samhexum

Cleveland will be dropping the Indians name. No word on what they'll call themselves.

We need a 'jealous' emoji.

An entire region in California is out of ICU beds as COVID-19 surges A 12-county region in California is out of ICU-bed capacity as a second wave of COVID-19 ravages the state’s rural Central Valley. San Joaquin County, an agriculture hub where the majority of fruits and vegetables in the US are grown, has been hit particularly hard in recent weeks. ICU capacity at all seven hospitals in the county stood at 100 percent on Saturday, the highest rate anywhere in California, according to the state’s Department of Public Health. A team of 17 nurses is expected to arrive Monday at one local hospital that has built a second ICU area where it plans to take in coronavirus patients from San Joaquin County’s six other overflowing hospitals. Many of the patients are Latino farm workers. A doctor at Adventist Health Lodi Memorial hospital in Lodi, which is about 100 miles east of San Francisco, said that during the first COVID wave in the spring, 75 percent of patients were Latino. The hospital investigated the trend and found COVID warnings were not reaching many in the community, because of a lack of trust in the hospital staff and government. “We don’t have the same culture and the rigidity around following the guidance here than, for example, San Francisco [has]. We need to educate, educate, as much as we can so we can get some relief,” Dr. Patricia Iris said. An ideological divide also exists between Lodi’s English-speaking locals and the state’s liberal government leaders. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom implemented a 21-day stay-at-home order last week — prompting an outcry from San Joaquin businesses. Pat Patrick, president and CEO of the Lodi Chamber of Commerce, signed a letter urging Newsom to let businesses stay open. “There’s just no rhyme or reason to some of these things and certainly no data,” Patrick said. At least one restaurant, Denis’ Country Kitchen, has stayed open despite the mandate.

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DEAR ABBY: My 34-year-old daughter lives with me to get ahead on her student loans. She has a good job, pays rent and has a serious boyfriend. My niece, her cousin, recently died by suicide, and naturally, we are all devastated, but my daughter took the news especially hard. I had to be out of town for three weeks, and during this time she has been spending time with my sister-in-law's family as they all navigate this tragedy. My niece left behind several pets -- dogs and a mama cat with kittens. My daughter called me, announced she had brought a kitten home and declared that this kitten has helped her in her grief process. I am livid that she didn't ask me first (she knew the answer would be a firm "no"). She's now claiming that I don't care about her grief. I feel emotionally blackmailed, and I'm dreading the confrontation when I get home. This kitten has taken this devastating tragedy to a new level. How should I handle this? -- FAMILY GRIEF DEAR FAMILY GRIEF: While I understand your feelings, handle it by being less hard-nosed about the fact that your daughter didn't follow protocol by asking permission before bringing home the kitten. Allow her to keep it, and during those times when she can't be home because she's working, etc., encourage her to leave the little furball with her boyfriend. Make plain that the creature is -- and will be -- her responsibility, meaning she will be responsible for feeding, vet bills, litter box, etc. And, most important of all, try not to fall in love with it because when your daughter leaves, Kitty will be going with her. Don't be such a pussy. Kick them both out, you heartless bitch. DEAR ABBY: I am a straight female. I have been divorced for 10-plus years and recently decided, after five years of trying to attract a new man through online dating, that I want to be single and celibate for the rest of my life. Literally days after I wrote the decision in my journal, guys are coming at me out of the woodwork, chatting me up, even giving unsolicited hugs. I'm bewildered. I subscribed to a dating site for a full-year membership and got not one single reply to any of my messages. Not one! I also tried a different dating site, where my friend met her spouse. It yielded crickets. No man ever messaged me to say, "Hey, I like your photo and want to know more about you." This reinforces my decision that I want nothing to do with men. -- LEAVE ME ALONE DEAR LEAVE ME ALONE: And your question is? If you are asking me to validate a decision you made out of frustration after a year of terrible luck, I can't in good conscience do that. We can't run from life because we are afraid of the pain of being open. That is the coward's choice. If men are showing an interest, allow them to get to know you and vice versa, instead of hiding. Be present and live your life in situations that include available people, which sometimes yields better results than the pressure of online dating. So become a nun, and then you will get none.

Trump has been highlighting lots of really big numbers this week: New highs for the stock market. The 100-plus House members backing a lawsuit challenging his election loss. The nearly 75 million people who voted for him. All the while, he's looked past other staggering and more consequential figures: The record numbers of coronavirus deaths, hospitalizations and new cases among the citizens of the nation he leads. On Friday, Trump's team blasted out a text with this strong, high-minded presidential message: “We will not bend. We will not break. We will never give in. We will never give up.” But it was not a rallying cry to help shore up Americans sagging under the toll of a pandemic that on Wednesday alone killed more Americans than on D-Day or 9/11. It was part of a fundraising pitch tied to Senate races in Georgia and to Trump’s unsupported claims that Democrats are trying to “steal” the presidential election he lost. Of Trump's tweets over the past week, 82 percent have been focused on the election and just 7 percent on the virus — almost all of those related to forthcoming vaccines — according to Factba.se, a data analytics company. Nearly a third of the president’s tweets on the election were flagged by Twitter for misinformation. As he talks and tweets at length about the election he is futilely trying to subvert, the president is leaving Americans without a central figure to help them deal with their grief over loved-ones' deaths and the day-to-day danger of the pandemic that still rages. His strategy is to focus totally on the shiny object coming soon — the prospect of a vaccine. Friday night, the the Food and Drug Administration gave the final go-ahead to a vaccine from Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, launching emergency vaccinations in a bid to end the pandemic. But Trump's three-minute internet address hailing the vaccine made no mention of the toll the virus has taken. Calvin Jillson, a presidential historian at Southern Methodist University, said Trump has proven himself unable or unwilling to muster the “normal and natural, falling-off-a-log simple presidential approach” that is called for in any moment of national grief or crisis. “He simply doesn’t seem to have the emotional depth, the emotional reserves to feel what’s happening in the country and to respond to it in the way that any other president -- even those who’ve been fairly emotionally crippled -- would do,” Jillson said. Trump did convene a summit this week to highlight his administration’s successful efforts to help hasten the development of coronavirus vaccines and prepare for their speedy distribution. And he spent part of Friday pressing federal authorities to authorize use of the first-up vaccine candidate from Pfizer. At his summit, the president put heavy emphasis on the faster-than-expected development of the vaccines, calling it “an incredible success,” “a monumental national achievement,” “really amazing” and “somewhat of a miracle.” He's also claimed credit, though Pfizer developed its vaccine outside the administration's “Operation Warp Speed.” In a passing nod to the pandemic's toll, Trump promised the coming vaccines would “quickly and dramatically reduce deaths and hospitalizations," adding that “we want to get back to normal.” But it will be months before most Americans have access to a vaccine. Asked what message he had for Americans suffering great hardship as the holidays approach and the virus only gets worse, Trump's answer had an almost clinical tone. “Yeah, well, CDC puts out their guidelines, and they're very important guidelines,” he said, “but I think this: I think that the vaccine was our goal.” To focus otherwise would undercut Trump's goal of minimizing the national pain of the virus' toll and his claims that the danger will soon vanish. Trump's successor, Joe Biden, on Friday answered that approach with a promise for greater presidential leadership. Of the virus, he said: “We can wish this away, but we need to face it.” Jeff Shesol, a presidential historian and former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, said Trump's failure to express empathy was a “personal pathology manifesting itself as political strategy.” “It's not simply that he has decided not to express concern or sorrow, it's that he does not feel the sorrow,” Shesol said. Ari Fleischer, who served as White House press secretary to President George W. Bush, said Trump has approached the virus in a "very mechanical, focus-on-the-vaccine kind of way” when people are also hungering for an emotional connection. That's hurt Trump politically, but it's true to his persona, Fleischer added. “The president is a blunt force more than he’s an empathetic force,” Fleischer said. “To his credit, he doesn’t pretend. He is who he is. Most politicians would fake it." The White House did not respond to a request for comment for this story. It's not just Trump who is fazed by how best to acknowledge the toll of the virus. The issue led to an unusually personal argument on the air Thursday at Fox News Channel, the favorite network for many of Trump’s supporters. Marie Harf, a commentator on the midday show “Outnumbered,” noted that 43 minutes into the show the previous day’s record-setting number of COVID deaths hadn’t been mentioned. “We cannot lose sight of the tragedy that is unfolding every day in this country, in large part because people want to go about like normal and they don’t want to wear masks,” she said. The show’s host, Harris Faulkner, called Harf’s remark offensive. “Keep your judgment someplace where you know you can fact-check it, because you can’t see my heart.” Late-night TV hosts, too, took note of the scant acknowledgement of the unfolding tragedy. In a lengthy monologue Thursday night, NBC “Late Night” host Seth Meyers faulted Trump and Republicans for continuing to focus on trying to overturn the long-settled election “as thousands of Americans die every day from a pandemic they clearly don’t care about."

Boston medical conference linked to as many as 300K COVID-19 cases A team of scientists using genetic sequencing found that between 205,000 and 300,000 coronavirus cases across the US are linked to a “superspreader” medical conference in Boston in late February. The conference was previously thought to have been associated with about 20,000 cases in the Boston metro area, but the researchers say it actually spread much further after about 100 people caught the virus at the gathering, CBS News reported. Through Nov. 1, the genetic marker found in the strain of the virus linked to the conference was found in 51,000 cases around Boston. It also spread to other locations where conference attendees returned, including in Florida, where 29 percent of the conference-linked cases ended up; Indiana and North Carolina. The strain of virus was found as far away as Australia and Slovakia, according to the research, published in the journal Science. “We don’t think these strains had a propensity to spread more than any other,” said Jacob Lemieux, the study’s lead author. “We suspect that these types of events have been happening over and over again, and are major contributors to the propagation and spread of SARS-cov2 throughout the world. Biogen in a statement said the pandemic has had a “very direct and personal impact” on the company and hoped the study would “continue to drive a better understanding of the transmission of this virus and efforts to address it.”

Nah, $11.58

I went grocery shopping at 4AM (as most people do) and got 2 cans of Lysol, the first I’ve seen since the pandemic began. Of course my cashier (who was otherwise terrific) had her mask under her nose, but as long as I don’t get sick in the next week, WOO HOO!

So I go down to get the mail and find one of those things where you have to fold and perforate the sides to open it… from the NY State Dept of Taxation. OH FUCK! What now? I open it, and it’s an interest check for $3.96 because I filed my taxes ahead of the covid-extended deadline. Don’t understand, but I’ll take it. Then I went grocery shopping at 4AM (as most people do) and got 2 cans of Lysol, the first I’ve seen since the pandemic began. Of course my cashier (who was otherwise terrific) had her mask under her nose, but as long as I don’t get sick in the next week, WOO HOO!

NY DAILY NEWS: A Chanukah miracle: Upper West Side Zabar’s selling latkes like hot cakes

NY DAILY NEWS: A Chanukah miracle: Upper West Side Zabar’s selling latkes like hot cakes

Dissect his brain. Now

Dissect his brain. Now

I don't remember the name of the play or actor, but I once posted an article to the late, great ATKOL forums about an actor who was nude in a play and was distracting audiences with his oversized member.

I don't remember the name of the play or actor, but I once posted an article to the late, great ATKOL forums about an actor who was nude in a play and was distracting audiences with his oversized member.

Four New Jersey high school teachers have been suspended over anti-gay remarks they made during a Zoom class last month, school officials said. A Dumont High School student took a screenshot of the Nov. 25 chat which was then shared online by former student Matthew DeMarco. The offensive remarks were part of a conversation between teachers that students were “inadvertently” able to view, according to the school district’s business administrator Kevin Cartotto. “Why is that kid with the gay gym teacher?” one teacher wrote, according to the screenshot. Another teacher responded: “Is that her adopted kid? Who is gonna be all (expletive) up growing up watching 2 chicks kissing and calling them both mom.” The four teachers were suspended with pay, but more disciplinary actions may be coming, Cartotto said during a public Dumont Board of Education meeting Thursday night. The incident drew public disgust when DeMarco started a petition last month demanding that the teachers resign. “I know the (gym) teacher,” Matthew DeMarco told ABC New York. ”So as soon as I saw these comments being made about her, I was outraged.” Dumont Mayor Andrew LaBruno also called the comments “extremely appalling.” “These homophobic comments do not reflect our community’s values, nor do they represent our beliefs in the Borough of Dumont,” he said in a statement.