A LOT going on….
The media frenzy about the newest Covid variant has calmed down a bit…..
I feature the ‘reported ‘ number’s here and they are down….
That could mean the latest spike upward in cases has diminished….
Or?
It could be because reporting was off for the past week after the Thanksgiving Holiday….
Experts still are unsure of how the Omicron variant will affect people in general….
And there are people with it all around the planet….
So?
The push has been to redouble vaccine’s, booster’s and mask wearing inside….
The President and others have been quick to assure the public that there will be NO push to shutdown things again….
The President’s mandate order thru OSHA has gotten no traction in the Federal courts so far…
And the admin isn’t firing any government employee’s or military people who refuse to get shots….
They WILL sanctioned in other ways….
Wash Post….
Reported cases down 11.6%
Reported deaths down 21.6%
NY Times….
Reported cases down 1%
Reported hospital stays up 16%
Reported deaths down 10%
Almost 60% of ALL Americans have been reportedly ‘fully ‘ vaccinated….
Pres. Biden lays out his plan to fight COVID-19 this winter:
— Expand booster access
— Expand vaccine access for kids
— Free at-home rapid tests
— Extend public transit mask requirement
— Testing for international travelers
abcn.ws/3xymeys
Governor Quashed Report Showing Masks Saved Lives
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) commissioned a report that showed mask mandates saved lives and prevented Covid-19 infections during the worst part of the delta variant wave, but it was never made public, the Kansas City Star reports.
But but….
He’s “pro life” ask him!
What he really is?
Is a two bit piece of garbage.
Who ,quite apparently ,doesn’t care if people die or not ,as long as he satisfies
the kook element that now guides the Republican Party .
Parson only looks “normal” compared to the conpletely batshit right wingers in the Senate primary–Eric Greitens and Mark McCloskey.
He’s still a toady to the kooks. Much like Mike Pence.
It’s funny that Greitens–who was the Trump like figure in the MO GOP–resigned in disgrace only to be replaced by this hayseed who folds to the wackos at every turn. Much like Pence won’t even say if it was wrong that Jan 6 terrorists wanted him hanged for fear of offending that traitorous trash.
But he does insist that all those unwanted pregnancies get birthed.
I watched Chris Hayes, who came from a Catholic anti-choice family, explain his theory of all this tonight and it was very disturbing.
He first compared all of the Republican politicians who object to masks, hawk alternative cures, and dismiss the virus in general with their reverence for “life.” He had clip after clip of elected Republicans saying that folks dying of COVID was no big deal, the economy had to go on, it really is only like the flu and so on with their comments about the sanctity of life and little babies.
His theory, and I have to agree, is that since so many of these politicians are men there is an underlining desire to control women. A very Hand Maiden approach to regulating what a woman can or cannot do with her own body. He also said, and I think there is a lot of truth to this, that the Republicans now running for the U.S. Senate, you know folks like Dr. Oz and Hershel Walker, will be required to come out in favor of a total ban on abortion. No exceptions for rape or incest, no way. And, that makes sense from what is going on in the Republican caucus.
Now, for those who will dismiss this theory because “they themselves support exceptions for rape and incest,” I say they are full of shit and lots of it.
The crazies who run the Republican Party won’t stop with one decision that only impacts half the country. They want to ban abortion in those blue states, punish those educated woman who they resent so very much, and make them bend to their reproductive wills.
On the other topic of the day. Senate Republicans were close to holding the budget hostage over mask mandates, and Republicans in the New Jersey Legislature refused to wear their masks in session tonight. The anti-vaccine folks have a new cure for COVID. and it’s dirt. When labs have tested this dirt (being sold at over $100 a bag) they found mercury and other harmful substances. You supposed to ingest a small amount and apparently take a mud bath in the rest. You can’t make this shit up.
At every turn the Republicans have resisted Biden’s attempts to control the virus and then pivot to telling the public his policies have failed.
Tonight Ron DeSantis, who like Tate Reeve, has “gotten high marks for his handling of the virus” has hired a virus denier as the State’s Surgeon General (some Uncle Tom with a phony resume) and he’s paying, out of state funds, the Federal fines being levied on businesses who have not complied with mask mandates.
The Republicans move seamlessly from talking pro-life to encouraging death. They appear to be literally killing people to make Biden look bad.
Omicron virus has been found in NYC and LI.,,,
The virus will be found everywhere on the planet
With the way human’s travel now?
It is impossible to stop the spread by shitting down access to countries
It would appear that in the end?
There will always be a new virus and they will have to a way to deal woth them and still go on some sort of normalcy….
We still do not know the full affects of this new one
Manu Raju
@mkraju
As much of a slog as it was to get CR done, this is the easy part this month.
Next they have to pass debt limit by Dec. 15 (no clear path yet to get it done, despite McConnell-Schumer talks)
Then Ds will try to pass Build Back Better bill, even though Manchin not on board yet
Manu Raju
@mkraju
48-50, Senate rejects GOP amendment to block Biden’s vaccine mandate. Senate about to vote to clear measure to keep government open til Feb. 18
The two Republican Senators who did not vote for the amendment were John Thune of S. Dakota and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee. The other 48 voted Aye.
All 48 Democratic and both Independent Senators voted Nay.
Unless people are vaccinated, the country can’t and won’t be able to open up.
much of Europe is enforcing a lockdown on only the unvaccinated, with severe fines for violators.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sues Elizabeth Warren over COVID-19 book complaint
Is the legal duel between anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren a crucial First Amendment showdown, or is it much ado about nothing? It depends on which lawyers you ask.
Kennedy, along with authors Joseph Mercola and Ronald Cummings, and Chelsea Green Publishing, Inc. of White River Junction, Vt., filed a federal lawsuit against Warren in early November. The plaintiffs allege that Warren violated the US Constitution by urging online retailer Amazon to halt sales of their book as well as several others promoting unorthodox opinions about COVID-19. The suit was filed in Amazon’s headquarters city of Seattle, although Amazon is not a participant in the case.
“She is saying that Amazon is complicit in homicide as a result of selling this book,” said Nathan Arnold, the attorney representing the authors and publisher of “The Truth About COVID-19,” written by Mercola and Cummins, with a foreword written by Kennedy. The book, which is highly skeptical of mainstream medical research about the disease and the vaccines created to combat it, has been denounced for spreading misinformation about the disease.
In September, Warren sent a letter to online retailer Amazon that criticized the company for selling the Mercola book and others that contained alleged misinformation about COVID-19. “The company’s search algorithms appear to contribute to the spread of COVID-19 misinformation,” Warren wrote. She said that “conspiracy theories about COVID-19 … have led to untold illnesses and deaths.”
Warren called on Amazon to produce a report on whether its search algorithms encourage consumers to buy books containing false COVID information, and asked the company to present “a plan to modify these algorithms so that they no longer do so.” Warren did not ask Amazon to halt sales of the book, but to change its search program so that someone looking for books about COVID would not be directed to Kennedy’s book….
— By Hiawatha Bray
Boston Globe Staff,
Updated December 3, 2021, 5:03 p.m.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/12/03/business/robert-f-kennedy-jr-sues-elizabeth-warren-over-covid-19-book-complaint/
This IS crazy….
A fucking Book?
Amazon?
I would be interested in Jack’s thoughts on this. Does Kennedy have a chance at actually winning this?
And CG told us that RFK Jr. Is raising money for Democrats. I wonder if he is raising money for Warren?
So RFKjr went around the bend, and he needs to shut up. His siblings and cousins are appalled. He won’t win, move on to the fun crisis about denying a woman her reproductive choices or the fact that kids are once again allowed to murder their fellow students with weapons of mass destructions.
Anyone of course can sue anyone but just from the bare details here,I wouldn’t see much to this.
Just sending a letter expressing an opinion is not the stuff successful lawsuits are made of.
Maybe there’s more here than we know?
Or maybe RFK Jr, whom I regard as a bona fide“kook”, albeit a fairly intelligent one , has something else?
Or maybe he needs a little attention.
Thanks Jack. That was my understanding, although you appear to give the case better odds than I would have guessed. But who knows what it’s legal team has in its pocket that we don’t know about? Probably nothing.
We are now seeing the usual uptick in cases after a holiday,now over 100000 a day and rising Hospital are also on the increase.Deaths are essentially flat with only a slight rise.
As requires constant reiteration here, the pandemic is still raging and ,despite some “happy talk” and a few burps here and there shows no sign of loosening it’s grip.
With a new variant now appearing ,the aforementioned “happy talk” seems to be totally misplaced.
Still no known omicron deaths. Very encouraging albeit very preliminary news
I have some anecdotal information on this variant. My running partner’s younger brother is station at the U.S. Embassy in South Africa. Every, and I do mean every, Embassy employee is fully vaccinated and he reports that over a dozen employees have contracted this omicron. They are all self isolating and only have mild symptoms, but that is a huge number of people in this type of control environment to come in contact with the virus.
So, good news, and bad. It seems to spread much easier but doesn’t impact the vaccinated in a way to threaten their lives. Now the unvaccinated??
So, while our host is obsessed, and I do mean obsessed, with talk about how some numbers are dropping. I still find it amazing he won’t speak to the benefits of being fully vaccinated. It appears to be a rather Republican/DeSantis thing to do. Don’t you think?
The pro-life Party telling people, and that is exactly what they are doing, in word and actions, not to get vaccinated.
As far as our host’s bullshit regarding the claim that the virus will always be here. Is Polio still here? Small pox? TB? There are tons more diseases that have been eradicated through vaccination. Right?
Thanks for ur report Keith which also seems to back up the study on the veracity of the newly discovered virus…..
Good news indeed….
I will disagree with ya Jack….
The new ‘reported numbers’ appearing today in the Wash Post and NY Times seem to be the catch up numbers from the Thanksgiving week….
Both report a 52% increase in cases and a 42% increase in deaths….
I and others cautioned that numbers being reported for the past week would be skewed…
They are…
They include catch up numbers…
We’ll have to wait probably for ANOTHER week to get a real feel for things…
Z is correct on the first reports on Omicron
The Omicron report IS encouraging and may explain things….
Again?
There IS gonna be new variants FOREVER….
We will have to deal with that and Americans ARE tired and want to try get some sort of normalcy ….
Wait a minute!
Hold the presses!….
The NY Times just adjusted their numbers….
Reported….
Cases……+13%
Hospital…+18%
Deaths…..-2%
Health departments are identifying around 95,000 cases a day, about the same as before Thanksgiving. Though The Times changed how it calculates its case curve to lessen the impact of irregular data reporting on holidays, some of those inconsistencies may still be affecting the national data…
Link…
The Times numbers seem more up to date…
They indicate at face value my view that the Alpha and Delta Covid virus’s ARE more wide spread but losing their effect on Americans’s and what the Omicron study people have said is normal for how virus’s age….
Again?
You and I are NOT experts…
But we BOTH can read numbers and data readouts….
Even without whatever the effect of Omicron will be, the current wave of Delta is quite deadly enough, and will hardly decrease as people go indoor, travel and celebrate holidays together with friends and relatives from other states.
Massachusetts” (yes, Massachusetts’ !) hospital beds can no longer meet demand.
Rhode Island has a new record for infections.
And the (largely Blue) states in the Northeast and West Coast that followed CDC precautions most closely in 2020 are now reporting record cases.
Fortunately, since many of those states’ adults are more than 75% vaccinated, mortality is nothing like last years.
But we still don’t know (given politics, disinformation and organized resistance) how long this will continue.
It has already claimed 770,000 lives.
One can’t totally discount a relatively quick benign remission, but we really have to wait, rather more pessimistically than optimistically.
15% of Americans say they definitely will not get vaxxed. And over a dozen states are going in exactly the wrong direction.
I will remain optimistic because so far?
This spike is much lower than the last two
And was subsiding up until 2 weeks ag
Than said?
Yes, even one loss is too many….
There is simply no evidence to support your contention that the pandemic is receding..
NONE
You say you won’t to “disagree “ with me?Youre not disagreeing only with me but with almost the entire scientific and medical community .
You are “agreeing” however with much of the Republican Party.
Cases are up 19% over the past two weeks and the Thanksgiving Holiday was a week ago.
With that irrelevancy out of the watch, there remains NO EVIDENCE that the pandemic is receding.
Once again…
NONE
But why don’t you “disagree” with the facts.
Yours is not “optimism,” it’s either stupidity or our and out Lying.
Reported….12/10/2021
Wash Post…..
Cases….+14%
Deaths…+3%
Hospital.1+0%
NY Times
Cases…+38%
Deaths..+26%
Hospital.+21%
(We KNOW there IS a spike…But?…Who knows which of these numbers actually are right, or even close to right?)