"China is falling in love with space, inspired by the ruling Communist Party’s increasingly ambitious plans over the past two decades to launch humans into orbit and explore the moon and Mars."
The Two Nurses Talking substack… "But what happens IF the vaccines work and then we return to normal? We’re in crisis mode now, but when the crisis abates, the trauma won’t." The hospital I work at isn't as bad as this, but we're close. Last week I worked with severe achilles tendon pain. Why? Because you have to. I picked up 6 extra hours one day because there was a call off and someone needed to work it or there would be a single tech for the entire hospital (and they're a newbie, and it was only 6 because the hospital doesn't want to pay for a single-second of overtime that they don't absolutely have to). Which, btw, I'm looking at 2 hours this Friday night where I will be that single tech, me and a student who I can't have exposed to COVID because 1) she's a student and if a student gets COVID our "teaching hospital" days are done and 2) she's also a coworker at the front desk looking to retrain. And I'm still being pressured to pick up more time to help the nurses. Have I mentioned I already work 60+ hours a week between my two jobs? The hospital is offering us a full year of a "meditation/wellness" application subscription. And in case you think she's being hyperbolic about people even now saying it's a hoax or just a bad flu, she is understating it.
"People who have received the full course of Covid-19 vaccines can skip the standard 14-day quarantine after exposure to someone with the infection as long as they remain asymptomatic, US public health officials advised."
"First-time claims for unemployment insurance totaled 793,000 last week as declining Covid-19 cases provided little relief for the jobs market… The total for the week ended Feb. 6 was above the 760,000 forecast from economists surveyed by Dow Jones but a slight decrease from the previous week’s upwardly revised total of 812,000."
"Automakers across the globe are expected to lose billions of dollars in earnings this year due to a shortage of semiconductor chips, a situation that’s expected to worsen as companies battle for supplies of the critical parts."
"Dan and Grace Porte worked together for decades… In the 1970s, they started a paint and wallpaper business. Then, after the housing bubble burst in the Great Recession, the couple delivered cars for Enterprise. Five years later, they were fielding customer returns at Target… But the pandemic brought that to an end. Now, in their mid-80s, the Portes are unemployed." Social Security is not enough.
"Saudi Arabia has released jailed activist Loujain al-Hathloul, best known for leading the campaign to legalize driving for women in Saudi Arabia, according to her family. She was held for nearly three years."
"Democrats are confronting a growing intraparty dispute over whether the Covid-19 relief bill they are crafting should include a $15-an-hour federal minimum wage, a top progressive priority for years… Two disagreements are brewing between Democrats: first, a procedural dispute over whether Senate rules even allow them to include it in the coronavirus relief bill. And second, a policy division over whether a nationwide wage floor of $15 an hour is too high."
Jim Wright on combat fatigue of the last four years.
"A group of more than 100 former Republican officials have discussed the possibility of forming a conservative party due to their unhappiness with the direction of the GOP under former President Donald Trump and the likelihood he'll be acquitted at the end of his second impeachment trial, according to Republicans who participated in the conversation." If they do it correctly, they may engage many who have left the political scene for the past 3 decades, the so called "independents." But I don't give it much of a chance. For forty years the two parties made sure a third party faced too many hurdles to get started.
"Federal prosecutors on Wednesday appealed the release of a Pennsylvania woman accused of using a large pipe to break a window in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. and giving directions to fellow insurrectionists about how to take the building." But yet they let another go on vacation in Mexico.
"New security footage of the Capitol assault presented Wednesday by House impeachment managers showed Officer Eugene Goodman directing Senator Mitt Romney to turn to safety on January 6. Romney appeared to be heading in the direction of the rioters when Goodman steered him away."
"House Democrats leading the prosecution of former President Trump wrapped up the second day of his impeachment trial on Wednesday by calling into question what Mr. Trump was doing while the Capitol was under attack on January 6."
"Former President Donald Trump's legal team isn't discouraged over graphic, never-before-seen video that House impeachment managers used in a detailed play-by-play of the violent riot that broke out at the U.S. Capitol on January 6… 'I didn't learn anything that I didn't already know,' Trump attorney Bruce Castor told reporters Wednesday during a brief break after senators saw several close encounters with the rioters. 'We know a mob breached the Capitol and wreaked havoc in the building. I'm waiting for them to connect that up to President Trump and so far that hadn't happened.'" And while it's true they showed a lot of footage of the attack, they also showed how the president planned and encouraged this attack preparing the ground for over a year.
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