“Health is not valued till sickness comes.” -- Thomas Fuller
Deaths
US: 285,550 (+2721)
World: 1,524,348 (+12,433)
Cases
US: 14,772,535 (+237,339)
World: 66,228,305 (+692,279)
Countdown 1: 32 days.
Countdown 2: 47 days.
Covid-19 is the leading cause of death in the US this week, health institute reports.
274,000 Dead, and Trump Obsesses Over Election Conspiracy Theories. Where’s the Outrage? All the harrumphing was about an improper Oval Office tryst that did indeed tarnish the highest position in the land. But that fin-de-siècle chest-banging seems rather quaint and silly now, for today there is a lack of outrage over a far more significant matter: the death of more than a quarter-million Americans. On Wednesday, the United States set a new record for COVID-19 deaths: 2,804. This is just 173 shy of the death toll of 9/11—that cataclysmic event that reordered elements of American society. The United States is looking at that level of loss on a daily basis. Yet there is little uproar...It is true that 81 million Americans voted to fire Trump, no doubt much because of his coronavirus malfeasance. But 74 million others were not upset by Trump’s mismanagement. They essentially declared, “This is fine by me.” For them, the staggering loss of life for which Trump bears partial responsibility was not a deal-breaker. It was tolerable...Trump has engaged in so many outrages as a candidate and president—paying off a porn star, aiding and abetting a Russian attack on the United States, calling for his foes to be locked up, pressuring a foreign leader to investigate a political opponent, refusing to explain suspicious business and financial dealings, separating families, engaging in racist rhetoric, encouraging violence—that these episodes lose their shock value. Human beings can only absorb so much outrage. Our brains are generally wired to accommodate to circumstances. It’s a survival mechanism. We cannot process and sustain the high levels of anger that Trump’s never-ending misdeeds trigger.
“The Virus Isn’t Noctural”: The Folly of COVID Curfews. “Any step we take,” Romero said, “is much better than not doing anything.” Research, however, suggests otherwise. For example, curfews end up disproportionately affecting people of color, who are both more likely to be stopped by police and who often have worse outcomes following interactions with cops. Undocumented essential workers are more likely to end up detained over their immigration status, even if their jobs fell under the exempted categories. “Even if there’s no criminal penalty for violating curfew, if there’s any kind of civil penalty, that can really cause a lot of financial harm to people as well,” Rasmussen said. “So I think that curfews do potentially more harm than good.”
Can your employer force you to get a COVID-19 vaccine? "Generally speaking, employers are free to require safety measures like vaccination with exceptions for certain employees," said Aaron Goldstein, a labor and employment partner at the international law firm Dorsey & Whitney. "So the answer is likely to be yes, with an asterisk."
Beating the anti-vaxxers: how star power can help squash vaccine myths. Vaccine hesitancy is growing, thanks in part to social media misinformation. Time for the Elvis approach?
Republicans are hit the hardest as coronavirus spreads among elected leaders. A persistent refusal to adhere to COVID-19 safety measures has put many Republican leaders and the public at risk, experts say. Those who hold office set the example of expected behavior. And it starts, they said, with the commander in chief. “We’re incredibly frustrated, angry, sad and despondent,” said epidemiologist Eric Feigl-Ding, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists. He likens it to Trump piloting a plane on a trajectory to crash with 330 million Americans aboard. “Epidemiologists who know how to steer this plane are pounding on the cockpit door begging him to please listen, please follow the evidence,” Feigl-Ding said. “It’s a living nightmare.”
Trump Pentagon nominee spreads debunked conspiracies and tweets suggesting Trump declare martial law. The tweet references a petition Flynn shared on Twitter calling for Trump to declare martial law and order a new presidential election. The petition falsely called November's presidential election "fraudulent" and called on Trump to have the military oversee a new election. Attorney General William Barr said in an interview published Tuesday that there is no evidence that widespread fraud occurred during the election.
Trump purges Pentagon advisory board and gives seats to former campaign managers.
Trump orders most US troops to withdraw from Somalia. The Pentagon said Friday it is pulling most U.S. troops out of Somalia on President Donald Trump's orders, continuing a post-election push by Mr. Trump to shrink U.S. involvement in counterterrorism missions abroad.
Trump administration must accept new DACA applications, judge orders.
U.S. economy gains just 245,000 jobs in final report of 2020 as recovery stalls with Covid surging. “The virus is in the driver’s seat. The virus is what determines the trajectory of the recovery,” one economist said.
House passes bill decriminalizing marijuana at federal level. It has little chance of passing the Republican-led Senate, however.
Covid chaos in NFL as 'business as usual' approach flounders. The NFL’s troubles have become, some say, an expensive and high-profile microcosm of the wider antagonism in the US over the virus, pitting the desire to continue with business as usual against warnings from health officials about the high level of risk posed by close-contact sports.
Why These World War II Sex Slaves Are Still Demanding Justice. Narcisa begins to cry as she thinks back to her childhood in the Philippines during World War II. "If I could prevent the sun from setting, I would, because whenever night fell, they would start raping us," she says. She was 12 years old at the time. Narcisa is one of the last survivors of a system of sexual servitude set up by the Japanese imperial troops during World War II. They used abduction, coercion and deception to force women and girls to provide sexual gratification to military personnel. Researchers cited in court cases say that large numbers of them did not survive...And in the Philippines as well. There were "probably about a thousand women and girls taken and put into military sex-slave camps" during the Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1945, according to writer and researcher Evelina Galang.
Jupiter and Saturn will form the first "double planet" in 800 years. Before 2020 comes to a close, Jupiter and Saturn will be so close that they will appear to form a "double planet." The great conjunction, as the planetary alignment has come to be known, hasn't occurred in nearly 800 years.
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
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