Day 659

• Harry Reid, former Senate Majority Leader, has passed due to pancreatic cancer at his home.  He was 82.
• The Bulls-Hawks game had 19 players out of a possible 30 out of the game due to COVID.
• Two points:  1) I've read statements on the CDC trying to soften quarantine periods and reduce their estimates of the prevalence of Omicron.  Let's be blunt.  This nation is throwing in the towel on COVID.  It is clear that, now, the idea is that everyone IS, in fact, going to get it.  If that's the case, then put the life expectancy of a significant fraction (think Deagle Group like scenarios) of this population at four years or less -- AND put the life expectancy of this nation at far lesser than that!
• 2) Some people in the sports media are complaining that Adam Silver and the other commissioners should put the sports seasons on pause.  This goes without saying, but for one point:  For how long?  It's clear we are nowhere CLOSE to where we need to be, and any mass gathering is proving out to be a vector for the spread of this shit -- as well as the travel which is necessary to sustain not only our holidays, but the sports machine of this country.  If anything, we need to shelter-in-place again and lock down as a nation -- any other scenario IS doomed to fail and was doomed to fail almost 24 months ago now.  It's now clear that more and more people are seeing the bold-faced statement I said above, and, if it proves out, you best prepare for The End unless you are of a very small group of people in this country and world.  You are probably going to have to be very lucky, violent, or both to survive very long at the rate things are going.  
• NHL down to six games as of 10:30 AM PST for tonight.  They had 11 on the schedule.
• There were 70 NCAA men's basketball games scheduled for today and tonight -- a full 30 have been called off as of about the same time.
• Miami and San Antonio are called off from tonight's NBA schedule.
• On the heels of the USA forfeiture to Switzerland at the World Junior Hockey Championships, Keith Olbermann posited the tournament might not make it through Friday.  It didn't make it through Wednesday -- the IIHF called it off today.
• The Westminster Kennel Club has postponed the 2022 Westminster Dog Show to later in the year.