, its leader Kim Jong-un has said, according to state media.
Mr Kim called for an all-out battle to tackle the spread of the virus during an emergency meeting on Saturday.
It comes after officials announced the first confirmed cases on Thursday - although experts believe the virus has likely been circulating for some time.
There are fears a major outbreak could have dire consequences in North Korea.
Its population of 25 million is vulnerable due to the lack of a vaccination programme and poor healthcare system.
And on Saturday, state media reported that there had been half a million cases of unexplained fever in recent weeks. The country has limited testing capabilities so most Covid cases are not confirmed.
But There Is No COVID in North Korea. Kim Jong-un Told Us, and He Sent Previous Guy A Wonderful Letter.
North Korea said Friday that six people died and hundreds of thousands of others fell ill amid an explosive spread of fever across the nation, a day after it acknowledged a Covid-19 outbreak in a largely unvaccinated population for the first time since the pandemic began.
The true scale of the coronavirus outbreak is still unclear, as North Korea — which lacks Covid-19 diagnostic kits and other medical equipment — said it hasn’t found why the fever has happened. But some experts say the outbreak can cause major consequences because the country’s health care infrastructure remains broken and many of its 26 million people are unvaccinated and malnourished.
Why Aren't Deaths Rising?
Covid-19 cases are surging yet again in the United States, but unlike previous waves, a substantial rise in hospitalizations and deaths isn't following yet.
The U.S. reported nearly 140,000 Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, marking the third day in a row daily cases have exceeded 100,000, according to an NBC News tally.
Nationwide, cases have climbed by roughly 58 percent over the past two weeks as the omicron coronavirus subvariant BA.2 and an offshoot of that strain, called BA.2.12.1, continue to spread. (When will we have BA.2.12.1.47.88.1652? What a dumb naming convention!)
The last time confirmed cases exceeded 100,000 was in mid-February, when the winter surge, fueled by the original omicron variant, BA.1, began to subside.
However, in the Northeast, where the vast majority of cases are being reported, the rate of hospitalizations and deaths aren’t as high as expected, a senior administration official told NBC News earlier this week.
And with a large number of Covid infections going undercounted because of the use of at-home rapid tests, the rate of severe cases looks even more hopeful, experts say.
Usually, when infections begin to rise, "we see a rise in hospitalizations around 10 days later, and a rise in deaths around 22 days later," the official said.
In fact, hospitalizations are rising to nearly 20,000 per day, up 20 percent over the past two weeks, according to an NBC News analysis of Health and Human Services data — but officials say that metric is becoming less of a reliable indicator.
In Massachusetts, for example, while Covid hospitalizations have gone up, two-thirds of the people hospitalized are so-called incidental Covid cases, meaning they were hospitalized for other ailments but also tested positive for the virus, according to the state's Department of Health.
Meanwhile, deaths across the country have dropped to an average of 301 fatalities per day, down roughly 17 percent over the past two weeks, according to an NBC News tally, and down from more than 2,600 per day during the omicron winter surge.
The lower rate of severe illness in the Northeast may reflect the region’s high vaccination rate, the prevalence of testing and the use of antiviral drugs, such as Paxlovid, which has been shown in clinical trials to cut a patient’s risk of hospitalization and death by 89 percent, the official said.
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease physician at the University of Toronto, said that as communities continue to build up immunity against the virus, people should expect new variants to have less of an impact.
The U.S. has acquired a high level of immunity from Covid through a combination of vaccinations, boosters and prior infection. Nearly 60 percent of people in the country had been infected by February, including roughly 75 percent of children and teens, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported recently.
More Evidence From South Africa
South Africa is experiencing a surge of new COVID-19 cases driven by two omicron sub-variants, according to health experts.
For about three weeks the country has seen increasing numbers of new cases and somewhat higher hospitalizations, but not increases in severe cases and deaths, said Professor Marta Nunes, a researcher at Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Analytics at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto.
“We're still very early in this increase period, so I don’t want to really call it a wave,” Nunes said. “We are seeing a slight, a small increase in hospitalizations and really very few deaths.”
South Africa's new cases have gone from an average of 300 per day in early April to about 8,000 per day this week. Nunes says the actual number of new cases is probably much higher because the symptoms are mild and many who get sick are not getting tested.
South Africa's new surge is from two variations of omicron, BA.4 and BA.5, which appear to be very much like the original strain of omicron that was first identified in South Africa and Botswana late last year and swept around the globe.
That All Sounds Good, But ...
A month or so ago, people stopped wearing masks. I was one of them. They basically said that the new variant is mild and if you are vaccinated, you will be fine.
I started to really feel awful. I was exhausted, all my muscles ached. I had a fever, my skin was tingling like I had a thousand ants crawling on them. My eyes hurt. I would close them and it would seem like the lights were still on and there was a ceiling fan was spinning, blocking the light creating a strobe light effect. I couldn’t sleep. My body was fighting this disease and was acting like if I fell asleep that I would never wake up. I have a Fitbit and it says I got 59 minutes of sleep that night.
My tingling skin turned into small rashes that looked like little patches of poison ivy. They did not itch but were super painful if you popped them. They mainly formed on my hand and ankles.
I was able to call my doctor and schedule a video visit. They would not let me come in since I was COVID positive. I explained my symptoms and inquired about being put on the new antiviral drug Paxlovid. He really hesitated and made it feel like this should only be given in extreme cases. He said the fact that I am under 65 without any co-morbidities that I was not a suitable candidate. So, he said that I would be fine. Drink lots of water but if I started to have trouble breathing, if I couldn’t keep any food down, or if my oxygen levels were constantly in the 80s, go immediately to the ER. Luckily, It never got to that. My lowest oxygen reading was 92.
I really felt awful over the next couple of days. I really didn’t feel like eating anything and I was constantly nauseated.
I was very upset in that I got all my vaccines and I still got so sick. My booster was back in November and I know the efficacy wanes after three months. What made things more frustrating was a friend that was 88 years old tested positive around the same time and all he got was a mild cough. I was extremely happy that is all that happened to him because when you are 88, it can be deadly.
The point is that it feels like the Omicron completely got around the vaccine. It turns out that I most likely contracted the new variant BA2.12.1. I have read that it is better at evading detection and can have more severe symptoms than BA1 and BA2. I really believe this. If I could have prevented this by wearing a mask that night, I would have done that, no question. I believe this new variant is more evasive, stronger, goes deeper into the lungs and is highly, highly transmissible. Like measles transmissible. This is a warning that we need to keep masking and distancing. It’s not over and I really regret not taking it more seriously.
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Crazy for Crypto
The cryptocurrency bitcoin, which saw stunning gains last year, lost more than half its value over the past six months.
Since ratcheting up to more than $64,000 in November, the price of one bitcoin has now fallen more than 50 percent. On Friday it was trading around $30,000, after falling as low as $26,000 earlier in the week.
The sell-off is tied in part to rising interest rates and inflation that sits at 40-year highs, which has sent the broader stock market reeling. But the extent of bitcoin's decline may come as a shock — especially to some investors who bought bitcoin during its most recent price run-up.
A host of online narratives, some of which have been echoed in mainstream business publications, had proclaimed bitcoin to be untethered to the traditional investment markets, and even to be a trustworthy hedge against the kind of inflation the U.S. and other parts of the world are now experiencing.
But this week's bitcoin sell-off came amid a wider market downturn — something that appears to disprove the notion that bitcoin is walled-off from conventional market pressures, analysts say.
Broke From Crypto
A few days before Christmas last year, Philip Martin sat in front of his computer to check his cryptocurrency balance. It was the beginning of what would become, for him, an ongoing nightmare.
Martin told NBC News he thought he was typing the web address for his cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, the biggest and best-known company for consumers to store their digital money. But in fact, he says, hackers had spoofed the url, changing it so slightly that it even fooled his web browser — which prompted him to automatically enter his log-in and password.
The crooks now had all the information they needed to steal his life savings — and they did. Martin became the latest victim in what has been a wave of cryptocurrency hacks and thefts, one that experts say raises questions about whether better regulation is needed.
“It’s been very frustrating,” said Martin, who is out $165,000 worth of Ethereum, a popular cryptocurrency. “I’ve had panic attacks.”
Martin said he was able to trace where the thieves transferred his stolen crypto, given that all Ethereum transactions are published on a public ledger. He contacted both local and federal law enforcement. But to add insult to injury, the FBI field office in Los Angeles ultimately told him his loss was not large enough to merit investigation.
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A Crappy Idea Got People Pissed
It seemed like Goop’s crappiest idea yet.
Earlier this week, Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle company posted a photo of its new disposable diaper, “The Diapér,” which cost $120 for a pack of 12.
Goop described the diaper on Instagram as lined “with virgin alpaca wool and fastened with amber gemstones, known for their ancient emotional-cleansing properties.”
So, naturally, people got pissed … but it seems that was precisely the point.
Paltrow posted a video Thursday revealing that she’s well aware of Goop’s notoriety and had used it against everyone for a pretty solid troll.
“Goop launched a luxury disposable diaper at $120 for a pack of 12 and there was a lot of outrage. Good,” Paltrow said in the video. “If treating diapers like a luxury makes you mad, so should taxing them like a luxury.”
She then confirmed that “The Diapér” was fake, and meant to anger people to draw their attention to another issue.
The video’s caption urged people to donate to the organization Baby2Baby “to help provide diapers, formula, and other essentials to families in need.”
“Despite the absolute necessity of diapers, in 33 states, they aren’t treated as an essential item,” the caption read. “They’re taxed as a luxury good. (We priced our fictional Diapérs at $120, because that is what the diaper tax could cost families annually).”
The caption added:
“Right now, many families in need are also struggling as a result of the nationwide formula shortage.”
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Where's Woodie Guthrie When You Need Him?
Hurricane-force winds tore across the U.S. upper Midwest Thursday evening, sending walls of dust across cities and rural towns, causing widespread property damage and killing at least two people.
Straight-line winds up to 105 miles per hour (169 kph) reached from Kansas to Wisconsin, pushing waves of farmland topsoil across the horizon and plunging communities into darkness, according to meteorologists and soil experts.
The wall of dust evoked images of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, said farmers, with winds dropping storage buildings onto tractors and flipping cars on highways.
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Could We Finally Be Seeing DeJoy Go?
USPS board’s governors now mostly Biden picks following latest Senate confirmations
The Postal Service is adding new members to its board at a time when the agency is looking to implement sweeping reforms and advance one of the largest acquisitions of vehicles in the federal government.
The Senate, in a voice vote Thursday, confirmed President Joe Biden’s two latest members to the USPS Board of Governors.
Dan Tangherlini, the former head of the General Services Administration, will serve a term that lasts through December 2027. Derek Kan, a former deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, will serve on a term through December 2028.
Once Tangherlini and Kan are sworn in, a majority of the nine presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed seats on the USPS Board of Governors will be Biden nominees...
I'll Have What She's Having
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Editorial: Max Weber Wrote The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in 1904-5
In it he wrote:
"It’s the intoxication of the pursuit of power, the intoxication of building a huge corporation, the obsession with self-affirmation that is at the root of all this, and it’s the belief in the value of one’s own work, not only because work is something moral, but because building the corporation is the ultimate good, and because anything that resists building it out is bad."
I just finished watching Super Pumped on Showtime about Travis Kalanick and the start of Uber. Max Weber could have been writing about Kalanick, who saw no tactic out of bounds to go after the "enemies" of Uber. It was all about winning and crushing everyone and everything in your way. Max Weber could have been writing about Kalanick.
But them, Weber could have been writing about Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Page & Brin, or Mark Zuckerberg. For that matter, he could have been writing about Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, or Leland Stanford.
There are very few people who create great corporations without crushing lots of other under their feet at they rise.
OTOH, aren't our lives better because of the Model T, US Steel making skyscrapers and railroads possible, Amazon, personal computer, and the smart phone? (I am still looking for the real value in Facebook.)
Are the great entrepreneurs great heroes or great villains? It would be nice to live in a black and white world. Unfortunately, these men (like most men) are some of each. There are people who's evil massively outweighs the good. There are also some genuinely good people, who are never perfect.
The real question to me is not whether to admire or hate people like Kalanick. I don't agree with Karl Marx that capitalists are inherently evil.
The issue we face as a nation is how to best allow corporations to grow and thrive while limiting the abuses of power and money that come along with it. It's a damned tough problem, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to solve it.
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