March 23, 2022

Surge in alcohol-related deaths raged in US during onset of COVID pandemic, study says.

Alcohol-related deaths in the U.S. jumped by nearly 26% at the onset of the pandemic in the highest year-over-year increase recorded by researchers over the past two decades, according to a new study. Researchers say these deaths reflect the hidden tolls of the pandemic as more and more Americans turned to alcohol to cope with the stress, isolation and economic hardship brought on by COVID-19.

In the past 20 years, the second highest year-over-year increase was just 5%, White told McClatchy News. The massive spike in alcohol-related deaths in 2020 happened over a 9-month period from the start of the pandemic in March through the end of the year, he said.

“Overall in the country there was a 2.9% increase in total alcohol sales, and that doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s huge, and it’s the biggest increase in sales we’ve seen since 1968,” White said. “And so, Americans were drinking a lot more alcohol.”



Read more at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article259684565.html#storylink=cpy

It was the largest increase since 1968. Here's what happened that year: MLK Jr. assassinated

RFK assassinated

Student protests, Democratic National Convention, Tet
Offensive

March 23, 2022

Opinion: What if everyone voted? The case for 100 percent democracy.

E.J. Dionne Jr. is a Post Opinions columnist. Miles Rapoport is a senior fellow at the Ash Center of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a former Connecticut secretary of state. This essay is drawn from their book, “100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting,” published this week by the New Press.


The first step toward ending our voting wars is to recognize that every citizen should play a role in shaping our nation’s destiny.

In the wake of changes that made voting more convenient, and resulted in record turnout in 2020, state after state is making it harder for citizens to cast a ballot. Congress is deadlocked on whether the federal government should protect this most basic of all democratic rights. False claims of election-rigging in 2020 led to a violent attack on the very process of transferring power. As a nation, we vacillate between inclusion and exclusion, between embracing democracy or retreating.
Breaking this cycle requires a game-changer. We propose universal voting.


Under this system, every U.S. citizen would be legally obligated to vote, just as every citizen is obligated to serve on juries. By recognizing that all of us, as a matter of civic duty, have an obligation to shape our shared project of democratic self-government, we could move from our 2020 voter turnout high — some 66.8 percent of eligible voters — much closer to 100 percent democracy.

Universal voting takes seriously the Declaration of Independence’s insistence that government is legitimate only when it is based on the “consent of the governed.” The Founders did not say “some of the governed” (even 66.8 percent). Including everyone in our system of government would live up to the promise made at the birth of our republic. Universal voting would tear down barriers and elevate our civic obligations. It could undergird other reforms and make clear that our country’s commitment to democracy is unapologetic, confident and complete.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/23/universal-voting-would-end-legal-battles-over-ballot-access/


I'm 100% in favor but the GOP will fight this tooth and nail.

March 15, 2022

Some interesting analysis on why Youngkin won the VA Governorship by 2.It wasn't mask mandates

and school closures. It was the fact that 75 and over voter turnout was up 2.7%

https://twitter.com/tbonier/status/1503414902945456128?s=20&t=rVvBvs0HykHedGXXYkxh7w


How did VA give Biden a 10 pt victory, only to see McAuliffe lose by 2 a year later? The popular narrative after election day pointed the finger at CRT, mask mandates, and school closures driving a swing bloc of suburban parents. Our new analysis suggests a more complex answer.

You'll find the analysis here, but here's the short version:
https://insights.targetsmart.com/did-education-sway-the-va-election-maybe-but-probably-not.html

The biggest difference between '20 and '21 was senior turnout. More voters over the age of 75 voted in VA in '21 than have voted in any election other than 2020. While aging population explains that partly, the huge 2.7 pt increase in age 75+ vote share was mostly about turnout.

Were these seniors driven by school issues, despite not having school-age children? Possibly, and likely partially, but to be clear, that's very different than the narrative of parents of school kids infuriated by what they were told was being taught in their schools.


Let's look at the second narrative: mask mandates and school closures causing a swing to the GOP. Our analysis found no correlation between the number of days with in-person education during the '20-'21 school year and swing to the GOP in the Governor vote.

In fact, the counties with the least in person days were largely in NoVA, and exhibited below average swing, while the areas that swung the most to the GOP (mostly SWVA) were in person for most of the year.


The senior vote surged. By a lot.

Turnout among voters age 75 or older increased by 59%, relative to 2017 while turnout among voters under age 30 only increased by just 18%. Notably, turnout of all other age groups combined (18-74), which would likely include parents of school-aged children, only increased by 9% compared to 2017.

These are massive changes in the electorate in an election that was far from a blowout: Youngkin won by just 2%.

Voters age 65 and older are an estimated 15.9% of Virginia’s population according to the census, yet accounted for 31.9% of all ballots cast in 2021.

348,314 more seniors (ages 65+) voted in Virginia’s 2021 gubernatorial election than in the 2016 presidential election.
The Virginia market with the largest increase in senior vote share (ages 65+) from 2017 to was Charlottesville (67% increase), followed by the spill Raleigh-Durham market (48% increase).

Notably, turnout among voters of color also surged in 2021 compared to 2017: African-American turnout surged 13%, Hispanic turnout by 17.5% and Asian-American turnout by 37%. (An earlier version of this analysis compared final early vote data from 2017 to 2021. That error has been corrected.)

March 12, 2022

WTF. Iran just launched rockets against the American Consulate in Erbil, Iraq

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1502782218841776137?s=20&t=VeeII7HVAtEnIiXhRipxfg


BREAKING:

At least 6 Fateh-110 missiles have just been launched from Tabriz, Iran against the American Consulate in Erbil, Iraq.

Massive explosions have been recorded by Iraqi civilians near the consulate.





This isn't the first time. Happened in 2020 as well at the Erbil airport. Might have nothing to do with Russia.


9:19 p.m. ET, January 7, 2020
Two ballistic missiles hit Erbil, sources say
From CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali

At least two ballistic missiles hit two separate areas in Erbil, two Kurdish security officials tell CNN.

The attacks occurred in the early hours of Wednesday morning in Iraq.

One missile landed inside the perimeter of Erbil International Airport without exploding, the second missile hit an area 33 kilometers (about 20 miles) west of the city of Erbil without causing casualties.

Hear more details: https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/us-iran-soleimani-tensions-intl-01-07-20/h_c633b7ccb8e78db079f9e3079f989870


https://twitter.com/NaveedAJamali/status/1502793901941399557?s=20&t=VeeII7HVAtEnIiXhRipxfg

March 11, 2022

Now Russia is bombing Belarus, to get them involved

https://twitter.com/euromaidanpress/status/1502298521806032899?s=21


Ukraine's Air Force Command c says Russian planes struck Belarus from Ukrainian airspace

Acc. to border guards, Russian planes flew out from Dubrovitsa (🇧🇾 turned around over Ukraine's Horodyshche&Tumen, after which they struck Kopani, on the territory ofBelarus



https://twitter.com/euromaidanpress/status/1502300291567427588?s=21

March 9, 2022

As always, Democratic President equals deficit cut in half if not surplus

JUST IN: President Biden and Democrats have cut the deficit by more than half — $571 billion — compared to prior years, according to new
@USCBO
data.



Repeat after me. And repeat it often.
@POTUS
and Democrats have cut the deficit by more than half.


The last 3 GOP Presidents have seen the deficit explode on their watch, the last 3 Dem Presidents have cut it. Clinton got us all the way to surplus.





https://twitter.com/SimonWDC/status/1501656120884187136?s=20&t=4F3_X96Val9cezMIkVluPg





https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1501639597700300808?s=20&t=4F3_X96Val9cezMIkVluPg

March 9, 2022

'We told you so!' How the West didn't listen to the countries that know Russia best

VILNIUS — For years, Western Europeans have been dismissive of politicians from Poland and the Baltic countries whenever they sounded the alarm over the expansionist threat posed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

They now realize they should have listened to countries with a far deeper knowledge of the Kremlin and a bitter historical memory of the violence that Moscow is willing to unleash to pursue its goals.

Instead, the Westerners followed a path of commercial and political appeasement of Putin, led by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, which has now spectacularly backfired with the invasion of Ukraine, the bombardment of its cities and mass emigration. "The Western Europeans pooh-poohed and patronized us for these last 30 years,” said Radosław Sikorski, a former Polish foreign minister. “For years [they] were patronizing us about our attitude: ‘Oh, you know, you over-nervous, over-sensitive Central Europeans are prejudiced against Russia.'”

The Easterners say they ran into a brick wall when they made pleas for increased NATO deployments, drew attention to cyberattacks and called on Berlin not to let the EU be held hostage by giant pipelines pumping gas straight into Germany. The outspoken, pugnacious Sikorski, then defense minister, triggered outrage in thin-skinned diplomatic circles in 2006 when he dared compare the Russia-to-Germany Nord Stream gas pipeline project, which bypassed Poland, to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 1939 that divided Poland between the Nazis and Soviets.

https://www.politico.eu/article/western-europe-listen-to-the-baltic-countries-that-know-russia-best-ukraine-poland/

March 9, 2022

4 UK soldiers go AWOL to fight for Ukraine

Four British soldiers – including a teenage member of the Queen’s Guard – are feared to have gone AWOL to fight against Russian troops in Ukraine.

The 19-year-old Coldstream Guardsman, whose identity has been withheld for security reasons, reportedly wrote a goodbye letter to his parents and booked a one-way ticket to Poland over the weekend with the aim of crossing the border.

It has caused panic at the Ministry of Defence, with security chiefs urgently trying to intercept the teenager amid fears Vladimir Putin may try and claim Britain has entered the war if he is captured. Three other British soldiers are believed to have similarly gone absent without leave to fight, it has been reported

A source close to the teenager told The Sun he left his base at Windsor barracks and went to sign up for Ukraine’s International Legion of foreign volunteer fighters. He has since posted a photo of his boots on Snapchat, according to the newspaper.

https://metro.co.uk/2022/03/09/ukraine-four-uk-squaddies-feared-to-have-gone-awol-to-fight-russia-16242373/

March 9, 2022

Sky News Breakfast is showing on MSNBC

Sky News Australia is owned by Rupert Murdoch so I had togoogle the British Sky. It’s owned by a division of Comcast. Their Ukraine reporting is quite good, from what I’ve seen so far.

March 8, 2022

Americans need to stop boycotting Russian restaurants over here.

https://twitter.com/magi_jay/status/1501257726256635911?s=20&t=oVHjaijURHjRZNv8_J5vAQ

Russian restaurants in New York City are being hit by cancellations, social media campaigns and bad reviews online after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite most owners being openly antiwar and many coming from Ukraine.



Magdi Semrau
@magi_jay
So many in the Russian-American diaspora are here because they suffered either during Soviet or post-Soviet rule. Those who have emigrated from both Russia & Ukraine have overlapping social, religious, & cultural communities. Many Russian & Ukrainian Americans stand together.



Putin and his henchmen are the problem, not emigrants trying to make a living ; many of whom emigrated here to escape autocratic rule.