They have a wide variety of ways to make life hell

I dowloaded the Michigan COVID data, accurate as of yesterday. The big peak in the number of new cases per day at the end of November (after Thanksgiving) is now set at 9246. The peaks in the weeks after then are 7164 and 7073. It’s too early to tell if this is a good downward trend. The rise in cases per day lasted five months, from the beginning of July to the end of November. Previous rises had been five weeks from low point to crest. Deaths per day are not yet accurate for the week just concluded – not enough data reported yet. For the week before deaths per day ranged from 87 to 127. Hunter of Daily Kos reported on Monday that the count of deaths in the US due to COVID has passed 800,000 (though sources differ on which day we passed that number). The number is certain to be an undercount. A few more things Hunter had to say:

That might go a long way towards explaining why hospital workers are quitting in droves. Those are wartime numbers, and will drive the same traumas that medical workers face in any other war. ... With each new pandemic surge, the virus is spreading most aggressively in Republican counties, the hospitals are still overwhelmed in Republican counties, and Americans are dying mostly in Republican counties. ... I don't know what I'm supposed to say here. Yes, it's another six-figure pandemic milestone, but it's one that will be inconsequential in both directions six months from now. The United States only reached the half-million mark through astonishing, blazing incompetence on a scale seldom witnessed—800,000 should have been a fantastical number. A twentieth of that was supposed to be a fantastical number. In another six months, we're more likely to hit 1 million deaths than not, and nobody will remember the 800,000 mark because it was just so bloody obvious at the time that higher numbers would be coming. Republican elected officials, conservative disinformation centers, and the Murdoch family have unified in attempts to discredit pandemic measures as they discredited our democracy; another quarter million deaths will make no impact on them.

Mark Sumner of Kos discussed what we know about the omicron variant of COVID. Whether omicron is milder than delta is not clear. Some studies say it is less severe than delta, but still many times worse than the flu. Other studies say there is little difference in severity between omicron and delta. Scientists need more time to tell. But don’t believe people who say it is milder and no big deal. What is known is how fast omicron spreads. The number of cases of delta doubled every two weeks. Omicron cases are doubling every two days. Even if omicron is milder, the speed at which it spreads means more will be infected. And more people will die. Stella Safo, a doctor in NYC, tweeted:

Are you still wearing cloth masks? Yes? Ok. Please take some time this weekend and buy yourself some surgical masks. And order some KN95s. But do not keep wearing your cloth masks w this latest surge. Omicron is unforgiving. Please up your mask game asap

bin Adamah tweeted:

A friend asked how "Omicron" is pronounced since I know some Greek. Greeks have three variant pronunciations for it: 1. Mask 2. Vax 3. Distance

I listened to another Gaslit Nation bonus episode (available to subscribers), in hopes of hearing the question I asked. I may have to ask again. The first question was: What is it like to live in an authoritarian state? Host Sarah Kendzior answered: Life will go on for most people as it does now. Many people won’t see a difference (though because Republicans are good at botching the economy and slashing government programs, maybe they will). The exceptions are those who discover the state is displeased with them. That displeasure might be because you are part of the minority groups the state has decided are its natural enemies (black people, LGBTQ, Muslims, women, and so forth), or you stood up to the state. But could be because you have something, like a business, that a member of the ruling party wants for themselves or their children. When the state is displeased with a person they have a wide variety of ways to make life hell, of destroying you without killing you (though they may do that too). The other aspect of such life is the elites are free to commit crimes and face no consequences. An example is a couple of children hit by a car. The driver, a party member, was protected from prosecution. The justice system works for them, not us. The podcast also discussed the urgency of passing voting rights laws and the complete lack of leadership from Democrats in making it happen. The final topic was Congressional corruption. People pull out the both sides do it argument as a reason to disengage from democracy. Yes, both sides do it. However, the squad has a lot of money dangled in front of them and they aren’t taking it. So support and vote for those candidates or do other acts of resistance. Just don’t give up. In a tweet Kendzior linked to a study about corruption in Congress. The study was done by Business Insider. Darren Samuelsohn tweeted about it and provided a link to the article. The study looked at the public financial records of each member of Congress. Each was rated by their potential conflicts of interest and commitment to transparency. The ratings were “Solid,” “Borderline,” and “Danger.” Danger means the member has multiple issues that could expose them to ethical problems. They have violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act of 2012 because they failed to properly disclose financial trades. Many of their senior staff have also violated the STOCK act. Included in that list is Dem Sen. Dianne Feinstein. By party there are 214 Dems, 192 GOP, and one independent that are solid, 50 Dems, 63 GOP, and one independent that are borderline, and 5 Dems, and 8 GOP are danger. The website allows displaying members by state with their ratings. The Michigan delegation has no one with a danger rating. Two – Sen. Debbie Stabenow and freshman Rep. Peter Meijer (his family owns a big box chain in Michigan) – are borderline. In the tweets Samuelsohn noted that at least 75 lawmakers own stock in one of the COVID vaccine makers. 15 members of the House & Senate Armed Services committees own stock in the top defense and military contractors. 22 Democrats – all but one scoring high by the League of Conservation Voters – who, in the last year, reported holding or trading in oil, coal, and natural gas companies. 31 members hold stock in Facebook. Samuelsohn included a graphic showing the most popular stocks owned by members of Congress. He also linked to a list of the 25 wealthiest members, 15 of which have a combined wealth of $1.3 billion – which matches the combined wealth of the rest of Congress. Kendzior’s tweet added:

Currently the majority and minority leaders of both the Dems and the GOP are labeled “borderline”. Pelosi, Schumer, McCarthy, and McConnell are *all* in the danger zone. Americans deserve better than this. Corruption isn’t inevitable either. Every member of “the squad” got a solid rating, the highest rating possible. Sanders and Warren are solid. Jayapal and Porter are solid. Plenty of solid folks in wait to replace corrupt congressional leadership!

This study is all about who owns how much stock. It doesn’t discuss donations to their campaigns. So it doesn’t include this from Kendzior with data from the Federal Elections Commission.

Russian oligarch partner Len Blavatnik, who gave the biggest donation to the DCCC in its history in 2019, has ramped up his donations to the Dems again -- particularly Pelosi. Blavatnik is a business associate of sanctioned oligarchs Deripaska and Vekselberg. He is also a very close friend of Netanyahu. Blavatnik is part of the circle of oligarchs and corrupt international officials deeply tied to Trump and his crime cult. ... According to the FEC, Nancy Pelosi was the biggest individual recipient of Blavatnik money in 2021. He also gave heavily to the DCCC and to Schumer, Blumenthal, and others. It's worth looking at who Blavatnik gives to and why, and what he gets in return.

Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, quoted some late night commentary:

CNN fired Chris Cuomo because he was caught giving secret political advice to a politician. Now it turns out that basically everyone at Fox News was giving secret advice to President Trump and his people during the insurrection. But I guess that's what makes it okay: if one person at your network has no integrity, that's a problem. If nobody has integrity, that's a company policy. —Trevor Noah After the tree outside the Fox News headquarters was set on fire by a homeless man, Fox and Friends host Ainsley Earhardt said, “This Scrooge is not gonna get away with it.” Nothing has ever explained Fox News better than a rich white lady calling a homeless man Scrooge. —Michael Che, SNL Saturday marked one year since the FDA authorized the Pfizer vaccine. Still, only 60 percent of Americans are fully vaccinated. That is nuts. I hate to say it, but it might be time to fight misinformation with misinformation. If a dozen of you went on social media and posted, “After I got vaccinated I got right back into my old jeans,” we would probably be done with this. —Jimmy Kimmel