swordfish

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/05/a-woman-prayer-emanuel-cleaver-amen-critics A Democratic congressman said he was surprised by the negative response after he ended an opening prayer on the first day of the new Congress by saying “amen and a-woman” – and said conservative critics including Donald Trump Jr had only proved themselves “soiled by selfishness, perverted by prejudice and inveigled by ideology”. Emanuel Cleaver, a United Methodist minister and former mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, is beginning his ninth term. He told the Kansas City Star his “A-woman” reference on Sunday was intended to recognize the record number of women serving in the new Congress. There are 144 women serving in the House and Senate. The previous high was 129. But Cleaver’s words spurred a torrent of criticism from conservatives who accused him of misunderstanding the meaning of “amen” – a Hebrew word that means “so be it”. One Republican representative, Guy Reschenthaler, of Pennsylvania, incorrectly stated on Twitter that “amen” had Latin origins, but added: “It’s not a gendered word. Unfortunately, facts are irrelevant to progressives. Unbelievable.” Trump Jr made the same mistake, writing: “It isn’t a gendered word but that didn’t stop them from being insane. Is this what you voted for?” Cleaver said he “concluded with a lighthearted pun in recognition of the record number of women who will be representing the American people in Congress during this term as well as in recognition of the first female chaplain of the House of Representatives whose service commenced this week”. Cleaver led the search committee that selected Margaret Grun Kibben, the former chief chaplain of the navy, for that role. “I personally find these historic occasions to be blessings from God for which I am grateful,” Cleaver said, adding that he was “deeply disappointed that my prayer has been misinterpreted and misconstrued by some to fit a narrative that stokes resentment and greater division among portions of our population. “Rather than reflecting on my faithful requests for community healing and reversion from our increasingly tribal tendencies, it appears that some have latched on to the final word of this conversation in an attempt to twist my message to God and demean me personally. “In doing so, they have proven one point of my greater message – that we are all ‘soiled by selfishness, perverted by prejudice and inveigled by ideology’.” So it was a "light-hearted pun" and anyone who saw it otherwise is “soiled by selfishness, perverted by prejudice and inveigled by ideology”...... What did he expect on the same day the Speaker of the House proposed the removing of genders from Congress.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9115013/Two-thirds-COVID-vaccines-unused-Surgeon-General-warns-needs-better.html Vaccine 'train wreck' rumbles on: California has vaccinated just 1% of its 40M residents while hundreds of Florida seniors camped out overnight to get shots - as Surgeon General warns US 'needs to get better quick' with two-thirds of shipped doses still unused Just 4.66 million COVID-19 vaccines have been administered across the US in the last three weeks despite federal officials having distributed 15.4 million doses to the states It means more than two-thirds of the vaccines shipped within the US have gone unused and just 1.4 percent of the population has been vaccinated as cases, deaths and hospitalizations continue to surge across the US One in 930 Americans have now died from COVID-19 with the death toll surging past 353,000 There were 180,477 new infections across the country on Monday and a record 128,210 patients currently being treated for coronavirus in hospitals Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Tuesday admitted that the largest vaccination campaign in US history, which has been in the works for months amid the pandemic, has been a 'little bit messy' He called on governors across the country to speed up the process by moving to the next priority groups if demand wasn't being met California Gov Gavin Newsom said on Monday that his state has only vaccinated 1 percent of the population Governors of New York and Florida have vowed to penalize hospitals that fail to dispense shots quickly In New York, hospitals must administer vaccines within a week of receiving them or face a fine and a reduction in future supplies, Gov Andrew Cuomo said, just hours before announcing the state's first known case of a new, more infectious coronavirus variant originally detected in Britain. 'I don't want the vaccine in a fridge or a freezer, I want it in somebody's arm,' Cuomo said. 'If you're not performing this function, it does raise questions about the operating efficiency of the hospital.' New York hospitals on the whole have dispensed fewer than half of their allocated doses to date, but performance varied from one group of hospitals to another. The NYC Health + Hospitals system, the city's main public hospital network, has only administered 31 percent of its allotment, compared with 99 percent for a few private hospitals in the state. The CDC reported an even lower vaccine uptake for New York overall, saying fewer than one in five of the 896,000 doses shipped to the state since mid-December have been given. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio revealed on Monday that the city's hospitals vaccinated just 148 people across the five boroughs on January 1 - delivering just 13 doses per hospital. It came as he promised to vaccinate 100,000 people every week going forward. The weakest link in the chain is at the end. The mass distribution has not been flawless, but very effective. Through it all, it appears that even with all his shortcomings with this pandemic, Governor Cuomo has the right idea.....

TWS huh.....? May be a thing......

TSG - Why am I included in your delusional assumptions? This "Airplane" picture reminds of the Democrat Party 4 years ago trying just about the same thing the current President is. The main difference is actual evidence exists, but is being ignored until after inauguration. Here is me after this Inauguration Day: Not really caring.....

Yeah but it sounded so good......"Amen and Awoman"......The Reverend is so deep.....

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/31/politics/distilleries-hand-sanitizer-fine/index.html "Small businesses who stepped up to fight Covid-19 should be applauded by their government, not taxed for doing so. I'm pleased to announce we have directed FDA to cease enforcement of these arbitrary, surprise user fees," Brian Harrison, HHS' chief of staff, said in a statement. "Happy New Year, distilleries, and cheers to you for helping keep us safe!" he added. Harrison said the distilleries were charged "by mistake" and that the fees were not cleared by HHS leadership. "Many of these are rather small business, craft distilleries, and their business and livelihoods were damaged when restaurants closed down," he said. "But they jumped into the fray and joined the fight against Covid. It was nothing short of heroic. They are American heroes." Crisis Averted.....

You do realize this story was from 2018? Methinks the "colorblind" society we were achieving at the end of the 1900's and in the first decade of the 2000's was obliterated. I believe that is because a big chunk of the black community didn't want colorblindness to happen. One would think that would be considered racism......But I've been given to understand that only white people can be racist.

For the 55 and older crowd......

Some tin-foil hat reading. Right now Trump is sitting on a stack of Trump cards or maybe Uno Wild Draw 4 (more years) that he just waiting to lay down like a fricking royal flush. He has court cases still pending that will go to the Supreme Court & thanks to TX case he now knows how to file it under article 3 not 2 that will force them to hear it. He has the DNI report on Friday. Barr steps down 23rd (can now be a witness—he did his job). Durham is a special counsel (can prosecute in any state). He’s letting civil, criminal, federal courts fail to handle the situation properly so he can use military tribunals. He has the data (all of it) from NSA, the Kraken supercomputer, the Alice supercomputer, (probably a couple others we haven’t heard about yet, too). He has the dueling electors from 7 states legislatures. He has VP Pence as final arbiter of which ballots to accept. He has the insurrection act. The NDAA, the national emergency, the 14th amendment, the 2018 executive order, the 2017 very first EO, the Patriot Act, the FISA warrants, the Declassification of everything, people swear affidavits by the 1000, the QR code scan guy who just needs access to some real ballots & he can detect if they are fake by looking for creases & printing items using his scanner technology, he has all the statistical data being analyzed, the videos, emails, phone calls, bank transfer statements showing the coordination of the coup, he has RICO, he has the crimes against humanity videos, Wikileaks just dropped a ton & Assange will be pardoned so he can talk about Seth Rich. Now that the governors and secretary of states certified & Biden accepted, they committed and knowingly agreed to treason. Solar Winds just raided & Dominion closing up shop. Same with politicians & media. He has the C_A servers used to change dominion machines, he will soon have access to the machines too. He baited them to staying in DC so they can be inaugurated, oops arrested. Biden hasn’t accepted any transition money nor has Kamala given up her seat. The military has infiltrated Antifa & BLM & he has the financials. He knows which politicians took Chinese & Soros money and much, much more... How's that for some good reading material? Still waiting for something tangible to happen, could this be the end game?

If you wish to have a discussion about how bad humans are at managing our environment and pollution, I would be happy to listen to you, or this guy. But I will not seriously listen to someone who right out of the gate asserts mankind is responsible for climate change and the science is settled. There is no denying that the climate is changing. As I have said before (and been told how wrong I am) mankind, no matter how hard we all try, does not have the influence over nature in the same level that was able to remove all of the ice that once covered northern Indiana, and pushed it all the way into Canada.

https://www.953mnc.com/2020/12/15/former-mayor-pete-buttigieg-to-serve-as-bidens-transportation-secretary/?fbclid=IwAR1ih7pSQguyPwUX4La-mL0C5hL33Cx-iK6AN2CQpH1QWaWCB1OmTiuo2mM The architect of South Bend’s Smart Streets will reportedly be the next U.S. Secretary of Transportation. Reports Tuesday afternoon said President-elect Biden will nominate the former South Bend Mayor and presidential challenger to be the first Senate-confirmed LGBTQ Cabinet Secretary, if his nomination passes through the chamber. Buttigieg is widely seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party, and a cabinet post at this level would add to a resume that many said lacked experience during the campaign. Mayor Pete was mentioned early this week as a leading candidate for the Transportation job after speculation that he was being considered for several other posts, including UN Ambassador, Commerce Secretary, and Ambassador to China. The landing spot for Mayor Pete? They just love the round-a-bouts in St. Joe County......

OK - It is now official - President-Elect Joe Biden. Even though SF will never be convinced he garnered as many votes as they say he did. I mean - who believes that (legally) he got more votes than the grand poopa - BHO? SF is wondering how long he will be President past inauguration.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/abe-lincoln-was-a-hero-now-he-s-a-bad-guy-in-some-s-f-education-circles/ar-BB1bUNoA Lincoln is one of dozens of historical figures who, according to a school district renaming committee, lived a life so stained with racism, oppression or human rights violations, they do not deserve to have their name on a school building. The debate reflects a nation in turmoil, a reckoning with a racist past that lingers today, toppling confederate statues from town squares and eliminating a large number of Robert E. Lee street signs. “Uprooting the problematic names and symbols that currently clutter buildings, streets, throughout the city is a worthy endeavor,” said Jeremiah Jeffries, chairman of the renaming committee and a first grade teacher in San Francisco. “Only good can come from the public being reflective and intentional about the power of our words, names and rhetoric within our public institutions.” But history is not always clear. People are complicated. Heroism and bravery can be obscured by beliefs and behaviors deemed abhorrent when viewed through a modern lens. Was Lincoln one of the greatest presidents of all time who ended the country’s great shame or a whitewashed historic character with a questionable record related to Native Americans not worthy of memorials, school names and street signs? Critics have called the effort to rename 44 school sites, a full third of the district’s schools, amateur — citing the committee’s justifications pulled from Wikipedia or selective news sources rather than historical records or comprehensive research — and a waste of time amid a pandemic. It has also received significant support from some communities, whose children wear school sweatshirts emblazoned with the name of former slave owners. When the committee released the 44 school sites to be renamed, many made sense. Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe were slave owners, and Vasco Nunez Balboa was a murderous conquistador. At least a few names on the list raised eyebrows, including El Dorado, literally translated to City of Gold, and Dianne Feinstein, who landed on the list because as mayor in the 1980s, she replaced a vandalized Confederate flag in front of City Hall. But perhaps the most controversial on the list was Lincoln. Honest Abe. The Great Emancipator. His inclusion exemplifies the struggle in San Francisco and across the country to balance the good and the bad, in this case, the hero and the 19th century man with many faults. It is not an easy to sort worth from waste, said historians as well as those hurt by the legacy of those complicated figures. “I have so many reactions in the sense of looking at his entire record and the fact of what (Lincoln) did for Africans and slavery and the Emancipation Proclamation,” said Sherry Black, who worked for more than 40 years in Native American economic and community development. “Considering the time period, it’s so difficult to understand how things were at the time. How do you make these decisions?” To many, Abraham Lincoln was one of the country’s greatest presidents, the Great Emancipator, a beloved historic figure as well as political mentor to his successors, including Barack Obama, who used the Lincoln Bible for his inauguration. Yet the renaming of Lincoln High School was a slam dunk for the committee, which didn’t even discuss it, according to video of the meetings. The members of the committee, appointed by the school board, deemed whether a person’s actions or beliefs met the criteria for renaming, and moved on. The committee’s spreadsheet with notes on their research listed the federal treatment of Native Americans during his administration as the reason. “The discussion for Lincoln centered around his treatment of First Nation peoples, because that was offered first,” Jeffries said. “Once he met criteria in that way, we did not belabor the point.” Jeffries, however, said the narrative of Lincoln’s legacy is false. Regardless of the pop-culture myths of Lincoln and his motivations, the Civil War was not fought over slavery or the liberation of Black people. “The history of Lincoln and Native Americans is complicated, not nearly as well known as that of the Civil War and slavery,” he said. “Lincoln, like the presidents before him and most after, did not show through policy or rhetoric that Black lives ever mattered to them outside of human capital and as casualties of wealth building.” Others disagree. “He saved the country from dividing and ruin,” said Harold Holzer, a Lincoln scholar and director of the Hunter College’s Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute. “He should be honored for it. Lincoln’s involvement with Native Americans is even trickier to unravel. Lincoln’s administration supported the Homestead Act of 1862 and transcontinental railroad, which led to the loss of Indigenous peoples’ land. Lincoln himself largely delegated the sometimes bloody response to Native American conflicts while focusing on the Civil War, according to historians. But Lincoln, whose grandfather was killed by a Native American, oversaw the hanging of 38 indigenous warriors after a Santee Sioux uprising in Minnesota, but only after he personally reviewed the legal cases against the 303 men sentenced to death. He saved the lives of 265 Indigenous men. Lincoln, historians say, was focused on the Civil War and therefore did little to change policies related to Native Americans, but had planned to. “If we get through the war and I live, this Indian system will be reformed,” he said. He never got the chance. “He was more progressive than most people,” Holzer said. “There was pretty rampant hostility (toward Native Americans) and I think Lincoln rose above it. “Nobody is going to pass 21st century mores if you’re looking at the 18th and 19th centuries.” Lincoln’s legacy is complicated, Black said. He could have sentenced all 303 warriors to death, she said, but “he recognized they weren’t treated appropriately according to the legal system.” Black wondered: Does the good outweigh the bad? “I could come down on either side.” For the renaming committee, that wasn’t a valid question. One decision that met the criteria was enough. “We asked ourselves, ‘Did the name under consideration meet one or more of our criteria?’ If that name met criteria, they were put on the list,” Jeffries said. That’s how Feinstein landed on it. “On a local level Dianne Feinstein chose to fly a flag that is the iconography of domestic terrorism, racism, white avarice and inhumanity towards black and indigenous people at the City Hall,” Jeffries said. “She is one of the few living examples on our list, so she still has time to dedicate the rest of her life to the upliftment of Black, First Nations and other people of color. She hasn’t thus far, so her apology simply wasn’t convincing.” At the same time, labor leader Cesar Chavez didn’t make the list, despite his feelings toward undocumented immigrants, who he called “wetbacks” and other derogatory names. He encouraged his supporters to report them to the authorities for deportation. United Farm Worker members would form “wet lines” at the border and beat those crossing, believing they would be strike breakers, according to his biographer Miriam Pawel. Jeffries said no one on the committee offered evidence that Chavez met the criteria. He did not say whether anyone on the committee looked for any. “We did not discuss the life of Cesar Chavez except to say that he did not meet criteria,” he said. The committee is expected to formally recommend renaming the 44 school sites in January, which will also include an alternative name chosen by Jeffries and the other members. School communities have an opportunity to suggest a new name this month. Parent Alida Fisher is looking forward to seeing the name change at her school, saying many Denman Middle School families have long wanted another moniker on the building. Denman might have been the first (San Francisco) superintendent, but he was also “an abject racist,” Fisher said at November school board meeting. Parent Matt Price appreciates the idea, but wishes the district would just wait until the school communities have the energy and time for such decisions. “This move, in light of the disastrous year this has been, feels terribly disrespectful to the parents who are really struggling right now,” said Price, whose third grade son attends McCoppin Elementary, which is also on the list. “It’s a well meaning exercise and I’m certainly not opposed, but it’s very, very badly timed.” The school board is expected to vote on the recommendations early next year. In the meantime, Jeffries urged the public to do their own research, “particularly on Lincoln.” “There is a lot of scholarship out there,” he said. “I encourage everyone to seek it out. Read.” Jill Tucker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker Are you fricking kidding me? SMH.....

Hyperbole at it's best....... SF asks - how many buildings were burned, how many stores were looted?

https://www.foxnews.com/media/nbc-mocked-miracle-necessary-coronavirus-vaccine NBC News was blistered on social media Monday for its past claim that a "medical miracle" would have to occur to fulfill President Trump's hopes of a functional coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2020. A widely shared May 15 NBC News "fact check" said Trump's prediction of having a vaccine by the end of the year was likely a pipe dream. It quoted Emory professor Dr. Walter Orenstein saying "a lot of things could go wrong." Another said a vaccine in a minimum of 12 months was only doable under the "best of circumstances." "Experts say that the development, testing and production of a vaccine for the public is still at least 12 to 18 months off, and that anything less would be a medical miracle," reporter Jane C. Timm wrote. As the world watched two New York health care workers receive doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine Monday, some wondered how a "fact check" of Trump's prediction was possible in the first place. Republican spokesman Steve Guest quipped, "4 Pinocchio's for NBC," a reference to the Washington Post's fact-checking guide. MSNBC repeatedly touted the article on its airwaves that week, with some pundits mocking Trump's optimism. "I would bet my left arm that Donald Trump can't spell vaccine, let alone be able to make a prediction about when we're likely to see one," MSNBC contributor and Lincoln Project co-founder Steve Schmidt told a chuckling Joy Reid on May 15. A Miami Herald article on Oct. 23 declared, "Trump says COVID-19 vaccine is coming ‘within weeks.’ Experts say that’s not possible." CNN cast doubt on Trump’s September suggestion that every American could receive a vaccine by April by quoting an anonymous source in a report headlined, “Trump says every American can get a coronavirus vaccine by April, but health experts say that's not likely.” MSNBC's Ari Melber said it would require "basically a miracle happening" for Trump's claim to come true, while headlines like Business Insider's "A coronavirus vaccine probably won't be ready before the end of 2021, according to a Swiss pharmaceutical giant" flashed on the screen. Other news outlets also expressed pessimism about the likelihood of an effective vaccine being deployed by year's end. PolitiFact quoted one expert on April 23 who said it was not unusual for vaccine development to take 10 to 15 years, although it added the coronavirus vaccine was on an accelerated timeline. "It could end up being less than 18 months, closer to 12, or in the absolutely best case, maybe less than that," University of Maryland professor Dr. Kathleen Neuzil, director of the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health, said, adding that would be a "tremendous feat." "The development for an effective vaccine against the coronavirus by even the end of the year would mark a watershed moment in medicine as vaccines typically take several years, if not decades, to succeed," NPR reported on Sept. 9. Trump has repeatedly touted the success of Operation Warp Speed, the public-private partnership spearheaded by his administration to produce a viable vaccine and distribute it to hundreds of millions of Americans. The Food and Drug Administration gave emergency authorization to Pfizer's vaccine last week and is expected to also grant it to Moderna's. Other vaccines are in late-stage trials and could be authorized in the coming months, the New York Times reported. SF doesn't see anyone lining up to apologize to the President for this......

The Osceola County (Fla.) Sheriff's Department saw the video and a responding officer contacted the player's mother. According to the officer's report, she was "advised she was aware of the incident, and specifically stated she did not want to press charges." In addition to being banned for life by the youth football organization, Williams also was fired from his job as a counselor with the Chatham County (Ga.) Sheriff's Office. 1) Mom didn't want her kid out of the football program, so the coach hitting the kid seemed to be OK with her...... 2) Counselor with the Chatham County Sheriff's Office...... OK - Consider SF troubled......

TSG - I hate hearing people suffering like your mother had to, and it's gotta be tough especially right before Christmas. 58 is too young (IMHO). I've lost both of my parents. My father married my wife and I in 1988, then passed away 45 days later at 63. If you don't believe in divine intervention, so be it, but I do and knowing I would have never left home with my mother alone after Dad's passing, I know Mrs. Swordfish was sent my way for a purpose. My Mom passed last year at 92 after multiple strokes. She had a great long life and I just feel blessed that she was able to meet and be a part of my kid's lives. Buddy, you won't stop missing your parents. Not one day goes by that I don't think of both of my parents. And you probably feel pretty lost right now, but I will tell you this, it will get easier. You have to be thankful for the years you were able to spend with your mom, cherish the memories, remember the lessons she taught and steel yourself for the next pages to be written in your life. You and I will probably never see eye to eye politically, but from one human being to another, best wishes man.

Some good common sense advice forwarded from one of my nurse friends. Common sense advice I have followed for many years in the RV industry and attending winter and spring RV shows with huge attendances numbers all over the country and Canada in every airport in every climate you can imagine and I can vouch that I have been able to avoid the worst ailments because of this. CORONA Common Sense Since they are calling on Respiratory therapist to help fight the Corona virus, and I am a retired one, too old to work in a hospital setting. I'm gonna share some common sense wisdom with those that have the virus and trying to stay home. If my advice is followed as given you will improve your chances of not ending up in the hospital on a ventilator. This applies to the otherwise generally healthy population, so use discretion. 1. Only high temperatures kill a virus, so let your fever run high. Tylenol, Advil. Motrin, Ibuprofen etc. will bring your fever down allowing the virus to live longer. They are saying that ibuprophen, advil etc will actually exacerbate the virus. Use common sense and don't let fever go over 103 or 104 if you got the guts. If it gets higher than that take your tylenol, not ibuprophen or advil to keep it regulated. It helps to keep house warm and cover up with blankets so body does not have to work so hard to generate the heat. It usually takes about 3 days of this to break the fever. 2. The body is going to dehydrate with the elevated temperature so you must rehydrate yourself regulaly, whether you like it or not. Gatorade with real sugar, or pedialyte with real sugar for kids, works well. Why the sugar? Sugar will give your body back the energy it is using up to create the fever. The electrolytes and fluid you are losing will also be replenished by the Gatorade. If you don't do this and end up in the hospital they will start an IV and give you D5W (sugar water) and Normal Saline to replenish electrolytes. Gatorade is much cheaper, pain free, and comes in an assortment of flavors 3. You must keep your lungs moist. Best done by taking long steamy showers on a regular basis, if your wheezing or congested use a real minty toothpaste and brush your teeth while taking the steamy shower and deep breath through your mouth. This will provide some bronchial dilation and help loosen the phlegm. Force your self to cough into a wet wash cloth pressed firmly over your mouth and nose, which will cause greater pressure in your lungs forcing them to expand more and break loose more of the congestion. 4. Eat healthy and regularly. Gotta keep your strength up. 5. Once the fever breaks, start moving around to get the body back in shape and blood circulating. 6. Deep breath on a regular basis, even when it hurts. If you don't it becomes easy to develop pneumonia. Pursed lip breathing really helps. That's breathing in deep and slow then exhaling through tight lips as if your blowing out a candle, blow until you have completely emptied your lungs and you will be able to breath in an even deeper breath. This helps keep lungs expanded as well as increase your oxygen level. 7. Remember that every medication you take is merely relieving the symptoms, not making you well. 8. If your still dying go to ER. I've been doing these things for myself and my family for over 40 years and kept them out of the hospital, all are healthy and still living today. Thank you all for sharing. We gotta help one another.

Who didn't see something like this coming? (BTW - this happens with any vaccine new or existing) https://nypost.com/2020/12/09/uk-issues-warning-about-pfizers-covid-19-vaccine/ People with “significant” allergic reactions are being warned not to get Pfizer’s new coronavirus vaccine — after two people needed treatment after being jabbed on the day it was launched in the UK. The unidentified duo — both staff in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) — needed treatment for an “anaphylactoid reaction” Tuesday after they were among the first in the world to get the shot. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) immediately issued precautionary advice against vaccinating anyone with a history of “significant” allergic reactions to medicines, food or vaccines. “Two people with a history of significant allergic reactions responded adversely yesterday,” said professor Stephen Powis, national medical director for the NHS in England, adding that “both are recovering well.” “The MHRA have advised on a precautionary basis that people with a significant history of allergic reactions do not receive this vaccination,” he said, insisting the advice was “common with new vaccines.” Now - THIS could be a problem: https://nypost.com/2020/12/09/no-drinking-for-two-months-after-covid-19-vaccine-russia-says/ Russian officials are warning citizens to avoid alcohol for two months after receiving the country’s COVID-19 vaccine — tough-to-swallow news for one of the world’s heaviest-drinking countries. The warning came from Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova, who said in an interview that Russians will have to observe extra precautions during the 42 days it takes for the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to become effective. “[Russians] will have to refrain from visiting crowded places, wear face masks, use sanitizers, minimize contacts and refrain from drinking alcohol or taking immunosuppressant drugs,” Golikova told TASS News Agency. Anna Popova, the head of Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s consumer safety watchdog, echoed the sentiments in an interview with Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda, as reported in the Moscow Times. “It’s a strain on the body. If we want to stay healthy and have a strong immune response, don’t drink alcohol,” she said. According to the World Health Organization, Russia is the fourth-largest consumer of alcohol per person in the world. The average Russian consumes 15.1 liters (almost 4 gallons) of alcohol a year, according to the agency. Russia’s efforts to vaccinate its population began in earnest over the weekend in Moscow. Health authorities in the country estimate that 100,000 people have already been inoculated. “By the end of the week, all regions of the country will join this campaign,” Golikova said. Russian health officials say the Sputnik V vaccine is over 90 percent effective, but reports say medical workers who have taken the shot have come down with COVID-19. Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly refused to take it. Western experts have expressed skepticism at the speed at which the purported vaccine was developed and Russia hasn’t provided any data to back up its claims for the shot. Russia has recorded 2.4 million coronavirus cases, as well as over 42,000 deaths from the disease.

Since the Trump administration's efforts to date have fallen short of proving the fraud his team is alleging, the time to start a legitimate discussion of the apparent new administration is upon us. (IMHO) To date Biden's picks have been primarily aimed at women and people of color. In light of the diversity he is aiming for, I was curious where the former (white male, BUT gay) Mayor of South Bend was going to wind up. (You will remember my main prediction that he was merely aiming at a seat at the Democrat table) First hint: https://www.axios.com/pete-buttigieg-china-ambassador-biden-80aa9cc5-35a2-4205-836a-ca11d8af8f07.html President-elect Joe Biden is considering a high-profile ambassadorship for Pete Buttigieg, possibly sending him to China, people familiar with the matter tell Axios. Why it matters: The 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, whom Biden has compared to his late son, Beau, played a key role in Biden's nomination. Letting him deepen his foreign policy chops could boost Buttigieg's future, since many inside the Democratic Party believe his return as a presidential candidate is a matter of when, not if. Buttigieg electrified donors and rocketed to the top of the party, winning the most delegates in the Iowa caucuses earlier this year before dropping out to consolidate moderates' support around Biden. But finding a Cabinet position for him has been a challenge as the former VP focuses on nominating women and people of color to high-level posts. China isn’t the only foreign post where Buttigieg, a polyglot, could end up — and his name remains under discussion for some domestic leadership positions as well. The intrigue: The Beijing post has often gone to experienced politicians, toward the middle or end of their careers, as a way to confer respect to the Chinese. A Buttigieg nomination would invert that model and give the Chinese an opportunity to get to know a potential future president. That happened with George H.W. Bush in 1974, when President Ford appointed him to the U.S. liaison office in Beijing. Bush was 50 at that time; Buttigieg, if confirmed by the Senate, would be 39. The U.S. relationship with China will remain deeply consequential and complex. Behind the scenes: Biden passed over Buttigieg, an Afghan war vet, to be his ambassador to the United Nations, the job said to be Buttigieg's top choice. Axios reports that initial conversations over leading the Department of Veterans Affairs didn’t firm up, while Buttigieg's name is still mentioned among those under consideration for other domestic posts, including Transportation or Commerce. But he has signaled to the transition team that he’s most interested in the foreign policy or national security realm, sources tell Axios. Between the lines: Some of Buttigieg’s backers see a political upside to a domestic Cabinet role in which he can build his relationship with Black voters, who largely rejected his candidacy. There’s also concern he could be left out of the Biden administration's starting lineup altogether, despite having been one of Biden’s first rivals to endorse him after the South Carolina primary. At the time, Biden said of Buttigieg: "I don't think I've ever done this before, but he reminds me of my son Beau. I know that may not mean much to most people, but, to me, it's the highest compliment I can give any man or woman."