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

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.

Justice for George Floyd!
Derek Chauvin has been convicted on all three charges.

Both sides gave their closing arguments in the case of Derek Chauvin, who is charged with the murder of George Floyd.

Was it murder?

The prosecutor reminded jurors that Floyd said "I can't breathe" 27 times in the first 4 minutes and 45 seconds of this encounter. He also said "9 minutes and 29 seconds" all throughout his presentation, reminding jurors of the length of time that Chauvin had Floyd pinned to the pavement.

"Was George Floyd resisting when he was trying to breathe? No," he said, adding that Chauvin chose to mock Floyd by saving, "It takes a lot of oxygen to complain."

Chauvin is charged with second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The prosecutor told the jury all the state had to prove was the Chauvin did it on purpose: [More...]

Six women between the ages of 18 and 48 have been afflicted with a blood clotting disorder within three weeks of taking the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. One died, one is in critical condition in the hospital. While that's a tiny number of the 9 million people in America who have received the vaccine, the government is concerned enough to put a "pause" on the vaccine until they know more.

Scientists with the F.D.A. and C.D.C. will jointly examine possible links between the vaccine and the disorder and determine whether the F.D.A. should continue to authorize use of the vaccine for all adults or modify the authorization, possibly limiting it to certain population groups. An emergency meeting of the C.D.C.’s outside vaccine advisory committee has been scheduled for Wednesday.

What population group would you exclude? Females between 18 and 48? [More...]

Our last open thread is full, time for a new one.

The trial of police officer Derek Chauvin is winding down. Judging from the reporting, it seems like the defense is going to have a hard time selling that George Floyd died of drugs and heart problems given the multiple experts called by the prosecution. The Judge expects the jury to get the case Monday, and they will be sequestered.

Nelson is presenting two key arguments. He says that whatever actions Chauvin took were reasonable and followed his training as a police officer, and that in any case those actions are not what killed Floyd.

“You will learn that Derek Chauvin did exactly what he had been trained to do over the course of his 19-year career. The use of force is not attractive, but it is a necessary component of policing,” he told the jury.

[More...]

Matt Gaetz was a lawyer before he ran for Congress. I have no idea why he believes he can talk his way to innocence in a pending criminal investigation involving alleged sex trafficking of a minor, but it seems he's intent on trying.

Here’s a summary of the events to date in the Gaetz investigation by Florida Politics.

When the New York Times first broke the story, Gaetz responded with a denial on Twitter claiming he and his father, former Florida state senator Don Gaetz, were victims of a $25 million extortion plot by a former DOJ official who wanted the money to free a former FBI agent taken hostage in Iran. (The FBI said months ago it thinks the hostage is dead). According to Gaetz, the former DOJ official offered to use his influence to help Gaetz in the pending sex trafficking investigation in exchange for the money. Gaetz claimed, and the FBI doesn’t dispute, that Don Gaetz wore a wire at its request to get the former DOJ official to admit the plot on tape. Apparently the former DOJ official didn’t bite. [More...]

To those of you attending seders this week for Pesach (Passover), enjoy. I made Matzoh Brei for breadfast, and will have matzoh ball soup for dinner, but I'm not willing to be in a room full of people I haven't seen in a year to do a live seder. Zoom doesn't do much for me either, so I'll take a pass.

Stay safe out there, and don't believe the hype that this virus is on its way out. This Wall St. Journal article about the P.1 variant that's overtaken Brazil is very scary. The Lancet has more on the P.1 variant and Manaus.

Maine got its first case 2 days ago. It is also in New York. [More...]

Seriously, Joe Biden intends to seek a second term? Who is he kidding? Trump's kids must be screaming with delight, thinking it's their turn next.

Politics has been completely boring lately. I think it's to be expected after four years of living on the edge of our seats and not knowing whether we'd live another year -- as a country or individually.

I had court this morning and the Judge wasn't wearing a mask. The only people in the courtroom were his clerk, 2 U.S. Marshals and me and my client (all masked). (The prosecutor and court reporter appeared by video). At one point he said the risk wasn't too big since all of us had probably gotten at least one vaccination dose. [More...]