Black American History #3

Crash Course with Dr Clint Smith

Elizabeth Key wins her freedom in a Virginia court in 1665 - carrying an excellent example of what we know today as "white privilege".

COVID-19 Update

900,000 dead Americans by Monday

1,000,000 dead Americans by April or May

WaPo: (freebie)

WHO urges caution as countries begin to loosen restrictions

Countries should be cautious about lifting coronavirus restrictions, World Health Organization officials warned Tuesday, noting that many places have not yet reached the peak of the omicron surge.

Denmark relaxed all public health measures the same day, including mask-wearing and isolating after a positive test result. The country has had one of the highest infection rates in the past seven days, according to Our World in Data. But it also has a relatively high vaccination rate: 81 percent. Other countries lifting restrictions include Norway and Australia, once dubbed the “Hermit Kingdom,” where the pandemic strategy recently shifted from tough restrictions such as lockdowns and border closures to one of “personal responsibility.”

“We are urging caution because many countries have not gone through the peak of omicron yet,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical leader on covid-19, said in an online briefing. “Many countries have low levels of vaccination coverage, with very vulnerable individuals within their populations.” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed concern that omicron’s high transmissibility and lower severity might lead countries to decide that “preventing transmission is no longer possible, and no longer necessary,” adding: “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Here’s what to know

• A study of pandemic preparedness across 177 countries and territories found that better outcomes appear to have gone hand in hand with high levels of trust in government and other citizens.
• Pfizer and BioNTech said Tuesday that they were seeking emergency use authorization for the first coronavirus vaccine for children younger than 5.
• Tonga, once covid-free, has gone into national lockdown after reporting a handful of its first covid-19 cases. The archipelago nation is still recovering from a devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami.

A Thought

Over and over and over again, we've heard "conservatives" tell us it's a cherished privilege - and an honor beyond imagining - to fight, and to bleed, and to die if necessary, in order to protect and defend the sacred Constitution of these United States.

I'm just wondering why so many Republicans seem so willing to fight and to bleed and to die trying to shit-can it.

Jan6 Stuff

"If Trump really believed he was not doing anything wrong, why did he not call DHS himself? Why is he ripping up the pieces of paper to hide the trail?"

This case is made.

Chris Hayes, All In on MSNBC, 02-01-2022:

Today's Beau

The Daddy State thrives on disinformation - it's their bread-n-butter.

When they put out some nonsense, they know their hardcore devotees will run with it no matter how stoopid it is, and no matter if it's 180° out from what they said yesterday. They can count on the rubes to make a huge noise about it, which invites the inference that whatever it is, it enjoys bigly popular support. And when the normal people push back, they know they've achieved their divide-n-conquer objective.

That's what they want, and they've trained their Press Poodles to pimp the shit out of it.

Justin King - Beau Of The Fifth Column

I think the "Big C conservatives" understand that liberals always eventually win on the culture issues - it's just the way things work. 

So they're constantly feeding the fires of division - stoking that old familiar feeling of slugging it out, fighting the Culture Battles over marriage, and abortion, and LGBTQ+, and women, and POC, and and and - in order to keep us from seeing that we're losing the Class War, which is what we should be concentrating on at all times.

We're winning the battles and losing the war.

Black American History #2

Crash Course with Dr Clint Smith

Partus Sequitur Ventrem

"That which is born follows the womb" was a legal doctrine passed in colonial Virginia in 1662 and other English crown colonies in the Americas which defined the legal status of children born there. The doctrine mandated that all children would inherit the legal status of their mothers. As such, children of enslaved women would be born into slavery.

COVID-19 Update

One year ago here in USAmerica Inc, 02-01-2021

• Cases: 26,767,229
•  Dead:      452,279

WaPo:

Vaccine for U.S. children under 5 could be available within weeks

A coronavirus vaccine for children younger than 5 could be available within weeks, far sooner than expected, people briefed on the situation told The Washington Post.

Pfizer and its partner, BioNTech, the manufacturers of the vaccine, are expected to submit a request to the Food and Drug Administration as early as Tuesday, seeking emergency-use authorization for a two-shot regimen for children 6 months to 5 years old.

The highly transmissible omicron variant launched another wave of school shutdowns and day-care closures this winter, and many parents of young children have been desperately waiting for vaccine news since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authorized Pfizer-BioNTech shots for millions of kids ages 5 to 11 late last year. Pfizer had said in December that its coronavirus vaccine would not be available to children younger than 5 until after March at the earliest.

Here’s what to know

• The Food and Drug Administration has granted full approval to Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine, now known as Spikevax. It was previously available under emergency use authorization.
• Austria’s vaccine mandate for all adults takes effect this week, in a rollout closely watched by other nations mulling whether to follow suit.
• White House officials frustrated with Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra’s handling of the pandemic have openly mused about who might be better in the job, those involved in the discussions say, as the Biden administration faces growing criticism for missteps in public health messaging.
• More than a billion people will celebrate the Lunar New Year on Tuesday across Asia and globally, ringing in the Year of the Tiger. Before the pandemic, the holiday often prompted the world’s largest annual migration of people. But the virus will again necessitate scaled-down travel and festivities.

The Middle Ground Fallacy

TED stuff from Elizabeth Cox

• Compromise is not always in itself a virtue
• Some things can't be resolved by compromise

On Rachel Last Night

Ol' Doc Maddow - Nazi assholes in Orlando

Yeah - Florida - whooda thunk it.

The kicker:

"People are alarmed and scared..." 

We've been trying to tell you people this is what's coming. Where the fuck you guys been?

BTW - DeSantis went on the TV box to "denounce" the Nazi assholes, and then spent way more time shit-talking Straw Man Democrats than he did actually denouncing the actual Nazi assholes.

Which kinda pushes the question - why is it that when somebody brings up Nazi assholes, everybody (including DeSantis) immediately thinks "DeSantis"?

The Holocaust Center Of Central Florida

Today's Tweet

Our kids are the heroes we hoped we could be.

My 14 yr old just told me,
“ I told a kid to shut the fuck up yesterday because he called my friend the N word , in case the school calls”

— jonathan slater (@slater_jona) February 1, 2022