Mark Meadows

Continue reading Rogues’ Gallery? Nine More Atlanta Mugshots — Now Out on (Blog) Bond
Mark Meadows
Continue reading Rogues’ Gallery? Nine More Atlanta Mugshots — Now Out on (Blog) Bond
[Almost no one is paying attention. Voices crying in the wilderness. Luke 19: 39 Then some of the Pharisees in the crowd spoke to Jesus. “Teacher,” they said, “command your disciples to be quiet!”
40 Jesus answered, “I tell you that if they keep quiet, the stones themselves will start shouting.”]
TOKYO (AP) — Nagasaki marked the 78th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city Wednesday with the mayor urging world powers to abolish nuclear weapons, saying nuclear deterrence also increases risks of nuclear war.
Shiro Suzuki made the remark after the Group of Seven industrial powers adopted a separate document on nuclear disarmament in May that called for using nuclear weapons as deterrence.
“Now is the time to show courage and make the decision to break free from dependence on nuclear deterrence,” Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki said in his peace declaration Wednesday, “As long as states are dependent on nuclear deterrence, we cannot realize a world without nuclear weapons.”
The ChatGPT Lawyer Explains Himself (Sort of)
[Excerpts; blogger Comments in bold red italics]
By Benjamin Weiser and Nate Schweber
In a cringe-inducing court hearing, a [New York City] lawyer who relied on A.I. to craft a motion full of made-up case law said he “did not comprehend” that the chat bot could lead him astray.
Steven A. Schwartz told a judge considering sanctions that the episode had been “deeply embarrassing.”
The plane ticket said “Dayton, Ohio,” on American Airlines flight # 5321, after a stop in Charlotte.
But I now realize that mentally it was really Florida airlines, the stop was in Orlando, or better, Pensacola, the plane was full of Floridians, and I was one of them:
Florida: The land of Pandemic, schmandemic. Phooey on “Don’t Say Gay” — now (& forever), it’s “Don’t Say Virus.” And if you talk about masks, remember some of us are carrying those new guns that don’t show up on TSA scans, and in Florida we stand our ground, shoot first and check our hearing aids later.
I wasn’t carrying, but may as well have been wearing mouse ears.
It was the same after I had actually landed in Dayton for a Quaker conference at Earlham, just across the Indiana line. The crowd there wasn’t huge, but the talk was continuous; and maybe contagious.
Then coming back, again all Florida, all the way: not one but three crowded airports, and two fully-packed airplanes. Plus I was stuck in Charlotte for three hours (flight delay) and my gate area was jammed like Daytona beach in spring break (except everybody had more clothes on). I don’t remember any masks, and mine were safely stowed in a checked suitcase.
So I had a fine time with Friends in Indiana; but payback was waiting. I’d felt a bit punk at times during the conference, mostly ignored it. Once at home in Durham, coughing started, followed by general “flu-like symptoms”; not horrible, but not good. Tuesday I did a home Covid test: negative.
But by Friday, enough was enough. Went to Duke Urgent Care; arrived 20 minutes before they opened, got in line.
Once inside, their efficiency was impressive: you’d almost think they’d been through this drill 2200 times this past week.
(But that’s an exaggeration; it’s the weekly number of reported cases for the whole state, as of a few weeks ago. And reporting in the state is, choose one:
___Lousy
___That is SOO Last Year
___Don’t give a flip
___All of the above. )
None of this snark applies to the urgent care folks: they took me seriously, knew what to do, and got it done: stuck the swab stick up my nose; this time it came back positive. Next they took blood to see if it showed a clot coming on (no sign of one, thankfully). Finally sent me off to the pharmacy to get some new pills, aimed at warding off “complications” to which geezer patients are more vulnerable.
The pills are called WHAT??
EUA molnupiravir??
Try saying that three times quick. I think it must have been a finalist in the Most Unpronounceable New Med of the Week; maybe the winner’s company gets to charge more?
And I’m taking EIGHT of these red babies every day for five days?
Yes, and isolating too, though they told me if I feel better I can count the five days since last Tuesday. So I’m better enough today to be crabby, but am staying home anyway.
And I also noticed this knee-slapper in today’s Washington Post:
By Lena H. Sun
The tally of people infected with the coronavirus after attending a high-profile Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conference in April has risen to at least 181, the agency reported Friday. No one was hospitalized.
The CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service officers and alumni — the disease detectives deployed to identify and fight outbreaks — met April 24-27 at an Atlanta hotel. The conference drew 1,800 in-person attendees, the first in-person Epidemic Intelligence Service gathering in four years. Like many conferences, it was crowded, with much face-to-face contact, many events held in small rooms and lots of socializing, according to attendees.
About 70 percent of participants who responded to a CDC survey said they did not wear masks at the event. The outbreak of covid-19 cases at the conference underscores the persistence of an evolving and highly infectious virus. . . .
[NOTE: Rumors that the next Epidemic Intelligence Service conference would be held in Florida could not be confirmed . .. .]