Don't Bogart That J&J
Shots and clots, and the Bitche is Back
"Out of some 6.8 million doses of the vaccine, cerebral venous sinus thrombosis clots were reported in six women." The US Has Recommended Pausing The Johnson & Johnson Vaccine To Study Rare Blood Clotting Issues. The main goal of the pause could be to instruct hospitals how to deal with these rare clots should they occur. But the suspension will delay shipments of shots to Europe and the headlines will likely increase vaccine hesitancy in America.
+ NPR: A Mystery Under Study: How, Why And When COVID Vaccines Aren't Fully Protective. (It's not that mysterious. 94% effective is not 100% effective. But wearing a mask indoors is 100% no big deal.)
+ "Democratic governors, leaders of the largest teachers’ unions and many local Democratic elected officials — a cadre that regales in the blood sport of attacking Trumpism for being anti-science — have consistently disregarded the overwhelming scientific evidence that opening full-time is doable and safe for most schools." Time: Blue States Are Failing Their Students by Not Reopening Schools. Here's How They Got It So Wrong.
+ Derek Thompson in The Atlantic: "Last week, the CDC acknowledged what many of us have been saying for almost nine months about cleaning surfaces to prevent transmission by touch of the coronavirus: It’s pure hygiene theater." (My kids have been ahead of the curve on this one. They've refused to clean surfaces for years.)
2. Sex Post Facto
Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala have agreed to deploy troops to lower migration rates to the U.S. (my guess is that this is in exchange for vaccines). That might do something in the short term. But in the long term, we'll need to address the reasons why so many people want to leave where they live. AP: Pandemic, hunger force thousands into sex work in Mexico.
3. Wing Man
"What is most concerning is that the number of domestic terror plots and attacks are at the highest they have been in decades. It’s so important for Americans to understand the gravity of the threat before it gets worse." WaPo: The rise of domestic extremism in America.
+ Some Americans understand the gravity of the threat and still act as cheerleaders for it. Michael Gerson in WaPo: "This is what modern, poll-tested, shrink-wrapped, mass-marketed racism looks like. Tucker Carlson is providing his audience with sophisticated rationales for their worst, most prejudicial instincts. And the brilliance of Carlson’s business model is to reinterpret moral criticism of his bigotry as an attack by elites on his viewers. Public outrage is thus recycled into fuel for MAGA victimhood. And so the Fox News machine runs on and on."
+ Lachlan Murdoch backs Tucker Carlson in ‘white replacement’ furor. (Of course he does. He runs Fox News. He backed them when they spread misinformation that led to countless Covid deaths. He backed them when they promoted the seditious and ultimately deadly big lie. You think he's gonna stop because the ADL issued a complaint?)
+ Discharging Your Weapons: "Their only punishment from the Navy for almost beating a man to death in a racially-motivated hate crime was to lose their jobs." USA Today: 13 investigations, no court-martials: Here's how the US Navy and Marine Corps quietly discharged white supremacists.
4. Oh Shit
"In body camera footage of the incident, Potter can be heard yelling, 'Taser! Taser! Taser! Oh shit, I just shot him.'" Protests In Minnesota Continued After The Cop Who Killed Daunte Wright Was Named. "The cop who fatally shot 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop resigned from her post Tuesday." (Gee, ya think?)
5. Undertow Away Zone
"Japan's government announced a decision to begin dumping more than a million tons of treated but still radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean in two years." (I think I'll get that dip in now...)
6. Out and Out Failure?
WaPo: "President Biden will withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan over the coming months, people familiar with the plans said, completing the military exit by the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that first drew the United States into its longest war."
+ Taliban backs out of Afghan peace conference in Istanbul. On one hand, it's been two decades and we've got to end this at some point. On the other hand, is there any doubt that the Taliban is going to crack down on women and freedom and try to reinstate its sadistic madness?
7. The Bitche is Back
"Bitche in the Moselle, population 5,000 and home to the Bitchois, fell foul of the social network’s algorithm, which deemed it insulting and removed it without explanation last month. On Tuesday, after reports of the Facebook suspension spread, the social network restored the Ville de Bitche page." Facebook says sorry for shutting down town’s page. (Facebook still has 99 problems, but Bitche ain't one...)
8. Wedlock
"Unwittingly, I spent years drafting a technical blueprint for the relationship, one that I couldn’t delete when the construction plans fell apart." Lauren Goode in Wired: I Called Off My Wedding. The Internet Will Never Forget.
9. Rabbit Run
"Measuring more than four feet, the furry giant should be easy to spot. But he vanished from an English garden last weekend, and the police are treating his disappearance as an abduction." NYT: Darius, ‘World’s Longest Rabbit,’ Is Missing. (Hopefully, this is nothing we'll have to stew over for long...)
10. Bottom of the News
"The following morning, Robson climbed into the wooden box once again, before John and Paul nailed it shut and bade him farewell. It would be another five days before he was freed." The Welshman who airmailed himself home from Australia in a crate.
+ The best way to stop running around your backhand is not to have a backhand. Teo Davidov, the ambidextrous youth tennis star who doesn’t hit backhands. This kid even gives forehanded compliments...
+ Boba shortage: Bay Area and the rest of the U.S. may soon have no bubbles for tea. Boba Fete Complete?
+ Uber Doober, anyone?