Is there anything to watch on TV? I recommend Race Around the World Season 1 and 2 on Discovery +. It is not another Amazing Race, it's miles better and more interesting with unbelievable photography.

Next up is Vicenzo on Netflix, which is half drama and half comedy and just wonderful.

I'm also watching the new season of Make the Cut on Amazon Prime (with Heidi and Tim). If you haven't seen Tehran on Apple TV, it's great and has you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end.

U.S. Network TV continues to get more and more vacuous in my opinion. Cop stories and victim stories. No thank you.

In the good news department, Malverde will be starting soon, Telemundo's "most ambitious adventure". (Although that phrase is as overused as when Chris Harrison would say on the Bachelor, "This is the most dramatic season ever.) Rafael Amaya who played Aurelio in Senor de los Cielos will make his return to TV after more than year. And there's an indication, however slight, there could be a Senor de los Cielos 8. A La Reina del Sur 3 is also in the works.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Jovenel Moise, the President of Haiti was assassinated in his home last night, around 1:00 a.m. His wife was critically injured and has been flown to Miami for treatment.

The attack was carried out by highly trained professionals, with high-powered weapons. The killers claimed to be with the DEA, carrying out an operation, according to Bocchit Edmond, Haiti's ambassador to the U.S. and Prime Minister Claude Joseph.

Prime Minister Claude Joseph said highly trained assassin, some speaking a mix Spanish or English with a US accent, assassinated the president at his home. The assassins yelled, “DEA operation! Everybody stand down! DEA operation! Everybody back up, stand down!”

Reuters confirms the statements by Edmond and Joseph:

Edmond told Reuters in an interview the gunmen were masquerading as U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents as they entered Moise's guarded residence under cover of nightfall - a move that would likely have helped them gain entry.

According to La Nouvellist, a major newspaper in Haiti, the Deputy Justice of the Peace has released an official report. It says Moises' body was riddled with bullets. Also, his daughter was home at the time and hid. [More....]

Original Post Friday: Derek Chauvin will be sentenced today for the murder of George Floyd.

He could get life plus cancer and the public would say it's not enough.

Attorney Ben Crump will be on hand afterwards to give a press conference. He's beome as ubiquitous as Gloria Allred was a decade ago. Not my cup of tea.

Update: He got 22.5 years. His motion for a new trial was denied just before sentencing. The Judge issued a 20 plus page opinion explaining his sentence. You can read it here. Basically, it seems his guideline sentence was 11-12 years, and the judge said he had discretion to impose an upward variance, and because of the aggravating factors in the case, including Chauvin's extreme cruelty to George Floyd, he decided to do that. From the Washington Post: [More...]

600,000 people with COVID-19 have died in this this country. That is such an appalling number.

The World Health Organization says even people who have had COVID-19 should get vaccinated.

The virus has not gone away. The Delta variant is growing in the U.S. and elsewhere. We don't know if it's more dangerous, just that it's more transmissible. Meaning it's a fast spreader. The CDC has now declared it a "Variant of Concern". It thinks the current vaccines will be mostly effective against the variants, but that sounds more like hope than science. [More...]

I have been adjusting to life outside of my bubbled apartment. After more than a year indoors, I can't help but avoid the computer. I will be back though!

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Time for a new open thread, all topics welcome.

I'm almost as tired of writing about COVID-19 as I used to get writing about Trump. The CDC seems to me to have jumped the shark. Now they are recommending less testing for people who have been vaccinated?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that most people who have received the full course of shots and have no COVID-19 symptoms don’t need to be screened for the virus, even if exposed to someone who is infected.

When will these experts figure out that we need to prevent the virus, not just treat it after it infects and kills. To do that you need to test. This year-old interview with Virologist Shao Yiming, chief AIDS expert at China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention,published in Science Insider Magazine makes a lot of good points.

[More...]

Is anyone going maskless here?

I used to say about Wordperfect that they'd have to pry it out of my dead hand before I changed to Microsoft Word. That's how I feel about my mask. I'm still going to wear it and I won't be shopping at any grocery store or butcher where either the employees or customers are not masked.

As for restaurants: Just the thought of an unmasked worker handling my food and breathing over convinces me it's not time to eat at an indoor or outdoor restaurant yet.

With the large numbers of law enforcement and prison guards refusing to take the vaccine, and the government claiming they don't have the right to demand they get one, I'm not feeling any safer today than I did two weeks ago or a month ago. [More...]

The House of Representatives today held a vote on Liz Cheney and she has been removed as House Republican Conference chair

which is considered to be the third most important Republican position in the House.

Donald Trump was happy, calling her "a poor leader, a major Democrat talking point, a warmonger, and a person with absolutely no personality or heart.”

He did get one right: warmonger.

I don't understand why Democrats and progressives are flocking to defend Liz Cheney. Liz Cheney holds the same beliefs as her father, Dick Cheney. See Maureen Dowd's column this week, on the similarity of beliefs held by Cheney and her father. I'm with Dowd on this.

Bill and Melinda Gates have announced they are getting a divorce. Both their twitter feeds have the same message. They say they will continue their work together at the Gates foundation, but won't continue to work together as a couple.

The Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the most influential private foundation in the world, with an endowment worth nearly $50 billion. It has focused on global health and development and U.S. education issues since incorporating in 2000.

Melinda Gates has been heavily involved in gender equality initiatives in the past few years. Maybe she wants to start her own foundation. Given they are announcing a divorce, not a separation, I suspect they have already settled their financial affairs.

It may be the largest divorce settlement in history, since they are reportedly worth $150 billion. I found this part of their announcement curious:

‘We no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in the next phase of our lives

They've been married for 27 years. What kind of continued growth as a couple were they expecting? [More...]

Rudy Giuliani is playing dumb. He feigns surprise the FBI didn't want his hard drives with Hunter Biden's material.

As if he doesn't know the FBI is investigating his activities, not Hunter's, regarding the Ukraine.

The FBI warned him and the Trump Administration that Rudy was the target of a Russian disinformation campaign to influence the election. Update: The Washington Post and NYTimes have now retracted the allegation that Rudy was formally warned by the FBI. [More...]

The Oscars will begin shortly.

There will be no host, no audience, nor face masks for nominees attending the ceremony at Los Angeles' Union Station - this year's hub for a show usually broadcast from the Dolby Theatre.

Steven Soderbergh is in charge this year:

The Oscars will look more like a movie, Soderbergh has said. The show will be shot in 24 frames-per-second (as opposed to 30), appear more widescreen and the presenters - including Brad Pitt, Halle Berry, Reese Witherspoon, Harrison Ford, Rita Moreno and Zendaya - are considered "cast members." The telecast's first 90 seconds, Soderbergh has claimed, will "announce our intention immediately."

It may be a landmark year for diversity but I agree with Bill Maher - the movies are just so sad.

Then again, it was a sad year all the way around.