India has a problem and it's getting worse. It might take India more than two years to inoculate 70 percent of its population.

                                                                 The New York Times Coronavirus Briefing  

April 9, 2021

An informed guide to the pandemic, with the latest developments and expert advice about prevention and treatment.

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The New York Times

By Jonathan Wolfe

In the U.S., nearly one in five people have been fully vaccinated, and one in three have received at least one shot. France said people under 55 who got a first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine should follow up with a different vaccine. Europe’s drug regulator is investigating some cases of blood clots after Johnson & Johnson shots, but no link has been established. Get the latest updates here, as well as maps and vaccines in development.

India’s outbreak

India has become the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, reporting a record of 131,968 new cases in the last 24 hours as the virus spins out of control. Deaths are rising, hospitals are quickly filling up and the country’s vaccination campaign is perilously behind schedule.

The surge in cases is a sharp U-turn for the country, which initially enacted one of the world’s strictest lockdowns when the virus arrived last year and had managed to keep per capita cases relatively low. Public health experts even wondered whether India might have some innate resistance to the virus, perhaps related to its warmer climate or younger population.

New coronavirus cases in India.The New York Times

Experts say complacency and government missteps are to blame for the recent surge.

After cases dropped in December, many Indians shed masks and resumed normal life. Leaders also began acting as if the problem were solved, allowing large Hindu religious festivals and political rallies.

The variants of the virus may have also played a role, but the country doesn’t do enough genetic sequencing to know for sure. India’s sluggish vaccination drive has also been dogged by complacency and public skepticism. If inoculations don’t quicken, experts say it will take India more than two years to inoculate 70 percent of its population.

The surge in India is a troubling development for the broader pandemic. The sheer number of new infections creates a breeding ground for possible new variants that could be resistant to vaccines, or better able to reinfect people who have already had the virus. India is also a large producer of vaccines, and the Serum Institute of India has said that practically all of its daily production of about two million doses will over the next two months go to the government, delaying commitments to other countries.

“India’s size is going to dominate the global numbers — how the world performs on Covid is going to be very dependent on how India performs on Covid,” said Dr. Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy in Washington. “If it is not over in India, it is not really over in the world.”

Michigan’s scary slide

The outbreak in Michigan is bad and getting worse. Hospitalizations have more than tripled in the last month, and cases continue to spike. About 7,200 new cases are being reported each day, a sevenfold increase since late February.

The state is home to 16 of the 20 U.S. metro areas with the highest per capita new infections.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called today for high schools to voluntarily move classes online for two weeks and suggested, but did not require, that residents avoid eating inside restaurants for two weeks. She also called on President Biden to send more Covid-19 vaccines to her state.

“I made the case for a surge strategy. At this point that’s not being deployed, but I am not giving up,” Ms. Whitmer said, describing a Thursday evening call with the president. “Today it’s Michigan and the Midwest. Tomorrow it could be another section of our country.”

Ms. Whitmer said a rapid influx of shots, particularly the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, would be essential to tamping down case numbers. But the Johnson & Johnson vaccine supply is already constrained, and the company will send 86 percent fewer doses across the U.S. next week because of a catastrophic manufacturing mishap in Baltimore.

Jeff Zients, the White House Covid coordinator, said that the administration did not plan to shift additional vaccine doses to hard-hit states like Michigan.

“The virus is unpredictable,” he said. “We don’t know where the next increase in cases could occur.”

Vaccine rollout

Pfizer and BioNTech requested the Food and Drug Administration’s approval to use their vaccine in 12- to 15-year-olds. Covax, a global initiative dedicated to distributing coronavirus vaccines to low- and middle-income countries, has delivered just 38 million doses so far, falling short of the 100 million doses it had expected to distribute by now. In Mississippi, there is a growing availability of vaccine appointments, which public health experts say shows the large number of people who are reluctant to be inoculated. Hong Kong will delay a shipment of AstraZeneca vaccines scheduled to arrive later this year because the government said it had sufficient supplies and did not want to waste doses.

Some stuff from the New York Times about President Biden. The only thing I care about is the free $1,400.00 I don't need.

Biden barrels ahead

With Donald Trump’s impeachment trial over, President Biden plans to quickly push his agenda, allies say, starting with the passage of a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan before moving on to an even bigger agenda that includes infrastructure, immigration, criminal justice reform, climate change and health care.

To kick off the new era in Washington, Mr. Biden is escaping it — embarking on trips to Wisconsin and Michigan to rally support for his agenda.

Tonight in Milwaukee, at 9 Eastern, he will participate in a CNN town hall in which he is expected to tout his proposal to send $1,400 checks to individuals struggling during the pandemic. On Thursday, Mr. Biden will travel to Kalamazoo, Mich., to tour a Pfizer plant and meet workers producing the company’s coronavirus vaccine.

Mr. Biden’s first official trips as president are meant to focus on the coronavirus and the economy. Without the spectacle of a constitutional clash, the new president “takes center stage now in a way that the first few weeks didn’t allow,” said Jennifer Palmieri, who served as communications director for President Barack Obama. She said the end of the impeachment trial means that “2021 can finally start.”

I like radishes.

Radishes are grown in Michigan and are available in several different pack sizes from 5/25 - 11/15. These MI grown radishes are available in:

• 14/1 sealed packages or zip lock packages
• 30/6oz sealed packs
• 10#, 25# and 40# bulk packages

We also process cleaned and trimmed in a 24# or 40# bag.

AVAILABILITY:

• Byron Center, Michigan. May - November

Honeycrisp apples

Honeycrisp apples from Michigan are a wonderful thing.

Sweet as honey with a crisp bite, Honeycrisp apples have become wildly popular in a short time. Honeycrisp apples were developed at the University of Minnesota in the 1960s, but were not introduced to the market until the 1990s. Its sweet flavor and crisp flesh make it an ideal apple for eating fresh, whether it’s cut in slices or thrown into a delicious salad. The Michigan Honeycrisp is expected to begin harvest on September 17.

Honeycrisp apples and Granny Smith apples.

My northwestern Illinois farm town grocery store recently stopped selling Granny Smith apples which are excellent, but they started selling very large Michigan Honeycrisp apples which are even more excellent.

Honeycrisp and Granny Smith Available

$1,200.00

This is Wednesday, November 4, 2020, at 10:30am Chicago time. We still don't know who will win the election but it looks like Trump is going to lose, while the United States Senate will continue to be mostly Republicans.

If Fucktard Biden wins the election, he needs to give me another $1,200.00 I don't need.

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New York Times

What’s Left in the Seven States That Will Decide the Race

Though they’re still too close to call, they’re tilting in Biden’s direction for now.

Michigan is having a bad day.

New York Times

LIVE UPDATES

Michigan Dams Breached, Forcing Evacuation of Midland: Live Updates

The National Weather Service issued a flash-flood warning for areas near the Tittabawassee River, with downstream effects expected from Midland to Saginaw.

RIGHT NOW

Officials anticipate floodwaters reaching their height at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said, imploring people in the affected towns to evacuate. “We are anticipating several feet of water across this area.”

Idiot America

The Washington Post

May 7, 2020

The dining area at a McDonald’s in Oklahoma City had been closed because of safety precautions intended to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. But when a customer entered Wednesday evening and was informed of the rules, things got violent.

A woman authorities identified Thursday as Gloricia Woody got into a physical confrontation with an employee after being told to leave, police said in a statement. Employees forced the 32-year-old out of the restaurant, but she returned with a handgun.

She allegedly fired about three rounds. One employee was hit in the arm, while shrapnel struck two others. The employee involved in the initial encounter with Woody had a head injury. Three of the four employees were taken to a hospital, but all were expected to recover, police said.

The incident was the latest in a growing trend of violence directed at employees of businesses trying to enforce social distancing measures. Last week, a Family Dollar security guard was fatally shot in Flint, Mich., after telling a customer that her child had to wear a face mask to enter the store.

“Obviously it’s a heinous crime, particularly because these two people were trying to really support public health,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said Thursday on “Good Morning America.” “I think what you’re seeing in this situation is really what you’re seeing in a variety of situations across the country, which is this tension about opening and people’s concern about it. But there’s absolutely no excuse for violence, particularly gun violence.”

Some news from the New York Times about some American states who are going to throw out lockdown orders so people can work again.

Sweeping lockdown orders are giving way to measures allowing millions of Americans to return to some parts of public life.

Nearly a dozen states tentatively reopened on Friday. But clashes emerged across the country over how it should be done. Partisan battles flared in Illinois and Michigan, where protesters, some of them armed, demanded that Democratic leaders loosen restrictions. And Texas opened restaurants and businesses just a day after the state reported its highest death toll from the coronavirus.

Here’s the latest and a map of which states are starting to open.

Ultimately, the act of reopening will be carried out by individuals, and the decision has not been easy. In homes across the country this week, Americans whose governors said it was time to reopen, as in Colorado, above, wrestled with what to do, weighing what felt like an impossible choice.

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Here in Idiot America we have assholes who bring their weapons everywhere they go, and they're getting away with it.

Michigan: It is legal to carry firearms inside the State Capitol. That's ridiculous. What a fucked up country.

March 5, 2020

March 5, 2020

An interesting fact: Saginaw is in Michigan. "The song's entire lyrics are painted on 28 buildings in the city, including railroad tracks and bridge supports."

Composition

"America" is a song that "creates a cinematic vista that tells of the singer's search for a literal and physical America that seems to have disappeared, along with the country's beauty and ideals."[5] Art Garfunkel once described the song as "young lovers with their adventure and optimism".[6] The song has been described as a "folk song with a lilting soprano saxophone in its refrain as a small pipe organ paints acoustic guitars, framed by the ghostly traces of classic American Songbook pop structures."[7] According to EMI Music Publishing's digital sheet music for the song, "America" is composed in the key of E-flat major and set in a 6/8 time signature, and has a moderately fast groove of 172 beats per minute.[8] The duo's vocals span from the low note of B♭3 to the high note of F5.[8] Drummer Hal Blaine, keyboardist Larry Knechtel, and bassist Joe Osborn provide additional instrumentation on the track.[9] The lyrics do not follow any formal rhyme scheme.

The song opens, on Bookends, with a crossfade from "Save the Life of My Child." (This effect is not present on the single versions, which begin with a "clean" open.) The song follows two young lovers — "an apparently impromptu romantic traveling alliance" — who set out "to look for America."[10] The song makes reference to the town of Saginaw, Michigan, with the protagonist seemingly hailing from the town, but "[seeking] his fortunes elsewhere."[11] The narrator's companion Kathy is a reference to Chitty, linking the song autobiographically to the earlier Simon and Garfunkel hit "Homeward Bound," [12] and to "Kathy's Song," a love song from a previous album, Sounds of Silence.

The narrator spends four days hitchhiking from Saginaw to join Kathy in Pittsburgh, where together they board a Greyhound bus to continue the journey.[9] The narrator begins with a lighthearted and optimistic outlook ("Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together") that fades over the course of the song. To pass time, he and Kathy play games and try to guess the backgrounds of their fellow passengers. Over the course of their journey, they smoke all their cigarettes. Kathy reads a magazine before falling asleep, leaving the narrator awake to reflect on the meaning of the journey alone.[9] In the final verse, the narrator is able to speak his true emotions to Kathy, now that she is sleeping and cannot hear or answer. "I'm empty and aching and I don't know why" captures the longing and angst of the 1960s in nine simple words. The narrator then stares out the window "counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike." Many other empty, aching, and lost souls are on the highway, each on their own journey alone even if someone is traveling with them. The soaring harmony lines and crashing cymbals create a powerful and poignant end to the song's final verse: "They've all come to look for America." [10] Pete Fornatale interprets this lyric as a "metaphor to remind us all of the lost souls wandering the highways and byways of mid-sixties America, struggling to navigate the rapids of despair and hope, optimism and disillusionment."[13]

Reception

Stephen Holden, in reviewing Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits in 1972, wrote, "'America'...was Simon's next major step forward. It is three and a half minutes of sheer brilliance, whose unforced narrative, alternating precise detail with sweeping observation evokes the panorama of restless, paved America and simultaneously illuminates a drama of shared loneliness on a bus trip with cosmic implications."[14] Thom Jurek of Allmusic described the song's central question as an "ellipsis, a cipher, an unanswerable question," a song in which "sophisticated harmonic invention is toppled by its message."[7] David Nichols, in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, called the song "a splendid vignette of a road trip by young lovers; both intimate and epic in scale, it traces an inner journey from naive optimism to more mature understanding."[15] American Songwriter deemed the song "essentially a road-trip song, but like all road trips, it tends to reveal as much about the participants as it does about the lands being traversed."[9]

Disc jockey and author Pete Fornatale describes "America" as one of Paul Simon's "greatest writing achievements in this phase of his career."[6] In 2014, a Rolling Stone readers poll ranked it fourth among the duo's best compositions, with the magazine writing, "it captured America's sense of restlessness and confusion during the year that saw the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, as well as the escalation of the war in Vietnam," declaring it one of their most "beloved" songs.[2] Amy S. of ClassicRockHistory defined "America," as Simon and Garfunkels best song. The author described the song America as "perhaps the most representative of Simon & Garfunkel's music: wistful and optimistic, personal and universal, and most of all, uniquely American."[16]

Lyrics

Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together

I've got some real estate here in my bag
So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner's pies
And we walked off to look for America
Cathy, I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh
Michigan seems like a dream to me now
It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw
I've gone to look for America

Laughing on the bus, playing games with the faces
She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy
I said, be careful, his bowtie is really a camera
Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat
We smoked the last one an hour ago
So I looked at the scenery
She read her magazine
And the moon rose over an open field

Cathy, I'm lost, I said though I knew she was sleeping
And I'm empty and aching and I don't know why
Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike
They've all come to look for America
All come to look for America
All come to look for America