I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Linkee-poo is eyeing the overseas page, the trains are running late, as you close the garden gate

"Every time a cell inside your body replicates, a slither of your youth crumbles to dust. This occurs via the shortening of telomeres, structures that 'cap' the tips of our chromosomes… Now, scientists in Israel say they've been able to reverse this process and extend the length of telomeres in a small study involving 26 patients." Waits for the first "hyperbaric" facial cream to be advertised. Yes, I know that doesn't make sense, but neither does a lot of skin care advertising. Also, 26 people? That's an exceptionally small group for an industry that specialized in exceptionally small study groups.

My God, it's full of… red dust? "And there it was -- in the middle of the red rock was a shiny, silver metal monolith sticking out of the ground. Hutchings guessed it was "between 10 and 12 feet high." It didn't look like it was randomly dropped to the ground, he told KSL, but rather it looked like it had been planted."

One more time, for the people in the back who haven't been listening… "People who aren’t showing COVID-19 symptoms but have the virus are causing most of the spread, the Centers for Disease Control said in a new guidance." Also… "In most COVID-19 cases, people do not begin to show symptoms, such as coughing, fever and shortness of breath, for about six days after they are infected. During that time span, people are highly infectious and typically unaware that they have the virus, leading to unintended spread. People can also be asymptomatic and have the virus but never show symptoms." Waits for all the post Thanksgiving stories where people are shocked and horrified about how, "I didn't feel bad Thanksgiving Day, I thought we were in the clear." Those should start around Dec 4th.

"Public health officials and drugmakers must be transparent about the side effects people may experience after getting their first shot of a coronavirus vaccine, doctors urged during a meeting Monday with CDC advisors as states prepare to distribute doses as early as next month."

"Millions of Americans are ignoring the advice of public health experts and traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday… The Transportation Security Administration reported that more than 1.04 million people went through airport security checkpoints Sunday, the most since mid-March, and about 1 million more went through TSA checkpoints each day on Friday and Saturday." Y'all are gonna fuck up my vacation, ain't ya?

"The Strategic National Stockpile, which the U.S. has traditionally depended on for emergencies, still lacks critical supplies, nine months into one of the worst public health care crises this country has ever seen, an NPR investigation has learned."

"The 24-hour increase of 11,885 reported cases is a cumulative of all positive test results as a lagging indicator the Ohio Department of Health received on Monday; not a total number of new infections reported in a single day."

"Back to the future. Next week England will return to the tier system, where the country is carved up into different categories… Areas where there are higher levels of coronavirus will be under tighter restrictions. Parts of the country where it is less prevalent will have looser limits… It is the same model that didn't do enough to slow the winter surge of the disease last time. But second time round, it's different in some important ways." Nods my head as I make more popcorn.

"France’s interior minister ordered an internal police investigation Tuesday after officers were filmed tossing migrants out of tents while evacuating a protest camp in Paris."

"The leader of Ethiopia’s dissident Tigray region has said his people are 'ready to die' defending their homeland, rejecting the prime minister’s Sunday night ultimatum that they surrender within 72 hours."

"Houthi rebels in Yemen have claimed responsibility for a cruise missile attack against an oil facility in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia."

"The Admiral Vinogradov, a Russian destroyer, verbally warned the USS John S. McCain that it would be rammed if it didn't leave the area after it violated the boundary by more than a mile, according to Russia's Defense Ministry. The McCain, an Arleigh-Burke class destroyer, immediately returned to neutral waters after the warning, according to the Kremlin… However, the U.S. is telling a different story. It says that the McCain 'asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the vicinity of Peter the Great Bay in the Sea of Japan.'" More fun along the border.

"The veteran Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein has publicly named 21 Republican senators he says have 'repeatedly expressed extreme contempt for [Donald] Trump and his fitness' for office." Hey, you know what they called people who joined the Nazi party, but privately expressed concern for the actions of Nazis? They called them Nazis. So begins the Memory Hole diving with the "I was secretly with you guys all the time." You know when would have been a good time to show your disdain? The vote for impeachment, you cowardly fucks. And no, you don't get credit for the "I'm concerned" act when you eventually voted in line with the party.

"The General Services Administration has informed President-elect Joe Biden that the Trump administration is ready to begin the formal transition process, according to a letter from Administrator Emily Murphy sent Monday afternoon and obtained by CNN." Well that only took :: looks at watch :: way too fucking long.

"'To be clear, I did not receive any direction to delay my determination,' Murphy wrote. 'I did, however, receive threats online, by phone, and by mail directed at my safety, my family, my staff, and even my pets in an effort to coerce me into making this determination prematurely. Even in the face of thousands of threats, I always remained committed to upholding the law.'" Yes, I'm sure people shouting, "Do your goddamn job" was all very intimidating. No, I'm sure there were actual threats, but you know what, the police and FBI are there to investigate those.

"President Donald Trump's campaign on Monday took its fight to block Pennsylvania from certifying its election results to a federal appeals court, even as his administration agreed to let government agencies prepare for the transition to Joe Biden's administration."

"Pennsylvania's Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump campaign's effort to block the counting of absentee ballots with missing dates or names, clearing the way for 10,000 votes to be counted in Philadelphia and Allegheny counties, in another defeat for President Donald Trump's desperate legal battle."

"President Trump’s efforts to undermine the results of the November election in Georgia will 'absolutely' hurt Republicans in two U.S. Senate runoff races there, an election official in the state said Monday." Oh, so Republicans feel the system can't be trusted and so they won't vote. One, that's not suppression, that's their choice. Suppression is when the state removes your name from the polls, closes your local polling station, makes you get an ID card while moving the office that supplies those cards more than an hour drive away, and then actively works to disenfranchise your right to vote. you know, what white Republicans in the state have been doing to the Democrats and minorities ever since Federal oversight was removed.

You know, like this… "While Biden won Black voters overwhelmingly across the country, they were key to his victories in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia — places where President Trump and his allies have been targeting ballots in cities with large Black populations in an attempt to overturn the president's defeat and retain power."

And Democrats begin to form the circular firing squad… "It is still early in the Biden transition. There are thousands of jobs to fill. But a similar sense of dread is starting to bubble up from veterans of the Biden campaign, particularly those who were there with the president-elect from the Philadelphia announcement speech to the Wilmington victory speech. The target of their ire? The Obama establishment, which has eclipsed the Clinton name as shorthand for yesterday’s Democratic Party."

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