Somewhere in Ukraine tonight,
there's a grandmother getting ready
to risk everything for a chance
to throw a Molotov cocktail at a Russian tank.
All you're being asked to do
is to get off your ass and go vote.
Feb 27, 2022
COVID-19 Update
Plus, I kinda enjoy the low incidence of flu these last couple of years. So it makes sense for me.
AP:
CDC: Many healthy Americans can take a break from masks
Most Americans live in places where healthy people, including students in schools, can safely take a break from wearing masks under new U.S. guidelines released Friday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlined the new set of measures for communities where COVID-19 is easing its grip, with less of a focus on positive test results and more on what’s happening at hospitals.
The new system greatly changes the look of the CDC’s risk map and puts more than 70% of the U.S. population in counties where the coronavirus is posing a low or medium threat to hospitals. Those are the people who can stop wearing masks, the agency said.
The agency is still advising people, including schoolchildren, to wear masks where the risk of COVID-19 is high. That’s the situation in about 37% of U.S. counties, where about 28% of Americans live.
The new recommendations do not change the requirement to wear masks on public transportation and indoors in airports, train stations and bus stations. The CDC guidelines for other indoor spaces aren’t binding, meaning cities and institutions even in areas of low risk may set their own rules. And the agency says people with COVID-19 symptoms or who test positive shouldn’t stop wearing masks.
But with protection from immunity rising — both from vaccination and infection — the overall risk of severe disease is now generally lower, the CDC said.
“Anybody is certainly welcome to wear a mask at any time if they feel safer wearing a mask,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a news briefing. “We want to make sure our hospitals are OK and people are not coming in with severe disease. ... Anyone can go to the CDC website, find out the volume of disease in their community and make that decision.”
Some states, including Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey, are at low to medium risk while others such as West Virginia, Kentucky, Florida and Arizona still have wide areas at high levels of concern.
CDC’s previous transmission-prevention guidance to communities focused on two measures — the rate of new COVID-19 cases and the percentage of positive test results over the previous week.
Based on those measures, agency officials advised people to wear masks indoors in counties where spread of the virus was deemed substantial or high. As of this week, more than 3,000 of the nation’s more than 3,200 counties — greater than 95% — were listed as having substantial or high transmission under those measures.
That guidance has increasingly been ignored, however, with states, cities, counties and school districts across the U.S. announcing plans to drop mask mandates amid declining COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
With many Americans already taking off their masks, the CDC’s shift won’t make much practical difference for now, said Andrew Noymer, a public health professor at the University of California, Irvine. But it will help when the next wave of infection — a likelihood in the fall or winter — starts threatening hospital capacity again, he said.
“There will be more waves of COVID. And so I think it makes sense to give people a break from masking,” Noymer said. “If we have continual masking orders, they might become a total joke by the time we really need them again.”
The CDC is offering a color-coded map — with counties designated as orange, yellow or green — to help guide local officials and residents. In green counties, local officials can drop any indoor masking rules. Yellow means people at high risk for severe disease should be cautious. Orange designates places where the CDC suggests masking should be universal.
How a county comes to be designated green, yellow or orange will depend on its rate of new COVID-19 hospital admissions, the share of staffed hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients and the rate of new cases in the community.
Taking hospital data into account has turned some counties — such as Boulder County, Colorado — from high risk to low.
Mask requirements already have ended in most of the U.S. in recent weeks. Los Angeles on Friday began allowing people to remove their masks while indoors if they are vaccinated, and indoor mask mandates in Washington state and Oregon will be lifted in late March.
In a sign of the political divisions over masks, Florida’s governor on Thursday announced new recommendations called “Buck the CDC” that actually discourage mask wearing.
In Pennsylvania, acting health secretary Keara Klinepeter urged “patience and grace” for people who choose to continue masking in public, including those with weakened immune systems. She said she’ll keep wearing a mask because she’s pregnant.
State health officials are generally pleased with the new guidance and “excited with how this is being rolled out,” said Dr. Marcus Plescia of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
“This is the way we need to go. I think this is taking us forward with a new direction going on in the pandemic,” Plescia said. “But we’re still focusing on safety. We’re still focusing on preventing death and illness.”
The CDC said the new system will be useful in predicting future surges and urged communities with wastewater surveillance systems to use that data too.
“If or when new variants emerge or the virus surges, we have more ways to protect ourselves and our communities than ever before,” Walensky said.
How a county comes to be designated green, yellow or orange will depend on its rate of new COVID-19 hospital admissions, the share of staffed hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients and the rate of new cases in the community.
Taking hospital data into account has turned some counties — such as Boulder County, Colorado — from high risk to low.
Mask requirements already have ended in most of the U.S. in recent weeks. Los Angeles on Friday began allowing people to remove their masks while indoors if they are vaccinated, and indoor mask mandates in Washington state and Oregon will be lifted in late March.
In a sign of the political divisions over masks, Florida’s governor on Thursday announced new recommendations called “Buck the CDC” that actually discourage mask wearing.
In Pennsylvania, acting health secretary Keara Klinepeter urged “patience and grace” for people who choose to continue masking in public, including those with weakened immune systems. She said she’ll keep wearing a mask because she’s pregnant.
State health officials are generally pleased with the new guidance and “excited with how this is being rolled out,” said Dr. Marcus Plescia of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
“This is the way we need to go. I think this is taking us forward with a new direction going on in the pandemic,” Plescia said. “But we’re still focusing on safety. We’re still focusing on preventing death and illness.”
The CDC said the new system will be useful in predicting future surges and urged communities with wastewater surveillance systems to use that data too.
“If or when new variants emerge or the virus surges, we have more ways to protect ourselves and our communities than ever before,” Walensky said.
Ukraine So Far
Ukrainians - you magnificent bastards.
Putin puts Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday put nuclear deterrent forces onto high alert, in response to sanctions and what he called “aggressive statements” from the West against Russia.
It’s a major escalation of tensions with NATO after Western nations announced plans to restrict the Russian central bank from its foreign currency reserves and cut off certain Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system.
“Top officials of the leading NATO countries also allow aggressive statements against our country,” Putin said at a Kremlin meeting Sunday, as he ordered Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov to put the nuclear deterrence forces into “special combat duty.”
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in an interview on “Face the Nation” that Putin’s order was a “totally unacceptable” sign of escalation.
“We have to continue to stem his actions in the strongest possible way,” she said.
We're coming up on 96 hours, and the Russians still haven't taken Kyiv or Kharkiv - and they haven't managed to gain air supremacy yet.
Putin's nuclear alert is worrisome, but it could be a sign that he's getting a little panicky.
Every day that Ukraine holds out makes Putin look a little weaker, which can always mean he gets more dangerous.
WaPo: (pay wall)
Putin puts Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday put nuclear deterrent forces onto high alert, in response to sanctions and what he called “aggressive statements” from the West against Russia.
It’s a major escalation of tensions with NATO after Western nations announced plans to restrict the Russian central bank from its foreign currency reserves and cut off certain Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system.
“Top officials of the leading NATO countries also allow aggressive statements against our country,” Putin said at a Kremlin meeting Sunday, as he ordered Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov to put the nuclear deterrence forces into “special combat duty.”
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in an interview on “Face the Nation” that Putin’s order was a “totally unacceptable” sign of escalation.
“We have to continue to stem his actions in the strongest possible way,” she said.
But I think there may be reason to believe Putin is about to get some serious trouble from the inside.
The sanctions imposed by most of the world's major players could fuck up Russian Oligarchs pretty bad, so they won't look kindly on Putin's bluff-n-bluster. Shit's bad for business.
And going around threatening to nuke the world just isn't going to set well with the Russian military folks who know for a fact that while everybody loses in a nuclear exchange, Russia will be burnt to cinders, and the west, though badly bloodied, will not be beaten.
 |
| I'll hazard a guess and say Berliners know a fascist asshole when they see one. |
Black American History #27
Dr Clint Smith - Crash Course - Political Thought in the Harlem Renaissance
Feb 26, 2022
Today's GOP
From The Lincoln Project
Because it doesn't just seem like the GOP is always on the wrong fuckin' side.
Never forget how deeply Republicans hate this country's traditions
of democratic self-government.
Their project is to tear it all down and replace it with Plutocracy.
COVID-19 Update
CDC loosens masking guidance
The CDC announced today that it has created new metrics for determining when people should use masks and take other COVID precautions, and now recommends universal masking for less than a third of the U.S. population.
Why it matters:
- The new metrics are intended to reflect the evolution of the pandemic amid widespread vaccinations and the less-severe Omicron variant.
State of play:
- The CDC has developed the new benchmarks over the last six weeks or so, a source involved in developing the new system told Axios on Thursday, as Omicron hit the U.S. and then receded.
- The goal is to move away from using case counts alone to determine when to mask and take other precautions, like distancing or avoiding high-risk settings.
- Previously, the CDC had recommended universal indoor masking in areas of substantial or high transmission, which included the vast majority of U.S. counties.
The new benchmarks instead tie masking recommendations to a combination of a community's level of cases, hospitalizations and hospital capacity.
The CDC now only recommends universal masking in places with high COVID community levels, as determined by the new metrics.
The CDC is basing its updated benchmarks on data from previous surges as well as modeling.
Between the lines:
- As vaccination and booster rates have risen, case counts have become an increasingly less meaningful measure of the severity of the pandemic. Many experts argue that hospitalizations and the amount of severe cases are much better indicators of how serious an outbreak is.
- The new guidance may not have much of a practical impact for many Americans.
- Many cities and states have already lifted their mask mandates as Omicron subsides — and plenty more haven't had a mask mandate for a long time, if ever.
I continue to mask up because I'm old and fat, and a touch of arthritis means my immune system may be a little iffy.
Besides, there are just too many dirty people out there.
Black American History #26
Dr Clint Smith - Crash Course - Arts & Letters Of The Harlem Renaissance
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore - and then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags, like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
--Langston Hughes
Feb 25, 2022
Today's Tweet
This seems very much on brand for a Putin military.
Graphic ⚠️
Graphic ⚠️
— Ann is still European 🌍Stand with Ukraine 🌻🇺🇦 (@56blackcat) February 25, 2022
A Russian tank swerves & runs over civilian car.
Peacekeepers my ass.
This is sheer cruelty. pic.twitter.com/JMMgTobm9X
One That Almost Slipped By
WaPo: (pay wall)
Three plead guilty to terrorism charges in white supremacist plot to disrupt U.S. power grid, start race war
Three men have pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges for plotting to attack the U.S. power grid, hoping that the ensuing electricity outages would stir civil and economic unrest that could lead to a race war, the Justice Department said on Wednesday.
Christopher Brenner Cook, 20, of Columbus, Ohio; Jonathan Allen Frost, 24, of Katy, Tex., and West Lafayette, Ind.; and Jackson Matthew Sawall, 22, of Oshkosh, Wis., sought to assault power grids with “powerful rifles,” federal officials said. The three have pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and face up to 15 years in prison.
“The defendants believed their plan would cost the government millions of dollars and cause unrest for Americans in the region,” the Justice Department said in a news release. “They had conversations about how the possibility of the power being out for many months could cause war, even a race war, and induce the next Great Depression.”
In the fall of 2019, Frost and Cook met in an online chat group, and Frost raised the idea of attacking a power grid, according to the Justice Department. Within weeks, the two started recruiting others. Cook circulated a list of readings that promoted neo-Nazism and white-supremacist ideology as part of the recruitment process, the agency said, and Sawall, already a friend of Cook, quickly joined.
A few months later, in February 2020, the trio gathered in Columbus, Ohio. There, Frost supplied Cook with a rifle, which the two took to a shooting range for training, the Justice Department said in the news release. It said Frost also gave out “suicide necklaces” filled with fentanyl, which depresses the central nervous system and can cause death. The three agreed to take the drug should they be caught by law enforcement, the release said.
At one point during the Columbus gathering, Cook and Sawall were “derailed during a traffic stop” after spray-painting a swastika under a bridge with the caption “Join the Front,” the Justice Department said, adding that Sawall swallowed his suicide pill but survived.
The following month, Cook and Frost drove to Texas, and “Cook stayed in different cities with various juveniles he was attempting to recruit for their plot,” according to the Justice Department.
In August 2020, FBI agents searched the residences of the three men and found “racially motivated violent extremism Nazi material” and weapons, according to court documents. In Frost’s bedroom, the FBI found chemicals and components that were “consistent with someone attempting to test and assemble an explosive device.”
The men held “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist views,” Timothy Langan, assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, said in the news release.
U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker, who oversees the southern district of Ohio, said the three had “conspired to use violence to sow hate, create chaos, and endanger the safety of the American people.”
“As this case shows, federal and state law enforcement agencies are dedicated to working together to protect this country against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” Parker said.
Samuel Shamansky, the attorney for Frost, said in a phone interview that his client had “improved immensely” in the past year with the help of mental counseling and has “completely disavowed” his past racist views. “He understands how hurtful and immoral those positions were and are,” Shamansky said.
Peter Scranton, an attorney for Cook, declined to comment, while the attorney for Sawall didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment late Thursday. The Justice Department prosecutors declined to comment.
Frost graduated from Purdue University in 2020 with a degree in computer information and technology, according to the Purdue Exponent, a student newspaper. Little could be learned about Frost’s alleged co-conspirators, though two 2018 articles in the Florida Today newspaper describe a man similar to Sawall’s profile as having gone missing in Melbourne, Fla., before turning up “alive and well” in Montana several days later.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)