Seth Meyers takes closer looks at plots to seize voting machines and promises to pardon rioters

I concluded Seth Meyers takes closer looks at the week's news while in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19 with "I'm glad Seth is well and am looking forward to his returning to the studio next week almost as much as he is. Stay tuned." More than two weeks later, it's time to see how Seth is doing. Watch last night's Trump and Rudy Were Directly Involved in Plan to Seize Voting Machines: A Closer Look.

Seth takes a closer look at Donald Trump’s intimate involvement with plans to seize voting machines and stay in power in the waning days of his presidency.

It looks like Double Razzie winner Rudy Giuliani was doing more than testifying at hearings about the election, filing lawsuits, and getting in legal and professional trouble on behalf of The Former Guy's delusional belief that the election was stolen. The two of them were planning on stealing the election themselves. As I wrote ten years ago, projection is the Right's favorite defense mechanism.

All that was about the peaceful, if possibly still illegal part of overturning the election results. Trump Admits Coup, Says He’ll Pardon Jan. 6 Rioters if He Wins in 2024: A Closer Look looks at TFG making a promise about the violent part of last year's attempted self-coup.

Seth takes a closer look at Donald Trump making it clear he’s leading a pro-coup movement intent on dismantling American democracy.

Nearly all the reactions to TFG's speech have been like Seth's, shock and anger at TFG promising to pardon the insurrectionists if elected. I think enough people have commented on that, so I'm concentrating on the statement attacking Senator Susan Collins about reforming the Electoral Count Act. Since Manchin and Sinema have voted against waiving the filibuster for voting rights, that's the one form of election law reform I support that's left open at the federal level. Closing the loopholes in it would make the part of the plot involving fake electors useless. That's most likely why TFG opposes it. I find that encouraging. If he doesn't like it, that means it's probably a good idea.

Six more weeks of winter as major storm strikes on Groundhog Day

Happy Groundhog Day! I begin with WLTX in Columbia, South Carolina reporting Groundhog Day 2022 Prediction: Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow.

Punxsutawney Phil has emerged from his burrow to forecast there will be six more weeks of winter. The spectacle that is Groundhog Day at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, was back to full status.

I'm not surprised. It would be difficult to predict an early spring when a major winter storm stretching from New Mexico to Maine is dropping snow and ice across the country. At least the crowd watching was enthused enough to chant "Six more weeks." I guess they're just happy to be in person during the pandemic after last year's scaled-down ceremony.

Normally, I'd check Phil's prognostication against that of Woody the Woodchuck in Howell, Michigan because she's more accurate and it's local, but Winter Storm Landon, as The Weather Channel calls it, has other plans as MLive reported Winter says, ‘Not yet.’ Snowstorm delays Woody the Woodchuck’s Groundhog Day prediction.

Winter promises to make its presence known on the very day Michigan’s official groundhog was set to weigh in on the possibility of the season’s early end.

Woody the Woodchuck’s annual prediction has been delayed because of the impending snowstorm, the Howell Nature Center announced in an email on Feb. 1, Groundhog Day eve.

The announcement said the center made the “difficult decision” under the guidance of Woody and its meteorological expert, now that a winter storm warning is in effect for Livingston County and most of southern Michigan.

The in-person event has been rescheduled for 7:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 5.

I bet Woody's handler will say Michigan will have six more weeks of winter on Friday, too.

Speaking of Winter Storm Landon, check out the preview image for WGALTV's Weather planner for central Pennsylvania on Groundhog Day.

Here's your central Pennsylvania weather planner for Groundhog Day!

Metro Detroit is in the middle of the storm path and we're due for a lot of snow. Again, check out the preview image for WDIV/Click on Detroit's Metro Detroit weather forecast Feb. 1, 2022 -- 11 p.m. Update.


Piles of snow! Just based on the forecast, hundreds of schools closed in advance of the storm, including the college where I teach, although I'm running my classes remotely, so my class today is still meeting over Zoom. No snow day for me today!

I close with KDKA/CBS Pittsburgh asking oes Groundhog Day Also Predict Political Races?

KDKA's Jon Delano takes an interesting look back at whether Punxsutawney Phil's weather prognostications also impact political races.

The answer is sort of, and apparently only for Pennsylvania. I'm not impressed.

Happy Year of the Water Tiger!

Happy Lunar New Year! So long, Year of the Metal Ox! Welcome, Year of the Water Tiger!

2022 is the Year of the Water Tiger. Those born this year are said to have great interpersonal relationships, and be very family oriented. The last Water Tiger year was 1962.

CNN explains how the pandemic is affecting this year's celebrations.

Though the pandemic continues to overshadow the occasion, with public festivities once again pared down or canceled in many cities, millions of families around the world will still be celebrating at home.
...
Though the spread of Omicron has impacted the way people are celebrating this year, don't despair and remember the unofficial #1 tip from the Lunar New Year rule book: Focus on the positive and only use auspicious language.

WGN News in Chicago has more in How to Celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year.

2022 IS THE YEAR OF THE TIGER WHICH IS ASSOCIATED WITH BRAVERY, CONFIDENCE AND STRENGTH.

It's not quite as lively as the Inside Edition video I embedded in Happy Year of the Metal Rat!, but I found it enjoyable and informative just the same.

Speaking of the year before last's entry, I'm returning to the well of Disney's way of celebrating the holiday with Daps Magic's FIRST Lunar New Year Procession 2022 - Disney California Adventure to show the Mouse's idea of a Lunar New Year parade.

First Mulan's Lunar New Year Procession at Disney California Adventure on the opening day of the celebration.

Lunar New Year Returns to Disney California Adventure Park
Rejoin family and friends at this multicultural celebration filled with happy wishes for health, luck and prosperity throughout the Year of the Tiger!

From January 21 to February 13, 2022, Lunar New Year at Disney California Adventure Park ushers in a joyous tribute to Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean cultures.

I'm being a good environmentalist by recycling my reaction to 2020's version: "I don't know how authentically Chinese it is, but it is authentically Disney, which makes it authentically American." I didn't venture a guess about which Disney character would portray this year's animal, but I'm not surprised it's Tigger. The alternative would have been Sher Khan from "The Jungle Book." I like him, but he's a scary villain, so I'm not surprised I didn't find him in the parks.

As for next year, which will be the Year of the Rabbit, Disney has a number of choices and I won't pick one of them now.

Enough of this year's festivities. It's time to conclude this post with the generic greetings I've recycled many times over.

Mandarin: Gong Xi Fa Cai/Xin Nian Kuai Le

Cantonese: Kung Hei Fat Choi

Hokkien (Fujian/Taiwanese): Kiong Hee Huat Tsai/Sin Ni khòai lok

Simplified Chinese: 恭喜发财 新年快乐

Traditional Chinese: 恭喜發財 新年快樂

Stay tuned for Groundhog Day.

PBS Terra's 'Weathered' examines how the wandering jet stream is making extreme weather worse

For the final entry of January 2022, I'm returning to the topic of last year's The connections among climate change, the wobbling jet stream, and the polar vortex explained by PBS Terra and CBS News with PBS Terra's "Weathered" asking Is THIS the Real Reason Weather is Getting Wilder?

If you feel like the weather has been getting a lot weirder and wilder lately, you’re not alone. While it’s easy to blame climate change, we need to dive deeper. There has been a recent increase in polar vortex events, extreme heat waves like in the Pacific Northwest, and extreme rain like we saw after Hurricane Ida. Even fires in Siberia and drought hint at a new dust bowl. NOAA’s 2020 Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disaster report showed a notable uptick in extremes. And 2021 was no exception, with 10.6% of all weather stations reporting record temperatures. And with the continued emission of carbon into the atmosphere, this should come as no real surprise.

But some new scientific research shows that there is a surprising thread that connects nearly all of these weather events. Tune in to learn why it feels like our weather is spiraling out of control and what we might have in store.

I begin my reaction by recycling what I wrote last year.

The story Maiya May told "about these surprising effects of climate change and their connection to the jet stream, the polar vortex, and a phenomenon known as 'arctic amplification'" is one I've told before in Polar vortex and difference between climate and weather explained, Vox explains how a warming Arctic can cause extreme weather, and The polar vortex returns, bringing near-record cold temperatures, so it's not news to me. Still, this blog has gained a lot of new readers in the last two years, so I think it's worth repeating, especially with the new examples and footage in the PBS Terra video.

Since then, I wrote The costs of loss and prevention from the Texas polar vortex blackout from Vox and Business Insider, Western drought likely worst in a millennium and may be the beginning of 'aridification', Detroit floods while the Pacific Northwest bakes in record temperatures along with two entries that depicted the effects of Hurricane Ida, Seth Meyers and James Corden team up for Climate Night and 2021 in climate and weather from ABC News, NBC News, and WeatherNation, all of which are among the examples of extreme weather related to climate change PBS Terra mentioned in this video. I'm adding I had an eventful three days and two nights because of a severe storm knocking out my power to the posts about extreme weather, although I place less blame on the weather and more on local energy infrastructure not being up to the challenge. That connects to John Oliver on the power grid for Cut Your Energy Costs Day, but that's a topic for another day.

This concludes January 2022's blogging. Stay tuned for Lunar New Year and Groundhog Day! to begin February.

Delete Spotify trends after music streaming service chooses Joe Rogan over Neil Young

Man plans and G-d laughs: "Now I'm done posting about the pandemic this week, simply because the week is over, and for the month, as tomorrow is Sunday, when I usually write the weekly entertainment feature..." Hahahaha! I failed to account for an entertainment story about the pandemic that I found worth blogging about despite my declaration yesterday.* Watch MSNBC reporting Spotify agrees to take Neil Young's music off the platform on Wednesday.

Spotify said Wednesday that it has agreed to remove Neil Young's music after the singer-songwriter said he wouldn't share the platform with podcaster Joe Rogan, who has been criticized for spreading vaccine misinformation. The panel discusses.

I agree with Dr. Katrine Wallace; Joe Rogan is spreading misinformation that reinforces vaccine resistance, leading to the unvaccinated dying. Unfortunately, I also agree with Rolling Stone writer Andy Green and Ari Melber that Spotify chose Rogan over Neil Young because of the money. That may have turned out to be short-sighted, as CNN reported Friday '#DeleteSpotify' goes viral after Joe Rogan's podcast draws criticism.

Joe Rogan's podcast is under fire for peddling misinformation, as guest Jordan Peterson's comments on race, climate, gender, and Covid-19 drew controversy...CNN's Paula Newton has the story.

My wife and I were among those who canceled our Spotify subscriptions Friday. After listening to Peterson's comments about climate, I'm doubly glad that we did. We don't want our money supporting that.

The Hollywood Reporter uploaded Joni Mitchell Says She Will Stand With Neil Young & Remove Her Music From Spotify yesterday, showing Young is getting support from other artists.

Joni Mitchell said she will remove her music catalogue from Spotify in solidarity with Neil Young, according to a message posted to her official website on Friday evening.“I’ve decided to remove all my music from Spotify. Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue,” Mitchell wrote in the brief note on her website.

I conclude by noting that Nils Lofgren has also had his music removed from Spotify and Spotify stocks have lost $2 billion, about 6% of their market capitalization since this controversy started. As I wrote, choosing Rogan over Young for the money may have been short-sighted.

*The other choices were awards show nominations, a bunch of which came out last week, and school districts banning books. I decided the first was too much work — this blog is a hobby after all — and the second too depressing. I'd rather blog about something that catches my interest. Here's to it not being the pandemic again tomorrow.

CNBC examines at-home testing and vaccine patents, a double pandemic update

I'm still not through posting about the pandemic this week, even after ASAPScience asks 'When Will COVID End?' yesterday and Joe Hanson of PBS Digital's 'Be Smart' describes what he's learned first-hand about Omicron, a pandemic update the day before that. Today's entry is a double feature of CNBC videos about two methods of containing the pandemic, tests and vaccines. I begin with yesterday's Can The U.S. Fix Its At-Home Covid Testing Problem?

The latest Covid-19 wave during the busy holiday travel season caught the U.S. flat-footed when it came to one key tool in its pandemic-fighting arsenal: at-home rapid tests.

The White House has made it clear that the tests — sold over-the-counter at drugstores — are critical to keeping the economy running during the current surge of the highly contagious omicron variant and any future variants. Demand for at-home tests has soared as infection and hospitalization rates soared to unforeseen levels in early 2022, leading to supply constraints and accusations of price gouging.

The fight against Covid-19 appears far from over, and those at-home rapid tests look poised to play a crucial role in federal and state efforts to mitigate another tough pandemic-era winter. The U.S. vaccination rate has stalled, leaving pockets of Americans vulnerable to severe disease. Experts also point out that kids under 5 years of age still don't have access to an approved vaccine. Even vaccinated Americans are testing positive for Covid-19, and researchers are trying to understand what that means for how well the variants spread.

Federal regulators at the Food and Drug Administration have been criticized for not authorizing at-home Covid tests quickly enough to match demand. Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's evolving testing guidance for the vaccinated also has confused test manufacturers, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Watch the video above to find out how the U.S. fell behind on its at-home Covid testing strategy, and what the Biden administration is doing to fix it.

I can personally attest to two items mentioned in the video, the availability of tests and policies regarding testing. When I received my booster shot last month, I saw several customers ask for home testing kits only to be told they were sold out. People were worried once Omicron arrived in the U.S. Also, I know of at least one workplace that did not require testing or isolation of exposed people if they showed proof of vaccination. That was the CDC guidance at the time, which was before Omicron, a variant that can infect vaccinated and boosted people. Things change quickly.

I'm glad the Biden Administration has done its part to make tests more available. My wife has ordered a month's worth of tests and we are looking forward to having them arrive in the mail. May all of our results be negative.

ASAPScience asks 'When Will COVID End?'

I'm not through posting about the pandemic this week, even after Joe Hanson of PBS Digital's 'Be Smart' describes what he's learned first-hand about Omicron, a pandemic update yesterday. That's because the virus isn't done with us even though a lot are acting as if they're done with it and also because YouTube's algorithm recommended ASAPScience asking When Will COVID End?

Coming up on two years of the Coronavirus pandemic, how much longer will it last? Is it like the Spanish flu or will it never go away?

It could be like both. The pandemic may finally end, but COVID-19 may always be with us, as another common cold virus, although I think it will be an "uncommon cold" in its effects for years, if not decades, to come if it becomes endemic. That's not reassuring. I expect to be wearing masks during cold and flu season and getting annual booster shots for new strains for the forseeable future. Sigh.

As for getting rid of it altogether, we missed two opportunities already, first in the summer of 2020 when what looked like a second wave hit the U.S. South and then last summer when Delta arrived in the U.S. I don't know if we'll get a third chance unless and until Omicron burns itself out, which it probably will in a month or two. Double sigh.

Joe Hanson of PBS Digital's 'Be Smart' describes what he's learned first-hand about Omicron, a pandemic update

It's been less than a week since I posted SciShow explains what the Omicron variant means for the pandemic's future, but I have more news from science communicators. Joe Hanson of PBS Digital's "Be Smart" described Here's What I Learned…first-hand about Omicron after having been infected.

I’m vaccinated. I’m boosted. And I still got infected with the omicron variant of COVID-19. Here’s what I learned, and what it means for the possible end of this pandemic.

Well… I didn't expect I'd be making this video. But I'm certainly not alone in this experience. I'm getting better, and I'm glad to be able to share what I've learned about Omicron in case it might help you or someone you know.

I'm sorry to hear that Dr. Hanson is ill, but I'm glad his case is relatively mild, thanks to his being vaccinated and boosted. May we learn not only the facts but from his example. Stay safe!

CNBC asks 'Can Sanctions Deter Russia From Invading Ukraine?'

I mentioned the military tensions between Russia and Ukraine as one of the reasons the Doomsday Clock remains at 100 seconds to midnight for 2022 last week. The week before that, CNBC asked Can Sanctions Deter Russia From Invading Ukraine?

Economic sanctions remain one of the most powerful tools the United States has in its foreign policy arsenal. And as Russian forces continue to amass along the border with Ukraine, officials in the U.S. hope the threat of those sanctions can deter a full-scale invasion.

Besides sanctions that target individuals or specific companies, some proposals involve cutting Russia off from the SWIFT system, which would remove Russian institutions from an important global financial network.

Another target is the near-completed Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which when operational would double the amount of natural gas moved from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea and likely reduce the need for other pipelines, such as the Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhhorod pipeline that runs through Ukraine.

The answer is maybe not, at least by themselves. In addition, the two actions likely to be most effective would require the cooperation of our European allies, Belgium and others for SWIFT and Germany for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. That might be possible, but the experts interviewed by CNBC think those actions would be a major sacrifice for our allies and so are unlikely.

Another expert thought that Russia might be motivated enough to go ahead despite sanctions. Vox explained that when it explained Why Ukraine is trapped in endless conflict four years ago.

The present conflict in Ukraine started in 2014. Today, there are 100,000 fighters stationed in the country, making it one of the most heavily militarized regions in the world. In Ukraine's east, Ukrainian forces are engaged in a struggle with Russian-backed separatists.

A ceasefire was called in 2015, with a security zone established that was meant to foster peace. However, today the security zone remains one of the most violent places in the Ukraine. With over 10,000 deaths to date, and over 1.5 million civilians displaced, the cost of ignoring the ceasefire continues to mount by the day. And both sides are still building up their forces.

It looks like things haven't changed much since then, except Vladimir Putin seems to be running out of patience and sees an opportunity. That's not how I want him to be the Most Interesting Man in the World.

Happy Irish Coffee Day 2022!

Happy Irish Coffee Day! I skipped celebrating it on this last year, posting Talk show nominees at the 2021 Critics Choice Awards here and Celebrate Coffee Party USA's 11th birthday by giving a gift of $11.00 at Coffee Party USA's website instead.* I've decided to return to observing it here this year, especially since National Day Calendar just uploaded National Irish Coffee Day on January 25 today.

On a cold, wet day in 1942 weary travelers to the small Shannon Airport in southwest Ireland found their way to a restaurant and chef Joe Sheridan. To warm his guests, he served them hot coffee, spiked with whiskey and topped with whipped cream. The passengers asked if the beverage was Brazilian coffee. Sheridan responded that it was Irish coffee.

As soon as I saw this video in my search results, I subscribed to National Day Calendar's YouTube channel. I love holidays!

*The past four years, I've used today to fundraise for the Coffee Party. That's no longer my focus for today, as I explained in Colbert and Meyers take closer looks at the Taliban taking over Afghanistan.

Today is National Nonprofit Day, but beyond asking my readers to donate to their favorite nonprofit, I'm just not feeling it...That's because I'm no longer a director of a nonprofit and that nonprofit is no longer an independent organization with its own fundraising. If my readers want to support the Coffee Party and its parent organization Bridge Alliance, they can become a Friend of Bridge, contributions to which are tax deductible. They can also donate to whichever member of Bridge Alliance strikes their fancy. There, that's the pitch.

Since tomorrow is Coffee Party USA's 12th birthday, I recommend a donation of $12.00 to the Bridge Alliance Education Fund or whichever Bridge Alliance member strikes their fancy.