Stop the Idiocracy: December 2021

Tuesday, December 28, 2021

The United States shatters the one-day record for new COVID infections, while a beleaguered and corrupted CDC stirs confusion and chaos

AP Photo/David Goldman

We are getting to the point where lay people of all stripes can see something is seriously wrong at the CDC, and heads may have to roll. Pressure from Republican politicians, big business, angry and impatient citizens, and perhaps the current administration appear to be driving the agency’s decision-making. We live in a country where everything – including vital health care and national security policy – is subject to the court of public opinion and profit-making. The individuals who comprise the CDC are by no means immune to being corrupted – no human being truly is, and it is that corruption that is likely the major factor driving widespread confusion about ever-shifting protocols. Not to mention giving comfort of sorts to anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists. Federal health officials are not politicians or celebrities – they do not need to gladhand and kiss babies, so to speak – but they do need allies among the general public at a time when large numbers of citizens adamantly refuse vaccination, wearing a mask, and practicing social distancing. Do not make those of us who have been following the rules and defending agencies such as the CDC throughout the pandemic feel as though we’ve wasted our time doing so.

AP - ‘U.S. health officials’ decision to shorten the recommended COVID-19 isolation and quarantine period from 10 days to five is drawing criticism from some medical experts and could create more confusion and fear among Americans’

CNBC – Dr. Anthony Fauci: CDC reducing Covid isolation time guidelines will ‘get people back to jobs’

The Hill - ‘The U.S. on Tuesday set a single-day record of new COVID-19 infections, with 441,278 new cases’

NYT - U.S. caseloads surpass the winter pandemic peak of early 2021

CNBC – CDC declares Omicron variant comprises 58.6% of U.S. cases, while Delta has stuck around with 41.1% of all cases

MarketWatch - Senator Richard Blumenthal calls on the CDC to temporarily shut down the cruise industry once more as cases abroad ships surge

Thursday, December 23, 2021

U.S. records its lowest population growth in the nation’s history during the pandemic; Deaths outnumber births in more than two dozen states

AFP via Getty Images

AP - US population growth at lowest rate in pandemic’s first year

In the long run, fewer mouths to feed and fewer people to cause problems in the United States would be a net positive for the planet, though will likely be offset by the uncontrolled and unacceptable levels of population growth in places like India, Africa, and other poverty-stricken backwaters of the world. There is a (very humane) reason we spade and neuter our cats and dogs, and necessity demands we will soon have no recourse but to apply the same to humans. Make no mistake, there are going to be some severe issues that result from lower birth rates in the U.S. – some are already present – but overpopulation will eventually lead to humankind’s demise. -

U.S. population growth dipped to its lowest rate since the nation’s founding during the first year of the pandemic as the coronavirus curtailed immigration, delayed pregnancies and killed hundreds of thousands of U.S. residents, according to figures released Tuesday.
The United States grew by only 0.1%, with an additional 392,665 added to the U.S. population from July 2020 to July 2021, bringing the nation’s count to 331.8 million people, according to population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The U.S. has been experiencing slow population growth for years but the pandemic exacerbated that trend. This past year was the first time since 1937 that the nation’s population grew by less than 1 million people. (Read more)

Japanese inventor unveils ‘the TV screen you can taste.’ Is this really the future we want?

Reuters

A television that emits artificial smells and flavors, and requires one to roll their tongue over to experience. Wonderful idea during a pandemic (/s.) How about we finally figure out the basics, like maintaining vital infrastructure and preventing our health care systems from total collapse? Humankind keeps moving backward as technology moves forward, and a lick-able television is an accurate representation of this stupidest timeline. (Read more from the BBC)

Some encouraging news concerning the severity of Omicron, but the overall outlook is bleak

AFP

Authorities in the United Kingdom report that the Omicron variant appears to cause up to 70% fewer hospitalizations than the previous Delta variant of COVID, and global financial markets expressed a little bit of relief on Thursday. Still, the rate of transmission is higher than with previous strains, and the number of new infections continues to soar, while events are canceled or scaled back. A new daily record of nearly 120,000 infections was set in the UK, while new research suggests a booster shot only offers ten weeks of maximum protection against the Omicron variant. In other words, I would say this is no time to let our guard down, but people already let their guard down some time back. Thus, why new variants continue to emerge, and we’re likely to be stuck in this cycle of death for years to come. The only silver lining may be that potentially better treatments are here.

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

President Biden announces plan to combat the Omicron variant, but experts warn that only more restrictive measures unacceptable to the belligerent American public could successfully contain the spread

Samuel Corum/Getty Images

It’s going to be a long, cold winter, and many will fall ill and some will die. Millions have decided that their individual ‘freedumb’ is more important than stopping the spread of this deadly plague. Lo and behold, when the Omicron variant wipes out potentially hundreds of thousands of Americans, those same people – and eager mainstream media outlets – will point the finger of blame at President Biden and other leaders. Anti-vaxxers will never take responsibility for their choices. The New York Times -

Even as President Biden on Tuesday outlined new plans for battling the highly contagious Omicron variant, public health experts warned that the measures would not be sufficient to prevent a grim rise in infections and hospitalizations over the next few weeks.
The administration’s strategy includes doubling down on vaccination campaigns and propping up hospitals as they confront a large influx of patients. Federal officials will direct resources, including Army doctors, to support health care systems and distribute rapid tests to Americans.
But Mr. Biden explicitly ruled out lockdowns and other harsh measures of the kind put in place as the pandemic first unfolded in early 2020. In interviews on Tuesday, some scientists argued that the variant’s rapid spread requires more vigorous mitigation measures.
Some expressed frustration and alarm about what they described as a timid public health response, and bemoaned the apparent lack of will among politicians and society at large for more aggressive steps. (Read more)

One step closer to war: Putin points the finger of blame at the U.S. and allies over Ukraine crisis, portrays himself and Russia as victims

Mikhail Tereshchenko, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

Hoping the national populist Vladimir Putin Fan Club in the United States are paying attention, and perhaps reconsidering their support. Not my holding my breath on that, though. -

MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian president on Tuesday reiterated his demand for guarantees from the U.S. and its allies that NATO will not expand eastwards, blaming the West for “tensions that are building up in Europe.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech at a meeting with Russia’s top military brass came just days after Moscow submitted draft security documents demanding that NATO deny membership to Ukraine and other former Soviet countries and roll back the alliance’s military deployments in Central and Eastern Europe.
The demands — contained in a proposed Russia-U.S. security treaty and a security agreement between Moscow and NATO — were drafted amid soaring tensions over a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine that has stoked fears of a possible invasion. Russia has denied it has plans to attack its neighbor but pressed for legal guarantees that would rule out NATO expansion and weapons deployment there.
Putin charged Tuesday that if U.S. and NATO missile systems appear in Ukraine, it will take those missiles only minutes to reach Moscow.
“For us, it is the most serious challenge — a challenge to our security,” he said, adding that this is why the Kremlin needs “long-term, legally binding guarantees” from the West, as opposed to “verbal assurances, words and promises” that Moscow can’t trust.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington is working with its European allies to address what he called “Russian aggression” with diplomacy but said President Joe Biden opposes the kind of guarantees sought by Putin. (Read more)

Sunday, December 19, 2021

Americans in their 40s, 50s, and 60s suffer worse ‘depression and worse memory recall than older Americans did when they were the same age,’ a phenomenon not seen in better-educated countries

Alamy

Well, I’m 43, and have had the misfortune of spending my entire life in this rotting cesspool. And I’m not a happy man. Nor am I even able to recall what my name is half the time, and that is only somewhat of an exaggeration. I suppose I am not the only one beyond frustrated with all the noise, gaslighting, and degradation we must endure for the ‘privilege’ of being an American. Via Arizona State University -

Middle-aged adults in the United States today experience worse mental health than older generations of Americans and also their European and Asian peers.
To understand what is happening with middle-aged American adults, a research team led by Arizona State University scientists compared middle age across different cultures and periods of time.
The study examined how physical and mental health in midlife changed over time and in different countries. American adults currently in their 40s, 50s and early 60s have more symptoms of depression and worse memory recall than older Americans did when they were the same age. This pattern was found in Australian middle-aged adults but not in those living in Germany, South Korea or Mexico.
Years of education was associated with better mental health in midlife, but the strength of this buffering effect has waned for Americans currently in their 40s, 50s and 60s relative to older American generations and to middle-aged adults in Australia, Germany, South Korea and Mexico.
This work was published on Dec. 16 in American Psychologist. (Read more)

New York Times report: ‘Most of the World’s Vaccines Likely Won’t Prevent Infection From Omicron’

Sergey Ponomarev/NYT

Incredibly disheartening, and anti-vaxxers are likely having a field day with this report. But it’s been known all through the course of the pandemic that if not enough people took the necessary precautions, then the virus would mutate. Omicron is the end result of widespread belligerence, and ultimately the blame belongs to all the ordinary people demanding that they are ‘done with COVID.’ Guess what, we’ll never be ‘done with COVID’ now, fools. -

A growing body of preliminary research suggests the Covid vaccines used in most of the world offer almost no defense against becoming infected by the highly contagious Omicron variant.
All vaccines still seem to provide a significant degree of protection against serious illness from Omicron, which is the most crucial goal. But only the Pfizer and Moderna shots, when reinforced by a booster, appear to have initial success at stopping infections, and these vaccines are unavailable in most of the world.
The other shots — including those from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and vaccines manufactured in China and Russia — do little to nothing to stop the spread of Omicron, early research shows. And because most countries have built their inoculation programs around these vaccines, the gap could have a profound impact on the course of the pandemic.
A global surge of infections in a world where billions of people remain unvaccinated not only threatens the health of vulnerable individuals but also increases the opportunity for the emergence of yet more variants. The disparity in the ability of countries to weather the pandemic will almost certainly deepen. And the news about limited vaccine efficacy against Omicron infection could depress demand for vaccination throughout the developing world, where many people are already hesitant or preoccupied with other health problems.
Most evidence so far is based on laboratory experiments, which do not capture the full range of the body’s immune response, and not from tracking the effect on real-world populations. The results are striking, however. (Read more)

Expert on global political instability: United States ‘closer to civil war than any of us would like to believe,’ ‘no longer the world’s oldest continuous democracy’

Jose Luis Magana/AP

Yours truly recommends that one immediately blocks all nutjobs and obvious trolls on social media, before they are given the opportunity to bother one (or worse.) Never mind trying to set anybody straight, or taking pleasure in fighting with them, for civil war is coming and it is time to protect ourselves from the malevolent and stupid. That means the Trump supporters, the anti-vaxxers, the religious zealots, the conspiracy theorists, the far-left ‘woke’ mob, those overly obsessed with pop culture, and who else am I missing? Anybody spouting dangerous rhetoric – and pure stupidity is dangerous – must be avoided at all costs. We don’t have time to fool around anymore. Via Dana Milbank -

If you know people still in denial about the crisis of American democracy, kindly remove their heads from the sand long enough to receive this message: A startling new finding by one of the nation’s top authorities on foreign civil wars says we are on the cusp of our own.
Barbara F. Walter, a political science professor at the University of California at San Diego, serves on a CIA advisory panel called the Political Instability Task Force that monitors countries around the world and predicts which of them are most at risk of deteriorating into violence. By law, the task force can’t assess what’s happening within the United States, but Walter, a longtime friend who has spent her career studying conflicts in Syria, Lebanon, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Rwanda, Angola, Nicaragua and elsewhere, applied the predictive techniques herself to this country.
Her bottom line: “We are closer to civil war than any of us would like to believe.” She lays out the argument in detail in her must-read book, “How Civil Wars Start,” out in January. “No one wants to believe that their beloved democracy is in decline, or headed toward war,” she writes. But, “if you were an analyst in a foreign country looking at events in America — the same way you’d look at events in Ukraine or the Ivory Coast or Venezuela — you would go down a checklist, assessing each of the conditions that make civil war likely. And what you would find is that the United States, a democracy founded more than two centuries ago, has entered very dangerous territory.”
Indeed, the United States has already gone through what the CIA identifies as the first two phases of insurgency — the “pre-insurgency” and “incipient conflict” phases — and only time will tell whether the final phase, “open insurgency,” began with the sacking of the Capitol by Donald Trump supporters on Jan. 6.
Things deteriorated so dramatically under Trump, in fact, that the United States no longer technically qualifies as a democracy. Citing the Center for Systemic Peace’s “Polity” data set — the one the CIA task force has found to be most helpful in predicting instability and violence — Walter writes that the United States is now an “anocracy,” somewhere between a democracy and an autocratic state. (Read more)

Saturday, December 18, 2021

Grifters laugh all the way to the bank even as they are exposed: ‘Anti-5G’ necklaces found to contain radioactivity

RIVM

The conspiracy theory industry is thriving in these stupid times, and with such an eager customer base it barely even needs the pretense of begin anything but a shameless scam. Anybody on the national populist right can make any insane claim whatsoever, or market whatever junk, and an army of willing little Fascists will be there to defend the lie and demand others believe the lie. The hard resistance to vaccinations, and their devotion to history’s most obvious and blatant conman, proves they are willing to harm themselves in their zeal to hurt others. So why should anybody be surprised they’re buying radioactive ‘anti-5G’ bracelets? From the BBC -

Necklaces and accessories claiming to "protect" people from 5G mobile networks have been found to be radioactive.

The Dutch authority for nuclear safety and radiation protection (ANVS) issued a warning about ten products it found gave off harmful ionising radiation.

It urged people not to use the products, which could cause harm with long-term wear.

There is no evidence that 5G networks are harmful to health.

The World Health Organization says 5G mobile networks are safe, and not fundamentally different from existing 3G and 4G signals.

Mobile networks use non-ionising radio waves that do not damage DNA.

Despite this, there have been attacks on transmitters by people who believe they are harmful. (Read more)

Thursday, December 9, 2021

Criminals Steve Bannon and Matt Gaetz vow to employ '4,000 shock troops' to take over government agencies if Trump returns to power

AP/REX/Shutterstock

Steve Bannon has been criminally indicted, and Rep. Matt Gaetz is under federal investigation, yet here they are talking openly about using ‘4,000 shock troops’ to overthrow various agencies of the U.S. government if Trump is returned to power. Fascism has already won the battle; Germany found out the hard way, from the 1920s through to the 1940s, that tolerating the presence of Nazis only led to them winning over hearts and minds, and eventually seizing absolute power. Hitler got a mere slap on the wrist for the Beer Hall Putsch (a year in prison), and right now it doesn’t appear as if Trump and company will ever face appropriate justice for their crimes. The old cliché really does hold true: Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. America is doomed, and doomed furthermore to go down in history as the stupidest, most short-sighted nation and people in world history.

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Amazon’s servers go down, and half of the Internet with it

Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

I do not pretend to know exactly how servers and networks operate, but these sorts of outages are becoming more common and having a more widespread effect on peoples’ lives. The ‘Internet of things’ is a bad idea and needs to be reevaluated. -

Problems with some Amazon Web Services cloud servers are causing slow loading or failures for significant chunks of the internet. Amazon’s widespread network of data centers powers many of the things you interact with online, including this website, so as we’ve seen in previous AWS outage incidents, any problem has massive rippling effects. People started noticing problems at around 10:45AM ET, and just after 6PM ET the AWS Status showed “Many services have already recovered, however we are working towards full recovery across services.”
While some affected services that rely on AWS have been restored, the internet is still a bit slower and more unsteady than usual. The most important app impacted by the outage might be the ones that Amazon employees use. CNBC points out Reddit posts from Amazon Flex, warehouse, and delivery workers who say the apps that keep track of packages, tell them where to go, and generally keep your items on time went down, too. (Read more)

Monday, December 6, 2021

Rest in Peace, Medina Spirit

New York Times – Medina Spirit, an embattled Kentucky Derby winner, dies during a workout

Am deeply disturbed by this, to the point I can’t even find the words. The sport of horse racing is in a lot of trouble, that’s literally all I can say.

Sunday, December 5, 2021

Russia and the USA - ‘The diminishing quality of … human capital’

Getty Images

‘(A)cclimatization to deteriorating conditions as the new normal.’ Vladimir Putin has stagnated Russia’s economy and society. Meanwhile in America, we have millions demanding much the same sort of anachronistic, paternalistic, and nationalistic garbage, and a political establishment that is delivering it for them. Any sense of balance has all but disappeared. And the results of our stagnation are just as sobering – or more, in the long run – as they are in Mother Russia. Two former world powers that now lay, slowly dying, and each by their own hand. This is a very long report by the Carnegie Moscow Center, but well worth reading.

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

What a stupid a**hole: Trump calls outgoing Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker ‘selfish’ for not seeking a third term

I am disappointed that Charlie Baker – who has been an excellent governor by any standard, and the single-most popular governor in the nation during his time, google it - is not seeking re-election. But Trump is a loon and should shut his big mouth. -

BOSTON (CBS) – Former President Donald Trump released a statement after Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced he would not be seeking a third term.
“RINO Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has announced that, because I didn’t endorse him and he is incapable of getting the Republican nomination, he will not be running for reelection,” Trump said in the statement.
“He’s been very selfish, and is bad news for the Republican Party—actually, he shouldn’t even be considered a Republican. We wish him well!”
Governor Baker denied that Trump had anything to do with his decision. (Read more)

Pentecostal TV network founder Marcus Lamb – a staunch anti-vaxxer – dies from COVID-19 complications

video screen grab

Sad, and sick, that these people have allowed dogma and ideology to overwhelm their common sense. -

Marcus Lamb, the co-founder of the leading Christian TV network Daystar who railed against Covid-19 vaccines, has died of Covid-19. He was 64 years old.
Lamb, who was the chief executive of the conservative network that reaches an estimated 2 billion viewers worldwide, died on Tuesday, weeks after contracting the coronavirus.
“It’s with a heavy heart we announce that Marcus Lamb, president and founder of Daystar Television Network, went home to be with the Lord this morning,” the network announced in a tweet on Tuesday. “The family asks that their privacy be respected as they grieve this difficult loss. Please continue to lift them up in prayer.”
Under his leadership, Daystar aired repeated baseless anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and claims that vaccines were being used to take freedoms away from Christians. In July 2020, the network spent an hour of air time complaining about “censorship” around the pandemic and also gave an hour’s slot to Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has spread misinformation about the Covid vaccine.
Covid vaccines have been repeatedly found to be safe and effective at preventing severe illness from the virus. Evangelical Christians have been getting the vaccines at lower rates than the general US population, however, and several prominent Christian broadcasters have died of the virus in recent months. (Read more)