Dr Clint Black - Crash Course - Reconstruction
Feb 19, 2022
Feb 18, 2022
COVID-19 Update
NYT: (pay wall)
Red Covid, an Update
The partisan gap in Covid deaths is still growing, but more slowly.
Ocean County, in central New Jersey, is a mixture of beach towns like Barnegat Light and exurban towns like Toms River and Lakewood. Household income in the county exceeds the U.S. average.
Yet Ocean County is among the least vaccinated places in the Northeast. Only 53 percent of residents have received at least two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine (or one dose of Johnson & Johnson). Only 26 percent have received a booster shot.
The large number of unvaccinated residents in Ocean County has led to a horrific amount of Covid illness and death. Nearly one out of every 200 residents has died from the virus. That is worse than the toll in Mississippi, the U.S. state with the largest amount of Covid death per capita, and worse than in any country except for Peru.
What explains the vaccine skepticism in Ocean County? Politics, above all. The county is heavily Republican. Donald Trump won it by almost 30 percentage points in 2020, and many Republicans — including those who are older than 65 and vulnerable to severe Covid illness — are skeptical of the vaccines.
This partisan divide has led to the “red Covid” phenomenon that I have described in previous newsletters. Today, I have an update.
Blue, then red
First, some background: In the pandemic’s initial months, Covid cases and deaths were higher in Democratic areas, probably because they are home to several major international airports. The virus entered this country on the West Coast and in the Northeast. But it didn’t stay there. By the end of Covid’s first year in the U.S., the virus had swept across the country, and there was no significant partisan divide in deaths.
Only after the vaccines became widely available, in early 2021 — and liberals were much more willing to get shots than conservatives — did Covid become a disproportionately Republican illness. By the summer of 2021, the gap was soaring:
As the chart makes clear, the toll has been even worse in counties where Trump won by a landslide than in counties that he won narrowly.
This phenomenon is an example of how the country’s political polarization has warped people’s thinking, even when their personal safety is at stake. It is a tragedy — and a preventable one, too.
A new study by four Harvard epidemiologists estimates that 135,000 unvaccinated Americans died unnecessarily in the last six months of last year. The Texas Tribune recently profiled a young unvaccinated couple: She spent 139 days in intensive care; he asked, “Was this my fault?” They have both since been vaccinated.
Natural immunity
There is one big new development. When I last wrote about red Covid, in November, I told you that the month-to-month partisan mortality gap might be peaking, for two main reasons.
One, the availability of highly effective post-infection treatments, like Pfizer’s Paxlovid, has been expanding; if they reduce deaths, the drop may be steepest where the toll is highest. Two, red America has probably built up more natural immunity to Covid — from prior infections — than blue America, given that many Democrats have tried harder to avoid getting the virus.
Sure enough, the partisan gap in Covid deaths is no longer growing as fast it had been, as you can see from the new closeness among these lines:
In Trump and Biden counties, one candidate won at least 70 percent of the vote; in swing counties, both won at least 45 percent.
During the Omicron wave, deaths have risen less in red counties than in blue or purple counties. The most likely explanation seems to be that the number of Trump voters vulnerable to severe illness — which was still very large earlier last year — has declined, because more of them have built up some immunity to Covid from a previous infection.
But don’t make the mistake of confusing a gap that’s no longer growing as rapidly as it was with a gap that is shrinking. The gap between red and blue America — in terms of cumulative Covid deaths — is still growing. The red line in that second chart is higher than the blue line, which is a sign that more Republicans than Democrats or independents have needlessly died of Covid in recent weeks.
Another point to remember: Even in deeply blue counties, an outsize number of deaths are occurring among people who are unvaccinated or unboosted. The vaccines offer incredible protection from a deadly virus, yet many Americans have chosen to leave themselves exposed.
During the Omicron wave, deaths have risen less in red counties than in blue or purple counties. The most likely explanation seems to be that the number of Trump voters vulnerable to severe illness — which was still very large earlier last year — has declined, because more of them have built up some immunity to Covid from a previous infection.
But don’t make the mistake of confusing a gap that’s no longer growing as rapidly as it was with a gap that is shrinking. The gap between red and blue America — in terms of cumulative Covid deaths — is still growing. The red line in that second chart is higher than the blue line, which is a sign that more Republicans than Democrats or independents have needlessly died of Covid in recent weeks.
Another point to remember: Even in deeply blue counties, an outsize number of deaths are occurring among people who are unvaccinated or unboosted. The vaccines offer incredible protection from a deadly virus, yet many Americans have chosen to leave themselves exposed.
BTW and not for nothing - just what the fuck you tryin' to pull, NYT?
This is so fucking smarmy. In every brain, the first inference is that 4 weeks = 1 month. So, $17/month = $204 for the year. Now that's plenty for a newspaper that isn't paper, and isn't delivered to my door every day.
But here's the smarmy part. $17 every 4 weeks works out to $221 for the year.
No, a 17-dollar difference isn't a lot, but the presentation is dishonest - it smacks of white shoes, plaid jackets and used cars with phony odometer readings. I hate that kind of sales-y bullshit.
So it I'll say it again. This is so fucking smarmy.
Jan6 Stuff
772 people have been charged in the Capitol insurrection so far. This searchable table shows them all.
Since supporters of then-President Donald Trump swarmed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 — forcing Congress to go into lockdown and damaging the halls of government — 772 people have been arrested and charged with crimes.
The FBI is seeking the public's help to identify people who took part in one of the most documented crimes in US history.
But since many rioters were allowed to walk free a year ago, it's taking some time to track them down.
This table includes the names, charges, links to court documents, and links to additional stories of all the people charged so far. We're keeping it updated as the Department of Justice releases more names and info.
note: the embedded list is 97 pages, and you'll have to go to the site if you wanna look up your friends.
Only 212 federally charged rioters have entered guilty pleas so far.
The number of people charged in the insurrection is expected to keep growing as FBI agents pore through video footage, social media posts, phone location data, and tips from the public.
And also too - at Insider:
Paul Davis said his life fell apart after he attended the "Stop the Steal" rally and Capitol riot last year in Washington, DC.
Davis, an attorney from Frisco, Texas, told Insider he lost his job, fiancée, and friends after he came home from the January 6, 2021, insurrection that left five people, including a Capitol Police officer, dead.
A day after the riot, the insurance firm where Davis had worked as an associate general counselor for seven months announced in a tweet that he had been fired. He said he eventually had to sell his home because he had no stream of income.
Davis said his fiancée started to act cold toward him after a local Texas news station tweeted out that he lived in Frisco. The 40-year-old said he feared a mob would show up outside his door and asked his dad to pick up his house keys from his fiancée and remove his guns and gold from the house. His fiancée refused to give his dad the keys, Davis said.
Poor baby. - more -
note 2: the original story carried the headline "Capitol Riot Attendee...", but they've since changed it - quite possibly because they got so totally hammered on social media for such a lame-ass attempt at Newspeak.
Good ya, Insider.
But you've still got this one comin'
Black American History #18
Dr Clint Smith - Crash Course - Black Americans In The Civil War
States' Rights!
to keep black people as slaves
Feb 17, 2022
Econ 101
The Problem with Jon Stewart
Same question as always - how come I have to search this shit out and get it from a former late night comedy guy who's moved into podcasting, instead of seeing it on my liberal TV box every fucking day, like the "conservatives" keep saying?
BTW, did you catch that last bit from Dr Owens? About the lack of a Power Theory in Economics?
IM(paranoid)O - the Daddy State is working hard to keep us from learning about Critical Race Theory, out of fear that we'll learn about the umbrella concept which is Critical Power Theory.
COVID-19 Update
WaPo: (freebie)
WHO says global case decline affected by drop in testing, deaths still alarmingly high
Newly reported coronavirus cases are dropping worldwide, but World Health Organization officials urged caution Wednesday, saying that a drop in testing might be contributing to that decline and that covid deaths remain alarmingly high.
During the week starting Feb. 7, health officials reported 16.3 million new infections globally, an 18.2 percent drop from the previous week, according to WHO figures. Deaths inched higher in the same period, though, to above 73,000, an increase of 0.5 percent from the previous week.
“It’s the sixth week in a row that we’re seeing increasing reports of deaths,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist, at a live-streamed event. “At this point in the pandemic, when we have tools that can save people’s lives, this is far, far too many.”
Mike Ryan, the WHO’s emergencies chief, urged people to get vaccinated, and to keep up preventive measures such as masking, isolating or quarantining. “This idea that we’re just going to abandon everything, I think is a very premature concept in many countries right now,” he said.
Here’s what to know
Newly reported coronavirus cases are dropping worldwide, but World Health Organization officials urged caution Wednesday, saying that a drop in testing might be contributing to that decline and that covid deaths remain alarmingly high.
During the week starting Feb. 7, health officials reported 16.3 million new infections globally, an 18.2 percent drop from the previous week, according to WHO figures. Deaths inched higher in the same period, though, to above 73,000, an increase of 0.5 percent from the previous week.
“It’s the sixth week in a row that we’re seeing increasing reports of deaths,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist, at a live-streamed event. “At this point in the pandemic, when we have tools that can save people’s lives, this is far, far too many.”
Mike Ryan, the WHO’s emergencies chief, urged people to get vaccinated, and to keep up preventive measures such as masking, isolating or quarantining. “This idea that we’re just going to abandon everything, I think is a very premature concept in many countries right now,” he said.
Here’s what to know
- The United States has recorded more than 1 million “excess deaths” associated with covid since the start of the pandemic, a toll that exceeds the officially documented lethality of the coronavirus and captures the broad consequences of the health crisis.
- The Biden administration will “surge” more than $250 million in coronavirus vaccine assistance to 11 countries in sub-Saharan Africa as it ramps up efforts to help vaccinate the world.
- Hong Kong is being swamped by an avalanche of new cases after poor planning, lagging vaccinations and the failure of its “zero-covid” policy left the city vulnerable.
- Israel and European countries such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland are dropping some travel restrictions and coronavirus vaccination and masking requirements.
Today's Tweet
75% of Kroger workers are food insecure.
— Muad for Congress (@muadhrezi) February 16, 2022
CEO Rodney McMullen earned $22 mil in 2020. Kroger stock rose 36% last year.
There's something fundamentally wrong with a system that relies on - yet neglects - workers. It won't change w/out strong unions + protections for part-timers.
Jan6 Stuff
Keeping people confined inside any given Information Silo is a tried-n-true tactic of the Daddy State.
Opinion: Giuliani’s unhinged Jan. 6 rant shows how Trump’s media scam really works
The Jan. 6 select committee issued new subpoenas Tuesday suggesting its investigation is focused on Rudolph W. Giuliani’s central role in trying to help Donald Trump thwart a duly elected government from taking power, to seize a second presidential term for Trump illegitimately.
Only hours later, Giuliani scurried into the safe confines of far-right media, where he was granted total free rein to broadcast the deranged alternate narrative that the only Real Insurrectionists who tried to overthrow the government have been Democrats.
This episode neatly illustrates how Trump and his allies will try to manipulate the information environment to help obscure Trump’s misdeeds — and his possible crimes — as the House committee’s work nears completion.
Giuliani’s latest unhinged rantings were delivered on Newsmax on Tuesday night. This came after the committee subpoenaed several figures related to Trump’s effort to get GOP legislatures to appoint sham electors to subvert President Biden’s victory.
Two of those subpoenaed are Trump campaign officials who engaged in a “coordinated strategy” to pressure legislators to execute that scheme, according to communications that the committee says it has obtained.
The Giuliani connection comes in the subpoena of Laura Cox, the former Michigan GOP chair. The committee cites a Michigan Live story reporting that Cox was present on a video conference when Giuliani pressured state legislators not to certify Biden’s electors, saying this would be a “criminal act.”
In other words, the committee is reconstructing Giuliani’s extensive role in pressuring GOP-led states to help Trump steal the election. As the New York Times reports, Giuliani also helped develop the “legal” strategy by which Trump would exploit the Electoral Count Act of 1887 to pull this off.
But during Giuliani’s appearance on Newsmax, an entirely alternate storyline unfolded, one hermetically sealed off from the events that actually did unfold. He declared the committee “illegal,” based on one of the dumber right-wing arguments making the rounds.
“Jan. 6 is nothing more than ‘Russian collusion,’ with another name, and a new lie,” Giuliani continued. Then he mimicked what he said were “crazy, exaggerated” claims by Democrats: “It’s worse than September 11th, it’s worse than Pearl Harbor, it’s worse than the Civil War!!!”
As Giuliani’s fake outrage crescendoed, his voice rose to a manic pitch:
Giuliani also unleashed a jumble of other right-wing obsessions, railing about Democratic efforts to hold Trump accountable for pressuring Ukraine to announce a sham investigation of Biden to help Trump win reelection.
But what’s really telling is that Giuliani invoked the latest invented right-wing scandal involving special counsel John Durham, who is probing the roots of the Russia investigation. Giuliani railed that Durham has unmasked Hillary Clinton and her aides as “criminals” who engaged in a “frame up” of Trump over Russian interference in the 2016 election.
That’s pure nonsense. As Glenn Kessler demonstrates, the right has taken a new court filing from Durham and twisted it beyond recognition to insinuate he has uncovered new evidence of Clinton-linked “spying” on Trump’s campaign, which Durham himself doesn’t even claim.
What’s important here is the right’s broader alt-narrative, in which Democrats were the Real Insurrectionists. They tried to overthrow Trump’s government, by backing an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election (which actually happened), and by impeaching him for pressuring a foreign ally to corrupt the 2020 election (which also actually happened).
This hints at the role the fake Durham scandal will play in coming weeks.
As the committee’s latest scrutiny of Giuliani shows, it is seeking to assemble a very comprehensive picture of the degree to which Trump and his co-conspirators actually did attempt to overthrow our constitutional order to install him in power illegitimately, through extraordinary procedural corruption and then by inciting mob violence.
The fake Durham scandal will be chum to muddy up the media water as this full picture comes into view. It’s no accident that Trump himself has been madly pushing the Durham story in recent days. He’s very much in on this scam.
Phony scandals such as this one create a profound dilemma for the media. As New York Times reporter Charlie Savage wrote in a good piece, in the face of right-wing misinformation, news organizations must decide whether it merits coverage at all, since it’s misinformation, but if they don’t cover it, the right attacks them as biased.
The game is to cow the media into injecting pollution and sewage into the information environment. And this has created a badly lopsided situation.
On the right, a huge network of outlets blares forth its own comprehensively sealed off alt-narrative, as we just saw with Giuliani on Newsmax. Meanwhile, as we’re seeing with the Durham tale, news organizations often struggle to debunk right-wing disinformation, a complicated undertaking that often ultimately muddies up the truth simply by virtue of covering it, which is what that disinformation is designed to do.
You can be certain this Durham story will play a big role in the coming effort by Trump allies to obscure and distract from emerging truths about him and Jan. 6. Unfortunately, because there’s no easy answer to this problem, it might prove depressingly effective.
But -
- those silos aren't leak proof
- people will not stay in one place forever.
We get antsy after a while. We want something that's not so familiar - we get bored with the same shit every day, even when it's comfortable shit, and it makes us feel snug and safe.
We'll eventually look outside the silo and we'll see "everybody" has gone on to the next thing - they've adopted some new way - and we start to feel out of step, and old, and totally unfashionable.
And then, "suddenly" everything swings in the other direction.
Cuz guess what - Progress always wins. Always.
In the meantime, we get to put up with the never-ending pearl-clutching of "thoughtful journalists".
WaPo: (pay wall)
Opinion: Giuliani’s unhinged Jan. 6 rant shows how Trump’s media scam really works
The Jan. 6 select committee issued new subpoenas Tuesday suggesting its investigation is focused on Rudolph W. Giuliani’s central role in trying to help Donald Trump thwart a duly elected government from taking power, to seize a second presidential term for Trump illegitimately.
Only hours later, Giuliani scurried into the safe confines of far-right media, where he was granted total free rein to broadcast the deranged alternate narrative that the only Real Insurrectionists who tried to overthrow the government have been Democrats.
This episode neatly illustrates how Trump and his allies will try to manipulate the information environment to help obscure Trump’s misdeeds — and his possible crimes — as the House committee’s work nears completion.
Giuliani’s latest unhinged rantings were delivered on Newsmax on Tuesday night. This came after the committee subpoenaed several figures related to Trump’s effort to get GOP legislatures to appoint sham electors to subvert President Biden’s victory.
Two of those subpoenaed are Trump campaign officials who engaged in a “coordinated strategy” to pressure legislators to execute that scheme, according to communications that the committee says it has obtained.
The Giuliani connection comes in the subpoena of Laura Cox, the former Michigan GOP chair. The committee cites a Michigan Live story reporting that Cox was present on a video conference when Giuliani pressured state legislators not to certify Biden’s electors, saying this would be a “criminal act.”
In other words, the committee is reconstructing Giuliani’s extensive role in pressuring GOP-led states to help Trump steal the election. As the New York Times reports, Giuliani also helped develop the “legal” strategy by which Trump would exploit the Electoral Count Act of 1887 to pull this off.
But during Giuliani’s appearance on Newsmax, an entirely alternate storyline unfolded, one hermetically sealed off from the events that actually did unfold. He declared the committee “illegal,” based on one of the dumber right-wing arguments making the rounds.
“Jan. 6 is nothing more than ‘Russian collusion,’ with another name, and a new lie,” Giuliani continued. Then he mimicked what he said were “crazy, exaggerated” claims by Democrats: “It’s worse than September 11th, it’s worse than Pearl Harbor, it’s worse than the Civil War!!!”
As Giuliani’s fake outrage crescendoed, his voice rose to a manic pitch:
Giuliani also unleashed a jumble of other right-wing obsessions, railing about Democratic efforts to hold Trump accountable for pressuring Ukraine to announce a sham investigation of Biden to help Trump win reelection.
But what’s really telling is that Giuliani invoked the latest invented right-wing scandal involving special counsel John Durham, who is probing the roots of the Russia investigation. Giuliani railed that Durham has unmasked Hillary Clinton and her aides as “criminals” who engaged in a “frame up” of Trump over Russian interference in the 2016 election.
That’s pure nonsense. As Glenn Kessler demonstrates, the right has taken a new court filing from Durham and twisted it beyond recognition to insinuate he has uncovered new evidence of Clinton-linked “spying” on Trump’s campaign, which Durham himself doesn’t even claim.
What’s important here is the right’s broader alt-narrative, in which Democrats were the Real Insurrectionists. They tried to overthrow Trump’s government, by backing an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election (which actually happened), and by impeaching him for pressuring a foreign ally to corrupt the 2020 election (which also actually happened).
This hints at the role the fake Durham scandal will play in coming weeks.
As the committee’s latest scrutiny of Giuliani shows, it is seeking to assemble a very comprehensive picture of the degree to which Trump and his co-conspirators actually did attempt to overthrow our constitutional order to install him in power illegitimately, through extraordinary procedural corruption and then by inciting mob violence.
The fake Durham scandal will be chum to muddy up the media water as this full picture comes into view. It’s no accident that Trump himself has been madly pushing the Durham story in recent days. He’s very much in on this scam.
Phony scandals such as this one create a profound dilemma for the media. As New York Times reporter Charlie Savage wrote in a good piece, in the face of right-wing misinformation, news organizations must decide whether it merits coverage at all, since it’s misinformation, but if they don’t cover it, the right attacks them as biased.
The game is to cow the media into injecting pollution and sewage into the information environment. And this has created a badly lopsided situation.
note: this reveals the bullshit of the Press Poodles' manufactured dilemma. What they're saying here is that they're afraid of catching some heat for being slanted towards the truth.
They don't want to be forced to defend themselves for embracing reality!?!
Goddamn you fucking Press Poodles
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