Here's Why Your City's Average Temperature and Precipitation Could Change Soon

So when you see that the temperature is above average by a certain amount, remember that it is above the average by more than that over the last 30 years, and even more since the industrial revolution.

https://www.wunderground.com/article/news/climate/news/2021-01-04-1991-2020-normals-temperatures-noaa

 

Chris Dolce
Published: January 4, 2021

Climate averages for temperature and precipitation where you live could change soon and will be influenced by global temperature rise.

Technically, the changes will come as a part of a once-a-decade update by NOAA, which manages such records.

Climate normals are more commonly known as your average temperature and precipitation for any given period of time. They are based on a 30-year period, with 1981-2010 being the most recent dataset in use for comparison.

These so-called 'normals' help put the actual temperature or precipitation into historical context relative to what you would expect in a given time.

•••••

Later this spring, NOAA will update normals like these for the United States to include the most recent three-decade average: 1991-2020. For many locations, that means there will be an overall increase in the average temperature because of global temperature rise, but there are some caveats.

"Observational evidence shows that the last 20 years have been the warmest such period on record across the U.S. Therefore, we anticipate that the new normals will generally be warmer on average for most stations, but not uniformly warmer for all stations and all seasons. In fact, some station normals in certain locations and seasons may become cooler," NOAA says.

•••••

There are some localized exceptions, such as the cooling trend depicted in the north-central United States and south-central Canada. Brettschneider noted cities like Grand Forks, North Dakota, and Rapid City, South Dakota, are estimated to be "very slightly cooler in the 1991-2020 period".

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Trump goes ‘ballistic’ over Twitter ban as it emerges president wanted to march to Capitol with supporters

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-goes-ballistic-over-twitter-225719303.html

 

The Independent
Danielle Zoellner
Sat, January 9, 2021, 5:57 PM EST

•••••

The news of the president’s Twitter shutdown came after it emerged that he wanted to march to the US Capitol with his supporters on Wednesday, where the House and Senate were meeting to certify the Electoral College votes.

But advisers reportedly told Mr Trump “no”, according to people briefed on the discussions, The New Times reported.

Mr Trump also reportedly wanted the National Guard brought in so they could hold off anti-Trump counter-protesters who might turn up.

Instead the National Guard had to be called in on Wednesday to assist other law enforcement agencies in removing pro-Trump rioters from Capitol grounds. Reports indicated Mr Trump pushed back initially on sending additional help for Capitol Police once the situation deteriorated.

•••••


The environment at the White House has reportedly deteriorated since the insurrection at the Capitol. Aides described Mr Trump’s recent conduction as like “mad King George” and a “total monster” to The Washington Post.

“Trump believes that he has these people so intimidated they wouldn’t dare mess with him. I think Trump doesn’t understand how precarious his situation is right now," the Republican source told the publication.

•••••

Nothing is impossible

I have been calling this a Haiku, but it's technically a Senryu.

Nothing is too hard
if you are not the person
who has to do[/bear] it.

- Patricia Shannon Aug. 2005

http://www.hsa-haiku.org/archives/HSA_Definitions_2004.html

A haiku is a short poem that uses imagistic language to convey the essence of an experience of nature or the season intuitively linked to the human condition.

A senryu is a poem, structurally similar to haiku, that highlights the foibles of human nature, usually in a humorous or satiric way.

The police officer whose head was smashed in a doorway by pro-Trump mob at US Capitol was injured and will be out of work 'for a while'

https://news.yahoo.com/video-capitol-shows-pro-trump-200949954.html

 

INSIDER
Haven Orecchio-Egresitz
Sat, January 9, 2021, 4:47 PM EST

A Metropolitan police officer who faced rioters on the Capitol on Wednesday "was injured" but his injuries are not life-threatening, according to former Philadelphia Police Department Commissioner Charles Ramsey.

"He'll be out for a while. The officer is obviously very sore," Ramsey, who said he had spoken with Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee to get an update on the officer, told CNN.

Video from the riots on Wednesday shows a crazed pro-Trump mob barking as they crushed the head of a law enforcement officer between doors at the US Capitol.

The rioters pulled on the officer's gas mask, push him, and hit him in the face.

•••••

Talking to CNN, Farina said that the mob was unstoppable.

"They were going to get in there regardless of what was in their way."

"Nothing really fazed them," he added. "They just kept rotating in and out. They would say 'We need fresh patriots.'"

•••••

More frequent, heavier rains strain U.S. dams

https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/12/more-frequent-heavier-rains-strain-u-s-dams/

 

By Molly Matthews Multedo | Tuesday, December 29, 2020

There are more than 90,000 dams in the United States. Many of those dams are at risk of failure.

“Most of them were built more than 50 years ago. Usually, the design life of a dam is between 50 and 60 years, so a lot of our dams are already past their design age,” says Paulina Concha Larrauri, a researcher at Columbia University.

She says many of these dams are not only old, but poorly maintained.

“There’s a lot of variation on the safety and oversight of these dams across the country,” she says.

In many areas, climate change is making the situation even more dangerous by causing more frequent and heavier rains.

In a recent report, Concha Larrauri and her team analyzed the risks and potential impacts of dam failures. She says that if one dam fails, it can cause other breaches downstream. 

The risks can be extensive, and not just to people and homes. Flood waters can disrupt power generation and block roads and railways.

But funds to address the problem are limited, so she says it’s important to assess the risks and potential losses, and prioritize repairs accordingly.

California Congresswoman Who Once Questioned Mask-Wearing Catches COVID-19

https://news.yahoo.com/california-congresswoman-once-questioned-mask-194722523.html

 

NextShark
Bryan Ke
Fri, January 8, 2021, 2:47 PM EST

Rep. Michelle Steel (R-CA), who once expressed skepticism about the mask mandate in Orange County last spring, has tested positive for COVID-19. Although she does not show any symptoms, the 65-year-old Korean American politician learned she had been in contact with someone positive with the virus, Steel’s statement said via Associated Press. “At the advice of the Attending Physician, and to protect the health of my colleagues, I will be quarantining,”

•••••

Faux concern

Jan. 9, 2021

I worked at the polls Tuesday.  Everybody I saw was wearing a mask, except for one overweight Caucasian woman.  She told me to "have a blest day".  What a hypocrite.  If she really cared, she would have been wearing a mask.  I'll bet she was a Trump supporter.  Don't know what she is thinking about him now.

The surprising link between wine corks and climate change

https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/12/the-surprising-link-between-wine-corks-and-climate-change/

 

Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media.

 

If you open a bottle of champagne or wine this New Year’s Eve, take a look at the stopper.

In recent years, plastic stoppers and screw tops have come on the market as alternatives to natural cork, but cork can be better for the climate.


•••••

He says cork forests store a great deal of carbon, and manufacturing cork stoppers creates little carbon pollution. To minimize waste and help power manufacturing, production plants often burn cork dust.

“In the case of Amarim, 65% of our energy needs comes from the dust generated by the production of cork stoppers,” de Jesus says.

Independent studies have found that there is far more carbon stored in a single natural cork than is emitted to the atmosphere by producing it.

So using cork instead of plastic or aluminum stoppers is not only traditional, it’s more sustainable.

More than half of people who use medical marijuana products to ease pain also experience clusters of multiple withdrawal symptoms when they're between uses, a new study finds. And about 10% of the patients taking part in the study experienced worsening changes to their sleep, mood, mental state, energy and appetite over the next two years as they continued to use cannabis. Many of them may not recognize that these symptoms come not from their underlying condition, but from their brain and body's reaction to the absence of substances in the cannabis products they're smoking, vaping, eating or applying to their skin, says the University of Michigan Addiction Center psychologist who led the study. When someone experiences more than a few such symptoms, it's called cannabis withdrawal syndrome - and it can mean a higher risk of developing even more serious issues such as a cannabis use disorder.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/mm-u-mth010821.php

 

News Release 8-Jan-2021
Minority experience worsening of symptoms over time, especially younger people
Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan

 

More than half of people who use medical marijuana products to ease pain also experience clusters of multiple withdrawal symptoms when they're between uses, a new study finds.

And about 10% of the patients taking part in the study experienced worsening changes to their sleep, mood, mental state, energy and appetite over the next two years as they continued to use cannabis.

Many of them may not recognize that these symptoms come not from their underlying condition, but from their brain and body's reaction to the absence of substances in the cannabis products they're smoking, vaping, eating or applying to their skin, says the University of Michigan Addiction Center psychologist who led the study.

When someone experiences more than a few such symptoms, it's called cannabis withdrawal syndrome - and it can mean a higher risk of developing even more serious issues such as a cannabis use disorder.


•••••

The perception of cannabis as "harmless" is not correct, she says. It contains substances called cannabinoids that act on the brain - and that over time can lead the brain to react when those substances are absent.

In addition to a general craving to use cannabis, withdrawal symptoms can include anxiety, sleep difficulties, decreased appetite, restlessness, depressed mood, aggression, irritability, nausea, sweating, headache, stomach pain, strange dreams, increased anger and shakiness.

Previous research has shown that the more symptoms and greater severity of symptoms a person has, the less likely they are to be able to reduce their use of cannabis, quit using it or stay away from it once they quit.

They may mistakenly think that the symptoms happen because of their underlying medical conditions, and may even increase the amount or frequency of their cannabis use to try to counteract the effect - leading to a cycle of increasing use and increasing withdrawal.

•••••

Feeling the urge to use cannabis after a period without use, such as soon after waking up, can be a sign of a withdrawal syndrome, she notes. So can the inability to cut back on use without experiencing craving or other symptoms of withdrawal.

Because there is no medically accepted standard for medical cannabis dosing for different conditions, patients are often faced with a wide array of cannabis products that vary in strength and route of administration. Some products could pose more risk for development of withdrawal symptoms than others, Coughlin says.

For example, people who smoked cannabis tended to have more severe withdrawal symptoms than others, while people who vaped cannabis reported symptoms that tended to stay the same or get worse, but generally did not improve, over time.

•••••

tags: drug use, drug abuse,

Including unhealthy foods may diminish positive effects of an otherwise healthy diet

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/rumc-iuf010821.php

 

News Release 8-Jan-2021
Study by researchers at Rush University Medical Center finds adding more foods that are part of Western diet may reduce cognitive benefits of Mediterranean diet
Rush University Medical Center

 

Eating a healthy diet, such as the Mediterranean diet, has a positive impact on health, but little is known about the effects of including unhealthy foods in an otherwise healthy diet. Now researchers at Rush University Medical Center have reported diminished benefits of a Mediterranean diet among those with high frequency of eating unhealthy foods. The results of their study were published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association on Jan. 7.

"Eating a diet that emphasizes vegetables, fruit, fish and whole grains may positively affects a person's health," said Puja Agarwal, PhD, a nutritional epidemiologist and assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Rush Medical College. "But when it is combined with fried food, sweets, refined grains, red meat and processed meat, we observed that the benefits of eating the Mediterranean part of the diet seems to be diminished."

A Mediterranean diet is associated with slower rates of cognitive decline in older adults.


•••••

Participants with slower cognitive decline over the years of follow-up were those who adhered closest to the Mediterranean diet, along with limiting foods that are part of Western diet, whereas participants who ate more of the Western diet had no beneficial effect of healthy food components in slowing cognitive decline.

There was no significant interaction between age, sex, race or education and the association with cognitive decline in either high or low levels of Western diet foods. The study also included models for smoking status, body mass index and other potential variables such as cardiovascular conditions and findings remained the same.

"Western diets may adversely affect cognitive health," Agarwal said. "Individuals who had a high Mediterranean diet score compared to those who had the lowest score were equivalent to being 5.8 years younger in age cognitively."

•••••

Most patients hospitalised with COVID-19 have at least one symptom six months after falling ill,

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/tl-pss010721.php

 

News Release 8-Jan-2021
The Lancet

 

More than three quarters of COVID-19 patients have at least one ongoing symptom six months after initially becoming unwell, according to research published in The Lancet.

The cohort study, looking at long-term effects of COVID-19 infection on people hospitalised in Wuhan, China, reveals that the most common symptom to persist is fatigue or muscle weakness (63% of patients), with patients also frequently experiencing sleep difficulties (26%). Anxiety or depression was reported among 23% of patients.

Patients who were severely ill in hospital more often had impaired lung function and abnormalities detected in chest imaging - which could indicate organ damage - six months after symptom onset.


•••••

The authors also found that some patients went on to develop kidney problems post-discharge. As well as the lungs, COVID-19 is known to affect other organs, including the kidney. Lab tests revealed that 13% (107/822) of patients whose kidney function was normal while in hospital had reduced kidney function in follow-up.

•••••

Which came first, sleep or the brain?

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/ku-wcf010821.php

 

News Release 8-Jan-2021
Kyushu University

 

Stay awake too long, and thinking straight can become extremely difficult. Thankfully, a few winks of sleep is often enough to get our brains functioning up to speed again. But just when and why did animals start to require sleep? And is having a brain even a prerequisite?

In a study that could help to understand the evolutional origin of sleep in animals, an international team of researchers has shown that tiny, water-dwelling hydras not only show signs of a sleep-like state despite lacking central nervous systems but also respond to molecules associated with sleep in more evolved animals.

"We now have strong evidence that animals must have acquired the need to sleep before acquiring a brain," says Taichi Q. Itoh, assistant professor at Kyushu University's Faculty of Arts and Science and leader of the research reported in Science Advances.


•••••

Heading outdoors keeps lockdown blues at bay

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/aru-hok010721.php

 

News Release 7-Jan-2021
Study finds time spent outdoors is associated with higher levels of happiness
Anglia Ruskin University

 

A new study has found that spending time outdoors and switching off our devices is associated with higher levels of happiness during a period of COVID-19 restrictions.

Previous academic studies have indicated how being outdoors, particularly in green spaces, can improve mental health by promoting more positive body image, and lowering levels of depression and anxiety.


•••••

It found that levels of happiness were higher when participants were outdoors rather than indoors. In addition, more daily screen time and higher levels of loneliness were both associated with lower levels of happiness. The impact of loneliness on happiness was also weaker when participants were outdoors.

Co-lead author Viren Swami, Professor of Social Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), said: "While lockdowns can help slow down the transmission of COVID-19, research has also shown that prolonged periods of lockdown take their toll on mental health.

"Our results are important in this context because they show that being able to spend time outdoors under conditions of lockdown has a beneficial impact on psychological wellbeing. Being outdoors provides opportunities to escape from the stresses of being confined at home, maintain social relationships with others, and engage in physical activity - all of which can improve mental health.

•••••

Study: e-cigarettes trigger inflammation in the gut

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/uoc--set010721.php

 

News Release 7-Jan-2021
Chemicals used for vaping break down zipper-like junctions between cells in the gut, leading to chronic inflammation and potential for other health concerns
University of California - San Diego

 

Touted by makers as a "healthy" alternative to traditional nicotine cigarettes, new research indicates the chemicals found in e-cigarettes disrupt the gut barrier and trigger inflammation in the body, potentially leading to a variety of health concerns.


•••••

tags: drug use, drug abuse,

COVID-19 outcomes for patients on immunosuppressive drugs on par with non- immunosuppressed patients

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/jhub-sb010721.php

 

News Release 7-Jan-2021
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health

 

People taking immunosuppressive drugs to prevent organ transplant rejection or to treat inflammatory or autoimmune diseases do not fare worse than others on average when they are hospitalized with COVID-19, according to a study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.


•••••

Sleep is irreplaceable for the recovery of the brain

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/uof-sii010721.php

 

News Release 7-Jan-2021
Active recovery processes take place in the brain during sleep that cannot be replaced by rest
University of Freiburg

 

Sleep is ubiquitous in animals and humans and vital for healthy functioning. Thus, sleep after training improves performance on various tasks in comparison to equal periods of active wakefulness. However, it has been unclear so far whether this is due to an active refinement of neural connections or merely due to the absence of novel input during sleep. Now researchers at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg have succeeded in showing that sleep is more than rest for improving performance. The findings, which were published in the journal SLEEP on January 6, 2021, provide important information for planning periods of intensive learning or training.

"Sleep is irreplaceable for the recovery of the brain. It cannot be replaced by periods of rest for improved performance. The state of the brain during sleep is unique," says Prof. Dr. Christoph Nissen, who headed the study as research group leader at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg and is now working at the University of Bern, Switzerland. In earlier studies, Nissen and his team provided evidence for the notion that sleep has a dual function for the brain: Unused connections are weakened and relevant connections are strengthened.


•••••

Study finds commonly used blood pressure medications safe for COVID-19 patients

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/uops-sfc010621.php

 

News Release 7-Jan-2021
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

 

Medications to treat high blood pressure did not affect outcomes among patients hospitalized with COVID-19, found an international team led by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The study, published today in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, is the first randomized controlled trial to show there is no risk for patients continuing these medications while hospitalized for COVID-19.


•••••

Free all non-violent criminals jailed on minor drug offences, say experts

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/tfg-fan010621.php

 

News Release 7-Jan-2021
Taylor & Francis Group

 

Non-violent offenders serving time for drug use or possession should be freed immediately and their convictions erased, according to research published in the peer-reviewed The American Journal of Bioethics.

More than 60 international experts including bioethicists, psychologists and drug experts have joined forces to call for an end to the war on drugs which they argue feeds racism.

All drugs currently deemed illicit - even crack cocaine and heroin - should be decriminalized as a matter of urgency, according to this new alliance. Legalisation and regulation should then follow with restrictions on age, advertising and licensing, they say.

They have analysed evidence from over 150 studies and reports, concluding that prohibition unfairly affects Black people, damages communities, and violates the right to life as illustrated by the killing of medical worker Breonna Taylor in March 2020.


•••••

The study is based on evidence from existing research into how drug prohibition affects users, communities and human rights, and the impact of decriminalisation by governments.

The authors found that prohibition motivates individuals to commit offences such as burglaries to fund their habit. This lowers life expectancy because people end up in prison, and triggers a 'multitude' of health-related costs from unsafe drug use.

Communities are damaged by illicit markets which undermine drug purity, with Black and Hispanic men more likely to end up in the criminal justice system. The war on drugs makes people more vulnerable to violations of their rights including what they choose to put in their bodies.

In contrast, the study highlights the liberal approach of countries such as Portugal where drug-related deaths have fallen and where users are encouraged to seek treatment.

An estimated £43.5bn ($58bn) could be generated in federal, state and local tax revenues through the legalization of drugs, according to the findings. This compares with an annual federal, state and local spend of more than £35bn ($47bn) on prohibition.

The authors stress that non-violent prisoners found with a small amount of illegal substances should be released. 

tags: drug use, drug abuse,

Noncognitive skills -- distinct from cognitive abilities -- are important to success across the life

 

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-01/cums-ns-010621.php

 

News Release 7-Jan-2021
Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health

 

Noncognitive skills and cognitive abilities are both important contributors to educational attainment -- the number of years of formal schooling that a person completes -- and lead to success across the life course, according to a new study from an international team led by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, the University of Texas at Austin, and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The research provides evidence for the idea that inheriting genes that affect things other than cognitive ability are important for understanding differences in people's life outcomes. Until now there had been questions about what these noncognitive skills are and how much they really matter for life outcomes. The new findings are published in the journal Nature Genetics.



•••••

Overall, the genetics of noncognitive skills were associated with higher tolerance of risks, greater willingness to forego immediate gratification, less health-risk behavior, and delayed fertility. Researchers also observed that noncognitive skill genetics were associated with a constellation of personality traits linked with success in relationships and at work, such as being curious and eager to learn, being more emotionally stable, and being more industrious and orderly.

"There has been much debate about what noncognitive skills are and how best to measure them. Motivation, persistence, grit, curiosity, self-control, growth mindset -- these are just a few of the things that people have suggested are important noncognitive skills," observed Paige Harden, professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and a co-leader of the research along with Belsky and Nivard. "For personality and risk behavior, we saw relationships we expected; noncognitive skills genetics were associated with less risky behavior and a personality profile we associate with maturity, and social and professional competency," said Harden. But the results for mental health were a surprise."

The researchers found that noncognitive skills genetics that were associated with educational attainment were also associated with increased risk for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and anorexia nervosa. "This is an example of what geneticists call pleiotropy.," explained Harden. "Our result warns us against a simplistic view of genetic variants being good or bad. The same genetic variant that predisposes someone to go further in school might also elevate their risk of developing schizophrenia or another serious mental disorder."

•••••

Former Attorney General Bill Barr said Trump 'orchestrating a mob' to storm the Capitol was a 'betrayal of his office'

https://www.businessinsider.com/former-ag-barr-trump-betrayed-office-by-inciting-violent-mob-2021-1

Grace Panetta and Sonam Sheth
Jan 7, 2021, 11:19 AM


Former Attorney General William Barr said Thursday that President Donald Trump inciting a violent insurrection on Capitol Hill the previous day was a "betrayal of his office and supporters."

In a statement to the Associated Press, Barr said "orchestrating a mob to pressure Congress is inexcusable."

•••••

Pence’s chief of staff says Trump has banned him from West Wing

https://news.yahoo.com/pence-chief-staff-says-trump-084419284.html

 

The Independent

Mayank Aggarwal
Thu, January 7, 2021, 3:44 AM EST

Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, has alleged that Donald Trump has banned him from the White House’s West Wing following the vice president’s refusal to overturn the election results in the joint session of the US Congress on Wednesday.

Mr Short said he is not allowed back inside the White House as Mr Trump is “blaming me for advice to VP,” reported Philip Melanchthon Wegmann, the White House reporter for Real Clear News.

The West Wing is the real power centre in the White House where the US President’s Oval Office, the situation room, and offices of his chief of staff and national security adviser are located.

According to CNN, the vice president’s chief of staff was seen entering the Eisenhower executive office, which is a separate building in the White House campus.

The Eisenhower building has housed the office of the vice president since 1961 when Lyndon B Johnson occupied that office.

I'm a 17-year US postal worker who has never witnessed such bad mail delays or heard management admit 'we can't handle volume' until now

https://www.businessinsider.com/postal-worker-for-17-years-no-logic-behind-delayed-mail-2021-1

Lauren Lee

Jan. 8, 2021

Chris (not his real name), 41, is a veteran postal worker in Massachusetts who talked to Insider about the extreme delays he's seeing with the mail since the holidays, which were unusually slow:

When I returned to work after Christmas, I heard stories from all my coworkers about how there was very light volume during the Christmas season.

This has never been the case. In my years at the post office, a 40-hour work week is unheard of during the holidays. Usually the month of December is filled with 60-hour work weeks. 

•••••

Upon my return, I started paying more attention to the packages as they slowly came in.

Many dated back to the first and second week of December. This includes priority mail. 

My local management's hands are tied. My office supervisors and postmasters know very little outside of the same thing they keep being told and relaying the message that "we can't keep up with the volume." They don't have any more information than we do. The packages get sent and just get stuck somewhere in the middle.

We haven't limited the workforce, so there's plenty of people to deliver the mail. Previous holiday seasons we kept up with our own volume along with Amazon packages.

Now, with Amazon creating their own fleet, we have less volume than ever, but we're still being told we can't handle the remaining volume. 

•••••

Customers on my route ask why they're just getting things that they ordered before Christmas. I get messages from friends via social networks asking me what's up with the post office lately because they're expecting overdue packages. I see more and more people acknowledging how long things sent via USPS take to ship and receive.

•••••

Editor's note: In a statement to Insider, a US Postal Service spokesperson said: "The 2020 Holiday Season was a record for the United States Postal Service with more than a billion packages delivered.  

Shippers across the board were challenged with airlifts and trucking capacity for moving historic volumes, causing temporary pockets of delays. As is our duty, we accepted all volumes and our employees rose to the occasion to deliver for America. This epic volume was also amplified by employee availability challenges and necessary COVID-19 policies designed to keep our employees and our communities safe.

•••••

Trump rioters could face long jail terms because of his executive order to punish BLM

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-rioters-could-face-long-063931443.html

 

The Independent
Namita Singh
Fri, January 8, 2021, 1:39 AM EST

Condemning the violent rioters who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen in a statement assured that those responsible for the attack would "face the full consequences of their actions under the law."

The protesters are liable to be punished with up to 10 years in prison for “injury of federal property," under the executive order signed by President Donald Trump during the Black Lives Matter anti-racism protests in July 2020.

"I just had the privilege of signing a very strong Executive Order protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues - and combatting recent Criminal Violence," Mr Trump wrote on Twitter on 26 June, after people took to the streets in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. "Long prison terms for these lawless acts against our Great Country!"

•••••

Albertsons pushed to make its grocery workers "essential." Now it's outsourcing their jobs

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/albertsons-doordash-delivery-drivers-vons-safeway/

By Irina Ivanova
January 7, 2021 / 2:42 PM / MoneyWatch

Albertsons pushed to make its grocery workers "essential." Now it's outsourcing their jobs

By Irina Ivanova

January 7, 2021 / 2:42 PM / MoneyWatch

When COVID-19 pushed grocery stores onto the "front line" of the war against the pandemic, Albertsons, the nation's second-largest supermarket chain, sought to have their employees designated as "essential workers." CEO Vivek Sankaran teamed up with the United Food and Commercial Workers union in the spring to call for added protections for grocery workers. The supermarket also temporarily boosted its workers' pay and showered them with praise, with Sankaran and Chief Financial Officer Bob Dimond personally expressing their thanks in the company's latest earnings call with investors.

Now, the company is outsourcing some of those jobs to gig workers on platforms such as DoorDash. Albertsons confirmed in a statement that it is moving away from running its own delivery services in certain locations and instead using third-party apps. The company operates more than 2,200 supermarkets in 34 states, including the chains Acme, Carrs, Pavilion, Safeway, Tom Thumb and Vons.

•••••

DoorDash told SFGate that its partnership with Albertsons is nationwide, and not related to California's recent passage of Proposition 22, a law that classifies platform drivers and other gig workers as independent contractors.

Labor advocates, however, were quick to blame the new law for the supermarket's decision to outsource jobs. Passed with 58% support after gig companies donated over $200 million to the effort, Proposition 22 exempts ride-share and gig-platform workers from most labor laws, such as minimum wage, overtime pay or the right to form a union. Critics of the law said it would incentivize companies to ditch jobs in favor of low-paid contractors.

•••••

However, one veteran driver for an Albertson's unit in Orange County said he has yet to receive help finding new work, and that the only job a supervisor suggested to him was as an in-store clerk working part-time hours — less than half of the over 60 hours a week he currently works as a driver, he said. He said he was offered a $1,500 bonus for staying through the end of February, which is less than his monthly rent, and fears losing his employee benefits, including health care, in the middle of a pandemic.

The driver asked to remain anonymous so as not to jeopardize his chances of landing a job elsewhere with the company.

•••••

Sasse says Trump was 'delighted' and 'excited' by reports of Capitol riot

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/533403-sasse-says-trump-was-delighted-and-excited-by-reports-of-capitol-riot?fbclid=IwAR0EApgeLQGsrMe-fBi-xJmRD9JPkNluEPph1uEqc9U-W2y7PSGv4sNh-WY

 

By Lexi Lonas - 01/08/21 04:00 PM EST

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said Friday that he heard from senior White House officials that President Trump was "delighted" to hear that his supporters were breaking into the Capitol building in a riot Wednesday that turned deadly.

“As this was unfolding on television, Donald Trump was walking around the White House confused about why other people on his team weren’t as excited as he was as you had rioters pushing against Capitol Police trying to get into the building,” Sasse told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt in an interview. “That was happening. He was delighted.”

•••••

Biden preparing to accelerate distribution of COVID-19 vaccine upon taking office

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-preparing-to-accelerate-distribution-of-covid-19-vaccine-upon-taking-office/

 

By Ed O'Keefe
January 8, 2021 / 12:53 PM / CBS News


Biden preparing to accelerate distribution of COVID-19 vaccine upon taking office

By Ed O'Keefe
January 8, 2021 / 12:53 PM / CBS News

President-Elect Joe Biden is taking steps to prepare to accelerate the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines once he takes office. Aides say he will share more details on the plan to do so next week.

"The President-Elect believes we must accelerate distribution of the vaccine while continuing to ensure the Americans who need it most get it as soon as possible. He supports releasing available doses immediately, and believes the government should stop holding back vaccine supply so we can get more shots in Americans' arms now," Biden spokesman T.J. Ducklo said in a statement to CBS News.

•••••

U.S. tops 4,000 coronavirus deaths in one day for the first time

I remember early last year,  someone on Facebook claimed we didn't need to worry about lack of medical resources, because big cities, where Covid was hitting hardest, could bring in personnel from rural areas.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-deaths-4000-2020-01-07/

 

January 8, 2021 / 10:44 AM / CBS/AP

The U.S. has topped 4,000 daily deaths from the coronavirus for the first time, breaking a record set just one day earlier. The tally from Johns Hopkins University shows the U.S. had 4,085 deaths from COVID-19 Thursday.

The U.S. had nearly 275,000 new coronavirus cases as well. More than 365,000 Americans have died from the coronavirus since the pandemic began.

The numbers are another reminder of the worsening situation following travel for holidays and family gatherings, along with more time indoors during the winter months. There's been a surge in cases and deaths in Arizona, Texas and Florida and California, where some hospitals are on the verge of rationing care.


•••••

Some hospitals are so packed patients are being sent hundreds of miles away for treatment.

•••••

Capitol Police officer dies from injuries in pro-Trump riot

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/capitol-police-officer-brian-sicknick-dies-pro-trump-riot/

 

By Victoria Albert, Justin Carissimo
Updated on: January 8, 2021 / 1:01 PM / CBS News

 

A U.S. Capitol Police officer died Thursday night after sustaining injuries at the pro-Trump riot in Washington, D.C., just a day prior, authorities said. The 42-year-old officer, identified as Brian D. Sicknick, was injured while "physically engaging with protesters."


•••••

Sicknick was the fifth death linked to the violent mob at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. Four civilians also died, including three who police said suffered medical emergencies and one woman who was fatally shot by police.

•••••

The angry mob on Wednesday overwhelmed police officers, breaching the Capitol Building, breaking windows, destroying congressional offices and fighting officers. More than 50 officers were injured in the chaos. On Thursday, the Capitol Police Chief, Steven Sund, said he would resign amid heavy criticism that his department was unprepared for the violence despite warning signs on social media.

•••••

Jan. 8, 2021

I used to be able to get Russel Stover Mint Dreams at some local drugstores, but after some merged awhile back, they no long carried them. So now I sometimes order them online. I was going to order two boxes of 24, but saw I could avoid shipping charges of more than $10 by ordering 3 boxes. I intended to make them last, eating at most one a day. But the day after they came was the violence at the capitol, and I have been been eating at least three a day, for comfort. An advantage of buying them in the winter is that it avoids them coming with ice packs, which I have plenty of now. Better for the environment to avoid them when I don't need them.

This shows a common problem with lack of competition.  Theoretically, I would think that a company that has a big market share can afford to stock a wider variety, not just items that have a big market.  But what actually happens is that they no longer have to worry as much about attracting customers who might otherwise go elsewhere to get a special item.  I saw this when I lived in Birmingham, Alabama around 1992.  Almost all the grocery stores there were owned by Bruno's, under several different names.  I had no problem when I lived in Huntsville, AL finding whole wheat bread w/o preservatives and other artificial additives.  I could not find this in Birmingham, which was much bigger than Huntsville.

Ask PolitiFact: Did Capitol Police let mob of Trump supporters in?

https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/jan/07/ask-politifact-did-capitol-police-let-mob-trump-su/

 

By Samantha Putterman January 7, 2021

•••••

Question: "Did Capitol Police let a mob of Trump supporters into the building?"

Answer:

We didn’t find evidence of that. Instead, we discovered that some online video is getting misinterpreted. Many officers had to abandon their posts and barricades because they were far outnumbered and overwhelmed.

•••••

But the viral, 14-second video clip that some are using to claim that officers willingly let rioters past barricades and into the Capitol is being misrepresented online, said journalist Marcus Diapola, who shot the video.

"They definitely didn't just open the barriers," Diapola told PolitiFact. "The pro-Trump rioters made a fist like they were going to punch the cops, which is why I started recording. Then (police) backed off the barricades.

"They were completely outnumbered," Diapola said. "There wouldn't have been any point in fighting."

Diapola said the video was taken around 2 p.m. near the northeast entrance of the Capitol and estimated that the officers were outnumbered "100 to 1," with only around 30 officers spread out between three entrances on that side of the Capitol, compared with thousands of protesters.

Another video, taken on the west end of the Capitol, shows rioters quickly overwhelming police barricades and eventually forcing the officers to retreat.  

While we found no evidence that officers allowed the mob in willingly, the security breakdown that enabled rioters to breach the building is under intense scrutiny, and officials have said an investigation is imminent.

•••••

Ryan said that Capitol Police had assured him they were ready for the day’s long-planned demonstrations by Trump supporters, and that they were coordinating with the Secret Service, city police and the National Guard.

"There was a strategic breakdown, for sure," he said, "and you can bet your a-- we are going to get to the bottom of it."

At least 6 GOP legislators took part in Trump-inspired protests

If they did not foresee that the protest was likely to turn violent, they are incompetent to be in office.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/533160-at-least-6-gop-legislators-took-part-in-trump-inspired-protests

 

By Rt teid Wilson - 01/07/21 01:15 PM EST

At least six Republican state legislators from across the nation participated in events surrounding the attempted insurrection at the United States Capitol on Wednesday.

News reports and social media posts showed at least one of the legislators, West Virginia Del. Derrick Evans (R), was among the violent mob that broke into the Capitol building. Evans, who was only recently sworn into office, posted a video of himself entering the building.

“We’re gong in,” he says in the video, in which he is wearing a helmet. He later deleted the post.

Other Republicans who participated in an earlier rally, in which President Trump incited his supporters to violence, said they had not entered the Capitol building.

•••••

“Just a whole heck of a lot of patriots here,” Tennessee state Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver (R) told The Tennessean. “We never experienced any violence.”

Weaver tweeted an image of the unruly mob at the base of the Capitol’s West Front.

Virginia state Sen. Amanda Chase (R) falsely denied that any violence had taken place.

•••••

Missouri state Rep. Justin Hill (R) skipped his own swearing-in ceremony to attend the rally at the Ellipse.

•••••

Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R) organized a busload of protesters from Chambersburg, Pa., to Washington for the rally. He was later photographed outside the Capitol building, though he said in a video on Facebook he had not participated in the violent clashes

•••••

Michigan state Rep. Matt Maddock (R) addressed a group of protesters at the Capitol building. His wife Meshawn Maddock, who is running to co-chair the Michigan Republican Party, told the crowd “We never stop fighting.”

•••••

State capitals have been the scenes of menacing and at times violent protests in recent months, first against restrictions put in place during the coronavirus pandemic and then following President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over Trump. Governors and legislative leaders have been targeted and harassed, events that seemed to presage Wednesday’s violence in Washington, where a noose was erected on the Capitol complex.

The FBI broke up a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) last year. On Wednesday, a group of protesters in Salem burned an effigy of Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D), and a group of rioters jumped a fence at Washington’s governor’s mansion in Olympia. Gov. Jay Inslee (D) was moved to a secure location.

•••••

U.S. trade group asks VP Pence to ‘seriously consider’ invoking 25th Amendment to remove Trump

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/06/national-association-of-manufacturers-calls-dc-protests-sedition.html

Jordan Novet
Published Wed, Jan 6 20215:06 PM ESTUpdated Wed, Jan 6 20218:03 PM EST


The head of the National Association of Manufacturers, a group representing 14,000 companies in the U.S., on Wednesday called on Vice President Mike Pence to “seriously consider” invoking the 25th Amendment of the Constitution to remove President Donald Trump from office.

The 25th Amendment states that the vice president can become acting president if he and a majority of the Cabinet declare the president no longer able to hold office. However, if the president contests that declaration, it takes two-thirds of the House and Senate to override and remove him.

•••••

The trade group condemned clashes in Washington that interrupted a congressional gathering to count Electoral College results and officially declare Joe Biden president, saying the events that transpired Wednesday were “not the vision of America that manufacturers believe in.”

The statement came as the Business Roundtable and leaders such as Citi CEO Michael Corbat and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff condemned the acts.

Jay Timmons, the group’s president and CEO and a former executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, pointed to the millions of people in manufacturing jobs who are working to fight the coronavirus pandemic, which brought on an economic recession.

•••••

The full statements is at:

https://www.nam.org/manufacturers-call-on-armed-thugs-to-cease-violence-at-capitol-11628/?stream=news-insights

After mob disrupts proceedings, Congress turns back Electoral College challenge, certifying Biden as the next president

https://news.yahoo.com/after-mob-disrupts-proceedings-congress-turns-back-electoral-college-challenge-certifying-biden-as-the-next-president-083347509.html

Crystal Hill·Reporter
Thu, January 7, 2021, 3:33 AM EST

After an extraordinary act of violence from a riotous mob on Wednesday afternoon forced U.S. legislators to evacuate the Capitol during the counting of the Electoral College votes in the presidential election, Congress voted in the early morning hours of Thursday to certify the results showing President-elect Joe Biden defeated President Trump.

While a group of Republican lawmakers challenged the results in Arizona and Pennsylvania, those objections did not withstand a vote in either the House of Representatives or the Senate.

At approximately 3:33 a.m. ET on Thursday, Congress had certified enough electoral votes to surpass the 270 threshold that guaranteed Biden would become the 46th president, effectively ending a desperate bid by Trump and his supporters to overturn the results of the November election.

“The votes for president of the United States are as follows: Joseph R. Biden, Jr. of the State of Delaware has receive 306 votes. Donald J. Trump of the state of Florida has received 232 votes,” Vice President Mike Pence declared.

“The announcement of the state of the vote,” Pence continued, “by the president of the Senate, shall be deemed a sufficient declaration of the persons elected president and vice president of the United States each for the term beginning on the 20th day of January, 2021.”

Moments after Pence declared Biden the winner of the election, Trump released a falsehood-laden statement in which he pledged an “orderly transition” of power.

•••••

As Capitol Police finally began clearing the building late in the afternoon, Trump issued a now deleted one-minute videotaped statement directed at the rioters that began by expressing sympathy for their “pain” and “hurt” before launching into a litany of his own grievances about “an election that was stolen from us.”

•••••

While Thursday’s vote reached an explosive conclusion, the final results of the election were not all that close. Biden received 7 million more popular votes than Trump.

With his Electoral College votes certified by Congress, Biden is now set to be inaugurated on Jan. 20.

•••••

Trump acknowledges Biden will be next president in wake of Capitol chaos

I heard on the radio this morning a republican deny Trump had any blame for the riot at our country's capitol yesterday.  That is nonsense.  The reason they acted like that is that they believed that the election was stolen from Trump, and Trump is the one who told them that over and over.  Of course, Trump's allies who supported the lie are also complicit.

 

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-supporters-storm-u-capitol-084131588.html

 

Reuters

Steve Holland and Andrea Shalal
Thu, January 7, 2021, 3:41 AM EST

As the threat of a second impeachment loomed, President Donald Trump acknowledged on Thursday that Joe Biden will be the next U.S. president, a day after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a stunning assault on American democracy as Congress was certifying Biden's victory.

Trump, who as recently as Thursday morning had continued to claim falsely that the election had been stolen from him, said his focus would now turn to ensuring a smooth transition to a Biden administration in a video released on Thursday evening. Biden, a Democrat, is set to be sworn in on Jan. 20.

•••••

The statement was a stark reversal for Trump, who faced growing calls for his resignation or ouster following Wednesday's assault. Trump has spent months insisting he prevailed in the Nov. 3 election due to widespread fraud, despite no evidence.

His exhortation on Wednesday to thousands of supporters that they march to the Capitol to protest the election results whipped up a mob that overran police officers and invaded the Capitol building, forcing members of Congress into hiding for their own safety.

•••••

A handful of Republicans also called for Trump's removal. The Wall Street Journal editorial page, seen as a leading voice of the Republican establishment, called on Trump to resign on Thursday evening.

Several members of Trump's administration, including Elaine Chao, the transportation secretary and the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, resigned as a symbolic gesture against the violence.

Covid: LA ambulances told not to transport some patients to hospital

An example of why we should have taken better measures to flatten the curve of the infection.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55549037

 

Jan. 5, 2021

Ambulance workers in Los Angeles County, California, have been told not to transport hospital patients that have extremely low chances of survival.

The directive comes as officials say the region could soon hit over 1,000 Covid-related deaths per day, and hospitals are overrun with patients.

Emergency workers have also been told to ration oxygen, which is in short supply due to the pandemic.

Hospital beds in LA are running low and officials fear a post-holiday spike.

New York City issued a similar directive to ambulance workers in April 2020 at the height of the city's Covid outbreak, instructing them not to bring in patients who were unable to be resuscitated at the scene.

•••••

Hospitals in California, which are already at maximum capacity, have begun seeing patients in gift shops, parking lots and outdoor tents. Ambulances are being forced to queue outside of hospitals for hours as they wait for Emergency Room workers to take their patients.

Dr Marianne Gausche-Hill, the medical director of LA County's Emergency Services Agency who issued the latest directives, told CBS News that ambulance workers will continue to work to save lives of patients at the scene.

"We are not abandoning resuscitation," Dr Gausche-Hill said. "We are absolutely doing best practice resuscitation and that is do it in the field, do it right away."

"What we're asking is that - which is slightly different than before - is that we are emphasising the fact that transporting these patients arrested leads to very poor outcomes," she added. "We knew that already and we just don't want to impact our hospitals."

Treating heart attack and stroke patients at the scene can increase chances of survival, she said.

It comes as the US broke its record for the number of Covid patients in hospital.

•••••

In California, the number of patients in hospital for coronavirus has doubled in the past month. The mayor of LA said on Sunday that a new infection occurs there every six seconds.

•••••

US marks deadliest day of Covid-19 pandemic as experts mull expanding vaccine distribution

 

An example of why we should have taken better measures to flatten the curve of the infection.

 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/07/health/us-coronavirus-thursday/index.html

 

By Madeline Holcombe and Dakin Andone

Jan. 7, 2021

 

The United States reported 3,865 Covid-19 deaths on Wednesday, the highest number of deaths reported in a single day since the pandemic began.

The nation's death toll as of Thursday stands at more than 362,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, while the number of people who have been infected has topped more than 21.3 million. 

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's most recent forecast projected there will be between 405,000 and 438,000 deaths

 by the end of the month. The previous forecast, published December 30, projected up to 424,000 deaths by January 23.
The ongoing spread of the virus and climbing number of deaths come even as the US is working to distribute vital Covid-19 vaccines -- a process that has been criticized for being too slow. 

.....

Meantime, hospitals are being flooded with coronavirus patients, with a record 132,476 patients in US hospitals on Wednesday, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

.....

As of Thursday, a person was dying of Covid-19 in the county every 8 minutes.

.....

 At least 56 cases of a coronavirus variant first discovered in the UK have been identified in the United States, after health officials in Texas and Connecticut announced cases in their states.

 .....

Van Kerkhove pointed out that many mutations won't have much of an impact on the virus, but if a virus changes its genetics in just the right way, tests might not be able to detect it as easily, and vaccines might not work as well against it.

The virus has more chances to mutate in countries like the United States, which is seeing unprecedented and uncontrolled spread.

She pointed out that some countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, have done a better job controlling the pandemic.

"It's completely up to us to be able to bring the virus under control," she said. "The virus is controllable, including these variants." 

 

 

 

Trump attacks Pence for not having the 'courage' to overturn the election as the president's supporters storm the Capitol

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-attacks-pence-for-not-having-courage-to-overturn-election-2021-1

John Haltiwanger

Jan. 6, 2021

President Donald Trump attacked Vice President Mike Pence in a tweet on Wednesday as his supporters engaged in violence in Washington, DC, and stormed the US Capitol.

Trump decried Pence for refusing to attempt to overturn the election, which is not something the vice president has unilateral authority to do. The president and his allies have been urging Pence to reject the 2020 results in Congress. As vice president, Pence presides over the final step in certifying the outcome of the election. But Pence's role in the certification of the Electoral College vote, per the Constitution, is largely meant to be ceremonial.

•••••

Earlier in the day, Pence issued a statement that signaled he would not adhere to Trump's impossible demands.

"It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not," Pence said.

•••••

New Mississippi flag without rebel symbol being put into law

 https://apnews.com/article/mississippi-bills-tate-reeves-afbe916946e4b38cb29469fe0ec7cdc4

 

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS

Jan. 6, 2021

 Mississippi is updating its laws to include a new state flag with a magnolia and the phrase “In God We Trust,” six months after legislators ditched the last state flag in the U.S. that had the Confederate battle emblem.

 .....

 

Warnock, Ossoff win in Georgia, handing Dems Senate control

 What  a relief.  To continue with republicans having the majority in the Senate would be so harmful to our country and world.  They had already indicated they would do to Biden what they did to Obama, blocking his initiatives in order to make him look bad, to try to get political gains for themselves.  Loeffler's campaign showed her to be so unethical, that it is embarrassing for Georgia that she did as well as she did.

 

https://apnews.com/article/Georgia-election-results-4b82ba7ee3cc74d33e68daadaee2cbf3

 

By STEVE PEOPLES, BILL BARROW and RUSS BYNUM

Jan. 6, 2021

Democrats won both Georgia Senate seats — and with them, the U.S. Senate majority — as final votes were counted Wednesday, serving President Donald Trump a stunning defeat in his turbulent final days in office while dramatically improving the fate of President-elect Joe Biden’s progressive agenda.

Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, Democratic challengers who represented the diversity of their party’s evolving coalition, defeated Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler two months after Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since 1992.

•••••

Where I was

I was off the internet the last two days because I'm a poll worker.  Monday afternoon we set up as much as we could ahead of time.  Then I had to go home and get to sleep early because I had to be at the polls at 5:30am, to help finish setting up.  The polls are open from 7am - 7pm.  There were at least 10 people in line at 7pm, so we had to stay open until they finished voting.  Some of them were at the wrong place, so they had to do a provisional ballot, which takes longer.  By the time I got home, it was almost 9pm.

Charles Koch doubles down on saying he 'screwed up' with partisanship

Charles Koch shows that people, at least some, can learn from mistakes, even though it may take them a long time. This gives me hope for the human race, and is why I continue to make what I hope are useful comments and blog reporting.

I am unhappy that he still won't admit he did wrong by his backing of climate denialism.

 

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/charles-koch-doubles-down-saying-he-screwed-up-with-partisanship-2020-11

 

Juliana Kaplan
Nov 24, 2020, 2:16 PM

 

The billionaire megadonor Charles Koch is doubling down on saying he "screwed up" by fueling partisanship.

In a new interview with Axios, Koch expanded on the issues with partisanship that he detailed in his new book. He told the interviewer, Mike Allen, about when he realized his mistake.

•••••

Koch has poured millions into the GOP and conservative movements; he and his late brother David are credited with helping to create and shape the modern tea party. His $45 billion fortune comes from Koch Industries, the refinery business Koch inherited from his father.

•••••

 

US hits 350,000 COVID-19 deaths amid fear of surge after holiday gatherings

https://thehill.com/homenews/532396-us-hits-350000-covid-19-deaths-amid-fear-of-surge-after-holiday-gatherings

 

By Dominick Mastrangelo - 01/03/21 07:37 AM EST

 

More than 350,000 people have died of the coronavirus in the U.S., with another surge of cases and deaths expected in the coming weeks as a result of smaller holiday gatherings.

The country reached the grim milestone early Sunday morning, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. More than 20 million people have been infected since the pandemic began nearly one year ago, according to the tally.

Public health experts attributed a nationwide spike in cases, hospitalizations and deaths in early December to a large number of Americans traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday, and pleaded with citizens to stay home for Christmas and New Year's celebrations.


•••••

The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention last week reported more than 2 million people in America have been vaccinated, far short of the 20 million figure the federal government initially said it hoped to top by this time. That number has since grown to 4.2 million as of Sunday.

•••••

Extraordinary warning to Trump by 10 former Pentagon chiefs

https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-politics-constitutions-elections-c5cdb7b47af3fc91c381f4e59e4ed1d0

By ROBERT BURNS

Jan. 3, 2021

 

In an extraordinary rebuke of President Donald Trump, all 10 living former secretaries of defense cautioned Sunday against any move to involve the military in pursuing claims of election fraud, arguing that it would take the country into “dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory.”

The 10 men, both Democrats and Republicans, signed on to an opinion article published in The Washington Post that implicitly questioned Trump’s willingness to follow his Constitutional duty to peacefully relinquish power on Jan. 20. Following the Nov. 3 election and subsequent recounts in some states, as well as unsuccessful court challenges, the outcome is clear, they wrote, while not specifying Trump in the article.

“The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived,” they wrote.

The former Pentagon chiefs warned against use of the military in any effort to change the outcome.

“Efforts to involve the U.S. armed forces in resolving election disputes would take us into dangerous, unlawful and unconstitutional territory,” they wrote. “Civilian and military officials who direct or carry out such measures would be accountable, including potentially facing criminal penalties, for the grave consequences of their actions on our republic.”

•••••

The 10 former Pentagon leaders also warned in their Post article of the dangers of impeding a full and smooth transition at Defense Department prior to Inauguration Day as part of a transfer to power to President-elect Joe Biden. Biden has complained of efforts by Trump-appointed Pentagon officials to obstruct the transition.

Without mentioning a specific example, the former defense secretaries wrote that transfers of power “often occur at times of international uncertainty about U.S. national security policy and posture,” adding, “They can be a moment when the nation is vulnerable to actions by adversaries seeking to take advantage of the situation.”

•••••

Trump, on tape, presses Ga. official to ‘find’ him votes

https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-georgia-elections-a7b4aa4d8ce3bf52301ddbe620c6bff6

 

By JEFF AMY, DARLENE SUPERVILLE and KATE BRUMBACK

Jan. 3, 2021

 

President Donald Trump pressured Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state’s presidential election, repeatedly citing disproven claims of fraud and raising the prospect of “criminal offense” if officials did not change the vote count, according to a recording of the conversation.

The phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday was the latest step in an unprecedented effort by a sitting president to pressure a state official to reverse the outcome of a free and fair election that he lost. The president, who has refused to accept his loss to Democratic president-elect Biden, repeatedly argued that Raffensperger could change the certified results.

•••••

Georgia counted its votes three times before certifying Biden’s win by a 11,779 margin, Raffensperger noted: “President Trump, we’ve had several lawsuits, and we’ve had to respond in court to the lawsuits and the contentions. We don’t agree that you have won.”

•••••

We Now Know Why Naval Sonar Leads To Mass Whale Strandings

https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/we-now-know-why-naval-sonar-leads-to-mass-whale-strandings/all/

Nov. 2018

For decades scientists have known that naval sonar can have a detrimental impact on marine life. The sound is so intense that marine mammals will swim hundreds of miles, dive incredibly deep, or even beach themselves in an attempt to flee the unbearable din. Beaked whales, in particular, tend to strand themselves in response to sonar. A new review paper, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, tells us why.  

•••••

Typical mass strandings involve two or more animals beaching themselves while alive at roughly the same time and place. Exactly why these events happen isn’t really known – it could be due to sickness, disorientation, or being chased into shallow water by a predator. We’re still not quite sure. Atypical mass stranding events, on the other hand, involve two or more whales washing up in six days no more than 74 kilometers (46 miles) apart. These kinds of strandings are usually associated with sound.

So how exactly does sonar sound cause the whales to beach themselves? According to the new paper, which summarises what was discussed at a 2017 meeting of beaked whale experts in the Canary Islands, the sonar distresses beaked whales to the extent that they end up with nitrogen bubbles in their blood. This can cause hemorrhaging and damage to their vital organs. If you’re a diver, you’ll know this kind of nitrogen poisoning as decompression sickness, aka the bends – a rare but life-threatening effect of coming up to the surface too quickly.

But how can an animal perfectly adapted to life underwater, with the ability to dive 2,000 meters (6,500 feet), end up with the same problem as a panicky scuba diver?

"In the presence of sonar they are stressed and swim vigorously away from the sound source, changing their diving pattern," lead author Yara Bernaldo de Quiros told AFP.

"The stress response, in other words, overrides the diving response, which makes the animals accumulate nitrogen. It's like an adrenalin shot."

•••••

The authors note that to mitigate the impacts of sonar on beaked whales, we must ban its use in areas where they're found. A moratorium on the use of MFAS around the Canary Islands in 2004 shows just how well this works – no atypical strandings have been seen since. The researchers urge other countries where sonar is deployed, such as the US, Greece, Italy, and Japan, to follow suit.

Spirituality is all very well but don't let it turn you into a smug monster

Reminds me of the person I knew who wrote a song about the Oneness of every thing where she said "if you could feel what I feel" you would be a better person. She seemed to have a patronizing, superior attitude to other people.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/02/spirituality-is-all-very-well-but-dont-let-it-turn-you-into-a-smug-monster

 

Barbara Ellen

Sat 2 Jan 2021 12.30 EST

It would appear that the mindfulness movement is overrun by preening narcissists. Who could have guessed? A Dutch study by Roos Vonk and Anouk Visser, entitled An Exploration of Spiritual Superiority: The Paradox of Self-Enhancement, is the first to measure how people feel they’re more advanced than others in terms of wisdom, self-knowledge and psychic intuition.

An investigation involving around 3,700 people found that practices that are supposed to minimise the ego tend to enlarge it and that those who put extra effort into enhancing spirituality – mindfulness retreats, aura-reading, past life-regression – are the smuggest, most self-aggrandising and unbearable of all (I may be paraphrasing a tad there). Such people cling to unmeasurable and irrefutable claims about their innate superiority, such as greater insights into the human condition, deeper compassion for others and more advanced psychic abilities (they sense things, dontcha know!). Most of us will have come across people like this. Roughly 99% will wish that we hadn’t.

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But hey, this is the time of year to make resolutions and, after a grind like 2020, people are entitled to search for meaning. They shouldn’t be lampooned or criticised for trying to broaden their horizons. However, as the study shows, too often this becomes less about “how can I be better?” to “how can I be better than you?”. Self-improvement morphs into a pious one-upmanship, a contest to become the most perceptive, enlightened, empathic, evolved. It’s no different, really, to travel bores droning on about far-flung beaches in Goa, only this time they’re “travelling to themselves”.

What I’ve found in life is that the genuinely spiritual don’t need to broadcast it or go on retreats about it. Truly spiritual people just are, but how could anyone make a quick buck out of that? There’s the real issue: mindfulness (awareness of how you think, feel, act, react) isn’t a bad thing, quite the opposite. However, there’s a global industry seeking to monetise it, turning people into self-absorbed, smug, crystal-stroking monsters determined to prove they’re a cut above spiritually as well as every other way. When you think about it, industries don’t have followers, they have clients. With the spiritual snake oil merchants, just like any other business model, the customer is always right.

With Guards Crippled by COVID-19, States Are Closing Prisons

https://news.yahoo.com/guards-crippled-covid-19-states-151858915.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/01/us/coronavirus-prisons-jails-closing.html

 

Brendon Derr, Rebecca Griesbach and Danya Issawi
Sat, January 2, 2021, 10:18 AM EST

Battered by a wave of coronavirus infections and deaths, local jails and state prison systems around the United States have resorted to a drastic strategy to keep the virus at bay: Shutting down completely and transferring their inmates elsewhere.

From California to Missouri to Pennsylvania, state and local officials say that so many guards have fallen ill with the virus and are unable to work that abruptly closing some correctional facilities is the only way to maintain community security and prisoner safety.

Experts say the fallout is easy to predict: The jails and prisons that stay open will probably become even more crowded, unsanitary and disease-ridden, and the transfers are likely to help the virus proliferate both inside and outside the walls.

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There have been more than 480,000 confirmed coronavirus infections and at least 2,100 deaths among inmates and guards in prisons, jails and detention centers across the nation, according to a New York Times database.

Among those grim statistics are the nearly 100,000 correctional officers who have tested positive and 170 who have died.

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Ohio and New Hampshire have each called in the National Guard to bolster thinned correctional staff. Michigan has transferred hundreds of inmates around its prison system as staff counts have dipped, despite infection rates in the prison system doubling during the past month, according to the Times’ data.

According to union officials, teachers and nurses who were once a rare stopgap resource are increasingly relied on by the federal prison system to fill staffing holes brought on by both illness and a rash of early retirements among veteran officers.

Analysts say the root of the problem lies in mass incarceration, particularly in rural areas, where most of the closures are occurring.

•••••

Correctional officers also point to low pay, dangerous conditions and a lack of institutional support as drawbacks to attracting qualified candidates — and ultimately bringing staffing numbers to adequate levels.

In some states, correctional officers earn less than $12.50 an hour — not much more than fast-food workers — and many lack broad job protections or benefits.

•••••

The prison closures and subsequent inmate transfers, she said, were like “pouring gasoline on a fire.”

“They’re terrified. They realize that when they go to work, they may not come home at the end of the day,” Watkins said. “The nature of the job is, ‘anything could happen, including getting killed.’ But what they’re not used to is knowing that going to work might mean their family can get a disease that they could die from.”

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World's richest people added $1.8T to their combined wealth in 2020

https://thehill.com/policy/finance/532358-worlds-richest-people-added-18t-to-their-combined-wealth-in-2020?fbclid=IwAR0z5qv7dfLMz4CSR3ArUZq8uKW9KX__m8yOyurRRB6lInYQ8_poF2BMQS8

By Celine Castronuovo - 01/02/21 10:12 AM EST

The world’s 500 richest people added approximately $1.8 trillion to their combined wealth in 2020, bringing them to a total net worth of $7.6 trillion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Bloomberg noted that the 31 percent increase, which came even amid the economic crisis spurred by the coronavirus pandemic, is the largest annual gain in the index’s eight-year history.

The growth mainly reached those at the very top, where five people now each hold more than $100 billion, with another 20 individuals each worth at least $50 billion.


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California funeral homes run out of space as COVID-19 rages

https://news.yahoo.com/california-funeral-homes-run-space-203246714.html

 

AP

CHRISTOPHER WEBER
Sat, January 2, 2021, 3:32 PM EST

As communities across the country feel the pain of a surge in coronavirus cases, funeral homes in the hot spot of Southern California say they must turn away grieving families as they run out of space for the bodies piling up.

The head of the state funeral directors association says mortuaries are being inundated as the United States nears a grim tally of 350,000 COVID-19 deaths. More than 20 million people in the country have been infected, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

“I’ve been in the funeral industry for 40 years and never in my life did I think that this could happen, that I’d have to tell a family, ‘No, we can’t take your family member,’” said Magda Maldonado, owner of Continental Funeral Home in Los Angeles.

Continental is averaging about 30 body removals a day — six times its normal rate. Mortuary owners are calling one another to see whether anyone can handle overflow, and the answer is always the same: They’re full, too.

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Los Angeles County, the epicenter of the crisis in California, has surpassed 10,000 COVID-19 deaths alone. Hospitals in the area are overwhelmed, and are struggling to keep up with basics such as oxygen as they treat an unprecedented number of patients with respiratory issues. On Saturday, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crews arrived to update some hospital's oxygen delivery systems.

•••••

In Texas, state officials say they have only 580 intensive care beds available as staff treat more than 12,480 hospitalized coronavirus patients, a number that has risen steadily since September and has set record highs this past week.

•••••

The number of infections is thought to be far higher than reported because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected with the virus without feeling sick.

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US passes ‘historic’ anti-corruption law that effectively bans anonymous shell companies

Is this why Trump tried to veto this bill?

https://news.yahoo.com/us-passes-historic-anti-corruption-221542902.html

 

The Independent
Richard Hall
Fri, January 1, 2021, 5:15 PM EST

The United States has effectively banned anonymous shell companies from operating in the country with the passing of a new anti-corruption law described by campaigners as “historic”.

The new legislation was included in the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which allocates funds to the US military, and was passed by veto-proof majority in Congress on Friday.

Under the new rules, companies will be required to provide “beneficial ownership” information to the treasury department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Unit. Anonymous companies, which can be used to hide funds illicitly obtained by criminals and corrupt foreign officials, would be effectively banned.

Transparency International, an advocacy group that worked with lawmakers to craft the bill, called the new law “historic” and “one of the most important anti-corruption measures ever passed by the US Congress.”

•••••

Anti-corruption campaigners have lobbied for years to close loopholes that allow criminals to hide money in the US. Last year, the US overtook Switzerland in a global ranking of financial secrecy hotspots. It currently ranks second in the world in the Tax Justice Network’s Financial Secrecy Index 2020, behind only the Cayman Islands.

Corporate secrecy rules have previously made it possible for anyone to create an anonymous shell company, into which they could hide enormous sums of money without being identifiable. Corrupt foreign leaders, cartel bosses, and criminals have all made use of lax US laws to hide their ill-gotten gains.

•••••

“Oligarchs and kleptocrats, gun-runners and cartel heads, wildlife poachers and human traffickers — anyone with a bit of dirty money burning holes in their pocket, really — can no longer turn to American shell companies for their money laundering needs,” he added.

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Police officer pays for shoplifting suspects' holiday dinner

https://news.yahoo.com/police-officer-pays-shoplifting-suspects-153120217.html

 

AP

Sat, January 2, 2021, 10:31 AM EST

A Massachusetts police officer declined to charge two women accused of trying to steal groceries for the children — and instead bought them Christmas dinner.

Somerset Officer Matt Lima responded to a report of shoplifting Dec. 20 at Stop & Shop, where two women with two young children were accused of putting groceries into bags at a self-checkout kiosk without scanning them.

The women said they had fallen on hard times and were trying to provide a Christmas dinner for the children. Lima says he was reminded of his own children and used his own money to buy $250 in grocery gift cards.

“His actions exemplify what it means to protect and serve the members of our community," Chief George McNeil said on the department's website.

Prophet of Doom

D. B. Patterson has released an album of songs relating to the times we're going thru.





Prophet of Doom on Spotify


Available in other places, like iTunes.

Virginia state senator dies at age 60 after contracting Covid-19

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/01/politics/virginia-state-senator-dies-covid-19/index.html

By Ganesh Setty, CNN
Updated 11:58 PM ET, Fri January 1, 2021

Virginia state Sen. Ben Chafin Jr. has died after contracting Covid-19, according to a statement from his office. He was 60 years old.

"State Senator Augustus Benton (Ben) Chafin, Jr., a native son of Russell County located in Southwest Virginia, passed away on January 1, 2021 from Covid-19 complications," the statement said. The Republican lawmaker's family thanked the VCU Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia, for "its vigorous care and heartfelt support during his two weeks of medical services there."

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Deluged Atlanta hospitals warn of rationing care

https://www.ajc.com/news/investigations/deluged-hospitals-warn-of-rationing-care-beg-revelers-to-stay-home/OKCPPRIKQZA3RG2ZTDU5SSM3FI/

Dec 30, 2020

By Ariel Hart - The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionJ. Scott Trubey - The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionHelena Oliviero - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Patients who don’t get bathed each day or don’t get meals on time, because there’s not enough staff. Patients just out of surgery who need a nurse dedicated to watch only them, but instead have to share.

Patients in pain from a broken bone who wait hours for sedation because there are no ER beds, while ER patients wait for the ICU beds their lives may depend on.

These things are happening now. COVID-19 cases are swamping more Georgia hospitals, testing them in ways that were previously unimaginable. Hospitals say that they are not rationing the most important care — yet. But, caregivers are already making decisions about who gets which scarce resources. The only question is how grave those decisions will become, with projections showing that hospitalizations will continue to surge in the weeks ahead.

“We are treating patients in the hallways, in triage areas, in waiting rooms,” said Deborah Matthews, senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Tanner Health System in west Georgia. “Every day we huddle as a team and look at our options. We are having to do things we have never had to do before.”

Grady Memorial Hospital is full. Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center is full. The intensive care units or emergency departments of Piedmont Atlanta Hospital, Northside Atlanta Hospital, Emory University Hospital, Wellstar North Fulton Hospital, Wellstar Kennestone Hospital and others in the Atlanta metro area are full, as of data reported Wednesday afternoon. So were ERs in Covington, Chatsworth, Eatonton, Statesboro and other towns throughout Georgia at points on Wednesday, and ICUs in most parts of Georgia.

It’s not just COVID-19 patients who are affected. Hospitals are running out of beds, and, most crucially, staff, for all patients.

•••••

Hospital officials in northeast Georgia, where COVID-19 patients make up nearly 40% of all those hospitalized, issued a public statement begging people to wear masks and distance for the holidays, openly warning that with rising cases health care will have to be rationed.

•••••

Jansen said the hospital is planning to find “non-traditional” areas within its campus to add 50 to 100 patient beds.

“We just have to find the staff to serve those areas,” he said. ‘If you look across the region and the state you will find just about everybody is in the same position, which is really frightening.”

Some parts of the state, he said, could reach the point that hospitals in California have. There, some have had to resort to “crisis care” guidelines that allow for rationing care, according to the Associated Press.


•••••

Americans assume they will have access to high levels, almost perfection levels, of health care, Stanton said. “But the sobering reality is when people go to the hospital, this may no longer be the case.”

Record-setting 'bomb cyclone' batters Alaska's Aleutian Islands with hurricane force

Global warming is causing more incidents of various kinds of extreme weather.

https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N2JC02V

 

By Yereth Rosen

Environment
December 31, 202011:00 PM

A Pacific storm of record proportions swept a remote stretch of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands chain on Thursday, battering a region used heavily by commercial shipping with hurricane-force winds and seas five stories high.

“It’s the most intense storm ever recorded in the North Pacific, excluding typhoons,” said Brian Brettschneider, a NOAA research scientist with the National Weather Service.

The center of what forecasters refer to as “bomb cyclone” was measured at a record-low barometric pressure of 921 millibars, equivalent to the eye of a Category 4 hurricane and the lowest documented over the Aleutians as far back as the 1950s, Brettschneider said.

•••••

The storm also caused some erosion of Bering Sea winter ice, already at some of its thinnest levels on record for this time of year, further disrupting a frozen landscape that walruses and some species of seals depend on.

•••••

tags: severe weather, extreme weather,

Covid wards 'full of children' for first time in pandemic, warn nurses

https://news.yahoo.com/covid-wards-full-children-first-145710680.html

 

The Telegraph
Patrick Sawer
Fri, January 1, 2021, 9:57 AM EST

Medics are starting to see “whole wards of children” suffering from Covid for the first time during the pandemic, a senior nurse has warned.

Laura Duffell, a matron at King’s College Hospital, London, said the new strain of Covid was affecting children and younger adults with no underlying health conditions in worrying numbers.

She said: “It’s very different. That’s what makes it so much scarier for us as doctors, nurses and porters and everyone else who is working on the front line.

•••••

Consultants and nursing leaders say that high levels of nursing vacancies, coupled with high numbers of staff themselves going off sick with coronavirus or stress will make it near impossible to use the Nightingale hospitals built around the country at the start of the pandemic.

The makeshift hospitals were built at sites across England at an estimated cost of £220million, including in London, Manchester, Bristol, Sunderland, Harrogate, Exeter and Birmingham.

•••••

There are already one in eight nursing vacancies, with existing shortages in the type of Intensive Care Unit nurses needed to treat the most severely ill Covid patients, and recent figures showed that one in 10 Covid admissions to hospital are front line health workers - depriving the NHS of badly-needed staff.

•••••

The warnings came as the picture across hospitals struggling to cope with a spike in Covid cases grows ever more serious, with consultants estimating that London hospitals are now operating at more than 200 per cent over capacity and even those hospitals in regions not as badly affected by the current wave working at 150 per cent over capacity.

Clinicians say this means beds being placed closer together to make space, increasing the risk of cross infection between patients, and other Covid beds being moved into “every corner” of a hospital. Some major London hospitals have been forced to treat Covid-19 patients in ambulances.

As a result a growing number of non-Covid patients are having to wait longer for potentially life saving treatment for conditions such as cancer.

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Two men were driving two boys into slavery in Central and South Florida, cops say

https://news.yahoo.com/two-men-were-driving-two-204247392.html

 

Miami Herald
David J. Neal
Fri, January 1, 2021, 3:42 PM EST

A traffic stop about an hour east of the Florida-Alabama border Wednesday led to two men facing human trafficking charges, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said.

Sitting in Santa Rosa County jail, each with a bond of $1.1 million, are 39-year-old Frank Moreno of Odessa, Texas, and 21-year-old Jackson Perez-Godinez of Guatemala. Each faces two counts of engaging in human trafficking for labor or servitude on a child under 18 years old and smuggling an illegal individual into the state.

•••••

“Investigators believe the boys were trafficked into the United States for forced labor,” FDLE Said. “According to the victims, their families each paid more than $1,000 to be smuggled into America. Each teen was told they had to work to pay off additional travel debt. Agents believe the men were taking the boys to different cities in Central and South Florida.”

Report: U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz helped donors' Texas fracking company get pandemic relief money

Welfare / socialism for the very rich.

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2020/12/28/wall-street-journal-ties-u-s-sen-ted-cruz-bailout-donors/4066367001/

 

Asher Price
Austin American-Statesman
Dec. 28, 2020

A Texas fracking company owned by billionaire Republican donors got a $35 million government pandemic relief loan this spring, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

ProFrac Holdings, owned by Dan and Farris Wilks, applied for and received the loan even as it was going on a West Texas buying spree, scooping up oil and gas companies.

Key to the loan application: U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, whose campaigns have been a major benefactor of the Wilks' largesse, and who helped convince the Trump administration and the Federal Reserve to change the rules for pandemic loans to ensure oil and gas firms could participate, the Journal reported.

The Wilks brothers donated $15 million to a super PAC called Keeping the Promise that championed Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign, making them the largest financial backers of his political career, according to the Journal.

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The Wilks brothers, who made their fortune in the fracking boom by selling their oilfield service company, Frac Tech, for $3.5 billion in 2011, have long been active in Republican politics.

They have been major contributors to the campaigns of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and a host of Texas House members who make up the "Freedom" Caucus.

On the federal level, in addition to the contributions to the super PAC supporting Cruz, Farris Wilks contributed to the political campaign of U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican who represents parts of Austin and the Hill Country, and $200,000 to the Club for Growth, which supports conservative candidates. Dan Wilks contributed $35,000 in 2019 to the Republican National Committee.

Congress Overturns Trump Veto On Defense Bill After Political Detour

https://www.npr.org/2021/01/01/952450018/congress-overturns-trump-veto-on-defense-bill-after-political-detour

January 1, 20212:35 PM ET
Philip Ewing

The Senate voted Friday to overturn President Trump's veto of the mammoth annual defense bill in an unprecedented act that assures the decades-long continuity for that legislation. It follows a House vote earlier this week.

The Senate vote, 81-13, came after an unusual political detour for the National Defense Authorization Act, which establishes policy and handles myriad other issues for the military services. The popularity of the military, together with the scale of the bill, means it passes virtually every year and has for decades — until this one hit a snag.

It is the first veto override by Congress in the Trump presidency.

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