Crooked Media - What A Day: Count wackula

Thursday, May 19, 2022
BY KATE DOYLE & CROOKED MEDIA

 -Former president, man who invaded Iraq

A casual observer of government messaging might assume the pandemic is over and we can wash our hands of it (or stop washing them). But actual deaths, iPhone salesmen, and poop tell a different story. 

  • Cases are rising again, up 57 percent from two weeks ago. The U.S. passed the one-million deaths benchmark on May 17. That’s the population of the nation’s 10th largest city. It’s more than the number of people who have died from AIDS in the U.S. over the last 30 years, and more than died from the 1918-1919 flu pandemic. Thanks to coronavirus, the U.S. has experienced the biggest drop in life expectancy since World War II.
     
  • According to Boston wastewater tracking, the latest, even more transmissible Omicron variant, BA.2.12.1, exploded across Massachusetts in recent weeks and is outpacing its predecessor, BA.2, in other regions, as well. 
     
  • Also, famous people are getting it again. And then again. Vocally unvaccinated Australian politician Pauline Hanson, who is standing for re-election as a Queensland senator on Saturday, has tested positive for COVID-19 days out from the federal election. (“I will survive,” she memed, “to some people’s disgust.”) Jimmy Kimmel has it again, for the second time in a month.

Nevertheless the policy response looks kinda like what you’d expect if Omicron never mutated into existence.

  • The CDC now recommends Pfizer boosters for kids age 5 to 11, but there are still no vaccines for kids under 5. Which you would think would mean masks stay on in schools, but New York mayor Eric Adams said nay, nixing a mask mandate as kids return to school with a heightened COVID-19 alert. Apple, by contrast, has reinstated its mask mandate for employees at 100 stores. The children are our future, or at least, our future purchasers of phones.
     
  • The best news would be if we could all look forward to Omicron-specific vaccines this fall. Scientists and federal health officials are circling a strategy that may pair hot new COVID-19 vaccines finely, tuned to the latest variant, with the traditional flu shot in a kind of shot cocktail. But some of their peers are playing multidimensional chess, cautioning against creating “an impression that we don’t have a very effective vaccination program.” Sound familiar?
The political decision to drop all COVID-19 mitigation has made it almost impossible to reinstate any measures; new CDC warnings fall on deaf ears or no ears at all, including in the White House. The least they can do is get their stuff together by the end of June, when scientific advisers to the Food and Drug Administration will meet to identify the coronavirus variant most likely to be proliferating in the United States as temperatures cool off in the fall, and hopefully give manufacturers time to decide whether the vaccines’ composition needs to be updated and to ramp up production, hopefully enough to churn out hundreds of millions of doses before Halloween.
In the latest installment of Political Experts React, Pod Save America host Dan Pfeiffer is joined by Crooked Media's Chief Content Officer Tanya Somanader to break down VIRAL 2022 Midterm Ads. Watch all new episodes of Political Experts React on the Crooked Media YouTube Channel

The 2020 Census was off—like, very off—in 14 states, but those numbers will be used to allocate political representation and federal funding for the rest of the decade anyway. A follow-up survey found that six states (Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas) had been undercounted, and eight states (Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Utah) had been overcounted. There are no demographic details of the populations that were undercounted, but Census experts have long worried that low-income and minority populations are the most likely to be missed, especially Hispanic Americans after the Trump administration attempted to add a citizenship question to the survey.

Unfortunately the faulty 2020 numbers have already been used to divvy up seats in the House of Representatives, as well as votes in the Electoral College, and help determine how much money from hundreds of federal programs gets to the states, making correct counts crucial for states that depend on money for everything from school systems to wildfire preparations. To try to mitigate the effects of the miscounts, the bureau has set up an internal team that plans to research how to factor the follow-up survey's results into the bureau's population estimates, which help guide the distribution of about $1.5 trillion a year in federal money to local communities.

It may be impossible to buy a house, difficult to find basic necessities like baby formula, and pointless to pursue access to basic healthcare, but on the bright side, you’d have to try really hard to get fired from your job right now, according to a Wall Street Journal columnist. Layoffs and discharges in recent months have registered at or near all-time lows, according to the Labor Department. Less than 1 percent of workers are being let go, roughly half the norm, with job security especially strong in finance, education, healthcare, and the public sector. (Unfortunately this doesn’t apply if you work for Netflix or Carvana right now).

Life can be overwhelming, and many people are burned out without even knowing it. Symptoms of burnout can include lack of  motivation, feeling helpless or trapped, detachment, fatigue, and more. 
 



We associate burnout with work, but that’s not the only cause.  Any of our roles in life can lead us to feel burned out, and BetterHelp online therapy wants to remind you to prioritize  yourself. Talking with someone can help you figure out what’s  causing stress in your life. 

BetterHelp is customized online therapy that offers video, phone and even live chat sessions with your therapist, so you don’t  have to see anyone on camera if you don’t want to.  

It’s much more affordable than in-person therapy and you can be  matched with a therapist in under 48 hours. 

What A Day is sponsored by BetterHelp and readers of this newsletter get 10 percent off their first month at BetterHelp.com/crooked

Taco Bell's highly anticipated Mexican Pizza made a triumphant return to menus today, following a two-year absence.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced a massive investment in direct air carbon removal projects, aka atmospheric vacuum cleaners, in hopes of kickstarting an industry that energy experts say is critical to getting the country's planet-warming emissions under control.

AOC is officially engaged, which is good news or bad news depending on who you are. 

The biggest trend in esports is increased mental-health talk, according to a ‘Call of Duty’ league analyst.

. . . . . .


© Crooked Media 2022. All Rights Reserved. 
If you want to manage which emails you receive from Crooked Media, update your preferences here. If you prefer to opt out of all Crooked Media communications, you may unsubscribe.
Share this newsletter
7162 Beverly Blvd #212, Los Angeles, CA, 90036
Powered by Mailchimp
Twitter
Facebook
Link

Older messages

What A Day: Can't bind a Fetterman

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

The GOP: It's a worker's party now! Wednesday, May 18, 2022 BY BRIAN BEUTLER & CROOKED MEDIA -Sandy Smith, North Carolina GOP House nominee, crushing it Tuesday's primary elections were

What A Day: Oz célèbre?

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Not since George W. Bush invaded Iraq... Tuesday, May 17, 2022 BY BRIAN BEUTLER & CROOKED MEDIA -Tucker Carlson, describing Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) Normally world leaders like it when they're

What A Day: New Elise on lies

Monday, May 16, 2022

...just like his wife Ginni. Monday, May 16, 2022 BY BRIAN BEUTLER & CROOKED MEDIA -Elise Stefanik spokesman, lying about calling her opponents pedophiles A neo-Nazi indoctrinated with Republican

What A Day: All Elon the botch-tower

Friday, May 13, 2022

A real Fascists Triangle. Friday, May 13, 2022 BY BRIAN BEUTLER & CROOKED MEDIA -Elon Musk, very convincing genius The looming, likely demise of Roe v. Wade has enticed Republicans across the

What A Day: More like SLAY-TO

Friday, May 13, 2022

Not all heroes wear shoes. Thursday, May 12, 2022 BY NICK TURNER & CROOKED MEDIA -Madonna, obviously A tectonic geopolitical event bodes well for Ukraine, and poorly for Russia, but the resolution

You Might Also Like

☕ I can see it now

Friday, March 29, 2024

Is video the next AI frontier? March 29, 2024 Tech Brew PRESENTED BY Infinity Fuel It's Friday. Today we've rounded up AI news from the extended Brewniverse: Tech Brew's Patrick Kulp kicks

The Police Have A Dark Money Slush Fund

Friday, March 29, 2024

Corporate interests are funneling far more money to law enforcement than previously known — often with scant oversight. Police are receiving hundreds of millions of dollars a year in secret funding

A very bad year for press freedom

Friday, March 29, 2024

Plus: Beyoncé's new album, Netanyahu's new crisis, and more. March 29, 2024 View in browser Good morning! I'm back, here to dig into a topic close to my heart. —Caroline Houck, senior

Numlock News: March 29, 2024 • Trading Cards, Kite Fights, Breadfruit

Friday, March 29, 2024

By Walt Hickey Have a great weekend! Kite Fighting A popular competitive sport in Brazil is kite fighting, where competitors try to cut down their opponents kites while avoiding getting their own kite

☕️ Floppy-haired fraudster

Friday, March 29, 2024

SBF is sentenced to 25 years... March 29, 2024 View Online | Sign Up | Shop Morning Brew PRESENTED BY Impact.com Good morning. Today marks one year since Evan Gershkovich, a 32-year-old American Wall

AI hallucinates software packages and devs download them – even if potentially poisoned with malware [Fri Mar 29 2024]

Friday, March 29, 2024

Hi The Register Subscriber | Log in The Register {* Daily Headlines *} 29 March 2024 Illustration of someone in a hoodie looking at a bench with a cloud over it AI hallucinates software packages and

What A Day: Clown by law

Friday, March 29, 2024

Trump's lawyers are having another rough one. And the mainstream media could learn a lesson from the legal world about handling corruption. Thursday, March 28, 2024 BY CROOKED MEDIA —Steve Bannon,

🌶️ Is it getting hot in here?

Friday, March 29, 2024

Introducing our theme for April plus fun stuff to read, watch, and click on. March 28, 2024 Open in new tab Did a friend forward this? Subscribe today! April's Theme is SPICY It was chosen by our

What 58 Famous People Smell Like

Friday, March 29, 2024

Here's what you missed on the Strategist. The Strategist Every product is independently selected by editors. If you buy something through our links, New York may earn an affiliate commission. What

Trump Would Need New Tactics to Steal the 2024 Election

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Columns and commentary on news, politics, business, and technology from the Intelligencer team. Intelligencer early and often Trump Would Need New Tactics to Steal the 2024 Election Many avenues Trump