CBS eyeball news can't even get the basics right for "excess deaths" story

 The eyeball news story gets it wrong by screwing up the time frame. The reporter is just lazy:

Two years after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global pandemic, new research suggests around 18.2 million people have died worldwide as a result. That toll is more than three times higher than the WHO's tally of nearly 6 million officially reported COVID-19 deaths through the end of 2021.

The new figures, published Thursday in The Lancet, are based on the number of "excess deaths" in countries around the world. Researchers determined how many additional deaths occurred from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2021 by modeling the number of "expected" deaths in years unaffected by a global pandemic, compared to the total number who actually died from any cause. 

You can't use "the current total".  This is March, hello. You have to use the total on 12/31/21 as the study did, which was closer to 825,000. That means C19 deaths in the US might have been as much as 37% higher than actually reported, not 18%.

The disparity between excess deaths and C19 deaths for the US is much larger than the story lets on.

Similarly with the global total figures. There were about 5.46 million deaths globally due to COVID-19 on 12/31/21, not "nearly 6 million", so the excess deaths are about 3.33 times greater than the C19 deaths, not simply 3.03 times greater.

Perhaps the most significant new piece of information from the story is that "deaths from heart attacks and stroke have climbed beyond pre-pandemic levels", but the story won't suggest that there might be an association between those deaths and mass vaccination, only with the disease itself.

How many older people have died of heart attack and stroke after vaccination without contracting COVID-19? There must be many, many millions globally, by definition, but no one is publishing this information.

The bias in favor of the safety of the vaccines will not hold up forever as new evidence like this emerges.

We were confidently told these vaccines would stop the spread, even at the 50% threshold, which turned out to be a huge lie. Even after Provincetown the authorities bent over backwards to stick with the narrative.

Then we were told the vaccines would stop serious outcomes, yet US deaths in January and February 2022 are the fifth and fourth worst months for deaths of the entire pandemic.

The time for the end of this farce is long past. 

Oh, I hate Elon Musk now

 Activists accuse Tesla of "economic support for genocide" with new showroom in China's Xinjiang region

These CDC assholes are still out of control: Smallpox vials found in undisclosed lab in Pennsylvania

Philadelphia — Federal health authorities on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of some frozen vials labeled "Smallpox" in a freezer at a facility in Pennsylvania that conducts vaccine research. ...

The CDC would not confirm where in Pennsylvania the vials were found. ...

There are two sites designated by the World Health Organization where stocks of variola virus are stored and used for research: the CDC facility in Atlanta and a center in Russia. ...

In July 2014, officials said a government scientist cleaning out an old storage room at a Bethesda, Maryland, research center found six decades-old glass vials containing freeze-dried smallpox samples packed away and forgotten in a cardboard box. Officials called it the first discovery of unaccounted-for smallpox in the country.

Story.

It's a veritable cornucopia of 2020 Iowa Caucus debacle headlines this morning

Iowa caucus: Biden campaign blasts Democratic Party over reporting meltdown

Iowa caucuses delays revive concerns and conspiracy theories of Bernie Sanders supporters

SANDERS CAMPAIGN’S INTERNAL CAUCUS NUMBERS SHOW THEM WINNING IOWA, WITH BIDEN A DISTANT FOURTH

Frustration, questions as delays hamper Iowa caucuses

‘A Systemwide Disaster’: How the Iowa Caucuses Melted Down

Iowa officially has its first caucus-deciding coin flips of the year

Chaos reigns on Iowa caucus night

Iowa caucuses turnout: Entrance poll shows dip in first-timers

Results for Iowa caucuses delayed as state Democratic Party finds 'inconsistencies'

'It’s a total meltdown': Confusion seizes Iowa as officials struggle to report results

What went wrong: Tech troubles behind delay in Iowa results

Iowa Democrats rush "quality checks" after "inconsistencies"

Iowa Reports No Caucus Winner After ‘Inconsistencies’ Bedevil Count

H. Ross Perot June 11, 1992: What might have been

On June 11, a New York Times national poll showed Perot leading with 39 percent to Bush's 31 percent and Clinton's 25 percent. 

The border deal is being rammed through as we speak, a $1+trillion package no one has read, least of all Trump

The Senate overwhelmingly passed a compromise bill on border security Thursday to fund the government past the Friday deadline and avert another shutdown. The measure, which was approved by a 83 to 16 broad bipartisan vote, is expected to pass in the House Thursday night and be signed into law by President Trump.

'Camp Fire' incinerates Paradise, the "most destructive wildfire since record-keeping began" in California

Reported here:

Not a single resident of Paradise, California, can be seen anywhere in town after most of them fled the Northern California community that may be lost forever. Most of the town's buildings are in ruin. Entire neighborhoods are leveled. The business district is destroyed.

In a single day, the Sierra Nevada foothill town of 27,000 was largely incinerated by flames that moved so fast there was nothing firefighters could do. Only a day after the "Camp Fire" began, the blaze had grown on Friday to nearly 140 square miles and destroyed more than 6,700 structures, almost all of them homes -- making it California's most destructive wildfire since record-keeping began.

Authorities said at least nine people were killed by the "Camp Fire," which as of early Saturday morning was 5 percent contained.

It is one of three major blazes that firefighters are battling across the state.

In Southern California, the 35,000 acre "Woolsey Fire" was 0 percent contained early Saturday. It has forced over 200,000 evacuations. The "Hill Fire" was holding at 6,000 acres.

The new puritans at CBS News flatly lie about Kavanaugh's testimony

Brett Kavanaugh wrongly claimed he could drink legally in Maryland in high school:

"Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has repeatedly said that he was legally allowed to consume beer as a prep school senior in Maryland."

That's a flat out lie. Kavanaugh never testified that he was "legally allowed".

He copped to drinking beer while under age, that's all, and that seniors were legal . . . at the time about which he testified.

That's how every under age drinker gets it to this day.

It's taken incompetent Puerto Rico eleven months to raise its official death toll from 64 to 2,975, just in time for the election

But in all that time incompetent Puerto Rico still hasn't made use of the millions of water bottles still sitting on a runway in Ceiba.

Possibly millions of water bottles meant for Hurricane Maria victims left on tarmac in Puerto Rico:

Puerto Rico's governor last month raised the U.S. territory's official death toll from Hurricane Maria from 64 to 2,975. The storm, which devastated the territory last September, is also estimated to have caused $100 billion in damage.

Flashback to the story from 2 November 2017.

Puerto Rico's water woes raise fears of health crisis six weeks after Hurricane Maria:

Bottled water can be hard to find and gets expensive, said her aunt, Maria Ortiz, 66. “If you are lucky to find some, a pack of 24 water bottles that used to be $3.99 now is about $7.50,” she said. 

They can't count, and they can't even drink.

Meanwhile the US east coast floods, but it's sunny and warm in Grand Rapids

Somebody's bad weather means good weather some place else.

One woman killed, another missing as storms deluge eastern U.S.:

"More than 26 million Americans are under a flood watch this morning, as severe weather grips the eastern U.S. for a fourth straight day. Beginning Wednesday, the storm will start to be felt further north, especially in New York. The heavy rain is expected to last through the weekend and possibly into next week. More than a foot of rain has fallen in parts of Maryland and Baltimore County is having its wettest July on record." 

Greece can't get a break: First financial meltdown, then overrun by refugees, now swept by wildfires

Greeks describe harrowing escapes from deadly fires:

"A pair of wildfires have [sic] left at least 79 people dead, and CBS News correspondent Seth Doane reports dozens are still believed to be missing. In some places around the Greek capital the fires were still burning. Elsewhere people began returning to neighborhoods left unrecognizable."

Blue Origin launched and returned successfully today in its eighth test flight

The rocket's capsule reached nearly 66 miles up and safely parachuted to a soft landing in the west Texas desert.

The rocket also safely returned to a landing pad. The rocket is not a heavy launch vehicle like Elon Musk's, but it returns to earth in similar fashion to be reused. Space tourism is just around the corner.

Excellent video of the whole thing, here.

Life-altering news from CBS just now: DHS chief Kirstjen Nielsen didn't hear Trump say "shit-hole"

Video here.

You may now go back to your normal activities.

Read it and weep, suckers: Trump tells his rich friends at Mar-a-Lago that they just got a lot richer

"You all just got a lot richer," Trump tells friends, referencing tax overhaul

'The president himself on Sept. 13 -- long before the bill was finalized -- said the wealthy would not benefit from the GOP tax overhaul.

'"The rich will not be gaining at all with this plan. We are looking for the middle class and we are looking for jobs -- jobs being the economy," Mr. Trump said.'

Out goes the Mooch after soiling the carpet

Now you see him, now you don't. A veritable turd flying at the speed of light, who wiped out both Sean Spicer and Reince Priebus in one fell swoop. Or should I say poop?

Mission accomplished, he's gone.

Wouldn't it have been cleaner doing it the usual way?

Story here.

McConnell still to go ahead with repeal only bill next week, to put Republican women on the record voting against it

Good for him.

Story here.

After just 5 months Trump has ISIS, the JV team, surrounded in Raqqa and Mosul

"This is good! How many did they behead as Obama played Golf?" 

Story here.

Supreme Court to hear Trump travel ban case in October, lifts injunctions giving Trump a big victory

From the story here, nineteen lines in:

The action by the court is a victory for President Trump in the biggest legal controversy of his presidency so far.

Trump orders review of Obama's crazy CAFE standards

From the story here:

Mr. Trump on Wednesday announced plans to re-examine the fuel mandates, taking a step back from Obama-era environmental regulations. ... The standard for passenger cars stayed at 27.5 mpg from 1990 until 2007. In 2009, the government set a fuel economy standard of 34.1 mpg for cars and light trucks by 2016. In 2012, it set a new target of 54.5 mpg by 2025. The number can change depending on the mix of vehicles customers buy. Right now, it stands at 51.4 mpg because people are buying more SUVs and trucks.

Black lefty, who once worked for Glenn Greenwald but was fired, arrested for threatening Jews nationwide

What, I thought Trump supporters were behind these bomb threats?!

Story here, where you'll discover he used the very same m/o which got him fired from The Intercept.