COVID-19 Update

We should never celebrate the destruction of a fellow human being.

But being closely in touch with my Inner Asshole, I have to admit a smile will flash briefly across my psyche when this kind of news presents itself.

“Proud boy” leading member, Aaron Laigaie, died from Covid

Aaron Laigaie, one of the founders of the Proud Boys and a Covid denier and anti vaxxer has died of Covid.

ANTI-VAXXER Aaron Laigaie, who declared “covid is over”, said it was “a problem for the elderly” and said he didn’t need the vaccine because he previously had Covid-19 and “it sucked for 2 days and it was over”, has reportedly died from Covid-19.

According to a post that was published online by Geoff Guenther, Aaron Laigaie has unfortunately passed away. Coronavirus was the cause of death for Aaron Laigaie. According to the reports, Aaron Laigaie was a Trumpzi who asserted that he had “natural resistance” to COVID.

He was infected with COVID. Aaron was a COVID denier all the way through. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is the infectious agent that causes the disease known as coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

According to Google, the majority of people who become ill with COVID-19 will have symptoms that range from mild to moderate and will recover without the need for any special therapy. On the other hand, some of them will become gravely ill and call for medical assistance.

Aaron Laigaie’s refusal to get the COVID19 shot has come to light thanks to a number of people on social media. He was one of the original members of the MT Baker Proud Boys. The Proud Boys are an all-male, neo-fascist, far-right organization with its headquarters in the United States. They are known for their participation in political violence and for encouraging others to do the same. It has also been called a street gang, although the governments of Canada and New Zealand have classified it as a terrorist organization.

The Proud Boys are a well-known organization that criticizes left-wing and progressive groups and is well-known for its backing of former US President Donald Trump. Another Trumpzi who claimed to be “naturally immune” (from brains, I should guess) has passed away with COVID, Geoff Guenther said on Facebook. Aaron Laigaie, a proud boy, is no longer with us.

Review finds hybrid immunity provides best protection against Omicron

A review and meta-regression of 26 studies shows that hybrid SARS-CoV-2 immunity provides the highest level of protection against the Omicron variant, researchers reported yesterday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The authors say the finding of the study, the first to estimate the durability of protection conferred by hybrid immunity—the antibody response developed through a combination of SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination—could provide guidance on vaccine timing at both the individual and public health level.

Hybrid immunity highly protective against severe outcomes
Of the 26 studies reviewed by a team led by researchers from the University of Toronto and the World Health Organization, 11 reported on the protective effectiveness of previous infection, and 15 reported on protection from hybrid immunity; 7 reported on both. The studies looked at protection against reinfection, hospitalization, and severe disease caused by Omicron.

The effectiveness of previous infection against hospital admission or severe disease at 12 months was 74.6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 63.1% to 85.3%], with effectiveness against reinfection waning to 24.7% (95% CI, 16.4% to 35.5%) at 12 months. For hybrid immunity, protection against hospital admission or severe disease was 97.4% (95% CI, 91.4% to 99.2%) at 12 months with primary series vaccination and 95.3% (95% CI, 81.9% to 98.9%) at 6 months with the first booster shot. The effectiveness of hybrid immunity against reinfection waned to 41.8% (95% CI, 31.5% to 52.8%) at 12 months, and to 46.5% (95% CI, 36.0% to 57.3%) following the first booster shot at 6 months.

Further analysis of the 7 studies that reported on both types of protection showed that hybrid immunity conferred a significant gain in protection compared with previous infection alone—whether subjects with hybrid immunity had received the partial primary vaccine series, the full vaccine series, or the first booster shot.

The authors say the findings indicate that the protection conferred by previous infection should not detract from the need for vaccination, because infection-induced immunity wanes rapidly and vaccines increase the durability of protection. In addition, they suggest the results can be used to tailor guidance on the number and timing of SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations.

'Substantial durability' of hybrid immunity

"Our findings make clear the substantial durability of hybrid immunity and could help inform the timing and prioritisation of vaccination programmes in populations with high rates of past infection," the study authors wrote. "Policy makers can use these findings to project population protection from local vaccination and seroprevalence rates, helping to inform the use and timing of COVID-19 vaccination as an important public health tool."

They add that further analysis is needed to determine effectiveness of hybrid immunity against hospitalization or severe disease over a longer duration.

"A first-generation vaccine is still an excellent option when offered as a primary series in areas with a high rate of previous infection."

In an accompanying commentary, researchers with Brazil's Universidad Federal de Bahia say the findings demonstrate that the focus of first-generation vaccines should be prevention of severe disease.

"For this purpose, a first-generation vaccine is still an excellent option when offered as a primary series in areas with a high rate of previous infection, or with boosters, if a low infection rate has been observed," they wrote.

More Good Stuff From CIDRAP:

• First-wave COVID patients had much higher risk of death for 18 months
• More than 65 million people around the world may have long COVID
• Feds probe possible stroke link to new Pfizer COVID booster
• Spanish hospitals spent $1.33 billion on COVID patients in 2020
• Convalescent plasma may cut risk of death in immune-impaired COVID patients
• Almost a fourth of air passengers screened from China had COVID-19, report reveals
• Paying people to take COVID vaccine worked well, study finds

That Oath Keepers Thing

(pay wall)

What you need to know about the Oath Keepers trial

Stewart Rhodes is on trial in federal court in Washington along with four people described by prosecutors as “top lieutenants” in the militia-movement group he founded, the Oath Keepers. Rhodes is the highest-profile defendant charged so far in the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and is accused of steering a months-long effort to prevent by force the swearing-in of President Biden. Rhodes is among 14 fighting the historically rare charge of seditious conspiracy in what the government has called one of the largest investigations in U.S. history.

The Oath Keepers were founded in 2009 by Rhodes, who wanted armed paramilitary groups to prepare for an inevitable conflict with a tyrannical federal government. Rhodes, a former aide to libertarian congressman Ron Paul, recruited among law enforcement and military veterans and soon claimed thousands of members for the anti-government group. But few of those supporters have gotten involved in any Oath Keepers events, and former members describe it as a vanity project Rhodes used to fund personal luxuries.

Which Oath Keepers are facing trial, when and why?

Rhodes is facing trial with Thomas Caldwell, Kenneth Harrelson, Kelly Meggs, and Jessica Watkins. All are accused of conspiring to engage in sedition, obstructing the congressional affirmation of President Biden’s victory and impeding police on Jan. 6. Meggs, Harrelson and Watkins, who went into the Capitol, are also accused of property damage, and all but Watkins are charged with destroying evidence.

Caldwell and Rhodes stayed out of the building, according to court records. But prosecutors say they helped organize the Oath Keepers’ involvement, including the stationing of armed “Quick Reaction Force” teams with firearms, ammunition and explosives outside Washington. Four more defendants charged in the same seditious conspiracy are set to go to trial in November. Nine more Oath Keepers members or associates face trial in February on related but separate charges.

What to know about the Oath Keepers sedition trial

Rhodes has accused prosecutors of trying to manufacture a nonexistent conspiracy, denied there was a plan to enter the Capitol, and asserted that defendants only brought firearms in case President Donald Trump mobilized private militias to maintain order in a national emergency.

Attorneys for the defendants say their aggressive talk was just bravado that did not reflect their nonviolent actions on Jan. 6. Unlike members of the Proud Boys, who face their own seditious conspiracy trial next year, the Oath Keepers are not charged with assaulting police, though the indictment describes them as joining mobs that fought with law enforcement.

What do we expect or hope to learn from the trial?

• Did the accused Oath Keepers interact with people in Trump’s immediate orbit or other influential supporters involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results?
• To what extent did defendants plan for violence on Jan. 6, and did they anticipate continued armed resistance afterward?
• What was the scope of the Oath Keepers’ relationship with other extremist groups, such as the Proud Boys, whose longtime leader Rhodes met in a parking lot the night of Jan. 5?
• Is there any evidence to back up the Oath Keepers defendants’ claims that they went as peacekeepers, helped police inside the Capitol, and were unfairly targeted because of their beliefs?

What is seditious conspiracy?

Seditious conspiracy is defined as an effort by two or more to “conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof.”

A seditious conspiracy conviction carries the same 20-year maximum sentence as obstruction of an official proceeding, a felony hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants face. But seditious conspiracy carries more political weight by implying participation in a rebellion against the government. Prosecutions under the law are rare; the last was more than a decade ago, against a Christian militant group, and ended with a judge throwing out the charges. But three members of the Oath Keepers have already pleaded guilty to participating in a seditious conspiracy around Jan. 6 and are cooperating with the government.

What connection is there to former president Donald Trump?

The profile of the Oath Keepers rose with the 2016 election, as Trump embraced far-right figures and conspiracy theories about the federal government. Oath Keepers began standing armed outside voting booths providing security for certain Republicans. Members of the Oath Keepers worked as security for Trump allies, including his close confidant Roger Stone, who has publicly distanced himself from the violence and has said there is no evidence he had knowledge of the attack. Oath Keepers attorney Kellye SoRelle, who volunteered with a group of lawyers challenging the election results, says she was in contact with administration officials and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.

After the 2020 election, Rhodes began calling on Trump to give militants legal cover to forcibly stop the transfer of power. After the riot, according to court documents, Rhodes tried to get in touch with Trump and asked an intermediary to again urge the president to deputize the Oath Keepers to use force. It is not clear who he called.

What is the Insurrection Act and why does it matter?

The Insurrection Act is an 1807 law that allows the president to deploy federal troops, including deputized militias, to put down a domestic rebellion. The law has not been invoked in decades or been tested in the Supreme Court in nearly 200 years.

Rhodes and his followers traveled to Washington for Jan. 6 and stashed weapons just outside the city in hopes that Trump would use the law to empower the Oath Keepers to act as a shock troop thwarting anyone who tried to make Biden’s election victory a reality, according to allegations outlined in court documents.

Trump first threatened to use the law against Americans during racial justice protests in the summer of 2020. The Oath Keepers were among those urging Trump to do so, tweeting, “We’ll give Trump one last chance to declare this a Marxist insurrection & suppress it as his duty demands.”

After the election, Rhodes again pushed Trump to use the Insurrection Act to stay in power by force. Court records show that in advance of Jan. 6, Rhodes privately told lead Oath Keepers to have weapons ready in case they were “called up by the President as a militia.” Prosecutors point to the discussions as evidence that the Oath Keepers had a plan to use violence to thwart democracy. Rhodes says the group was preparing for what would have been a legal order from the president.

Jan6 Update

"The Great Replacement" is today's terminology for White Fright - the fear that brown people will treat us as badly as we've treated them, so we can't afford to allow "those people" to gain an equal footing.

Keeping us in conflict with one another is a straight-up divide-n-conquer strategy on the part of a "conservative ruling class" that wants to tear down our traditions of democratic self-government in order to replace it with plutocracy.

When I reach back and help others achieve or approach equity with me, we all gain some power, which strengthens my own position.

Let's stop being stoopid about this rights thing.

More for me doesn't mean less for you -

it's not a fuckin' pizza, mushbrain.

Professor Robert Pape:

And There It Is

We have a "president" who thinks he gains politically by stirring up shit.

He has repeatedly invited the inference that violence in spite of the law is something we need - something that will solve some problems for us. And on some occasions, his rhetoric has been far more direct.

WaPo:

Protesters in Albuquerque wrapped a chain around the neck of a bronze statue and began tugging, chanting “Tear it down,” shortly before sunset on Monday. Their efforts to pull down a monument of Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate suddenly stopped as four shots rang out.

Most people instinctively turned toward the noise, videos from the scene show. A few screamed. Just yards away, a group of militia men sporting military-like garb and carrying semiautomatic rifles formed a protective circle around the gunman.

The gunshots, which left one man in critical but stable condition, have set off a cascade of public outcry denouncing the unregulated militia’s presence and the shooting, although police have yet to announce an arrest or describe exactly what happened. The victim is also unidentified.

“The heavily armed individuals who flaunted themselves at the protest, calling themselves a ‘civil guard,’ were there for one reason: To menace protesters, to present an unsanctioned show of unregulated force,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) said in a statement. “To menace the people of New Mexico with weaponry — with an implicit threat of violence — is on its face unacceptable; that violence did indeed occur is unspeakable.”

Sometime this afternoon, 45* is set to deliver his latest executive order, which is supposed to line out what he thinks we should do in the area of Police Reform.

He's hinted that he'll be addressing specifically "the sheriffs".
Given what we know about the Daddy State movement, these bozos believe strongly that the office of County Sheriff is the repository of all "real power" under the constitution.

This could be very interesting.

The Patriots

The pinnacle of historical esteem is when people write songs about you and your exploits.  I guess there's some kind of opposite thing happening when they do it as satire(?)

The Ballad Of The Malheur Patriots  --Laura Sams and Garrett Palm

hat tip = Little Green Footballs

Goober Squad Update

The last of the militia schmucks in Oregon gave it up today and surrendered to the FBI.

NY Times

So, of course, I had to bop over to Fox Nation to check on the reactions of the Guano Clan - and also too because trolling those mush-brains is just too damned fun.

Today's best troll comment:

"Ammon" Speaks

Goober Squad Busted

First - I'm sorry Mr Finicum is dead.  I think that's what he wanted - he said as much - but I'm hoping Mrs Finicum and all the little Finicums find good ways to get past it.

Meanwhile, we might have some fun watching as these militia rubes fall to squabbling internally due to the rumors (aka: bullshit) and false reports about how Finicum was killed.

Eyewitnesses knock down conspiracy theories about LaVoy Finicum dying with his hands up https://t.co/Db3dahU4m2 https://t.co/l5Q0dAaEfa

— Raw Story (@RawStory) January 27, 2016

These nuts maintain a diet rich in paranoid conspiracy and an awful lot of 'em are absolutely determined to believe anything they're told as long as it fits the framing of "Gubmint always bad - Camo Goobers always good."  

Makes me wonder what happens now that "two of their own", Mark McConnell and Melvin Lee, are saying 'calm down' and 'let's be sensible' and 'what you've heard about the feds murdering Lavoy isn't true', etc. 

 

If their own guys are seen as failing the "purity test" (which of course was never clearly defined, because it can't actually be defined because who the fuck died and made you the fuckin' pope?), factional splits get real big real quick, and they get to runnin' in tighter and tighter circles chasing each other's tails, and before ya know it, they disappear up each other's assholes. (sounds like a certain political party don't it?) 

It's nice to think the rest of these Y'all-Qaeda cells will just disintegrate and reabsorb.  And some of that should happen - there are some people in this "movement" who can think, and generally, when those people are shown that some of the folks in positions of leadership are very obviously bug-fucking crazy, they tend to split.  And if they really can think for themselves, they'll know the fight's over; they lost; and they were on the wrong side anyway. 

There's also some probability that the remaining Goober Leaders are trying to figure how best to use Finicum's death.  

"See?  The Gubmint is big and dangerous. If we're gonna win this thing, we have to fight smart.  Lavoy Finicum didn't fight smart.  Lavoy Finicum is fuckin' dead now."

Lotsa moves left to play out.  This shit ain't over.

Today In Y'all Qaeda Land

Here's a pretty good look at the latest Wingnut Clusterfuck going on in Oregon, from Al Jazeera:

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2016/01/oregon-standoff-160111172301780.html

hat tip = FB friend DR

Yes, it's Al Jazeera.  And yes, it's biased.  And yes, we have to get used to the fact that nobody's really doing good journalism anymore, so we have to be able to sort thru the shit on our own.

And here's a related bit from Raw Story:

The Bundys have voiced support for a variety of right-wing fringe ideas, particularly the “posse comitatus” notion that no legitimate governments exist above the county level, and they believe in no higher law authority than the county sheriff.

However, posse members have embedded an implicit threat in their belief system.

If the sheriff violates his oath of office, as determined by the right-wing extremists themselves, “he shall be removed by the posse to the most populated intersection of streets in the township and at high noon be hung by the neck, the body remaining until sundown as an example to those who would subvert the law.”

The main point here is that there's not a dime's worth of difference between what these jagoffs are doing in places like Oregon and what their counterpart jagoffs are doing in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Jagoff is as jagoff does, Forrest.

Never Waste A Good Crisis

Raw Story

As the militia stand-off in Oregon comes up on one week, speculation turns to the financial resources that allow men to up and leave their jobs — reportedly for however long it takes — to take an uninvited stand for freedom in an empty bird sanctuary.

According to experts who study right-wing movements, militia members barely get by, with some living on government disability checks and the earnings of their neglected wives.

In an interview with The Oregonian, Mark Pitcavage, who has studied far-right movements for 22 years, said most militia members live hand to mouth.

“These guys are broke,” he said. “Right-wing extremists, generally speaking, have very little money.”

While some members have brought their wives and children with them — leading to dissension within the ranks — others may have to cut out early before leader Ammon Bundy declares victory and heads home to Nevada.

“It’s quite possible that a lot of them will get tired and feel the pressure to go back and care for their families,” Pitcavage explained.

The extended stay at the national bird refuge in the dead of winter has already cost one militia member his job.

Jason Patrick, of Georgia, claims he lost his $80,000-a-year roofing job — with benefits and a company truck — because he took off without notice and had already used up his vacation days attending other Patriot-inspired events.

So I'm wondering - if we include a Y'allQaeda Allowance Clause, would the GOP finally be willing to move forward on some decent legislation for Medical and Family Leave?

Dangerously Silly

From Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone

The Bundy militiamen are like a Black September version of an Iron John forest retreat: a bunch of weepy middle-aged guys who dressed up in crisply pressed outdoorswear and took over a bird sanctuary so they could play outlaw for a few days while they "worked on themselves."

They gathered around a bonfire (there really was a bonfire) and presumably engaged in Robert Bly-style mythopoetic healing, getting back to their manly roots by stroking their rifles, wearing camo undies, and complaining about all the wrongs done to them by women/the federal government/wild birds/whoever.
About the camo: yes, the following actually happened. One of the militiamen, Melvin Lee, posted a video on Facebook (these guys are on social media more than most teenagers) where he complained about the popular misconceptions of the movement. "There's nobody in camouflage," said Lee, who was wearing a camouflage jacket. "Well, except for my jacket."

And yes, it did happen that Ritzheimer, who did remember to bring his paperback copy of the Constitution, actually sent out a tweet asking for care packages for things his compadres forgot to pack for their armed dude-seminar. They asked for socks, snacks, energy drinks (!), equipment for cold weather, snow camo, and "gear."

This was after Bundy had told reporters that the group was prepared to stay for "years" and had enough supplies to see them through. "We have food planned and prepared," he said.

Letters Home

It's pretty rough up there right now for the Y'allQaeda fellers.

hat tip = Mock Paper Scissors

Today's Toon

hat tip = Democratic Underground

This Is Just Too Good

From HuffPo:

The gunmen who have seized a federal building in Oregon claim they're patriots.

But on social media, many are calling the self-styled "militia" terrorists -- and mocking the group that has taken over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters with derisive nicknames.

Whomever came up with #YallQaeda to describe the Oregon militia, I take my hat off to you. And then put it back on and take it off again.

— Colin Miner (@cominer) January 3, 2016

The emergence of #VanillaISIS in Oregon sparks fears of radicalizing disaffected hipsters in Portland.

— Khaled Bey (@KhaledBeydoun) January 4, 2016

You know you're a badass Tea Party patriot when your militia takes over an unprotected bird sanctuary

— Stonekettle (@Stonekettle) January 3, 2016

Still others have taken to using terms such as #YokelHaram and #al-Shabubba, and say the group is waging #YeeHawd.

Get all the latest on Y'allQaeda and Vanilla ISIS at Mock Paper Scissors

Today's Tweet

Breaking : A member of #YallQaeda leaks his photo out to the public #OregonUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/SwKJLCx596

— Packers (10-5) (@whovian15) January 4, 2016

BTW - "YallQaeda" is courtesy of Mock Paper Scissors

The Bundy Redux

Civil Disobedience being in the eye of the beholder, I'm not at all sure what it is specifically, but there's a fair degree of certainty that what's going on in Oregon ain't it.

militarized law enforcement responses almost always bad idea, but we only raise this point when it's about criminal right wingers

— Atrios (@Atrios) January 3, 2016

Trying hard not to say, "It's time to regulate the fuck outa that militia." https://t.co/n018rc9ENf

— Mike Roberts (@EvilleMike) January 3, 2016

There's so much happening, and so many flips and turns, and so much that's gone before that leads up to this, it's hard to find the room to step back far enough to get the whole picture.

One of the big things is that outfits like The Bundy Gang have been playing this "I'm not gonna be da gubmint's bitch" game for a very long time.  Well sorry-not-sorry, guys, but you're not the government's bitch.  You're Sheldon Adelson's bitch. You're Charlie Koch's bitch.  You're Roger Ailes's bitch.  You've been lied to and manipulated into being pissed off at all the wrong people.  Which makes you a very useful bitch for anybody with a sizable media budget, who plays on your need for martyrdom and pity in order to hide his own power-grabbing agenda.  In the old story, you're Guy of Gisborne to Rush Limbaugh's Prince John.  Not to put too fine a point on it for ya, Sparky, but you're on the wrong fucking side. Again.

So anyway -

Nobody ever taught these moochers about The Tragedy Of The Commons. They see "open land" that belongs to all Americans; they need to expand their operation to make it pay for an expanding clan of (eg) Bundy kids; and so they believe in their hearts that they can just take what they need because all that land is right there and they feel entitled to it.

And none of that ever registers as ironic in their pea-pickin' little brain pans.  And if you try to teach them a little sumpthin' about how they have to share - or at least they have to pay for what they get - they go into that cornered-animal crouch and start whining about being the victims of Oppressive Gubmint again.  

These guys seem never to have matured past being hormone-poisoned teenagers.  They're subsumed by that deadly combination of ignorance and adolescent bravado which makes it impossible for them to know their conclusion can't be true when they start from a false premise.

--BTW: that last bit is Ayn Rand.  You remember Ayn Rand - the patron saint of your Radically Libertarian Douchenozzlery, right, Sparky?  Yeah, no - it never sounds like you remember shit about it even if you ever fucking read any of it.

Don't worry Even as we speak the media is sending their best thesauruses to Oregon to find other words than "terrorists." #OregonUnderAttack

— Steve Marmel (@Marmel) January 3, 2016

I remember watching some Western on TV and the typical barroom brawl breaks out, and I asked my dad why everybody gets in on the fight when it was just a beef between two guys.  He told me something like - some jokers got nuthin' better to do than hang around waitin' for an excuse to punch somebody.  

So now we wait.

I Don't Like Thinking This Way

It's a pretty lousy feeling when you're not so sure the "good guys with the guns" are on your side.

And that lousy feeling doesn't get any better when you start thinking you may have something in common with these assholes: