Linked List: December 30, 2020

Wednesday, 30 December 2020

David Brand, reporting for The Queens Daily Eagle:

James Trent, chair of the affiliated Queens Village Republican Club, was admitted to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset where he is recovering from COVID-19, he said from his hospital room Wednesday morning.

Trent said he first began experiencing COVID symptoms two days after attending the Dec. 9 party, which featured a conga line of maskless patrons dancing to the Bee Gees in a widely viewed video first reported by the Eagle.

Trent said he was surprised that he got COVID after attending the party because he “wasn’t doing anything risky.”

“I wasn’t on the conga line. I ate by myself,” he said. “I don’t know how I got this.”

Yeah, it’s a real fucking mystery.

After the event attracted national news coverage, the Whitestone Republican Club issued a defiant statement on Facebook.

“Adults have the absolute right to make their own decisions, and clearly many chose to interact like normal humans and not paranoid zombies in hazmat suits,” the club wrote. “This is for some reason controversial to the people who believe it’s their job to tell us all what to do.”

Just delightful. Certainly not a death cult.

41-Year-Old Newly-Elected Republican Congressman Dies From COVID-19 ★

Ikran Dahir, reporting for BuzzFeed News:

Rep.-elect Luke Letlow died on Tuesday evening at a Louisiana hospital from complications due to the coronavirus after being hospitalized for 11 days. He was 41. Letlow was days away from being sworn in as US representative for Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District as the state’s youngest member of Congress. [...] On Dec. 18, Letlow announced via Twitter that he had tested positive for the virus and that he would be isolating. His condition appeared to have deteriorated quickly as he was admitted into the hospital the next day. [...]

During his campaign, he frequently shared photos of himself at small outdoor gatherings, sometimes wearing a mask and sometimes not.

From NOLA.com:

“We’re all in disbelief,” said Louis Gurvich, the Republican party chair. “The world was his oyster.”

Disbelief is the problem.

Vybe Together – ‘Secret Party App’ – Pulled From App Store by Apple ★

Eric Bangeman, writing for Ars Technica:

A spokesperson explained that the app was really meant for small get-togethers. “Vybe Together was [a minimum viable product] designed to help other people organize small get-togethers in parks or apartments during COVID,” the spokesperson told The Verge. “We never hosted any large parties, and we made one over-the-top marketing video that left a wrong impression about our intentions, which has since been taken down. We do not condone large unsafe parties during a pandemic.”

They only condone having small, unsafe parties.

Fucking idiots.