600,000 people with COVID-19 have died in this this country. That is such an appalling number.

The World Health Organization says even people who have had COVID-19 should get vaccinated.

The virus has not gone away. The Delta variant is growing in the U.S. and elsewhere. We don't know if it's more dangerous, just that it's more transmissible. Meaning it's a fast spreader. The CDC has now declared it a "Variant of Concern". It thinks the current vaccines will be mostly effective against the variants, but that sounds more like hope than science. [More...]

Donald Trump is on a downward legal spiral. But oh, the irony, if he goes down on emails after all the years he spent maligning Hillary and urging she be "locked up" over her emails.

The report in the New York Times today about how he tried to pressure Assistant AG Jeffrey Rosen (who later became Acting Attorney General) to support his baseless claim of election fraud is very damaging.

Are the emails the final nail? (They are available here). The Times says the emails show:

Mr. Trump pressured Mr. Rosen to put the power of the Justice Department behind lawsuits that had already failed to try to prove his false claims that extensive voter fraud had affected the election results.

[More...]

I have been adjusting to life outside of my bubbled apartment. After more than a year indoors, I can't help but avoid the computer. I will be back though!

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Time for a new open thread, all topics welcome.

I'm almost as tired of writing about COVID-19 as I used to get writing about Trump. The CDC seems to me to have jumped the shark. Now they are recommending less testing for people who have been vaccinated?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that most people who have received the full course of shots and have no COVID-19 symptoms don’t need to be screened for the virus, even if exposed to someone who is infected.

When will these experts figure out that we need to prevent the virus, not just treat it after it infects and kills. To do that you need to test. This year-old interview with Virologist Shao Yiming, chief AIDS expert at China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention,published in Science Insider Magazine makes a lot of good points.

[More...]

Wow. Just wow. Bob Dylan is 80 years old.

Happy birthday Bob Dylan. I know all the readers here will join me in wishing him many, many more.

His work is too extensive for me to pick a favorite. But I'll go with the one that has been the tagline for Talkleft's front page (bottom middle right column)for 19 years: Subterranean Homesick Blues.

The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles

More...

The New York Attorney General announced it has joined the New York DA's criminal investigation of the Trump Organization. Previously, the AG's investigation was civil rather than criminal.

A spokesman for the state's top prosecutor, Letitia James, said the inquiry into Mr Trump's property company was "no longer purely civil"....We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA."

The AG spokesman said it has notified the Trump Organization of the change in status. According to the New York Times, it's about Trump Org. Chief Financial Officer Alan Weisselberg and his family. [More...]

Is anyone going maskless here?

I used to say about Wordperfect that they'd have to pry it out of my dead hand before I changed to Microsoft Word. That's how I feel about my mask. I'm still going to wear it and I won't be shopping at any grocery store or butcher where either the employees or customers are not masked.

As for restaurants: Just the thought of an unmasked worker handling my food and breathing over convinces me it's not time to eat at an indoor or outdoor restaurant yet.

With the large numbers of law enforcement and prison guards refusing to take the vaccine, and the government claiming they don't have the right to demand they get one, I'm not feeling any safer today than I did two weeks ago or a month ago. [More...]

The House of Representatives today held a vote on Liz Cheney and she has been removed as House Republican Conference chair

which is considered to be the third most important Republican position in the House.

Donald Trump was happy, calling her "a poor leader, a major Democrat talking point, a warmonger, and a person with absolutely no personality or heart.”

He did get one right: warmonger.

I don't understand why Democrats and progressives are flocking to defend Liz Cheney. Liz Cheney holds the same beliefs as her father, Dick Cheney. See Maureen Dowd's column this week, on the similarity of beliefs held by Cheney and her father. I'm with Dowd on this.

Bill and Melinda Gates have announced they are getting a divorce. Both their twitter feeds have the same message. They say they will continue their work together at the Gates foundation, but won't continue to work together as a couple.

The Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the most influential private foundation in the world, with an endowment worth nearly $50 billion. It has focused on global health and development and U.S. education issues since incorporating in 2000.

Melinda Gates has been heavily involved in gender equality initiatives in the past few years. Maybe she wants to start her own foundation. Given they are announcing a divorce, not a separation, I suspect they have already settled their financial affairs.

It may be the largest divorce settlement in history, since they are reportedly worth $150 billion. I found this part of their announcement curious:

‘We no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in the next phase of our lives

They've been married for 27 years. What kind of continued growth as a couple were they expecting? [More...]

Rudy Giuliani is playing dumb. He feigns surprise the FBI didn't want his hard drives with Hunter Biden's material.

As if he doesn't know the FBI is investigating his activities, not Hunter's, regarding the Ukraine.

The FBI warned him and the Trump Administration that Rudy was the target of a Russian disinformation campaign to influence the election. Update: The Washington Post and NYTimes have now retracted the allegation that Rudy was formally warned by the FBI. [More...]

The Oscars will begin shortly.

There will be no host, no audience, nor face masks for nominees attending the ceremony at Los Angeles' Union Station - this year's hub for a show usually broadcast from the Dolby Theatre.

Steven Soderbergh is in charge this year:

The Oscars will look more like a movie, Soderbergh has said. The show will be shot in 24 frames-per-second (as opposed to 30), appear more widescreen and the presenters - including Brad Pitt, Halle Berry, Reese Witherspoon, Harrison Ford, Rita Moreno and Zendaya - are considered "cast members." The telecast's first 90 seconds, Soderbergh has claimed, will "announce our intention immediately."

It may be a landmark year for diversity but I agree with Bill Maher - the movies are just so sad.

Then again, it was a sad year all the way around.