COVID-19 Update

World

New Cases:   671,575 (⬆︎ .69%)

New Deaths:    17,366 (⬆︎ .84%) 💥 New Record 🥇

USA

New Cases:   188,426 (⬆︎   .76%)

New Deaths:      4,374 (⬆︎ 1.06%)

Vaccination Scorecard

Total Vaccinations:          14.3 million

Total Priority Population: 12.5%

Total Population:               4.3%

As good-feelin' and downright joyful as it was to see 45* slink away while someone worthy of the job was installed as POTUS, there's still a monster stomping around out there, and we're reminded every day that everything we do has to be tempered with caution and a humble acknowledgement that for now, humans are not this planet's dominant species.

It's also good to be reminded that there are heroes out there - heroes doing battle with the monster on our behalf, fighting the best way they know how, often armed with little more than a paper mask and a willing heart.

NYT:

Patty Sakal, an American Sign Language interpreter who translated updates about the coronavirus for deaf Hawaiians, died on Friday of complications related to Covid-19. She was 62.

Ms. Sakal, who lived in Honolulu, died at Alvarado Hospital Medical Center in San Diego, where she had gone last month to visit one of her daughters, according to Ms. Sakal’s sister, Lorna Mouton Riff.

Ms. Sakal, who worked as an A.S.L. interpreter for nearly four decades in a variety of settings, had become a mainstay in coronavirus press briefings in Hawaii, working with both the former mayor of Honolulu, Kirk Caldwell, and Gov. David Y. Ige to interpret news for the deaf community.

In a statement, Isle Interpret, an organization of interpreters to which Ms. Sakal belonged, called Ms. Sakal “Hawaii interpreter ‘royalty.’”

This was in part because Ms. Sakal understood Hawaiian Sign Language, a version of American Sign Language developed by deaf elders to which she had been exposed while growing up.

“She was highly utilized and highly desired by the deaf in the community because they could understand her so well and she could understand them,” said Tamar Lani, the president of Isle Interpret.

Ms. Sakal was born on Feb. 24, 1958, in Honolulu to Hershel Mouton and Georgia Morikawa, who were both deaf. Her father was the first deaf teacher at the Hawaii School of the Deaf and Blind in Honolulu, and her mother was a prominent political activist on behalf of the deaf community, which included participating in the early drafting of the Americans With Disabilities Act, Ms. Riff said.

“We grew up at a time when there were no interpreters,” Ms. Riff said, “so if you were a child of deaf parents, you automatically became your parents’ interpreter.”

Ms. Sakal turned this experience into a career as a professional A.S.L. interpreter. In her time in the job, she interpreted in all kinds of settings, including theater, legal, medical and educational, according to Isle Interpret. She was a board member for a nonprofit group that aims to open a center for the deaf, the Georgia E. Morikawa Center, named after her mother.

Ms. Lani said that Ms. Sakal had also been committed to being a mentor to novice interpreters and had done so for her. Before her death, Ms. Sakal was working as a mentor in a yearlong national initiative meant to increase the number of interpreters in Hawaii, according to Isle Interpret.

“Patty was always so generous of her time and knowledge, and she was always so welcoming to new interpreters,” Ms. Lani said. “She just really sees the potential in everyone.”

In an interview with Hawaii News Now, Mr. Caldwell, whose second term as mayor of Honolulu ended this month, praised Ms. Sakal for “truly putting herself on the frontline.”

“Here it was, a pandemic and it was not safe to go, yet she went out and she helped do a job that was critical to people who needed this information,” Mr. Caldwell told Hawaii News Now. Neither he nor Mr. Ige could immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Outside work, Ms. Riff said, her sister had a number of creative outlets. She wrote poetry and painted. She taught herself to play the guitar and the drums and was a singer.

In addition to her sister, Ms. Sakal is survived by three daughters, Aisha Sakal, Amanda Sakal and Andrea McFadden; a brother, Byron Morikawa; and two grandchildren.

Ms. Riff said her family was “always very proud of Patty because she picked up that torch, the legacy that our mom had, and has been carrying it.”

Today's Pix

Just dumping it all today

click to start the show

⬇️⬇️⬇️

Whip List

Today's Poem

Here's hoping we get to hear a lot more from this impressive young woman.

Knives Knives Everywhere

So we kinda saw what was probably supposed to be the big push for plutocracy.

The shit Qult45 pulled (and didn't pull off) in DC on Jan6 is putting a lot of Republicans at odds with each other.

I haven't sorted it out yet, and I'm not expecting I'll every get it all sorted out, but this from National Review is basically a full on declaration of the internal war(s) that we should be watching the GOP struggle with for a while.

NRO:

Witless Ape Rides Helicopter

Well, that sucked.

Memo to MAGA and all its myriad fellow-travelers: Maybe Death of a Salesman as presented by Leni Riefenstahl just wasn’t the show Americans were dying to tune into this season.

And, while we’re at it, maybe turning your party over to Generalissimo Walter Mitty, his hideous scheming spawn, and the studio audience from Hee-Haw was not just absolutely aces as a political strategy.

Think on it, Cletus. I know this whole thing still sounds like your idea of a good time — how’s that working out for you?

Let me refresh your memory: On the day Donald Trump was sworn in as president, Republicans controlled not only the White House but both houses of Congress. They were in a historically strong position elsewhere as well, controlling both legislative chambers in 32 states. They pissed that away like they were midnight drunks karaoke-warbling that old Chumbawumba song: In 2021, they control approximately squat. The House is run by Nancy Pelosi. The Senate is run, as a practical matter, by Kamala Harris. And Joe Biden won the presidency, notwithstanding whatever the nut-cutlet guest-hosting for Dennis Prager this week has to say about it.

Donald Trump is, in fact, the first president since Herbert Hoover to lead his party to losing the presidency, the House, and the Senate all in a single term. Along with being the first president to be impeached twice and the first game-show host elected to the office, that’s Trump’s claim to the history books. Well, that and 400,000 dead Americans and the failed coup d’état business.

As for the ratings Trump fears and worships, ask the Third Lady: Melania Trump departs the scene the most unpopular presidential wife in recorded statistical history.

You Trumpish Republicans sneered that Joe Biden was too corrupt and too senescent to win a presidential campaign, that he was one part mafioso and one part turnip.

That turnip kicked your dumb asses from Delaware to D.C.

So you rioted. Real smart move, Cletus.

Five Americans are dead. Barricades have been erected around the Capitol. Thousands of federal troops have been deployed to the streets of Washington. State capitols have been obliged to prepare for siege. Americans blame you for this — and they are not wrong.

“Trust the plan,” the QAnon cultists say. Is this what you were planning? I know you are stupid, but you are not that stupid.

“Oh, but he fights!” you’ll say — over and over and over. He didn’t fight — he tweeted. He’s ten feet tall on social media and a pushover in real life. Trade deficit: up. Unemployment rate: rising. Abortion rate: rising. Beijing: rising. The coronavirus body-count: rising.

But he sure did tweet a lot!

And he pardoned Roger Stone — at least he took care of that pressing national priority.

“But the judges!” you protest. Fair point: Trump’s absurd attempts to overturn the election through specious legal challenges were laughed out of court by the very men and women he appointed to the bench. Even his judges think he’s a joke.

Everybody has figured that out. Except you.

And so, goodbye, Donald J. Trump, the man who wanted to be Conrad Hilton but turned out to be Paris Hilton. Au revoir, Ivanka and Jared, Uday and Qusay — there’s a table for four reserved for you at Dorsia. So long, Melania — it’s still not entirely clear what you got out of this, but I hope it was worth it. A fond farewell to Ted Cruz’s reputation and Mike Pence’s self-respect, Lindsey Graham’s manhood and Fox News’s business model. In with “Dr.” Jill Biden, out with “Dr.” Sebastian Gorka.

Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night.

I’m sure we’ll all meet again. But I’d really rather we didn’t.

The "Legacy"

Trump's "presidency" by the numbers - The Lincoln Project

COVID-19 Update

World

New Cases:   592,896 (⬆︎ .62%)

New Deaths:    14,759 (⬆︎ .72%)

USA

New Cases:   174,378 (⬆︎ .71%)

New Deaths:      2,802 (⬆︎ .69%)

Vax Scores

14 million vaccinated

12.2% of the priority population

4.2% of the total population

Not much news about the pandemic in the papers today. It's almost like there's something else kinda important going on today.

See ya tomorrow.

Mike out.

Today's Today

Inauguration. Another new start. Another go-round in the American experiment. 

Sometimes we do things in very weird ways. 

1974

2021

The Last Gasp

The Trump Era has been marked by contradiction, dishonor, hypocrisy and the death of irony (part ∞).

Tomorrow at noon, the presidency of Donald J Trump ends with a final ironic demonstration.

The nation's capital city is an armed camp, filled with tens of thousands of National Guard troops with orders to kill anyone who tries to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power.

That is 9 kinds of fucked up. And it's not likely to get much better. Trump will be out, and if we're a little lucky, he'll be tied in knots defending himself from the hundreds of lawsuits and criminal charges he's spent his whole miserable fucking life skating away from.

But even though some of the shit might fade into the background for a while, we'll still have plutocratic assholes trying to shit-can our democracy. They came too close to knocking us off - they'll probably pull back, consolidate, and regroup for the next assault.

The big ambition of small men always leads them to pursue their dreams of building their little fiefdoms so they can pretend at being emperors.

Because whether for good or ill, "The Greater Fool" is a double-edged sword.

A Global Plutocracy

My confirmation bias is boiling over.

The Guardian:

While law enforcement officials in Washington ought to be held accountable for their alleged culpability in the deadly violence at the US Capitol earlier this month, and the off-duty cops and members of the military who participated in it ought to be disciplined, the attempted auto-coup cannot solely be understood through the lens of policing and security. At least as much responsibility lies with the billionaire donors and corporate interests – in other words, the capitalists – who made this moment possible.

Already a picture of the individuals, organizations, and institutions who lent their weight to the movement that stormed Congress has begun to emerge. Last year, the secretive and influential Council for National Policy (CNP), which author Anne Nelson describes as “connecting the manpower and media of the Christian right with the finances of western plutocrats and the strategy of right-wing Republican political operatives,” called for state legislators in six swing states to reject Joe Biden’s election victory. CNP leaders were scheduled to speak at the rally on the morning of 6 January, where Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to march on the Capitol.

Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network, which has contributed millions to the Republican Attorneys General Association (Raga), listed as one of the participating organizations in the rally. Raga’s fundraising arm, the Rule of Law Defense Fund, sent robocalls encouraging Trump supporters to march on the Capitol ahead of the 6 January rally, at which the former chairman of Raga, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, spoke. But major donors to Raga include not only rightwing bogeymen like Koch Industries, Walmart, or the Adelson family but also household corporate names like Comcast, Amazon and TikTok.

Likewise, although Koch Industries is the single largest corporate donor to Republican representatives who pledged to try to overturn the election results, the next biggest contributors included defense companies like Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon, as well as tech (Amazon) and finance (Goldman Sachs) and insurance (Aflac), according to the Center for Media and Democracy. And while Charles Koch has maintained a posture of personal ambivalence, verging on distaste, for Donald Trump, super Pacs heavily funded by the donor network he and his late brother founded have spent millions supporting congressional Republicans who rejected the outcome of the 2020 election.

Dick Uihlein, the chief executive of the Uline shipping company and a contributor to the Koch donor network, spent at least $2m getting Josh Hawley elected to the US Senate and has contributed more than $4m to the Tea Party Patriots, another one of the 11 groups listed as participating in the Stop the Steal coalition. In 2019, more than $20m was funneled through DonorsTrust, a donor-advised fund that disguises the source of major giving to nonprofits, to a dozen organizations that would ultimately contest the integrity of the 2020 presidential election, including $103,000 to Tea Party Patriots. In a statement provided to the Intercept, Tea Party Patriots cofounder Jenny Beth Martin denied spending any money on the Stop the Steal rally and condemned the violence that occurred.

Investigative journalists will continue to trace and disentangle the funding networks that facilitated 6 January. The list of names will grow longer; the sum of individual and corporate contributions greater. But already it is clear that what happened at the Capitol was not just the unintended consequence of specific capitalists’ ill-advised campaign donations; it was an expression of a deeper, ongoing crisis of capitalism, and the ruling class’s (sometimes contradictory) attempts to manage that crisis.

According to a report released late last year by the Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness, the 651 billionaires in the United States added more than $1tn to their collective wealth since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, bringing the total to slightly more than $4tn. Meanwhile, the racialized distribution of labor in the United States – the concentration of workers of color in both essential industries, where they are more likely to be exposed to the pandemic, and service and hospitality industries, where layoffs have been rampant – means that Black, Latino, and Native Americans are significantly more likely to be hospitalized and die of Covid-19 than non-Hispanic white Americans. This serves as a stark reminder of the white supremacist character of the decades-long effort to defang and declaw the American labor movement – an effort funded and organized by the same far-right capitalists who laid the groundwork for 6 January.

The Capitol siege was just one battle in an ongoing, decades-long assault on democracy. Racist ideologues have served as the vanguard, but they have long been supported (sometimes openly, often tacitly) by a wide swathe of capitalists. The ultranationalist Maga diehards, Qanon cultists, and various fascists that stormed the Capitol are shock troops searching for a leader. Trump will likely prove too self-absorbed, too cowardly, and too lazy for the job. But no matter how many arrests are made or officials fired, the tide of history has returned us to the rocky shores of political violence and mass upheaval.

Yeah, it's The Guardian. Grans of salt, etc. 

Here's the thing though -

 

I may be paranoid but that don't mean nobody's out to get me

And don't think for a minute this shit ends tomorrow at noon on the steps of the Capitol.