Friday, August 13, 2021

And another day of wealth taxes, Covid deaths, quarantines, residents asked to use 911 sparingly, no pediatric ICU beds, vax mandates, drop in hunger reporting, Earth’s hottest month on record, marine viruses, and the end of Mexico’s coastline as we know it comes to a close:

“Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.” -- Aldous Huxley

Deaths

US: 637,161 (+863)

World: 4,358,238 (+10,350)

Cases

US: 37,364,700 (+161,051)

World: 206,956,928 (+727,479)

Wealth tax on billionaires' pandemic profits would vaccinate every adult on Earth. A one-time tax on the billionaires' collective wealth earned during the pandemic could finance vaccines for all adults across the globe, according to a new report. Drawing on data from Forbes, analysts from Oxfam, the Fight Inequality Alliance, the Institute for Policy Studies, and the Patriotic Millionaires, found the world’s billionaires accrued $5.5 trillion since the beginning of the pandemic. A 99 percent tax — totaling $5.455 trillion — on pandemic-era gains, they suggest, could fund world-wide vaccines with enough cash remaining to offer $20,000 to all unemployed workers. The authors note even after the tax, the world’s 2,690 billionaires would still see an average of $37 million in gains from pandemic-era earnings.— Remember, at $3600 an hour ($1 per second) it would take around 32 years to have $1 billion (Jeff Bezos has $192.4 billion), and 32,000 years to have $1 trillion.

DeSantis backs off threat to slash school officials' salaries. DeSantis’s press secretary, Christina Pushaw, told The Miami Herald in an email that “activist, anti-science school board members” should dock their own salaries if the state imposes financial sanctions on their districts.

COVID Kills 4 Teachers in One Day in Same Florida School District. “Within a 24-hour span, we had an assistant teacher pass away, a teacher at her school pass away, an elementary teacher pass away, and another teacher at a high school.” — At least three of the teachers were unvaccinated. Status of the fourth was unknown.

A total of 440 students have been quarantined in Palm Beach County, Florida, due to COVID-19—just two days after the start of the school year.

Covid surge prompts one Florida county to ask residents to use 911 sparingly. Jampacked emergency rooms and intensive care units have slowed hospital operations to a crawl, Brevard County Fire Rescue and Emergency Management officials said.

Amid Covid-19 surge, Dallas County has no pediatric ICU beds left, county judge says. "That means if your child's in a car wreck, if your child has a congenital heart defect or something and needs an ICU bed, or more likely if they have Covid and need an ICU bed, we don't have one. Your child will wait for another child to die," Jenkins said. "Your child will just not get on the ventilator, your child will be CareFlighted to Temple or Oklahoma City or wherever we can find them a bed, but they won't be getting one here unless one clears."

Across Texas, frantic parents search for options to keep kids safe in school. For the second straight school year, schools must worry about how to keep their staff and their children safe and ensure that they’re providing the best possible education during a pandemic that has killed more than 50,000 Texans. Complicating the matter this year: Gov. Greg Abbott has banned mask mandates in schools and the state will not provide funding for remote learning.

Texas county issues mask mandate, going against Abbott order. According to Harris Public Health, which covers Houston, the order applies to all public and nonreligious private schools and students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. It also pertains to licensed child care centers offering care for the 2021-22 school year.

Mississippi sees daily COVID cases hit new record.

An elementary school teacher in Northern California was hospitalized after being attacked by a parent during a verbal argument over the use of face masks on the first day of school. — Fuck all of them. 

Canada announces COVID jab mandate for travellers and gov’t workers. The requirements for all plane, train and cruise ship passengers, as well as all federal workers, will begin later this year.

Cornell Says No Remote Teaching as COVID Fears Persist. Scholars question the legality and morality of Cornell's refusal to consider requests from faculty to teach online -- even requests "premised on the need for a disability accommodation." — Hopefully lawsuits will follow.

More US cities requiring proof of vaccination to go places. Hold on to that vaccination card. A rapidly growing number of places across the U.S. are requiring people to show proof they have been inoculated against COVID-19 to teach school, work at a hospital, see a concert or eat inside a restaurant.

Live Nation will require vaccines or negative Covid tests from artists, customers. Live Nation Entertainment, one of the country's largest concert and ticketing companies, said it would require artists and fans at its venues and festivals to be fully vaccinated against Covid or show a negative test, a spokesperson said Friday.

The New Child Tax Credit Brings A Drop In Households Reporting Hunger. The Census Bureau conducted a survey before and after the credit was sent out. In a span of just six weeks, it showed the credit coincided with a quick drop in food insufficiency and a drop in those who say they have difficulty paying weekly expenses.

The Biden administration's nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives failed to disclose talks and events to Senate committee, including speaking on politics of agents.

Six people, including a child, were killed in a shooting in Plymouth, England, in the first mass shooting in the country in more than a decade.

Footballer was scared to come out as bisexual ‘because of the judgement’. He needn’t have worried. His heartfelt words were met with applause and support from his teammates and staff at the club.

A GOP strategist was arrested on 10 felony counts of underage sex trafficking, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice.

Minneapolis police will no longer stop motorists for minor traffic violations, such as expired tabs or a hanging air freshener. It has long been argued that these low-level stops contribute to racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

July was Earth's hottest month on record. July was the hottest month ever recorded, according to data released Friday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — an “unenviable distinction” that could ratchet up anxiety about climate change.

New NASA tool predicts end of Acapulco, Cancun and Cabo San Lucas. A new platform developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) called Sea Level Projection predicts the end of the Mexican coastline as we know it, including vacation spots like Acapulco, Cancun and Cabo San Lucas.

Scientists fear new dolphin virus could spark mass marine outbreak. Scientists from the University of Hawaii at Manoa are sounding the alarm over the discovery of a novel virus that could trigger outbreaks among marine mammals…Biologists identified a previously unknown strain of cetacean morbillivirus in the animal, a virus related to human measles and smallpox that is responsible for fatal outbreaks of disease in dolphins and whales across the globe. It’s the first strain of morbillivirus linked to Fraser’s dolphin.

Three volcanoes are erupting at the same time in Alaska. Along a remote, roughly 800-mile stretch of Alaska's Aleutian island chain, three volcanoes are erupting at the same time, with at least two spewing low levels of ash and steam.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.