Stop the Idiocracy: July 2021

Saturday, July 31, 2021

‘Florida reported 21,683 new cases of COVID-19, the state’s highest one-day total since the start of the pandemic’

Photo: Joe Burbank, Orlando Sentinel

Those who did not and will not take precautions are the same ones pointing the finger at the president, the CDC, the vaccinated, anyone but themselves. All the while, their GOP governor bans schools from requiring masks, punishing responsible people and protecting the irresponsible. Nothing ‘conservative’ about that, and the State of Florida is looney-ville. Very grateful I do not live there. Via the AP -

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Florida reported 21,683 new cases of COVID-19, the state’s highest one-day total since the start of the pandemic, according to federal health data released Saturday, as its theme park resorts again started asking visitors to wear masks indoors.
The state has become the new national epicenter for the virus, accounting for around a fifth of all new cases in the U.S. as the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus continues to spread.
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has resisted mandatory mask mandates and vaccine requirements, and along with the state Legislature, has limited local officials’ ability to impose restrictions meant to stop the spread of COVID-19. DeSantis on Friday barred school districts from requiring students to wear masks when classes resume next month.
The latest numbers were recorded on Friday and released on Saturday on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website. The figures show how quickly the number of cases is rising in the Sunshine State: only a day earlier, Florida reported 17,093 new daily cases. The previous peak in Florida had been 19,334 cases reported on Jan. 7, before the availability of vaccinations became widespread.

Israeli and U.S. officials determine that Iranian drones were used in deadly strike on oil tanker

Photo: AP

The Times of Israel -

Several Iranian drones were apparently used in a strike on an oil tanker operated by an Israeli-owned company, killing two on board, unnamed Israeli officials told the New York Times on Saturday.
The Israeli officials told the newspaper that the strike earlier this week was apparently carried out by a number of Iranian drones that slammed into the ship’s living quarters underneath the vessel’s command center as it sailed off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea.
An unnamed United States official confirmed to the newspaper that multiple drones were involved in the attack but it was as yet unknown how many had hit the vessel.
An Israeli intelligence official also told the paper that the timing of Thursday’s attack could mean that Iran was expanding its maritime operations by apparently responding at sea to a land attack which Tehran blamed on Israel.

‘I should have gotten the damn vaccine'

Photo: GoFundMe

Nevada man express remorse moments before dying in San Diego ICU after contracting Delta variant while on vacation with wife and five kids. WHDH -

(WHDH) — A father of five who contracted COVID-19 while on vacation with his family told his fianceé that he was regretful for not getting vaccinated moments before he passed away.
Days after vacationing in San Diego with his fiancée, Jessica DuPreez, and their children, Michael Freedy tested positive for the virus and quickly landed in the intensive care unit, according to a GoFundMe post.
Freedy, a Las Vegas native who spent time on the beach during his vacation, initially thought that he was suffering from sun poisoning but staff in the emergency room determined that his blood oxygen level was critically low and he was admitted.

Tokyo reports record virus cases days after Olympics begin

Photo: AP

For over a year, it had been considered doubtful that Tokyo was going to be ready to host a post-pandemic Olympics, or that the pandemic would be over by this time. The Japanese went ahead anyway - albeit without live spectators at events - and here we are. AP -

TOKYO -- Japan's capital, Tokyo, reported its highest number of new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, days after the Olympics began. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga urged people to avoid non-essential outings, but said there was no need to consider a suspension of the Games.
Tokyo reported 2,848 new COVID-19 cases, exceeding its earlier record of 2,520 daily cases on Jan. 7. That brings its total to more than 200,000 since the pandemic began last year.
Tokyo is under its fourth coronavirus state of emergency, which is to continue through the Olympics until just before the Paralympics start in late August.

CDC: ‘The Delta coronavirus variant surging across the United States appears to cause more severe illness and spread as easily as chickenpox'

Photo: Getty Images

It appears now that everybody jumped the gun before the battle was won. We allowed the aggressively petulant anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers to wear us down. As a result, this pandemic will continue for the foreseeable future. CBS Boston -

BOSTON (CBS) – Centers for Disease Control Director Rochelle Walensky confirmed Friday that the agency relied on data from the Provincetown COVID cluster to update its national guidance earlier this week for fully vaccinated people to start wearing masks again in some indoor settings.
Data from the cluster on the Cape, which is now up to 882 cases, showed the amount of the Delta coronavirus variant in samples collected from vaccinated and unvaccinated cases were virtually identical.
“High viral loads suggest an increased risk of transmission and raised concern that, unlike with other variants, vaccinated people infected with Delta can transmit the virus,” Walensky said in a statement. “This finding is concerning and was a pivotal discovery leading to CDC’s updated mask recommendation.”
The Delta variant of the coronavirus spreading across the country is just as contagious as chickenpox, according to an internal CDC document confirmed by CBS News. Researchers also reportedly found the variant is more transmissible than MERS, SARS, Ebola, the common cold and smallpox.

Key Afghan city in danger of falling to the Taliban

Photo: Jim Huylebroek/NYT

These monsters should have been wiped out years ago, and the U.S. forces and their allies had the capability to do it. If not for politically correct rules of engagement and terrible decision-making over many years. The New York Times -

KABUL, Afghanistan — An important city in Afghanistan’s south was in danger of falling to the Taliban on Saturday as their fighters pushed toward its center despite concerted American and Afghan airstrikes in recent days.
Reports from Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand, a province where the Taliban already controlled much of the territory before their recent offensive, were dire: People were fleeing their homes, a hospital in the city had been bombed, and government reinforcements were only now arriving after days of delays.
“We are just waiting for the Taliban to arrive — there is no expectation that the government will be able to protect the city any more,” said Mohammadullah Barak, a resident.

Thursday, July 22, 2021

Week in Review, 07/15 - 07/21

A ‘pretty dark story about what’s happening in the U.S.’ Life expectancy dropped by 1.5 years in 2020 as COVID raged the country, and may continue to drop in the years ahead as the pandemic’s long-term effects become more apparent

Very discouraging, and a direct result of all the disinfo, myths, conspiracy theories, and blatant falsehoods that far too many Americans are desperately clinging to: U.S. COVID cases rise as Delta variant spreads

‘With vaccination rates still not at the threshold needed to stop the spread of Covid-19, most Americans who are unprotected will likely contract the rapidly spreading Delta variant, one expert said’

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky: ‘This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated’

Starting to feel as though all the progress we made in the last few months is about to be completely lost: Arkansas Children’s Hospital doctor warns of critically ill kids with COVID-19

From a doctor in Alabama, last in the nation in vaccination rates: ‘One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late’

'Pandemic profiteers' are using deceptive tactics to peddle products and subscriptions; ‘Federal Trade Commission is under pressure to crack down.’ If America were a sane society, spreading vaccine disinfo for profit during a deadly pandemic would be a felony and worse. We’re done for

President Biden slams Facebook, says ‘they’re killing people’ for allowing vaccine disinfo on their platform: Spreading blatant and deadly falsehoods in a time of national emergency is not ‘free speech.’ All rights and privileges can, and will, be abused. Social media companies should not be in the business of enabling such abuse; not when lives are on the line

The Los Angeles Times editorial board argues that it’s time to force the unvaccinated to get incolucated

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade compares choosing not to get vaccinated to cliff diving, saying people are making the ‘choice’ to die: The unvaccinated do make a ‘choice to die,’ so to speak, but it’s not the choice of people they may be spreading their germs to. Is that not bloody obvious by now? Oh, but it’s ‘not their job to protect anybody,’ he says. A-ha. This is what we’re up against

FAA and TSA sound alarm on sharp increase in in-flight incidents involving unruly passengers, the overwhelming majority of these being mask disputes. ‘(M)ore than 85 physical assaults on TSA officers since the beginning of the pandemic’

Unvaccinated Trump supporter on Cape Cod who spread vaccine conspiracies dies after battle with COVID: Of course, many are saying the lady got what she deserved. But it’s very sad. Just so much death that could have been prevented

India’s COVID death toll is estimated to be up to ten times higher than the 415,000 reported by the nationalist regime: By my very rough (possibly incorrect) calculations, if Indians are dying at the same rate as they have in America, then about 2.5 million would be dead. But this report says it is somewhere between 3.4 and 4.7 million, meaning they are dying at a higher rate than Americans

Coming soon to America, no doubt. Mucormycosis: India records more than 4,300 'black fungus' deaths, mostly affecting COVID-19 patients

‘Africa is now in the deadliest stage of its pandemic, and there is little prospect of relief in sight’

Trudeau: ‘Canada could open its border to fully vaccinated Americans for nonessential travel as early as mid-August’

States that ended federal unemployment benefits see no clear-cut job gains: A lot of people are getting fed-up with being taken completely for granted in return for peanuts. We’ve heard a lot of talk of that lately, and these stagnant numbers would appear to back that up

New revelations emerge in the ‘Kremlin papers,’ with intelligence agencies confirming the Russians had compromising information on Trump and he was therefore viewed as the person to ‘destabilize’ America (mission accomplished)

Another omen that institutions are failing and the constitutional republic is in worse shape than we even realize: The most powerful man in the U.S. Armed Forces feared potential ‘Reichstag moment’ aimed at keeping Trump in power

It’s as though we’re becoming some Northern Ireland, only much larger and messier: Two men charged in plot to blow up Democratic Party headquarters in California

The Arizona recount - A scam of epic proportions, but #Cult45 sheep will commit Harakiri before ever admitting how badly they are being duped. Or are they even being duped? So long as their pet hatreds are being stoked, they are forever loyal to their leader and will always play along with the lies: We now know exactly what the Trump-backed Arizona ‘audit’ is going to do

‘Support for secession is growing among every partisan group in the months following the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol but particularly among southern Republicans, a new poll found.’ America is not going to remain intact. Sometime in the next decade or two, it’s all coming apart. Simply because Americans want nothing more than to tear each others’ throats out. We really do not like one another

‘Free speech’ does not drown out bad speech. The ‘ugly truth’ of how Facebook enables political extremism may just be that Zuckerberg is a naive dope with a little too much faith in people. At least that’s what a new book essentially claims

A local judge ordered a New Jersey Trump supporter to take down anti-Biden banners over obscenity complaints: Would wager anything that if this stupid woman lived mostly among fellow Trump supporters, and an outspoken Biden supporter moved in among them, she and her fellow travelers wouldn’t be so kind to that individual. Trump supporters have proven time and again they only care about their rights, and not yours. Liberty for me, but not for thee. At the core, they are overgrown schoolyard bullies

Yeah, we’ve got a real Bolshevik in the White House alright (/s). President Biden: ‘Communism is a failed system -- a universally failed system. And I don't see socialism as a very useful substitute.’ Deems Cuba ‘a failed state’

White House to issue advisory to companies about the risks of doing business in Hong Kong; ‘The situation in Hong Kong is deteriorating. And the Chinese government is not keeping its commitment that it made how it would deal ... with Hong Kong’

Anti-Semitic activists hiding behind specious, misleading, and very selective human rights concerns to punish the Jewish State for having the gall to exist is a great evil. Thankfully, unlike Ben and Jerry’s, not that many corporations have bowed to the pressure from the likes of BDS, and are still doing business in the region

‘Several of the central figures under investigation by the Haitian authorities in connection with the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse gathered in the months before the killing to discuss rebuilding the troubled nation once the president was out of power’

The days of pretending climate change isn’t a reality are long past, as extreme weather events only continue to increase in frequency and intensity. A terrible tragedy unfolding in Central Europe as at least 120 are dead in widespread flooding, 100 of those alone in Germany

Continued prayers for all: Merkel and German lawmakers approve emergency relief aid for those affected by deadly floods; dozens still missing

At least twenty-five killed in massive flooding in Henan province, China

Mysterious illness killing songbirds in several eastern states; Massachusetts officials urge residents to remove bird feeders and bird baths

Sunday, July 4, 2021

Week in review, 06/27 - 07/03

For the record, I am in favor of certain voting restrictions being put in place - just not of the racist, desperate, ulter-partisan and utter bulls**t variety that Republicans seek. Possessing full literacy, demonstrating an understanding of how government is structured, and having a minimum IQ (at least 90) rightfully ought to be bare requirements for being given license to vote. A substantial portion of Americans - the willfully and aggressively ignorant - would be dispossessed of their vote if common sense and decency were ever to be enforced. Which would be very bad news for the Republican Party, of course; in other words, Donald Trump would never have been president if we actually had any standards and didn’t allow illiterates, pop culture twits, conspiracy goofs, religious zealots, white nationalists, and other assorted malevolents and lowlifes to lord over the rest of us. No, not everybody shows themselves equal and worthy by mere virtue of being alive, and most any attempt in human history to prove otherwise have backfired. Sometimes tragically so …

‘A ransomware attack paralyzed the networks of at least 200 U.S. companies on Friday,’ Russian crime syndicate appears to be responsible

Search paused at collapsed Florida condo tower as authorities move to demolish building before storm