1/2Medical staff treat a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient in their isolation room on the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Western Reserve Hospital in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, U.S., January 4, 2022. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
Jan 10 (Reuters) – COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States reached a record high on Monday, according to a Reuters tally, as a surge in infections caused by the highly contagious Omicron variant strains health systems in several states.
There were 132,646 people hospitalized with COVID, surpassing the record of 132,051 set in January last year.
Hospitalizations have increased steadily since late December, doubling in the last three weeks, as Omicron quickly overtook Delta as the dominant version of the virus in the United States.
Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Vermont, Virginia, Washington D.C., and Wisconsin have reported record levels of hospitalized COVID-19 patients recently, according to the Reuters analysis.
While potentially less severe, health officials have warned that the sheer number of infections caused by the Omicron variant could strain the hospital systems, some of which have already suspended elective procedures as they struggle to handle the surge of patients amid staff shortages.
The seven-day average for new cases has doubled in the last 10 days to 704,000. The United States has averaged over a half a million cases for the last six consecutive days, according to a Reuters tally.
Only seven states have not set records for COVID-19 cases in 2022 – Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio and Wyoming, according to a Reuters tally.
Washington, D.C., is leading the country in new infections in the past week based on population, followed by Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Vermont.
Deaths are averaging 1,700 per day, up from about 1,400 in recent days but within levels seen earlier this winter.
Category: Political / Governments / Nations / Countries /
Anti-Vax Leader Urges Followers to Drink Their Own Urine to Fight COVID
Anti-COVID-19 “Vaccine Police” leader Christopher Key has a new quarter-baked conspiracy theory for his anti-vax followers to use to cure themselves of COVID-19: Drink their own urine. “The antidote that we have seen now, and we have tons and tons of research, is urine therapy. OK, and I know to a lot of you this sounds crazy, but guys, God’s given us everything we need,” Key said in a video posted over the weekend on his Telegram account after being released from jail over a trespassing charge. “This has been around for centuries,” he added. “When I tell you this, please take it with a grain of salt,” the anti-vaccine advocate warned while saying people might now think he is “cray cray.” “Now drink urine!” he continued. “This vaccine is the worst bioweapon I have ever seen,” he concluded. “I drink my own urine!” Reached for comment by The Daily Beast on Sunday night, Key doubled down on what he calls “urine therapy” and railed against “foolish” people who took the COVID-19 vaccine, which is safe and effective.
These are the anti-Fauci / anti-CDC people who do their own research? Scottie
‘Learn to Lose’: Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade Goes In on Trump for Keeping Up His Big Lie Rhetoric
Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade said that former President Donald Trump needed to “learn to lose” regarding the results of the 2020 election in an appearance on Media Buzz with host Howie Kurtz.
To introduce his colleague, Kurtz noted that “at the heart of the outraged media coverage of January 6 is Donald Trump’s insistence — we sometimes get several statements a day from him — that he he did not lose the election. You have some thoughts about that.”
“Yeah, I do,” Kilmeade replied. “I think that in life, you have to learn to lose. Hillary Clinton has to learn that. You know, Al Gore pretty much did learn that. Stacey Abrams didn’t learn that.”
“And if you did, in fact, get screwed out of this election, put together an A-team list of lawyers — not the ones we witnessed — and show us the districts and show us how,” Kilmeade continued, obliquely referring to the dozens and dozens of lawsuits that Trump lost in state and federal courts across the country. “I have not seen any of that.”
“And people were very receptive,” the Fox & Friends co-host said, noting the skepticism on the right that Joe Biden could win, and citing the history of how Andrew Jackson had “lost a controversial election despite winning the popular vote,” and then cut a deal to become secretary of state, and then “goes and wins the next two elections and becomes more powerful.”
“In life, we have to learn to lose, Democrats and Republicans,” said Kilmeade.
“Is it anti-Trump by the media to report the fact that there is no significant evidence of widespread fraud?” asked Kurtz.
“It isn’t,” Kilmeade replied, also agreeing with Kurtz that Trump’s “re-litigating 2020 is not helping the country.”
As Kurtz mentioned, this was not the first time Kilmeade has made such comments on air. On Friday’s episode of Fox & Friends, he implored his viewers to accept the election results, and specifically called out Trump’s baseless election fraud claims. “That doesn’t help the country,” he said.
Cultists Forged State Docs Declaring Trump Winner
Politico reports:
As Trump’s team pushed its discredited voter fraud narrative, the National Archives received forged certificates of ascertainment declaring him and then-Vice President Mike Pence the winners of both Michigan and Arizona and their electors after the 2020 election. Public records requests show the secretaries of state for those states sent those certificates to the Jan. 6 panel, along with correspondence between the National Archives and state officials about the documents.
The National Archives sent emails to the Arizona secretary of state on Dec. 11, 2020, passing along the forged certificates “for your awareness” and informing the state officials the Archives would not accept them. Arizona then took legal action against at least one of the groups who sent in the fake documents, sending a cease and desist letter to a pro-Trump “sovereign citizen” group telling them to stop using the state seal and referring the matter to the state attorney general.
Read the full article.
Let’s talk about Yellowstone and wolves….
Daily cartoon / meme Roundup: Is the US still a first world developed nation? Not according to the standard of living in other developed nations. The people of the US deserve better.
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Scottie’s World Today
I almost did not do the roundup today. I got up at 4:30 AM to get ready for my first in the morning doctors appointment. I got multiple shots into my spine. They give a numbing shot to the area, then quickly follow it up with the insertion of a catheter, and then come back and inject the substance into the vertebrae . My vertebrae are misshapen and destroyed. They grow in ways that catch or pinch my nerves. Some times they stretch the nerves and others they smash / pinch them. Each produces different sensations and pain levels. At one injection the pain was so bad that I nearly passed out. The doctor told me he had to inject the stuff right above the nerve causing it to have a lot of pressure so the signal it sent to the brain was intense to say the least.
I got home and Ron fed me a wonderful baked pasta dish he made and I went right to bed. Then hours later I got up and started the Roundup. I love it so much I really want to do it. But I have to do a bunch of legal paperwork in the next few days to get a bunch of stuff done so the roundup may be late or just skipped. Best wishes to everyone. Scottie
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The race to the bottom is capitalist construct.
There is no unskilled labor just poorly paid jobs that upper income people look down at those who do them. Scottie
They demand government support and get it while the people suffer. We seen this oveer the last two years. Scottie
This is due to gerrymandering / voter suppression laws , and big money in politics. Why listen to the voters is only your supporters can vote? Scottie
Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, actual devils, are calling out today’s Republican traitors.
Would love to hear Republicans denounce white supremacy. Out loud. On the record. On a regular basis. Same with their base.
White conservative terror wants to be regarded as the default.
If you want democracy, you want to expand voting rights.
The times they are-a changin’.
Knownothingism is conservative gospel.
We know long haul Covid is very harmful, we know some aspects of Covid in kids manifests after they seem to get better. What we don’t know is what the long term effects of Covid are on the brain / nervous system. If it causes you to lose taste and smell when sick, what does it do long term to your sensory nerves? Do we really want to take the chance with kids?
Situation still tenuous. He won the first case in court yet the Australian government has said they will appeal the ruling. Scottie
Red State politics are negligent and lethal.
How many rude annoying people treat servers when they go out to eat. Scottie
It all starts with elections of representatives who decide policy and law. If the representative is owned by the 1%, then interests of working people are abandoned. USAunify.org
https://twitter.com/GBBranstetter/status/1480166896750239752?s=20
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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes
School choice is a dog whistle, it is code for what the right really wants. Segregated schools paid for by the tax payer. They basically want schools that teach / preach their views paid for by the public. That was what most charter schools were, a disguised attempt to get around the public curriculum but being paid for by the public. Religious people want to be able to send their kids to private schools paid for by the taxpayer so kids can be indoctrinated into science denying bigots, the white supremacist want white only schools so their kids don’t have to mix with the non-whites they are taught to look down on, and the wealthy want you the public to pay for expensive great schools their kids get to attend so they wont have to associate with the general population they see as be low them. Scottie
Of course Republicans would prefer to quietly strangle your right to vote like a python than publicly tread on the topic. In the reality-reversed alternative universe Ramirez is writing from, he thinks allowing more people to vote more easily with equal access for all voters and all votes being counted with equal weight is treading on freedom? What Michael Ramirez wants to see is an election system in which white suburban and rural voters can get in and out of a convenient, nearby polling place in five minutes, while those in minority areas see most polling places closed until they have to drive very far and then wait in line for six or seven hours (with a prohibition on providing them with food or water) in order to vote, with the proviso that if the state legislature doesn’t like the outcome, it can throw out the results and install its own outcome.
Ramirez wants to return to the original voting standard as envisioned by the original founders: white male landowners are the only ones allowed to vote. He seems oblivious to the fact (or just doesn’t care about facts) that we have had twenty-seven amendments since then, each written by a new set of founders, that have equal weight to the original Constitution and which include many expansions of the right to vote to include all adult citizens age eighteen or over regardless of race, ethnicity, previous condition of servitude, gender and without undue burdens imposed.
Michael Ramirez demonstrates what Senator Raphael Warnock meant when he said, “Some people don’t want some people to vote.” Scottie
The CDC is an organization made up of skilled people with expertise / education to protect the people of the US for the viruses and diseases that threaten the public. That is their jobs and they do it well. They give the White House their best advice and suggestions. As we seen in the last administration the White House can ignore their advice if the president wishes to do so. Scottie
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And now some for fun
Daily cartoon / meme roundup: We the people have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We are not livestock that exist to make profit for the wealthy
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Scottie’s world today
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The race to the bottom is capitalist construct.
Seems to me the places having less of a problem getting and keeping restaurant workers are the ones ditching tips and paying more. Sure, they’ve raised their prices, but adjusted for not tipping, it comes out as a push for the customer. Aw, whose a good boy?! Works for leftovers. The dog, but not the previous waiter. Scottie
Why not use empty buildings / apartments to house the homeless. it is win win for the landlords, the homeless, and the government. In places were this has been done it has found to be cheaper than locking up the homeless or other ways to deal with them. Scottie
Dead man walking.
People who watch FOX think it’s a news channel and do not care that it is an entertainment channel with opinions, not journalism.
That is their research. Opinions are their facts.
More than 760 kids under the age of 18 are getting hospitalized with COVID-19 on average each day, according to CDC data. It’s the highest average ever reported for the age group.
“”For the week ending December 30, 2021, more than 325,000 cases were reported among children—a 64 percent increase from the previous week and nearly double the cases from two weeks prior,” says Dr. Noah Greenspan, PT, DPT, a cardiopulmonary physical therapist and the director of Pulmonary Wellness ComplexPT, who has been treating COVID patients since the beginning of the pandemic.”
SOURCE: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/more-kids-being-hospitalized-covid-210857541.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
Normally I would put this anti-CDC stuff in the misleading right wing media section, but the recent guidelines that changed several times a day for several days due to lack of tests for the Coronavirus variants and people needing to work to survive. So this time he has a point. While the recommendations have changed rapidly recently the CDC has to take into account reality when they issue their guidelines. Their job is to recommend the best public health measures to take to best protect the people from a public health threat. The reality is the US doesn’t currently have enough tests for people to test and quarantine then test again until they are negative for Coronavirus as they were doing, and people also need to work to survive in the US so have to be able to go back to work with out a negative test. While the CDC guidelines are not the optimum they are the best considering the circumstances. Scottie
Twelve people were killed Wednesday when gunmen stormed a French satirical news magazine, a weekly publication called Charlie Hebdo, which has published cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. Scottie
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Misleading right wing media cartoons / memes
As January 6th was an attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power, an attempted coup, an insurrection designed to deny the will of the people who voted to elect Biden president in a fair and valid election, yes it was much worse. The attack and deaths of 9/11 couldn’t destroy the US nor stop the government from functioning. Jan 6th did stop the government from functioning and could have destroyed / ended the US form of democratic government by force. Scottie
“The general public and the politicians who serve them, like me, tend to reflexively support punitive sentencing measures that often fail to promote public safety and result in needless deprivation of freedom, burdensome taxpayer cost and unimaginable racial and regional disparities,” Mariani said. Supporters of the change contend it would help promote rehabilitation and save taxpayer money by freeing up prison space.
DFL Gov. Tim Walz shared some thoughts on the proposal earlier this week, saying he thinks the commission will make sure the most violent criminals remain locked up.
“Trying to tell Minnesotans that this is somehow going to make them less safe is simply not true,” Walz said. “The sentencing commission is made up of a vast swath of expertise. So, I would expect them to make the right decision on that, to be smart about what it takes for Minnesota to keep Minnesotans safe.“ Scottie
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And now some for fun
https://twitter.com/cohencidents/status/1479601102781919232?s=20
Star Wars reference. Imperial storm troopers are notorious for missing every good guy they shoot at. Scottie
Florida Official Admits State Let 1M Test Kits Expire
Yahoo News reports:
A Florida official admitted Thursday that as many as 1 million COVID-19 test kits expired in a state warehouse over the last few days of December while coronavirus cases were skyrocketing and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said nothing about the health crisis.
Kevin Guthrie, director of the state Division of Emergency Management, made the startling revelation about the Abbott Laboratories rapid test kits in response to a reporter’s question at a Palm Beach press conference where DeSantis was touting the state’s acquisition of an additional 1 million tests.
Guthrie claimed at the press conference that there was simply no demand for the tests that expired — despite massively long lines of Floridians waiting for tests that were available elsewhere, and despite drugstores being sold out of COVID tests.
Politico reports:
DeSantis on Friday defended his administration’s decision to allow up to one million Covid-19 rapid test kits to expire, a move that comes as he is facing increasing criticism from Democrats over his handling of the Omicron surge.
DeSantis has argued that the stockpile resulted from a lack of demand in the later part of 2021 and blamed President Joe Biden’s administration for not granting extensions to keep the tests eligible — something it did in September for three months.
In the days before Thursday’s admission, DeSantis had focused on erasing the “testing psychology,” essentially arguing against the practice that all individuals should get tests regardless of whether they show Covid-related symptoms while railing against the federal government for not providing tests.
School administrator’s memo about Jan. 6 sparks controversy
2 commissioners removed from office after perjury charges
https://apnews.com/article/arrests-florida-ron-desantis-22c716a4ec47ac6fc5ad09611d8d1470
Two county commissioners in central Florida were suspended from office Thursday, several weeks after being arrested and charged with lying during an investigation of possible Sunshine Law violations.
Gov. Ron DeSantis issued two executive orders to remove Sumter County commissioners Oren Miller and Gary Search from their elected offices until their criminal cases are resolved, in accordance with state law. Miller and Search were arrested Dec. 15 and charged with perjury.
DeSantis, Miller and Search are all Republicans. Miller and Search are both residents of The Villages, a massive retirement community.
Florida’s Sunshine Law requires public access for any gathering of two or more members of the same government board to discuss a matter that could foreseeably come before that board for action. The Fifth Circuit State Attorney’s Office initially received three complaints last year that Miller and Search were communicating through Miller’s wife.
Phone records showed Miller and Search contacted each other directly over 40 times between November 2020, when they were both elected, and July 2021, prosecutors said. Miller told investigators the calls stopped in January or February after they realized the communication might be an issue, and Search told investigators he had no contact with Miller outside public meetings, according to court documents. The phone records showed that nearly half of the calls between the two men were made after January 2021.
Arrest affidavits didn’t say what Miller and Search were discussing, but many of the calls were made just before or just after scheduled county commission meetings, prosecutors said.
Defense attorneys for Miller and Search didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment from The Associated Press.
Scottie's Playtime 
Pearl Harbor and 9/11 took more American lives than the January 6 attempted coup so, in that sense, were greater tragedies.
But Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were attacks by FOREIGN agents.
January 6 was an act of treason perpetrated by a sitting president to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power after HE LOST AN ELECTION BY MORE THAN SEVEN MILLION VOTES.
January 6 was an act of terroristic treason COMMITTED BY AMERICANS, not foreigners.
January 6 was the first time the U.S. CAPITOL had been taken over by hostile forces since the War of 1812. Not even during the Civil War did the Capitol get taken over; the KKKonfederate flag was never raised inside the U.S. Capitol until January 6.
January 6 was the first time ever that the Constitutional electoral role of certifying a presidential election was disrupted by force.
After Pearl Harbor and 9/11, you didn’t have 30-40% of the population SUPPORTING THE FOREIGN ATTACKERS.
Comparing January 6 and Pearl Harbor or 9/11 is like comparing an orange with a bushel of apples. Pearl Harbor and 9/11 were FOREIGN attacks that caused more loss of life but united our country. January 6 caused fewer deaths but further divided our country.
ANYONE WHO SUPPORTS, MINIMIZES OR RATIONALIZES THE TRAITOROUS, TERRORISTIC ATTEMPTED COUP is a traitor.
The U.S. Constitution provides two possible definitions of treason: either giving aid or comfort to the enemy (with enemy defined in legal decisions to mean as an adversarial combatant in a declared war), which clearly does not apply, or being in open rebellion against the United States government, which applied for those who waged violent rebellion against the United States during the Civil War and reasonably applies to what happened on January 6.
A violent, armed insurrection against the United States Capitol for the purpose of stopping the congress from completing a CONSTITUTIONALLY-MANDATED PRO-FORMA DUTY in order to OVERTHROW A LAWFUL ELECTION is clearly an act of open rebellion against the United States.
Much evidence has already been made public and much evidence will be revealed in the days to come as more serious charges are filed.
And we all watched on television as an ARMED MOB of Trump insurrectionists, in response to directions from the president in a carefully-planned military maneuver including printed T-shirts equating themselves to July 4, 1776, invaded the U.S. Capitol and forcibly disrupted a CONSTITUTIONALLY-MANDATED pro-forma session to complete a federal election. They came armed, including weapons of various sorts (including some firearms, we now know), and including zip ties, wall climbing equipment, wearing bulletproof vests, and many other indications of a well-planned insurrection.
Whether or not the Justice Department decides to file charges of treason, the actions that have been charged and proved so far, with more to come, clearly rise to the Constitutional definition.
All those who defend, rationalize, minimize or excuse these acts of violent rebellion against the United States are complicit after the fact in the treason.