Tuesday, January 4, 2022

And another day of The Riot and the Republic, GOP gaslighting, Hannity, cases vs. hospitalizations, fury and confusion over the Australian Open, stranded drivers, quitting jobs, and Google gives top executives a pay raise to $1M comes to a close:

“We’ve really got to stop putting old white people in positions of power.” — Jeremy Danner

“There sure are a lot of assholes in the world.” -- Andrea Kuszewski

Deaths

US: 851,439 (+2613)

World: 5,473,610 (+7931)

Cases

US: 58,040,720 (+965,212)

World: 295,560,824 (+2,626,464)

The Riot and the Republic. One year after a pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol, experts, historians and politicians warn of a democracy still at risk. "Focusing on this as a genuine inflection point in American history, comparable to the Civil War and the Revolution is not fanciful — it's absolutely historically correct," he said. "We are facing a historic crisis. The fate of the republic really is at stake.”

Despite brutal video, only GOP minority say 1/6 very violent. The fighting — so primitive and ferocious that one Capitol Police officer described it as “medieval” and another as a “trip to hell” — left more than 100 law enforcement personnel injured, some beaten with their own weapons. Video cameras captured the violence live, with rioters clubbing officers with flag polls and fire extinguishers, even squeezing one between doors as he begged for his life. Yet nearly a year after the Jan. 6 siege only about 4 in 10 Republicans recall the attack by supporters of then-President Donald Trump as very violent or extremely violent.

"The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” — George Orwell, 1984

Jan. 6 panel seeks interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection on Tuesday requested an interview with Fox News personality Sean Hannity, one of former President Donald Trump’s closest allies in the media, as the committee continues to widen its scope. In a letter to Hannity, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, Democratic chairman of the panel, said the panel wants to question him regarding his communications with former President Donald Trump, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and others in Trump’s orbit in the days surrounding the insurrection.

COVID case counts may be losing importance amid omicron. The explosive increase in U.S. coronavirus case counts is raising alarm, but some experts believe the focus should instead be on COVID-19 hospital admissions. And those aren’t climbing as fast.

Why are so many vaccinated people getting COVID-19 lately? A couple of factors are at play, starting with the emergence of the highly contagious omicron variant. Omicron is more likely to infect people, even if it doesn’t make them very sick, and its surge coincided with the holiday travel season in many places. People might mistakenly think the COVID-19 vaccines will completely block infection, but the shots are mainly designed to prevent severe illness, says Louis Mansky, a virus researcher at the University of Minnesota. And the vaccines are still doing their job on that front, particularly for people who’ve gotten boosters.

Novak Djokovic's exemption to play the Australian Open sparks fury and confusion. Australians have reacted with fury and confusion after tennis star Novak Djokovic revealed he had received a travel exemption to play in the Australian Open. Djokovic has consistently declined to reveal his vaccination status, and as a result looked unlikely to be allowed to play in the tournament. "We have been taken for fools."

Stranded drivers endure frigid night on impassable highway. Hundreds of motorists were stranded after a winter storm snarled traffic in Virginia and left some drivers stuck in place for nearly 24 hours in freezing temperatures along an impassable stretch of interstate south of the nation’s capital.

A record 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs in November. A record 4.5 million American workers quit their jobs in November, a sign of confidence and more evidence that the U.S. job market is bouncing back strongly from last year’s coronavirus recession.

Google will pay top execs $1 million each after declining to boost workers’ pay. Google is giving four of its top execs a significant pay bump, raising their salaries from $650,000 to $1 million, just weeks after the company told staffers it wouldn’t automatically adjust salaries to account for inflation. The new executive salaries were disclosed in an SEC filing.

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

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