Week in review, 04/17 - 04/23

A man who - agree or disagree - showed great candor, didn’t put on airs, and didn’t just always tell the lemmings what they wanted to hear (as opposed to what needed to be said.) Rest in Peace, Vice President Walter Mondale

Derek Chauvin guilty of all charges. The right verdict, of course, but I just can't help but be sad and angry that all of this ever happened. It's the 21st Century, time to move on from Jim Crow. Rest in Peace, George Floyd

Photo: AP

‘The global death toll from the coronavirus topped a staggering 3 million people Saturday amid repeated setbacks in the worldwide vaccination campaign and a deepening crisis in places such as Brazil, India and France’

A disaster of potentially epic proportions. 1.3 billion living in one landmass: India reports over 200,000 daily new COVID-19 cases for the sixth consecutive day

Great Britain adds India to COVID-19 ‘red list,’ temporarily banning travelers from the country of 1.366 billion as new variant spreads

‘If you’re pregnant and infected with Covid-19, there is an increased risk of negative outcomes for both you and your baby, according to a new study published Thursday in JAMA Pediatrics’

‘The coronavirus has killed an estimated 1,300 babies in Brazil since the beginning of the pandemic, even though there's overwhelming evidence that Covid-19 rarely kills young children’

‘Germany — ostensibly a nation of efficient, reliable and punctual people — is succumbing to chaos. How is this possible?’ A very German way of handling the COVID-19 pandemic

The United States reaches President Biden’s goal of 200 million COVID-19 shots in the first 100 days of his presidency, as small businesses are offered tax credit as reimbursement for giving employees time off to get vaccinated

FDA finds unsanitary conditions at Baltimore plant contracted to make the Johnson & Johnson vaccine; none of the vaccines produced had been distributed

‘A year after a Connecticut company was awarded almost $1.3 billion in federal loans and contracts to supply an essential syringe for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, no syringes have been made. The syringe hasn't received even the first of a series of approvals it needs from the federal government before it can be manufactured, and a factory promising 650 jobs remains unbuilt’

States are relaxing mask mandates, but many major retailers are not ready to follow suit: At this point, I’d be fine if wearing masks in public became permanent, standard practice. I’ve enjoyed not having people spreading their germs all around us, no spittle and other nasty stuff emanating from their big mouths. Colds, the standard flu, etc. are virtually non-existent, and that’s because masks work. It’s also been nice having an excuse not to shake anybody’s grimy hands, or not to feel compelled to accept a hug, and just having the freedom of not being obligated to even see people most of the time. Social distancing should also stay, but most people are basically herd animals and can’t help but always be in the space of others

‘Last month, even as the unemployment rate fell and more states relaxed restrictions on business operations, the poverty rate hit a pandemic high of 11.7 percent — a full percentage point greater than it was in early 2020’

Photo: Reuters

GOP eyes new strategy to derail Biden infrastructure plan: We believe ourselves to still be the most advanced nation on earth, but our infrastructure is crumbling and these Republican idiots think it is smart politics to stand against the president’s efforts to enable necessary upgrades? Whatever procedural problems there are, work them out like grown-ups, but do not allow our nation to literally crumble to the ground just for the sake of harming Mr. Biden politically

‘A group of Senate Republicans outlined their infrastructure plan Thursday, unveiling a much narrower vision for how to revamp U.S. transportation and broadband than the sweeping approach backed by President Joe Biden’

A lot of good all that sloganeering, caterwauling and fear mongering did: $5.00 ladders ‘defeating a wall that cost $12 million a mile’ at the U.S.-Mexico border

Former President George W. Bush slams the modern GOP, saying ‘it’s not exactly my vision,’ and ‘I’m just an old guy they put out to pasture.’ Also expresses concern over President Biden’s decision to remove all U.S. troops from Afghanistan

Medical examiners confirm Officer Brian Sicknick died of a stroke following the U.S. Capitol riot

Florida woman charged with threatening to kill the Vice President

Only in the GOP would royally screwing up a state’s response to the pandemic be seen as a positive: Florida Gov. DeSantis emerges as a presidential favorite for 2024

Research determines about one-fifth of QAnon posts between January 2020 and February 2021 came from foreign sources, mostly in China and Russia

Red alert: ‘Sophisticated Chinese government hackers are believed to have compromised dozens of U.S. government agencies, defense contractors, financial institutions and other critical sectors’

Mass demonstrations in Moscow and St. Petersburg calling for Alexei Navalny’s release

Score one for the good guys: Herd of elephants trample suspected poacher to death in South Africa

Colorado prosecutors file more than forty felony charges against suspected supermarket shooter Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa

About time somebody took noise pollution seriously: Burlington, VT, bans the use of gas-powered leaf blowers, requiring citizens and businesses to use quieter electric-powered blowers

Los Angeles set to limit the use of disposable napkins and utensils at restaurants: The sort of Nanny State b.s. that has driven otherwise reasonable people into the arms of demagogues like Trump. Not to mention, just plain gross. I’ll use as many napkins as necessary when eating, thank you

Expectant parents in NH town get a bit too full of themselves, set off explosives at gender reveal party that could be felt for miles around and may have damaged some homes. An awful lot of hype for a kid who may very well turn out to be a loser in life

Rest in Peace, Tempest Storm: The great burlesque star, ‘who disrobed to enduring acclaim,’ dies at 93

Rest in Peace, Jim Steinman. Creator of melodramatic and theatrical balladry for the likes of Celine Dion, Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler, and many other artists. The man definitely had a signature style all his own, as much an artist as he was a producer and composer

Big upset in the world of horse racing: Letruska outduels heavy favorite Monomoy Girl in the Apple Blossom Handicap

Wishing Alex Smith a very happy retirement from football. It was awesome to see what this QB did this past season in Washington, earning the NFL Comeback Player of the Year award

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

Week in review, 04/10 - 04/16

Photo: AP

‘The head of the World Health Organization warned Friday that the coronavirus pandemic is accelerating as infections soar around the world to nearly the highest levels so far recorded’

COVID-19 hospitalizations - especially among younger people, and in the Upper Midwest - rise even as the U.S. sets a new daily record of 4.6 million vaccinations

‘(P)eople under the age of 19 accounting for a bigger proportion of active COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts’ and nationwide, but CDC director says school reopenings may not necessarily be the biggest factor

Brazil: ‘A new variant of coronavirus that combines 18 mutations has been detected as one of the world's worst-hit countries exceeds 4,000 deaths in a single 24-hour period’

At least 300,000 more dead than Putin’s government will own up to: Russia’s hidden COVID is an open secret

Israeli study finds that the South African COVID-19 variant (B.1.351) may evade protection from the Pfizer vaccine

‘The reality is that the country is still a long way away from herd immunity -- with vaccine hesitancy now standing as a major hurdle in achieving that goal.’ Michigan's COVID-19 surge becomes a reality check for a restless nation

‘The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the agency has documented about 5,800 “breakthrough” COVID-19 cases among the millions of Americans who are fully vaccinated, totaling far less than 1 percent of fully vaccinated people’

We’re going to see most universities across the country enact the same policy: ‘Boston University is the latest local institution to announce that it will require all students to be vaccinated before the start of the fall semester’

Wantonly putting lives at risk ought to incur more than a fine: In the armpit of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a tax service owner is being fined $136,000 for refusing to allow not only employees but also customers to wear masks during the pandemic

Can people today be trusted to do their part, in an emergency, without the force of government compelling them? Am not so sure anymore: New Hampshire to lift its mask mandate

CDC: ‘More than 87,000 Americans died of drug overdoses over the 12-month period that ended in September, according to preliminary federal data, eclipsing the toll from any year since the opioid epidemic began in the 1990s’

Syphilis makes a massive comeback in the U.S. after having once been close to eradication, as cases of sexually transmitted diseases reach all-time highs for six years in row

Photo: AFP/Getty Images

Not certain I’d be as bullish about any economic recovery as much of the corporate world is at this moment, but it is a sign of confidence in the president’s leadership. Jennifer Rubin: Republicans made a foolish bet on the Biden agenda

‘(T)he price of being wrong is enormous.’ Pray the president has made the right decision on Afghanistan. One way or the other withdrawal of U.S. troops from that country was going to happen, but Afghanistan is not at all prepared to run its own affairs

U.S. imposes stiff sanctions on Russia over hacking operation: This is a fallen world, and it does need a ‘policeman’ of sorts. The United States must reassert its global leadership now, and I applaud President Biden for taking firm action against a bully

The POW/MIA flag flies atop the White House once again after the previous administration removed it from public view in 2020

Backfire: ‘As Republicans flail to find a line of attack against Biden that will stick, Hunter’s self-revelations have been met by a shrug in a nation seemingly inured to scandal by Trump himself’

A never-ending cycle of subservience and futility. Trump throws the GOP under the bus, and every single time they keep coming back for more abuse: Trump goes after Pence and McConnell in Mar-a-Lago speech to party donors

‘Pathetic’ is not a strong-enough word to describe this whole act from the MyPillow guy - and the rest of these hangers-on still riding the Trump Train: Mike Lindell claims to have hired private investigators to find out why Fox News won’t let him speak on air

‘Dude thinks he’s a martyr for paying for sex.’ Embattled congressman Gaetz mocked for calling himself a ‘canceled man’ who’s ‘wanted by the Deep State’

Anybody feel sorry for this sanctimonious fraud? Liberty University sues its former leader, Jerry Falwell Jr., seeking tens of millions in damages

DOJ sues Roger Stone and wife over nearly $2 million in unpaid income taxes

Florida woman who coughed on cancer patient during pandemic receives thirty days in jail, six months probation, and mandatory mental health evaluations and anger management courses

‘White Lives Matter’ protests flop as hardly anyone shows up: Of course this effort was doomed to failure. Scant few are going to be so proud or brazen as to say ‘the quiet part out loud,’ especially given recent events

Heavy metal guitarist becomes first U.S. Capitol rioter to agree to a plea deal, pleading guilty to two charges in domestic terrorism probe

Infowars ‘editor’ arrested by the FBI for role in the U.S. Capitol riot

Perhaps the most rank and shameless hypocrisy this country has ever seen. Lauren Lassabe: ‘Conservatives’ have long embraced ‘cancel culture’

Reuters puts its website behind a paywall: Very good, just keep driving people to garbage, partisan sites such as Breitbart and the like. And $34.99 is beyond ridiculous. Guess I’ll be relying more on the AP

Israel will never allow these murderous theocrats to possess nuclear weapons: Suspected Israeli cyber attack hits Iranian nuclear facility at Natanz, just one day after the Iranians unveiled new uranium centrifuges in televised ceremony

Nothing fishy going on here, oh no: Putin critic and Russian exile who was found dead of an apparent suicide in his London apartment in 2018 determined to have been ‘strangled in his own home by a third party’

A man who practiced what he preached: Ramsey Clark, the former Attorney General under LBJ and lawyer who ‘devoted much of the rest of his life to defending unpopular causes and infamous people’ has died at 93

‘Bernard Madoff, mastermind of the biggest investment fraud in U.S. history, ripping off tens of thousands of clients of as much as $65 billion, died Wednesday. He was 82’

Orb. Photo: Claiborne Farms

Not sure what can really be done to stop it - and these owners may give the great and noble Orb a good life in Uruguay - but I’m tired of seeing legendary horses being shipped overseas: 2013 Kentucky Derby winner Orb sold to South American breeders

Jockey Rachael Blackmore makes horse racing history aboard Minella Times in the Grand National

Praise God most of these horses were saved: Numerous heroes battled barn fire at Belmont Park

Major League Baseball has to address the TV blackout issue. People need to be able to see the games, otherwise they’re not going to become or remain fans. You don’t make paying customers by making your product completely inaccessible

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

Salem, MA: Troopers and police faced ‘angry mob’ while arresting suspect on drug and weapons charges

Photo: WHDH.com

Mobs formed to protect drug dealers and impede officers from doing their duties: Is this going to be a ‘new normal?’ Goes without saying some policing reforms are needed, but the anti-cop rhetoric is getting out of control. Not all or even a majority of police officers are Derek Chauvin; and if anyone thinks ordinary citizens would do a better job of policing themselves and their communities than the authorities do, they are pathetically naive and tragically mistaken. That would be called ‘anarchy,’ and it’d be hell on earth. As if this country isn’t violent and morally degraded enough. We can’t get half of these people to wear a mask during a pandemic or even to live in reality. If, say, 20 to 30% of cops are bad seeds - and that may be too high of an estimate, but maybe not - then at least double those numbers of our fellow citizens are worse. I will take my chances trusting a police officer over all these malevolent fools polluting society, which is a far greater percentage of Americans than most care to admit.

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

Week in review, 04/03 - 04/09

Photo: Reuters

Global COVID-19 death toll surpasses three million; record rises in heavily-populated Brazil, India

‘The highly contagious Covid-19 variant first identified in the UK has now been reported in every state in the US, and experts are concerned spreading variants could send cases surging’

Scientists at Stanford University uncover new ‘double mutant’ COVID strain, believed to originate in India

‘Staggering’ number of children - about 40,000 - estimated to have lost at least one parent to COVID, research letter reveals

Photo: Getty Images

‘Facilitating the spread of COVID-19 is an expanded and globalizing antiscience movement that began modestly under a health freedom banner adopted by the Republican Tea Party in Texas.’ Antiscience must be silenced, or else we are heading for a new Dark Ages

So tired of these unholy s**tbags and morons. Knowingly spreading disease is not a basic human right: Republicans whine about vaccine passports, claiming they are an intrusion on personal freedom

Exposing ‘the anti-vaxxers as devoid of logic or consistency,’ just as all conspiracy theorists, political partisans, and most everyone else are: Anti-vaxxer rages at vaccine passports but can’t explain why he wears clothes or follows the speed limit

Forty-six COVID cases linked to one indoor bar gathering in rural Illinois county

No hurry here to go anywhere or see anyone: Nearly half of the respondents in American Psychological Association survey say they feel uneasy about returning to normal life once (if) the pandemic ends

Northeastern University in Boston to require all students have proof of COVID vaccinations before returning to campus in the fall; medical and religious exemptions permitted

‘The Biden administration next week will launch a funeral assistance program that will provide up to $9,000 to cover the burial costs of each American who died of covid-19 — the largest program of its type ever offered by the federal government’

Bored with all of these raging lunatics and all of their bulls**t. Lock them all up and forget them: Trump fails to come to the aid of sniveling toady Matt Gaetz during the embattled congressman’s ‘hour of greatest need’

The Trump 2020 campaign hoodwinked #Cult45 faithful into making recurring donations that most of them could not afford

‘Corporations can punish political opponents by giving campaign donations to their friends, but not in adopting business practices they believe are in their own interest?’ Jennifer Rubin: Republicans defend corporate speech - unless it supports voting rights

Without comment, the U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear appeal from Alex Jones over Connecticut court sanction in Sandy Hook defamation lawsuit

‘(T)he racial and cultural anxieties that lay beneath the riot at the Capitol are not going away.’ Fears of white people losing out permeate Capitol rioters’ towns, study finds

Am not into yoga or Hinduism, but this is obviously absurd and a good illustration of how America has become a global laughing stock: Alabama lawmakers fail to overturn ban on yoga in public schools

Big baby who refused a temperature check and threw a fit over it at Disney World cries ‘I paid $15,000’ as he is hauled off to jail

‘The son of a California man who choked to death during an amateur taco eating contest at a minor league baseball game is suing the event’s organizers for negligence’

Photo: Hannah McKay/ WPA Pool/ Getty Images

Rest in Peace, Prince Philip: The Duke of Edinburgh and husband of Queen Elizabeth II dies at age 99

‘Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a law allowing him to potentially hold onto power until 2036, a move that formalizes constitutional changes endorsed in a vote last year’

Biden administration weighing all options on U.S. participation in the 2022 Beijing Olympics: And the not-so-loyal opposition will just keep on calling him ‘China Joe’ - no matter how tough he is with the Chinese - because they are that obtuse

China extends its hold on disputed waters in the South China Sea by building artificial islands and swarming said waters with vessels

‘An Iranian cargo ship believed to be a base for the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and anchored for years in the Red Sea off Yemen has been attacked, Tehran acknowledged Wednesday’

Wreck of USS Johnston discovered 77 years after its sinking at the Battle of Leyte Gulf

Nolan Arenado. Photo: MLB.com

Coors Field in Denver chosen as new host of the 2021 MLB All-Star Game

Nolan Arenado is awesome. The performance he gave in his first game as a Cardinal at Busch Stadium will be remembered for decades to come

The San Diego Padres have been in existence since 1969. And never has a Padres pitcher delivered a no-hitter. Until now, as San Diego native Joe Musgrove pitches the first no-hitter in franchise history on Friday night

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

Week in review, 03/27 - 04/02

‘Too many Americans are acting as if this fight is over. It is not.’ Biden warns that progress in the fight against COVID can still be reversed if people do not do their part. People would be wise to take heed

‘Following nearly three months of declines, U.S. coronavirus cases are beginning to rebound once again. The country is reporting a weekly average of 61,821 new Covid-19 cases per day, a 12% increase compared with a week ago’

Millions of Americans return to air travel as vaccines and spring break fever kick in. No wonder we are seeing COVID on the rise again. Every time there’s been a lull in new infections and hospitalizations, these restless herd animals just have to get back out there - no masks on, breathing all over one another, and spreading the virus anew.  And of course, once the numbers start surging again, these same people then turn around and blame the president or some other convenient scapegoat. Or just deny reality altogether. The pandemic may eventually end - once there are enough people vaccinated, and if the vaccines prove to offer more than temporary immunity - but willful stupidity, selfishness, and malevolence will always be with us

CDC: Fully vaccinated individuals at lower risk of transmission while traveling, but travel is still not recommended as COVID cases surge once again

We’ll be stuck in this cycle for years: CDC director expresses concern about the latest COVID surge

‘The Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported an additional 2,160 confirmed COVID-19 cases Friday, bringing the statewide total to 602,792 since the start of the pandemic’

COVID-19 cases increase for the third straight week in Massachusetts schools

The truth is strange enough, no need for any conspiracy theories: WHO study finds that COVID was likely transmitted from bats to humans via another animal

COVID-19 infections once again surging in India, prompting the country of 1.4 billion to severely curtail the number of vaccines it had been exporting to dozens of other nations

‘More than 40% of adults in the United States experienced symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorders at some point between August 2020 and the end of January’

Neurological issues plaguing those who had mild COVID-19 symptoms, months after being infected

At one time, charges such as these against the GOP would be considered gross hyperbole at best, and outright defamatory at worst. But, Republicans in recent years have decided to become every single stereotype the other side has about them, so we’ll call this for what it is - 21st century Jim Crow: Georgia’s repulsive new election law is Exhibit A in the GOP’s war on voting rights

No way is this legislation going to survive. If the courts don’t overturn it, corporate pressure will: Coca-Cola and other companies based in Georgia facing boycotts after the state passes law restricting voting rights

‘President Joe Biden called a sweeping elections law signed by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp this week an "atrocity," and said the Justice Department is "taking a look" at the measure’

Mona Charen: Sidney Powell admits it was all a lie; former Trump attorney pleads it was his First Amendment right to engage in made-up claims of election fraud

The grievances of (mostly old) white people are all that the GOP is about now. Persecution complex is their modus operandi, and extremely effective with the target audience. Paul Waldman: Republicans want you to call their policies ‘racist,’ as it’s part of their plan

Making ‘the case for why these events are an utter waste of the president’s time.’ Jennifer Rubin: President Biden excels at his first news conference, while the media embarrass themselves

Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota appears to suggest he would either shoot President Biden or sic a dog on him in moronic ‘come and get it’ tweet

What depths will these right-wing populist clowns not sink to? Did Sen. Ted Cruz need an armored patrol boat to prove he cares about migrant kids

Senator Warren vows to ‘fight to break up Big Tech so you’re not powerful enough to heckle senators with snotty tweets’ after being fact-checked by Amazon in Twitter back-and-forth

Am beyond disgusted: U.S. Capitol officer killed and another injured in vehicle attack. Culprit fatally shot by police after attempting to lunge at them with a knife. President Biden orders flags at half-staff

Consistency of narrative has never been their strong suit, but has always been beside the point for these people: Some QAnon adherents now want us to believe ‘Q’ was only something the boogeyman media - not they themselves - made up to smear them

Death toll from last month’s winter storm disaster in Texas is revised upward

‘Day of terror’ in the former Burma, as the ruling military junta slaughters dozens of civilians, including children: With the events of the past few years and tensions in this country running hot, it is apparent most Americans of today - left and right - would have no moral qualms seeing people on the other side being shot by a politicized military dedicated only to carrying out their ideological crusades. We’re not as enlightened as we believe ourselves to be, and the only thing stopping us from becoming Myanmar is a noble military that stays out of politics and adheres to the rule of law. If the U.S. Armed Forces didn’t stand in the way of corrupt politicians - especially, at this moment, the nationalist GOP - and a malevolent citizenry, this would be us

‘Across Syria, the pandemic has compounded the worst economic crisis since the conflict began in 2011. The local currency has crashed and food prices have soared — increasing by 222% from last year. Nine out of 10 people live below the poverty line and in northwest Syria, close to three-quarters of the 4.3 million residents are food insecure’

Another doctor at Omsk hospital where Navalny was treated reportedly dies

‘They are deliberately turning him into a cripple.’ Vladimir Kara-Murza: The Kremlin may be slowly killing Alexei Navalny in prison, and the world must not let it happen

‘Increasing threats of poaching and loss of habitat have made Africa’s elephant populations more endangered, according to a report released Thursday by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’

Coffee pulp may help revitalize tropical forest growth

NASA determines the asteroid Apophis will not strike Earth for at least 100 years

St. Louis Cardinals great Joe Cunningham - who once battled Hank Aaron for the batting title, and later served as a prominent goodwill ambassador for the organization - dies at 89

Rest in Peace, Howard Schnellenberger: College football coaching great dies at 87

Former Grade 1 winner Unbridled Forever dies after foaling complications

American horse Mystic Guide wins the Dubai World Cup in solid fashion

Known Agenda, son of Curlin, takes charges in the stretch to win the Florida Derby

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

MLB removes the All-Star Game from Atlanta

Just the perception of racism is a non-starter in today’s corporate world, and as a result this new election law in Georgia is doomed to repeal.

Who are any of these Republicans in their legislature fooling, anyway? Who is anyone who believes this crap about a stolen election (the ‘Big Lie’) fooling? A post-election audit was done in Georgia and found no evidence of voter fraud. Yet, electoral integrity - such as they define it - suddenly became of vital importance once they got embarrassed at the ballot box in 2020. The GOP has become a party of affirmative action and grievance for deeply frightened white people, exploiting every single loophole and quirk they can find in state and federal law to retain their rapidly dwindling hold on society. It’s what their base demanded and what the spineless cretins are delivering. If white supremacy is the only thing that is going to temporarily stave off the inevitable demise of their beloved party then we will continue to see Republican lawmakers desperately cling to the 1950s even as the bulk of society moved on long ago. Thus, the GOP and its base of supporters will remain deeply at odds with the rest of us. Money talks, though, and it is the only leverage that can be held over those who are hell bent on making America ‘great again.’ Appeals to reason, common sense, and humanity? No, that never works with hardened bigots (or with most anyone, for that matter.) It didn’t work in the ‘50s and ‘60s - the South had to be dragged kicking and screaming into putting an end to segregation and granting blacks suffrage. Hitting one in the pocketbook is the only way anyone capitulates. Georgia needs Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, and Major League Baseball a lot more than those entities need Georgia. The Braves are a great franchise with a rich history - the uniform the late Hank Aaron wore when he broke Babe Ruth’s home run record. We just lost Mr. Aaron on January 22, and what an insult to his legacy that Major League Baseball has been left with no recourse but to take this action.

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