46 thoughts on “Behind the masks, is anything there anymore?”

  1. today’s query:

    after the pandemic and America comes out of masks and lockdowns and limited social contact, what will the unveiling of a year behind walls for certain groups reveal?

    collective smiles or frowns?
    hugs or shoves?
    inclusion or exclusion?

  2. al let’s us in on what’s behind some metaphoric masks still in use

    If Rush Limbaugh was the Big Bang, the expanding universe of disinformation has only become bigger, darker, and more dangerous. Think Anti Vaxxers. Think QAnon… Think Tucker Carlson!

  3. WaPo posts an article about how we citizens as witnesses to arrests can record on our smartphones police arresting other citizens. I suppose we have become the watchdogs over police since neither police departments nor prosecutors have taken their roles in overseeing police overreach seriously. 

  5. LP strikes again

    If Trump’s such a great business man, why is he letting Josh Holmes make millions selling MAGA to Mitch McConnell? Shouldn’t Donald get a cut?

  6. palm beach post about new LP ad:

    The group’s latest ad, launching Thursday, touts Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as the true respected leader of the Republican Party. The ad claims that Josh Holmes, McConnell’s former chief of staff who hosts a popular conservative podcast called Ruthless, “acts like you (Trump) are a nobody and laughs about how Mitch ignores you.”
    A spokesperson for The Lincoln Project said the group decided to launch the campaign in Palm Beach County knowing that Trump is an avid viewer of programs on Fox News, including the Fox and Friends morning show, when the ad will air.
    “And they will come to Mar-a-Lago, tricking you with cheap gifts, like a Dollar Store silver bowl,” says the commercial’s narrator in making reference to a silver bowl U.S. Sen. Rick Scott gave to Trump during a recent visit to the president’s private club. “But in Washington, Mitch runs the party. You made the MAGA movement, Donald, and they are taking it all away from you while using your name to make money.”
    The ad is the The Lincoln Project’s second anti-Trump effortlaunched in Palm Beach County. Just days before the November election, the group floated billboards on barges that showed Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner seemingly delighting in the death and suffering caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

  7. Because the debate rages on, Wapo:

    Should I wear a mask outside? Experts weigh in on scenarios.

    As more Americans are vaccinated against the coronavirus and a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the risk of outdoor transmission is low, many people are wondering: Do we need to keep wearing face masks outside?

    The short answer is that masking outdoors can be “optional,” says Paul Sax, clinical director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. While he says people should still generally don masks indoors, Sax believes statewide mandates for wearing masks outdoors may no longer be necessary. “The science of the viral transmission is advanced enough that we really don’t want to be kind of confusing people by forcing them to wear masks in places where really they’re at minimal risk,” he says.

    But before you start spending all your time outdoors barefaced, Sax and other experts emphasize that decisions about when to wear a mask outside largely depend on personal risk assessments involving a variety of virus-related factors. What is your vaccination status?How many other people could you be interacting with? Do you know their vaccination status? How much prolonged close contact could you have with them? Are you, or is anyone in your household, at increased risk for becoming severely ill from covid-19?
     
    ***

    How long will we have to wear masks?

    As the pandemic continues to evolve, experts emphasize that recommendations for masking will change. In the meantime, it’s important to understand that being outdoors and without your mask can be safe, Sax says.

    “We’re never going to get to a place where there’s zero risk,” Sax says. “But I think that if we focus on the situations that are riskiest and pull back a little on the safer settings, that would actually give people more trust in public health messages.”

    It’s a lengthy read, but thought provoking and worth the time. And the comments section is predictably aligned between maskers and anti-maskers. I have to admit that I am a little looser with mask wearing now that me and th’ missus are vaccinated, but there is a social responsibility aspect that I think needs to be recognized and observed, after all, you can’t look at me and know that I’m among the 137M who have been vaccinated, and the jugheads I see at Walmart and Sam’s not wearing masks – I’m not at all confident that they are vaccinated and suspect that most of them are not.

  8. Pogo…  I’m with you.  I still wear a mask when I go out in public… but I take it off the second I get outside.  I used to wear it until I got into my car and buckled my seat belt.  I wear one when entering a restaurant until I get seated… then I immediately take it off.
     
    Craig…  hope you’re feeling better today.

  10. Mask inside.  Mask outside around strangers.  Hand sanitizer all the time, especially after being inside anywhere.  Avoid spreaders of disease, humans, as much as possible.  Dog and cat hugs are nice.

  12. Three things I’ve developed from wearing a mask:
    1) Lines on my forehead from trying to be overly expressive with my eyeballs
    2) A slack lower face from disuse
    3) A raging case of spirit fingers when I’m talking  (I hope I can make myself stop, as it looks frantic if not outright insane)

  15. since none of the vaccines are 100% effective against catching the virus, it’s still possible to catch it even if you are fully vaccinated but unmasked for a length of time indoors with others who are unmasked but  UNvaccinated. 

    the good docs promise you won’t die and probably not get sick enough to be hospitalized, but who wants to chance the possible long term aftereffects of acquiring it in the first place.

    today’s lexington herald headline
    CORONAVIRUS
    How 18 fully vaccinated residents caught COVID-19 in a KY nursing home. One died.

  16. from that lexington story:

    In this nursing home at that time, more than 90% of the 83 residents had received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, compared with only 53% of the 116 health care personnel, the study found. And of the 26 residents who tested positive, 18 were fully vaccinated, while four of the 20 staff who became infected were fully vaccinated. Six residents were hospitalized, including two who were vaccinated.

    Still, though they tested positive, vaccinated people “were significantly less likely to experience symptoms or require hospitalization,” authors of the study wrote. Unvaccinated residents and staff were at least three times more likely to become infected. People with two doses of the vaccine, even when they did test positive, were 87% less likely to show symptoms, compared to those without a vaccine, which “demonstrates a strong protective effect of vaccination,” they said.

  17. but why worry about mask risks when there are black holes popping up in the neighborhood that might gobble us up

    the hill:

    Scientists have discovered one of the smallest black holes yet that also happens to be the closest found near Earth, dubbing the rare black hole “the Unicorn.”

    “The Unicorn” is named after the constellation Monoceros, which also means unicorn, according to a press release from Ohio State University. The black hole is reported to be nearly three times the mass of the sun and sits just 1,500 light years away from Earth

  18. also from the hill, good news this time:

    A federal appeals court on Friday declined to rehear a ruling against the Dakota Access pipeline after it agreed in January that its permit violated federal law.

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld its January decision, which agreed with a lower court that the pipeline’s federal easement was a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. The court declined without explanation to review that earlier decision.

    […]

    In a separate case, a federal district court is considering a request from pipeline opponents, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, to shut down the pipeline over the easement issues.

  19. and this will surely “strike a nerve” as she would say in some GOPer parts:

    Florida Rep. Val Demings (D) said Friday’s she’s mulling a bid next year against either Sen. Marco Rubio (R) or Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

    “I am strongly considering a statewide race and grateful for the countless messages of support and encouragement that I have received from people in every part of Florida,” Demings said in a statement to The Hill. 

    Should Demings run for either office, she would hand Democrats a high-profile candidate in a key swing state that has leaned toward Republicans in recent cycles.

  20. patd,  That unicorn black hole has me worried – only 1500 light years from here?  Why that’s only just under 9% of the diameter of the Milky Way.  That’s almost just around the corner – not that there are many corners in the Milky Way.

  23. the hill:

    Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccinations can resume immediately, federal regulators said late Friday, agreeing with a recommendation from a federal advisory panel that the shot’s benefits outweigh its risks. 

    The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which had jointly recommended a nationwide pause 10 days ago, accepted the recommendation from CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

    Vaccination sites across should be able start administering the shots as early as Saturday morning. 

    […]

    “This is not a decision the agencies reached lightly. Medical and scientific teams of both the FDA and CDC reviewed several sources of information and data related to the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine to reach today’s assessment,” acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said during a press briefing.

    The FDA will update fact sheets given to patients at the vaccination site, as well as instructions for vaccine providers and health providers that include warnings of the risk of a rare complication involving blood clots in women under the age of 50. 

    [continues]

  25. https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/23/politics/georgia-trump-2020-election-probe-fulton-county/index.html

    “…frustrated with the level of cooperation they are receiving from staffers in the Georgia Secretary of State’s office regarding a probe into former President Donald Trump’s efforts to influence the 2020 election, according to a source familiar with the criminal investigation. The recent lack of cooperation has prompted the office to consider whether it rises to obstruction and to use subpoenas to force Secretary of State staff members to testify and share information, according to the source.“

  29. Living on the edge  of the  “Mega Drought”  ………….. 
    I’m in that  little yellow bulb , just East of that magenta beast / near lower middle  of that Square part of Texas. 
    Something to watch as  this part of the country moves into summer . 
    The water keeps going down.

     

    Almost the entire Southwest is mired in various stages of drought as of April 21, 2021, resulting in falling water levels at the nation’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell. The consequences could be unprecedented. For the first time in Lake Mead’s 85-year existence, water levels may drop below a point this summer that triggers water cuts in Arizona and Nevada. (This would largely mean cuts to farmers and agriculture.)
    If the Biden people are as bright as I hope they are,  they can  site this  marker as  yet another  reason to back his bills. 
    This has big implications in Arizona .
     
    Why the intense U.S. drought is now a megadrought

     
    https://mashable.com/article/drought-us-southwest-megadrought/

     

     
     
     

  33. I saw this act in a cotton warehouse in Lubbock riding their one hit. 
    It was a great song.  I love one hit wonders.  
     

     
     

  43. Binden wins , and we shovel  nearly 6 Trillion  dollars out the door .
    No one saw that coming ,  he is moving on the GOP  right at their old throat , TAXES  !
    And that time is right .

  44. America  has a real belly full  of whining   billionaires, and how we treat them  so poorly . 
    Trump popped that  bubble. 
    This is why Joe  is coming  after that money. 

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