Week in review, 01/20 - 01/26: First week of the Biden administration

Photo: Getty Images

The amount of personal loss and/or sickness I’m seeing being posted about by contacts on FB and Twitter in, say, the last month-and-a-half to two months has been astronomical in scope. Like no period I can ever recall or ever want to see again. #WearAF**kingMask

Straight to work, as he said he would do: President Biden’s first-day executive orders in detail

Masks now required for interstate travel; centralized data collection, sped-up vaccine production, increased testing capacity mandated: President Biden issues executive orders aimed at defeating COVID

President Biden reinstates COVID travel restrictions, adds South Africa to the list of countries affected

First known U.S. case of Brazilian COVID-19 variant found in Minnesota

National Guardsmen on COVID protocols: ‘There’s none. We are on top of each other all day, every day. We’ve given up.’ Scores of National Guard banished to the Senate parking garage during inauguration

Brian Karem: Energy (and honesty) in the Executive. ‘A spectral administration of lies is swept out, replaced by an active new team and a president talking of unity’

President Biden inherits one of the worst job markets for any incoming presidency, as jobless claims remain at historic highs

Regardless of how one feels about illegal immigration, the United States should not be in the business of hurting children of any nationality: President Biden’s immigration bill would provide more protections for child migrants

This lady is nuts: Freshwoman GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene files articles of impeachment against President Biden

Perhaps the prospect of being sued into the next century will be the greatest deterrent to future coup plotters: Giuliani sued for $1.5 billion by Dominion Voting Systems over false election claims

A once-proud party that destroyed itself on the altar of a failed real estate king from New York: Republicans grapple with their future post-Trump

Crazy Trump supporter issues tear-stained video, says she doesn’t even see the American flag anymore. I watched the inauguration, there were American flags everywhere. Prime example of what cult-like devotion will do to a person when everything falls apart

‘(S)trung from failed promise to failed promise.’ QAnon adherents in disarray as President Biden takes office, prophecies fail to materialize

Group of GOP senators seek to block President Biden’s moves on Paris Accord, Keystone XL

American Petroleum Institute: ‘Impeding American energy will only serve to hurt local communities and hamper America’s economic recovery.’ President Biden imposes sixty-day suspension of oil and gas leases and permits on U.S. lands and waters

Under President Biden, China faces renewed trade pressure

Massachusetts: Gov. Baker lifting 9:30 p.m. curfew for restaurants and other businesses as COVID metrics improve

1,900 doses of COVID vaccine thrown away after incident at Jamaica Plain (Boston) facility

Getting the vaccines to everyone will continue to be a lengthy and difficult process: Merck ends COVID-19 vaccine program, citing inferior immune responses, will focus on treatments instead

New CDC director says COVID vaccine won’t be in every pharmacy by late February

Researching the possible connection between COVID and ME/CFS: What if you never get better from COVID-19?

ILO: 255 million full time jobs lost due to pandemic; $3.7 in lost earnings, economic damage four times higher than during the 2008 financial crisis

COVID vaccinations for cats and dogs? ‘(N)ot unthinkable that vaccination of some domesticated animal species might... be necessary to curb the spread’

Evidence emerges that an anticipated COVID ‘baby boom’ has not come to pass, and is more likely a ‘baby bust’

An American icon. Rest in Peace, Hank Aaron, you will never be forgotten

Unbelievable. First time since 1960 there will not be a new group of inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame. However, the silver lining is the delayed 2020 class will have the stage to itself

Copyright 2021, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here.

Congratulations to President Joe Biden

The oath has been administered. President Biden. Congratulations, sir, and may God be with you!

Copyright 2021, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here.

End of the Trump presidency

Reflecting on the last four years, feeling grief for all that was broken, corrupted, lost. If only possible, if we could now go into a season of hibernation like grizzly bears. We all need the rest; alas, even with better leadership nothing is getting easier anytime soon. I will forever be proud to have been an original #NeverTrumper from 2015 onward, and to have joined with so many good folks in the #NeverTrump movement. And we continue on: We made our point about Trump, but the business of punishing the GOP remains. As for Mr. Biden, I pledge support but never sycophancy. His presidency will be judged fairly and honestly here.

‘It became sort of lawless.’ Multitudes of problems with the COVID vaccine rollout in Florida, Texas, and elsewhere. Demand far exceeds supply

First case of the more infectious COVID variant originating in the UK confirmed to have briefly passed through Massachusetts, via Logan Airport stop-over

Lame-duck president lifts COVID travel restrictions for air travelers from Europe and Brazil, beginning January 26. But Biden spokeswoman says the new president will immediately overturn that order

Only country in the world where this can be claimed: China reports its economy grew by 2.3% in 2020, though retail sales are down sharply and COVID cases back up

U.S. Capitol Police chief steps aside days earlier than scheduled

Insane. The United States teetering on the edge of officially being a banana republic: ‘U.S. defense officials say they are worried about an insider attack or other threat from service members involved in securing President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, prompting the FBI to vet all of the 25,000 National Guard troops coming into Washington for the event’

FBI: Far-right groups planning ‘armed protests’ at all fifty state capitals and at the U.S. Capitol prior to Inauguration Day

FBI arrests Capitol rioter and  ‘Cowboys for Trump’ leader - New Mexico county commissioner Couy Griffin - after he publicly threatened to return fully armed to the Capitol to place a flag on Pelosi’s desk

Giuliani under investigation by the New York State Bar Association following ‘let’s have a trial by combat’ line at January 6 ‘Save America’ rally

Heavy metal guitarist photographed pepper-spraying police officers during the Capitol riot turns himself into the FBI

How about that? Research lab finds election fraud misinformation online dropped 73% in the week following Twitter’s ban of the lame-duck president

An epic failure, all the way around: ‘Others will continue to fan the flames of extremism.’ Political scientists reveal how Trump has forever changed American politics

‘He was just everywhere.’ A tired country after four years of Trump

Biden nominates Dr. Rachel Levine - Pennsylvania’s top health official - to assistant secretary of health, the first transgender individual to be nominated to any post requiring Senate confirmation

Let’s hope he reconsiders this. Green energy is going to take decades to become common-place; meanwhile, we can’t remain dependent on foreign adversaries: Biden indicates he will sign Executive Order canceling Keystone XL pipeline permit

Prayers for this man: Putin poisoning victim Alexei Navalny returns to Russia to serve thirty-day sentence

In spite of pandemic, single-family home sales hit sixteen-year high in Massachusetts

COVID killed Phil Spector

Rest in Peace, Don Sutton. Hall of Fame pitcher dies at 75

Roll Tide: Congratulations to Alabama on winning the national championship game over Ohio State, 52-24. An excellent performance, especially by DeVonta Smith. Nick Saban’s record seventh championship. Have to hand it to the Crimson Tide!

Copyright 2021, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here.

Week in review, 01/04 - 01/10

Photo: Reuters

When one stops and thinks about it, it’s just amazing. Never have any of us seen a presidency implode like this. And let us pray we never see it again ...

Video timeline: How pro-Trump insurrectionists broke into the U.S. Capitol

‘An effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule.’ General Mattis directly blames Trump for security breach in the U.S. Capitol, says ‘Mr. Trump will deservedly be left a man without a country’ 

People are tired of chaos. May a quieter and saner decade be ahead: The majority of Americans want Trump removed immediately after U.S. Capitol violence

‘Snowflakery for me, but not for thee.’ Jonah Goldberg: American Benghazi

Historian Michael Brenner: ‘As the German example warns us, however, knocking down an insurrection does not yet mean winning the fight for democracy. This fight will go on until our politicians learn the crucial lessons from the past’

A blatant a**hole who was just begging to have someone knock him down. It was written all over his face and in his demeanor: Arkansas man who invaded Speaker Pelosi’s office as part of the raid on the U.S. Capitol is charged with multiple crimes

‘Multiple air traffic controllers in New York heard a chilling threat Monday in audio obtained exclusively by CBS News: "We are flying a plane into the Capitol on Wednesday. Soleimani will be avenged”’

‘(S)cientists are warily watching a different variant found in South Africa, but not yet reported in the U.S. There have been some reports that the mutation might make treatments called “monoclonal antibodies” less likely to work’

‘States with laws mandating flu shots for hospital workers saw reductions in deaths from influenza and pneumonia annually across their populations, a study published ... by the Annals of Internal Medicine found’

The Biden administration plans COVID-19 vaccination blitz shortly after Inauguration Day

‘There have been 431 new COVID-19 cases among students and staff in Massachusetts schools in the last week, according to the latest data from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’

Pfizer and other top pharmaceutical companies raise drug prices, and ‘it is expected that further drug price increases are to be announced in early January as the pandemic continues to hit companies in 2021’

A prime example of liberty lost. Tyrant China baring its teeth in the former British colony: ‘About 50 pro-democracy lawmakers and activists have reportedly been arrested in Hong Kong under the controversial national security law’ 

Despot Kim Jong Un declares five-year economic plan a failure at party congress; North Korea’s GDP estimated to have contracted by 9.3% in 2020

Tommy Lasorda dies at 93: Godspeed to this great figure of our greatest sport, and condolences to all in Dodger Nation

The last video store chain in the country closing all 250 of its locations

Copyright 2021, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here.