Capitulating to COVID and getting shot down in the streets and in the aisles of supermarkets: Just another weekend in #Murica

Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

I reject the populist notion that ‘the people’ - in very general terms and never including disfavored groups - are sacrosanct and ‘good’ just by virtue of existing. So what if you’ve worked hard in life, if you’re a Fascist a**hole, or otherwise deluded into a belief system I do not follow, then I do not want you governing me. Period. Truth be told, most people are not good people, as we can see from the sordid headlines below. Hard truth about life, but the most necessary one.

CNN

Eric Topol: The COVID capitulation: As the virus accelerates its evolution, humans retrogress - Excerpt: ‘The United States is now in the midst of a new wave related to Omicron variants BA.2 and BA.2.12.1 with over 90,000 confirmed new cases a day and a 20% increase in hospitalizations in the past 2 weeks. That belies the real toll of the current wave, since most people with symptoms are testing at home or not testing at all; there is essentially no testing for asymptomatic cases. The real number of cases is likely at least 500,000 per day, far greater than any of the US prior waves except Omicron. The bunk that cases are not important is preposterous. They are infections that beget more cases, they beget Long Covid, they beget sickness, hospitalizations and deaths. They are also the underpinning of new variants.’ (Ground Truths 5/15)

Matt Rourke/AP

Buffalo supermarket shooter was inspired by the ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory, live streamed the shooting to followers on Twitch - I do not even have the words today for how sick this is. My condolences to the families and friends of all victims. (Washington Post 5/15)

President Biden condemns the racially motivated mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket (NBC News 5/15)

One day later, another mass shooting as gunman opens fire at California church, killing one and injuring four others  (New York Times 5/15)

Wait, there’s more: Two dead, three wounded in shooting at Houston flea market (Fox 26 Houston 5/15)

Mass shooting in Milwaukee following basketball game leaves many injured, mayor imposes two-night curfew (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 5/15)

Matthew J. Lee/Boston Globe/Getty Images/Pats Pulpit

On and off the field, one of the great New England Patriots of all-time. Rest in Peace, Gino Cappelletti (New York Times 5/13)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

Boris Johnson visits Kyiv, the first Western leader to do so since Putin began the war of aggression against Ukraine. Also, nationalism runs amok and Anglophones are an endangered species in Quebec, and a young NFL player dies a strange death

AP

The ‘courage of a lion.’ Boris Johnson visits Kyiv, meets with President Zelenskyy and pledges ‘120 armoured vehicles and anti-ship missile systems’ to Ukraine - Tons of credit to British PM Johnson for stepping right into the middle of a war zone and sending a clear message to Putin. A great orator, and a friend to Ukraine. If only most of our ‘conservative’ party in the U.S. would show the same class and dignity, and not cast their lot with the enemy. (BBC News 4/09)

‘President Biden said on Friday that the United States would place a Patriot missile defense system in Slovakia after that country provided a Russian-made S-300 air defense system to Ukraine.’ (NPR 4/08)

Graham Hughes/Canadian Press

Nationalism runs amok in predominantly Francophone Quebec, Anglophone residents ‘angry like never before’ - Another reminder that, even in the most peaceful of lands, ethnically based populism and bigotry will always lead to oppression. Scapegoating unpopular minority groups and individuals is the exact point of nationalist populism, the quiet part (sometimes not so quiet) that its adherents inherently understand and are eager to carry out. Whether it is in Quebec, where Anglophones are being increasingly burdened with laws and regulations restricting their language and lifestyle; or among the majority of Russians who are propping up the world’s most evil tyrant as he slaughters their cousins in Ukraine; or with the vast hordes of nationalist populists in #Murica, particularly in the southern states that for centuries have been a bastion of hate, poverty, and despair (in spite of the best efforts of its best people to change this); or in any given tinpot dictatorship at any given time in history. Racial and ethnic populism will always lead to bloodshed, and it will come to that in Quebec if the Francophone political establishment continues to make life as hard as possible for the Anglophone minority. Indeed, these Francophones live in a mostly English-speaking country, and are bordered to the south by an English-speaking country. If anybody should have to ‘adapt,’ it is the Francophones, but the best solution for all parties, of course, has always been bilingualism. People, wherever they are in the world, should make efforts to learn a second or third language. (I am trying myself with German and, to a lesser extent, French, but I am also 44 and do not retain new information well. In my school days, I studied Spanish but simply did not take it seriously at that time.)  No matter, Quebec’s Francophones appear determined to eliminate any trace of the English language in their little enclave, and Quebec will be poorer for it. (André Pratte, National Post 4/09)

I care nothing about any left-wing organizations calling themselves 'Antifa,' but I am 100% and more against Fascism. Fascism is death. Cease and desist in this march toward eternal darkness, Republican Party and every single one of your supporters.

Pittsburgh Steelers, former Washington Football Team QB Dwayne Haskins is killed by a dump truck while attempting to walk alongside a Florida highway - Condolences to the man’s family, friends, and fans. But what the hell was he doing walking on a highway? (ESPN 4/09)

Copyright 2022, Sunking278. Stay up-to-date: Twitter – @Sunking278 and Facebook – click here. DONATIONS - click here.

Week in review, 02/03 - 02/09

I will keep up on all the impeachment trial stuff - or at least whatever I find relevant - on my own time. No interest in watching any of this live. Convict the bastard, and then let's never speak of him again except whenever necessary as a lesson in why populism is a grave danger to the republic.

An eye-opening figure: ‘At January's pace of 49,000 jobs per month, it would take roughly 17 years for the US jobs market to get back to where it was a year ago.’ U.S. job growth sluggish as COVID hampers recovery

Scientists assembled by the WHO in Wuhan say COVID-19 likely originated in animals, but further research is still necessary

Texas Rep. Ron Wright dies following two-week battle with COVID 19

Canada to require all crossing land borders to have proof of a negative COVID-19 test; fines of up to $3,000 for non-compliance

President Biden: Previous administration’s mishandling of COVID-19 ‘even more dire than we had thought;’ 75% vaccination rate or higher estimated to be necessary to achieve ‘herd immunity’ by the end of 2021

I’d estimate 30 percent is probably about the number who will outright refuse vaccination. COVID is going to be with us for a while yet. Dr. Fauci: 70 to 85 percent of Americans will need to be vaccinated for ‘a return to normal,’ but we’re at less than two percent right now (as of Feb. 3)

‘Leading vaccine scientists are calling for a rethink of the goals of vaccination programmes, saying that herd immunity through vaccination is unlikely to be possible because of the emergence of variants like that in South Africa’

South Africa suspends roll out of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine after initial trials show it offered only ‘minimal protection’ against mild and moderate cases of the virus

Large COVID-19 outbreak at UMass-Amherst forces the school to issue two-week self-sequestration order to 5,000 students living on campus and another 8,000 living in the immediate area off-campus

Good idea: ‘Gov. Charlie Baker on Friday announced that Massachusetts is launching a call center for senior residents over the age of 75 who want to make COVID-19 vaccine appointments over the phone instead of on the state’s website’

Give this lady a good citizenship award: Mass. woman creates website to help people book COVID-19 vaccinations

Seems like a fair incentive to me: Kroger offers $100 bonus to employees - ‘nearly 500,000 individuals in 35 states,’ a considerable number - who get vaccinated

‘Politics is not about the weird worship of one dude.’ Thank you, Senator Sasse. Cults of personality are the stuff of tin-pot dictatorships, and those who participate in one - including, but by no means limited to, Trumpers - are no better than sheep. Baah!

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene lashes out at her colleagues - ‘morons’ - who successfully voted to remove the far-right conspiracy theorist from committee assignments. (No, the morons are clearly the majority of your constituents and all of your supporters in GA-14)

Frank Bruni: Marjorie Taylor Greene and the Republican perversion of ‘freedom.’ She’s playing the victim, don’t fall for it

Fools! Putting loyalty to a man ahead of country, and punishing the strongest voice their state party has and is likely to have anytime soon: Wyoming Republican Party censures Rep. Liz Cheney for Trump impeachment vote

Rep. Liz Cheney not backing down an inch, says the GOP should not be the ‘party of QAnon, or antisemitism, or Holocaust deniers, or white supremacy, or conspiracy theories’

Research shows the Republican Party is losing registered voters in droves following the U.S. Capitol riot and the end of the Trump presidency

Phony election fraud challenges have cost U.S. taxpayers $519 million, and counting

Canada officially labels the Proud Boys as a terrorist group

Seriously, WTF!? Trump-appointed federal judge rules Texas woman charged in U.S. Capitol riot can take four-day retreat to Riviera Maya, Mexico

Rest in Peace, Mary Wilson: Supremes vocalist dies at 76

Absolute common sense: President Biden declares the United States will not lift sanctions on Iran until it stops uranium enrichment

#NeverAgain 95 year-old German woman charged with complicity in more than 10,000 Nazi concentration camp murders during World War II

Putin’s regime expels diplomats representing certain European countries for allegedly attending pro-Navalny protests; ‘a further worsening of EU-Russian relations’

A victim of Chinese tyranny who, ironically enough, was posthumously honored by the same government that silenced him. Li Wenliang: 'Wuhan whistleblower' remembered one year on

Australian journalist formally arrested - after having already been detained for months - in China on espionage charges

‘The number of newborns registered with the government in China dropped almost 15% last year, amid widespread concern over falling birthrates in the world's most populous country’

FBI and Secret Service investigating who was behind an attempt to remotely hack into Florida town’s water supply and poison it

Eight-month-old survives after being shot four times by stray bullets meant for another residence. Sickening. Vaguely remember there was a similar situation a few months ago, and the child in that instance died. So thank God this little one is alive

‘Five people were injured and a suspect is in custody after a shooting at the Allina Health Care Clinic in Buffalo, Minnesota, on Tuesday’

An extraordinary life: George P. Shultz, cabinet secretary in the Nixon and Reagan administrations, dies at 100

Fox News cancels Lou Dobbs Tonight following Smartmatic defamation suit. Years back, Lou Dobbs was a solid business news anchor for CNN (‘Moneyline.’) Then he morphed over time into a populist carnival-barker. Have to figure this is essentially the end of his career

Boston’s wild winter storm gradient

Very sad to learn of Pedro Gomez’s passing. I’ll miss his excellent reporting on the game of baseball

MLB owners and the players union agree on health and safety guidelines for the 2021 season: Excellent they got this out of the way now, and not days before the start of the season as could fairly be considered typical for these two sides

Yadier Molina returns to the Cardinals on a one-year deal, his 18th season with the franchise - the most games with a single franchise for any catcher in history

Free agent 2B Kolten Wong signs deal with the Milwaukee Brewers: A very good player, especially defensively, who had his share of highlights in a Cardinal uniform. But not at all irreplaceable

A little perplexed. Dexter Fowler may be on the downside of his career, but is still capable and productive. I would think he would be worth more to the Cardinals than ‘cash or a player to be named later.’ Oh well, best of luck to him in Anaheim

Reigning Cy Young winner Trevor Bauer signs with the reigning world champions, the Dodgers. Three years, $102 million, per MLB Network. A massive deal, to say the least, and possibly makes LA the overwhelming favorite to repeat

Returning to the Braves. The best move for him, and good luck to the erstwhile Cardinal: Outfielder Marcell Ozuna returns to Atlanta on a four-year, $64 million deal

Tom Brady wins his seventh Super Bowl title, his first with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in rout over Kansas City

Congratulations to the greatest QB of them all, Peyton Manning, and to all the inductees in this year’s Pro Football Hall of Fame class

One of the great stories of the NFL season, Alex Smith's comeback with Washington

Four Bruins games rescheduled due to Buffalo Sabres’ COVID-19 outbreak

One-time Montreal Canadiens center and 1959 Calder Trophy winner Ralph Backstrom dies at 83

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