Odds and Ends — 18 June 2021
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
1 in 4 COVID patients hospitalized while vitamin D deficient die – Israeli study
Among those without deficiency who’re hospitalized, only 3% die; patients with insufficient D are also 14 times likelier to end up in severe or critical condition, research shows.
Rick Schroder joins anti-vax protesters outside first full capacity Foo Fighters concert
Why nobody will ever agree on whether COVID lockdowns were worth it
Thanks, but I’d prefer salmon: Netherlands offers free pickled herring as Covid jab incentive
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, and Debt:
Scammers Are Now Sending Ledger Users Fake Hardware Wallets
Economist says El Salvador ‘on road to death’
Politics:
You can’t make this stuff up: Lawmaker is using campaign money to pay lawyers defending him in an investigation into whether he misspent campaign funds.
Trump Was Serious About Overturning the Election
New documents and emails reveal how far the president and his supporters were willing to go to try to keep Donald Trump in office in a frenzied three-week stretch that tested Justice Department leaders.
‘Crisis’ Is Message as GOP Outrage Machine Ramps Up
For divided House Republicans, outrage may be the tie that binds — at least their leaders hope so. … There is a method to all the remonstrance. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, who took over as the message maestro of the Republican conference after the banishment of Rep. Liz Cheney, hatched the crisis strategy as one of her first ventures, Rep. Tom Cole said, distributing talking points this month on the perils facing the country.
He thought the list had five crises; Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Republican of Washington, remembered four. The idea is that with Democrats in control of the White House, House and Senate, next year’s midterm elections will be a referendum on one-party control, not on Republican governing plans, said Mr. Cole, a former chairman of the House Republicans’ campaign arm. The Republicans, at least this early in the political cycle, need to seed a sense of instability, overreach and fear, he said.
SCOTUS Rejects Red States’ Bid To Throw Out Obamacare
Obamacare’s Win at the Supreme Court Is Even Bigger Than it Appears
Putin Says Biden Was Very Sharp
In an interview on Russian television, President Vladimir Putin disputed the narrative used by some Republicans questioning President Joe Biden’s mental health saying it had “nothing to do with reality.”
Said Putin: “He had no jet lag, was cheerful, we spoke eye to eye two-plus hours. He’s completely of sound mind and should be taken seriously.”
Justices scuttle lawsuit against Nestlé, Cargill for allegedly aiding child slavery abroad
Serendipity:
The forgotten tricks of ‘letterlocking’
Meme credit: meme_dash (source)
'Why nobody will ever agree on whether COVID lockdowns were worth it' is one of the best discussions of the discussion of COVID-19 I've yet read — thank you.
And colds! Which cost employed Americans 9 productive hours per bout on average. Anecdotally, I know I've experienced far fewer than average 'sniffles' since 2020, probably because of distancing and
obsessiveconscientious hand washing.