Tuesday, March 23, 2021
Study Finds Lockdown Weight Gain Is Real
Small study found participants gained an average 0.6 pounds every 10 days
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| (Getty Images) |
(NEWSER) – Good thing stretchy pants aren't visible on Zoom. For many Americans, buttoning one's jeans has gotten increasingly harder during the pandemic, and researchers have now estimated just how many pounds people under shelter-in-place orders tended to gain. The research letter, published Monday in JAMA Network Open, opens by explaining 45 US states put such orders in place from March 19, 2020 to April 6, 2020. To get a sense of the impact of that period, researchers used data from a heart study in which 269 participants weighed themselves using Bluetooth-connected smart scales between Feb. 1 and June 1 of that year. They found that during the shelter-in-place period, people gained an average 0.6 pounds every 10 days, "irrespective of geographic location or comorbidities."
Senior author Dr. Gregory M. Marcus tells the New York Times that Americans who have maintained the habits of lockdown over the past year could have packed on 20 pounds. And all these numbers may be low, he says, because the participants had actually been losing weight prior to lockdown. "It's reasonable to assume these individuals are more engaged with their health in general, and more disciplined and on top of things," says Marcus. "That suggests we could be underestimating—that this is the tip of the iceberg." UPI cites a recent survey from the American Psychological Association of more than 3,000 adults that somewhat jibes with these findings: 42% reported experiencing an undesired weight gain, with the average gain clocking in at 29 pounds. But 18% reported an undesired weight loss, with the average there being 26 pounds.
Read more: https://www.newser.com/story/303990/we-packed-on-2-pounds-a-month-during-lockdown.html
I've put on 25 pounds since the pandemic began. It's all that ice cream/comfort food I've been eating.
Racine leaders stress communities of color get COVID-19 vaccine
RACINE, Wis. - There is a big plea and push happening ahead of a community vaccination site opening in Racine Tuesday. The call to action from leaders of color urgent asking their community to sign-up to receive a dose.
"Please please please get your vaccines," Alderman John Tate II said.
One speaker after another:
"I would advise everyone to please get your shot," Alderwoman Mollie Jones said.
Pushing for people in communities of color to get vaccinated when their turn arrives:
"For communities of color, particularly those that are working class and have jobs that don’t allow you to work remotely and cannot socially distance, the best defense we have going forward and the best chance we have to return to some level of normalcy is vaccination," Ald. Tate said.
The call to action – coming from Racine County Black and Latinx leaders - one day before a new community vaccination site opens at the former Burlington Coat Factory at Regency Mall.
"It’s important that if you have concerns ask questions. It’s OK to ask questions," Ald. Tate said.
The City of Racine also loosening some of its COVID-19 restrictions Monday.
Places like bars, restaurants and places of worship can operate 75% capacity — as long as social distancing is maintained.
"Probably the biggest change for a lot of people would be the number of people within a public and private mass gathering, whether it’s an indoor or outdoor environment. That has gone from 50 to 200," Stephan Kurdan said.
Health officials updating restrictions as confirmed COVID-19 cases decline and vaccinations ramp up.
"We do feel like we’re headed in the right direction, we’re still obviously still maintaining some precautions," Kurdan said.
The community-based vaccination site opens Tuesday at 11 a.m.
The City of Racine is offering free bus rides to people going to a vaccination site or who just got vaccinated and need to return to their home or work.
From: https://www.fox6now.com/news/racine-leaders-stress-communities-of-color-getting-covid-19-vaccine
Biden regularly speaks and consults with Obama, White House says
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| President Joe Biden regularly consults with former President Barack Obama. Drew Angerer/Getty Images |
President Joe Biden regularly consults with former President Barack Obama, speaking with him on a range of issues, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.
Psaki, responding to a question from a reporter, said Biden and the former president “keep in regular touch” — but did not specify exactly how often the pair speak to one another, Fox News reported.
“They consult and talk about a range of issues and I would expect that continues through the course of President Biden’s presidency,” Psaki said.
“That can be done over the phone it turns out, and I think if President Obama had been here, you would all know,” she said.
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| Biden and the former president "keep in regular touch." DNCC via Getty Images |
One topic of discussion between Biden and Obama will be the Affordable Care Act, according to Psaki.
Biden has already signed two executive orders aimed at expanding access to Obamacare.
From: https://nypost.com/2021/03/22/biden-regularly-speaks-with-obama-white-house/
Paper Mill Workers in Pennsylvania “Shocked” Over Plant Closure Despite Union’s Endorsement of Joe Biden
presidentiAppvion Inc., a paper mill plant in Roaring Spring, Pennsylvania, is closing down on April 1 despite its union endorsing Joe Biden in 2020.
The New York Post called it the “first significant manufacturing loss in this state since President Biden took office.” 293 people will lose their jobs: 250 union, 43 management.
“When 300 people lose good-paying jobs, it’s not just 300 people that are adversely affected,” said Stephen McKnight of the Altoona-Blair County Development Corporation. “For every one job lost, an additional four to seven jobs outside the company are hurt, too. The long-term impact is even worse, costing a region millions of dollars that used to go directly into the community, schools and businesses.”
The president of the local United Steelworkers branch, Mitchell Becker, said that he’s had his job for 25 years and had no idea it was on the chopping block.
“We never thought we’d close, we just thought we would be sold,” he said.
Last month Becker assumed he’d be attending a routine meeting, but he and his team received a plant closure announcement instead.
“The mill leadership, including management from Wisconsin, just told us that we’re closing down on April 1st. And then they got up and left the room and let us sit there to vent to each other,” he recalled.
It came as a shock to local leadership as well. Pennsylvania state senator Judy Ward (R) said that she and other officials were “completely blindsided” by the closure.
Appvion claimed that COVID-19 restrictions are forcing the plant to shutter, but others say this is a half-truth.
“[Locals] speculate that inevitable climate change demands from the Biden administration would have forced Appvion to make costly upgrades, like when the plant underwent an expensive retrofit so it could meet new emissions standards set by the Obama administration,” writes the New York Post.
The plant first opened in 1866 and will have had a 155-year run.
Monday, March 22, 2021
'They're ready to put the boulder down': The weight of the past year is wearing people out, mental health experts say
Editor's note: If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at (800) 273-8255 or text "Hopeline" to the National Crisis Text Line at 741-741.
Last April, Catherine Packard and her family were supposed to gather together at the Hobnob supper club in Racine to honor her grandfather at his favorite restaurant and consume plenty of Gorgonzola bread, French onion soup and steak.
Instead, they found themselves facing an uncertain world. Family members in Washington state were hesitant to travel after COVID-19 had torn through the Life Care Center of Kirkland, ultimately killing 35 people. They decided to cancel and hold the reunion over Zoom.
"For my whole family, I think that was sort of a tipping point into this becoming real," said Packard, 43, who lives in Butler. "Having an understanding that this was not going to be a quick event — that it was going to be like running a marathon."
Experts say the coronavirus's disruptions have led to what can also be described as a mental health pandemic. They've seen more people who need services to work through depression, anxiety and stress.
"(People) have been carrying a boulder across a running river, and they feel like they're ready to put the boulder down," said NAMI Wisconsin executive director Mary Kay Battaglia.
Things You'd Never Hear From Ratcine City Hall!
CFD Battalion Chief arrested, charged with DWI
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Charlotte Fire Department Battalion Chief Michael Gerin has charged with driving while impaired.
Gerin was arrested Saturday night by the Pineville Police Department. He was given a $2,000 unsecured bond.
“Firefighters with the Charlotte Fire Department are expected to conduct themselves to the highest professional standards on and off duty and will be held accountable when they fail to do so,” Fire Chief Reginald Johnson wrote in a statement. “At no time will this department tolerate behavior that violates the law or our community’s trust.”
According to a release put out by CFD, the incident is under investigation and is considered a personnel matter.
“Professional accountability is a priority for our members, and they are always expected to maintain this standard,” the release stated.
This is a developing story.
See more: https://www.wbtv.com/2021/03/21/cfd-battalion-chief-arrested-charged-with-dwi/
Sunday, March 21, 2021
Protesters Across Europe Clash With Police Over COVID-19 Lockdowns
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| Alberto Pezzali/AP |
Anger at restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus pandemic swept into the streets of Europe on Saturday.
German police used water cannons, pepper spray and clubs on protesters rallying over the coronavirus lockdown in the town of Kassel in central Germany where demonstrators numbered some 20,000. Protests against government measures to rein in the pandemic were also reported in Austria, Britain, Finland, Romania and Switzerland.
Germany faces a surge of COVID-19 infections as a more contagious variant of the virus has spread. Experts say it highlights the need to accelerate vaccinations.
But a botched vaccine rollout appears to have deepened distrust against the German government. The suspension of AstraZeneca vaccine was the latest hurdle in Germany's efforts to vaccinate its population of 83 million.
After a three-day pause in using AstraZeneca, Germany is now trying to right the course.
"The motto is 'vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate'," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after a meeting with the leaders of the country's 16 states.
NPR's Rob Schmidt reported that "at the start of the pandemic Germany was a global model for how to manage it." But a year into it, the opposite appears to the case. Just 8.5% of Germans received their first shot, as of Friday, far behind other nations including the U.S. and the U.K.
Bice: Superintendent candidate Jill Underly accused of 'hypocrisy' for sending her children to private school
No one has been a bigger promoter of public schools during the race for state school superintendent than Jill Underly.
That was, no doubt, a large part of the reason that Underly, the Pecatonica school superintendent, has won the endorsement of state and local teachers unions.
But back when it was her decision to send her two children to school when she lived in Madison, Underly went private.
Her campaign has confirmed that she paid to send her kids to St. James Catholic School in downtown Madison during the 2013-'14 and 2014-'15 terms rather than Aldo Leopold Elementary, a low-performing neighborhood school on the city's southwest side.
Underly's son and daughter then switched to the Pecatonica School District when she became its superintendent in 2015.
This surprising disclosure prompted sharp criticism from her opponent, Deb Kerr, and other supporters of school choice. Underly opposes the use of tax dollars to pay for vouchers so parents can send their children to private schools.
Instead Of Traditional Warfare, Chinese Military Will Now Be Trained To Shout Wrong Pronouns At American Troops
BEIJING—The Chinese military has announced that they will no longer be investing in weapons, tanks, aircraft, or traditional warfare training techniques. Instead, the People's Liberation Army will simply be trained to shout the wrong pronouns at U.S. soldiers, who will collapse and shake uncontrollably at the advanced maneuver.
"Brave soldiers of the People's Liberation Army, prepare to launch a pronoun assault!" cried one platoon leader in a training exercise. "Go!"
The Chinese soldiers then began shouting "He/Him!" and "She/Her!" at American soldiers, whom Biden had loaned to the Chinese government for the practice session. They immediately collapsed to the floor. "No!!! I'm a xe/xer; it says so right on my dog tags!" cried one weeping American soldier huddled in the corner in the fetal position, rocking back and forth. "You can't call me the wrong pronoun -- it's literally violence! It's against the Geneva Convention!"
"President Biden will be hearing about this!" he shouted as he ran away.
"See? That's all we need to do to defeat the puny American soldiers," said the sergeant. "We don't even need to fire a shot. We just need to say the mean words they don't like."
A recent computer simulation predicted that using this tactic, the Chinese military would defeat America in approximately seven minutes.
Russian President Putin Trips U.S. President Xiden!
17 US intelligence agencies agree that Vladimir Putin made Joe Biden trip on the stairs of Air Force One to embarrass and divide America. It’s true, I even heard it on MSNBC and NPR
Saturday, March 20, 2021
Teen sues Adams County Sheriff’s Office over punch to the head
ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — Anthony Perez said he will always be thankful for his friend, after he decided to record a portion of Perez’s arrest with his cell phone.
“If he didn’t get it you know I would have got charged with assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest and doing all that stuff when I didn’t do anything,” Perez said. “You know just cause their name (Adams County Sheriff Deputies) is more powerful than mine.”
The 20-year-old is suing the Adams County Sheriff’s Office and deputies Curtis Garth and Brandon Neel for excessive force.
Read more: https://kdvr.com/news/local/teen-sues-adams-county-sheriffs-office-over-punch-to-the-head/
21 people turned away after vaccination scheduling problem at Walgreens
I received my vaccine doses at Walgreens no problem. Aurora Health Care's vaccine rollout was horrendous. Indeed, the pandemic has revealed all the cracks in Aurora's corrupt system. I think I'll switch to Froedert . . .
A year into the pandemic, Wisconsin residents still aren't being told where COVID-19 spread
By the end of November, many in Wisconsin knew the worst of COVID-19.
State residents had been infected at one of the highest rates in the nation. Nearly 1,300 deaths had been reported that month alone; some hospitals, overrun, had treated patients in lobbies, hallways or ambulance garages.
But there was still something fundamental about the disease that Wisconsin residents could only guess at.
Even though the state budgeted $75 million to trace the virus' path, its health department chose from the earliest days of the pandemic to reveal little about outbreak locations.
Then, during last fall's surge, the state's most powerful business and manufacturing group sued to make doubly sure nobody but the state could access those records.
So once the wave crested, there was nothing public at the state level to answer claims like those from the head of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association on Nov. 30, who said there was no data that proved people were more likely to contact the virus in restaurants.
The same was true for data about bars, churches, stores, meatpacking plants or manufacturers.
Lobbyists against naming businesses
Lobbyists argue that naming businesses with outbreaks would brand them with a "scarlet letter" and be used to out their infected employees.
Worker rights advocates and public health experts say that Wisconsin residents have a right to make informed decisions and use the data to help identify employers who flout precautions.
Other states publish outbreak locations, and at least one local health department that published them in Wisconsin says it would still be giving residents that information, if not for the lawsuit from Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.
Melissa Perry, epidemiologist and chair of the environmental and occupational health department at George Washington University, said that just as they do with outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease or hepatitis A, health departments should share where COVID-19 outbreaks began.
"The same principles apply," she said. "You inform, you communicate regularly, you continuously track, distribute information to empower citizens — that's how you get all the faster to the end."
Thanks largely to the vaccine, far fewer Wisconsinites are dying than in November. But COVID-19 has now claimed more than 6,500 lives, and as more and more people venture back out, they do so without the fullest possible knowledge of which environments are the coronavirus' favorites.
Wisconsin reclassifies 1,000 past COVID-19 deaths, now reports 45% of all deaths were in long-term care facilities
In the last two weeks, Wisconsin health officials have attributed nearly 1,000 more COVID-19 deaths to long-term care facilities, people that for months had been marked as having died in an "unknown" housing setting.
The state is now reporting 45% of the people who died from COVID-19 were in long-term care facilities, when for months the state had only linked between 26% and 30% of COVID-19 fatalities to long-term care.
Those earlier percentages were much lower than in most other states, including many neighboring ones, and the differences raised questions about the accuracy and timeliness of Wisconsin's count of long-term care deaths.
Until recently, the state was missing information in about half of all COVID-19 deaths and could not say whether those people were long-term care residents. They were listed as COVID-19 deaths with an "unknown" housing setting.
Now, many of them have been reclassified as long-term care residents, a category that covers nursing homes and assisted living centers.
Gov. Tony Evers' administration said the change is part of the normal process of updating the state's health data, including about COVID-19 deaths, and ensuring data quality. They said the state's decentralized system — with data gathered at local health departments — makes data difficult to collect, and said that without an extra step they took, the 1,000 deaths might never have been correctly tied to long-term care facilities.
Putin bitchslapped Creepy Joe
Not-President Greenscreen has been reading some tough lines about the Russian leader. But the historical reality is just a little bit different:
I documented what happened at Joe Biden’s one and only meeting with Vladimir Putin in my book Joe Biden Unauthorized. I can attest that the title of my chapter on the incident – Bitch Slapped in Moscow – is the actual truth.
Biden got bitch slapped, and he’s pretending he didn’t.
Putin knows what happened. He was there. He knows he compromised Joe Biden, who appeared unprepared to deal with the ruthless, former-KGB agent. Regardless, Joe continues to perpetuate his “I was the tough guy” lie.
As Joe Biden’s White House stenographer, I stood directly behind Putin at a distance of five feet. Biden, seated across from Putin at an elegant conference table, was about 12 feet from me.
About 10 minutes into the meeting, Vice President Biden attempted to start lecturing about his decades-old part in U.S.-Russian negotiations with the dreaded phrase, “I’ve been around a long time. The first time I was here…”
And… cut.
Joe Biden got about one sentence further into that spiel when off went his microphone, off went the lights for the TV cameras, and stern Russian voices were commanding the press to leave. And leave they did.
They went out quickly and efficiently, with videocameras popping off of tripods. Equipment snapping shut. Portable lights clattering down retractable poles. No one spoke, and no one dared linger.
This was Putin in all his KGB ruthlessness. Whether by some prearranged signal or simply an undisclosed time limit, he had pulled the plug and done the unthinkable: he’d stolen Joe Biden’s audience and rendered him speechless. Shut him down in mid-sentence with the flick of an invisible switch.
Across the table, I could see Vice President of the United States Joe Biden, in the now dimly lit room, looking as duped as an exhausted fish in the bottom of a boat. No protest, no complaint. No, hey, I wasn’t finished. Nothing. He was humiliated.
To me, the revelation was the premeditated precision of the snub. Putin or his team had likely plotted this all out. They knew exactly what bait to use, exactly how Joe Biden would take it, and then when he did, they reeled him helplessly in.
The Russian President and his delegation sat calmly and coldly as their American counterparts realized their blustery leader’s big moment had been stolen right out from under him. The most powerful man in Russia had neither fear nor respect for Joe Biden. He had just played with him for sport.
Putin knows. He knows a lot more about what's actually going on than we do.
From: http://voxday.blogspot.com/2021/03/putin-bitchslapped-creepy-joe.html
We lost a future Supreme Court justice
It's so tragic when a man who was almost certainly on track for the Supreme Court should be derailed by such a minor incident coming to light:
A Milwaukee County Children’s Court judge and former president and CEO of the Cream City Foundation, which runs the city’s drag queen story hour program, has been arrested on seven counts of child pornography.
Brett Blomme, 38, was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly uploading 27 images and videos of children being sexually abused on the messaging app Kik. Blomme was held overnight and released with a signature. He has been ordered to stay off social media and file-sharing services and is not allowed near any children except the two that he adopted with his husband.
Blomme is accused of uploading the images both from his home and from the judge’s chambers. The alleged pedophile judge was the president and CEO of the Cream City Foundation, which runs the Milwaukee Drag Queen Story Hour for local children.
And this is why traditional societies have always sought to keep the gays well away from the children. Although the media does its best to bury the statistical facts, homosexual men are more than 14 times more likely to abuse children than normal men.
From: http://voxday.blogspot.com/2021/03/we-lost-future-supreme-court-justice.html
"It's Pretty Windy Outside" - White House Blames 'Climate' For Biden's Biff On Air Force One Steps
Update (1245ET): Phew! A White House official has confirmed that President Biden, after stumbling aboard Air Force One on his way to Georgia, "is fine."
Additionally, Steven Nelson reports that White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre seems to blame the wind for President Biden's fall. She told reporters aboard Air Force One:
"It's pretty windy outside. It's very windy. I almost fell coming up the steps myself. He is doing 100 percent."
May we humbly suggest this addition?
We hear they are free to install under Medicare-for-All.
Elijah Schaffer made the following poignant comment:
"The saddest part about Biden overall is that it isn’t actually funny watching him physically deteriorate on TV, It’s sad for him/his family, detrimental to our country, & makes us a laughing stock to the world, We are seen as weak because under a Biden administration we are"
But in the interest of balance, can we please stop being mean to the president.
* * *
How is President Biden supposed to negotiate with China when he can't even negotiate a set of stairs?
After a brief tour through the South where he stopped in Georgia to meet with leaders of the Asian-American community in the wake of this week's deadly shooting at a spa and massage parlor in Atlanta, Biden and his entourage returned to Air Force One.
From another angle:
The clip immediately went viral after finding its way to Twitter, as online wits joked about the timing (coinciding with the conclusion of a US-China summit where China's aggressive posture made headlines).
We know who is to blame for the fall of course...
Think that's an exaggeration? Here's CNN in 2017...
It's not exactly a vote of confidence, coming just hours after he mistakenly referred to his Veep as "President" Harris. Fortunately, an aide to the president confirmed that he was "doing fine" after the spill.
Oh and just one more thing. Remember when Biden mocked Trump's ramp walk at West Point...
We'll give the final word to Don Jr who, as usual, sums up the farce perfectly: "I remember the press bashing Trump for touching the rail once. Biden falls repeatedly but I’m sure he’s the picture of health. No wonder all our enemies are pouncing simultaneously and mocking him publicly
From: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/down-goes-biden-watch-president-fall-stairs-air-force-one
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