Breaking News

The first video has been smuggled out of DumFux News HQ - depicting the opening battle between Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson.

No word yet as to whether US satellites are in position to detect the launch of Inter-Cubicle Missiles.

HuffPo:

Sean Hannity Seems To Rip 'Gutless' Tucker Carlson As Fox News Feud Turns Ugly
Fox News host Hannity responds to reports of Carlson's behind-the-scenes gossiping.

Fox News host Sean Hannity tore into The New York Times and its recent coverage of the behind-the-scenes drama at the right-wing cable network. But his harshest words may have been aimed at his colleague, Tucker Carlson.

This week, New York Times columnist Ben Smith said Carlson dishes out off-the-record gossip about the network, former President Donald Trump and other topics to reporters, calling his willingness to spill tea “one of Washington’s open secrets.” Sixteen journalists at other news outlets confirmed to Smith that Carlson had been a source.

On Thursday, Smith shared a report from the Pop Bitch gossip column that one of the topics Carlson liked to dish about was Hannity “and how much of a cringing Trump sycophant Sean is.”

On Thursday night, Hannity attacked Smith and the Times, mocking the paper of record for allowing a reporter to cite Pop Bitch.

“You can’t make this Adam Schiff up,” Hannity cracked.

But then his segment took a turn.

“Now the big news is that some people at Fox apparently don’t like me, and said bad things about me ― gutlessly ― behind my back, according to Ben Smith and members of the media mob,” Hannity said.

If the news was true, “that’s called a normal day in the world that I live in,” Hannity said.

He also claimed that he didn’t care what anyone said about him anyway.

“I’m not gonna change just because some of you don’t like me,” Hannity said.

Pariah-fication

Russia is further isolated as envoys walk out on Sergei Lavrov's address to the delegates at a UN human rights meeting in Geneva.

Reuters:

GENEVA, March 1 (Reuters) - More than 100diplomats from some 40 Western countries and allies including Japan walked out of a speech by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the top U.N. human rights forum on Tuesday in protest over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The boycott by envoys from the European Union, the United States, Britain and others left only a few diplomats in the room including Russia's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, who is a former deputy to Lavrov. Envoys from Syria, China and Venezuela were among delegations that stayed.

Lavrov was addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council remotely, after cancelling his visit due to what the Russian mission said on Monday were EU states blocking his flight path.

Neutral Switzerland also imposed financial sanctions on Lavrov on Monday, a measure of the international revulsion over an invasion Russia describes as a "special military operation" aimed at dislodging "neo-Nazis" ruling Ukraine.

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Black American History #29

Dr Clint Smith - The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

Tuskegee was not something that happened centuries ago. It didn't end until a year after I had left high school - and I never heard one fucking thing about it for years after that.

Also, Smith makes a great point. ie: "Tuskegee" is invoked to explain how racism was built into the healthcare system here in USAmerica Inc, while inviting the inference that since we've recognized how horrifically unethical it all was, we can dismiss it now as being part of a troubled past, and avoid having to acknowledge the ongoing problems of a racial divide in healthcare delivery that should be apparent to anyone who cares to look.

COVID-19 Update

In the 59 days so far this year, 2022:

124,953 Dead Americans because of COVID-19

WaPo:

Most Americans say the coronavirus is not yet under control and support restrictions to try to manage it, Post-ABC poll finds

Most Americans say some restrictions on normal activities should remain in place to try to control the coronavirus, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, which finds that public wariness of the pandemic lingers even as federal health officials and a growing roster of governors have softened mask advice.

The nationwide survey also shows that, two years into a health crisis that has claimed nearly 950,000 lives in the United States, bipartisan majorities think the virus is only “somewhat under control” or “not at all” controlled. Even so, most say they have fully or mostly returned to their normal, pre-coronavirus activities.

- snip -

Perceptions of the dangers posed by the coronavirus and attitudes toward restrictions reveal substantial partisan differences, according to the poll. Taken together, just over a third of U.S. adults say the coronavirus pandemic is “mostly” or “completely” under control; but 29 percent of Democrats say they hold that view, compared with 41 percent of Republicans.

Today's PG

Politics Girl - Leigh McGowan would like a word

COVID-19 Update

What happens with the numbers over the next 2 or 3 weeks should tell a pretty important story.

The World's 7-Day Average for New Cases is down better than 50% (per Worldometer) since the end of January.

Caveat: The removal of safety measures is something of a wild card.

WaPo: (freebie)

What is long covid? Current understanding about risks, symptoms and recovery.

The condition known as long covid continues to frustrate its sufferers, baffle scientists and alarm people who are concerned about being infected by the coronavirus. The term, a widely used catchall phrase for persistent symptoms that can range from mild to debilitating and last for weeks, months or longer, is technically known as Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection, or PASC. But scientists say much remains unknown about long covid, which is also referred to colloquially as “long-haul covid,” “long-term covid,” “post-covid conditions” and “post-covid syndrome,” among other names.

“This is a condition that we don’t even have an agreed upon name for yet, and we don’t have any understanding really of what’s going on down at a chemical level,” said Greg Vanichkachorn, medical director of Mayo Clinic’s COVID-19 Activity Rehabilitation Program. “So, until we have that kind of understanding, it’s really important that we not make quick decisions about what long covid can or can’t be.”

The National Institutes of Health has launched a research initiative to study the potential consequences of being infected with the coronavirus, including long covid, with the goal of identifying causes as well as means of prevention and treatment. It is building a nationwide study population to conduct that research.

In the meantime, experts said, long covid shouldn’t be dismissed or taken lightly. “This is real, definable, and causes significant patient suffering,” said Bruce Levy, chief of the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “The majority of people who got acutely infected felt totally normal before they had their infection, and now they don’t feel normal. That’s jarring.”

Long covid is destroying careers, leaving economic distress in its wake

The Washington Post spoke with experts who are researching and treating long covid, and compiled answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about the condition. Please keep in mind that because covid and its potential long-term effects are continuing to be studied and understood, many of these answers are not definitive, and information is likely to change.

WHAT TO KNOW

• What is long covid?
• How is long-haul covid diagnosed?
• How many people get long covid?
• Are there risk factors?
• What about long covid in children?
• What is the treatment for long covid?

Reminder

Never forget how deeply the American Right hates this country's traditions

of democratic self-government.

Their project is to tear it all down

and replace it

with a global, stateless plutocracy.

Last Week Tonight

Q: "What on Earth am I here for?"

A: "To be scapegoated in a generations-long morality war that has nothing to do with you and everything to do with how we, as a society view money, sex, and power."

John Oliver - Sex Work

Ukraine Stuff

Sky News UK - a quick assessment of Putin's Fuckup

After 30 years of Kleptocratic bloating, Russia has been badly hollowed out. So I don't think it's unreasonable to believe the same has need happening to the Russian military.

Think about the shenanigans at the Pentagon. We don't know how much of the $700 billion gets "lost" every year because of corruption-prone practices and outright graft - partly because so much of the budget is kept so secret that not even the few congress critters who're still more or less honest, and are supposed to be privy to the information get to see what's actually happening too our money.

There's still lots of shit that the Russian invasion forces can pull, but so far, they've badly underperformed, while those magnificent Ukrainian bastards are rompin'-n-stompin'.

Let's hope the first Russian units weren't just a "softening-up" thing, to test the Ukrainian defenses so the main force can charge in and sweep the joint clean.

Black American History #28

Dr Clint Smith - Crash Course - The Great Depression