Sunday, October 27, 2024

Sunday, October 27, 2024

And another day of rising American fascism comes to a close. Remember, voting for a fascist makes you a fascist; and yes, voting for a Nazi makes you a Nazi.

“And there we have it: pure Fascism.” — Ruth Ben-Ghiat


“Voting for a Nazi makes you a Nazi.” — Mayo


“This Madison Square Garden rally is the most compelling case against Trump and MAGA ever made in one place and at one time.” — David Rothkopf


“Let's be clear. This fascist Madison Square Garden rally is not a bid to win the hearts and minds of undecided voters. It's to rile up potential political violence ahead of a looming election loss. Nothing more, nothing less.” — Mueller, She Wrote


The Genesis of Christian Nationalism. In recent years, the Christian right has become an increasingly powerful force in American politics. The belief that God has called on conservative Christians to rule over society has extended into all levels of government, from school boards to the White House. Many pundits call this movement Christian nationalism. But while it may seem like a phenomenon born out of our current political moment, it represents the culmination of various movements with roots that trace back decades. The more extreme elements didn’t just materialize a few years ago. They’ve been there from the start.


Speaker at Trump rally compares Puerto Rico to ‘island of garbage’. At another point, Hinchcliffe said Latinos “love making babies.” “They do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside. Just like they did to our country,” he said.


Trump’s Extreme Rhetoric Is Echoing in Threats of Violence. National security and threat assessment experts told me after the January 6 insurrection that quashing the violent extremism unleashed by Trump requires a fundamental change in what political leaders treat as acceptable rhetoric. But through the years of Trump’s continuing grip on the Republican Party, that standard has trended in the wrong direction, with many Republican politicians excusing or even joining in on Trump’s tactics. With Election Day fast approaching, no Republican member of Congress or high-profile figure in the party is speaking out forcefully against Trump’s dark rhetoric. House Speaker Mike Johnson and others stick to misdirection or feigned ignorance, if they address the matter at all. As one threat assessment source told me: “Silence is its own form of participation.”


Elon Musk Wants to Deport People Living in the United States Illegally—Just Like He Once Did. Long before he became one of Donald Trump’s biggest donors and campaign surrogates, South African-born Elon Musk worked illegally in the United States as he launched his entrepreneurial career after ditching a graduate studies program in California, according to former business associates, court records and company documents obtained by the Washington Post.


Just About Everything Related to Climate Hinges on the Election Outcome. As you gear up to vote, here are 15 ways that Harris’ and Trump’s climate- and environment-related policies could affect your life—along with some information to help inform your vote.


Google to develop AI that takes over computers, The Information reports. Google is set to demonstrate the product code-named Project Jarvis as soon as December with the release of its next flagship Gemini large language model.


Scientists Revive Pig Brains an Hour After Death With Experimental Method. Scientists in China have pulled off a remarkable feat worthy of Victor Frankenstein: reviving pigs’ brains up to 50 minutes after a complete loss of blood circulation. The macabre accomplishment could someday lead to advances in keeping people’s brains intact and healthy for longer while resuscitating them.


Chronic pain is more common than diabetes or depression. Better treatments are emerging. People are developing new cases of chronic pain at higher rates than new diagnoses of diabetes, depression or high blood pressure. 


Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.


Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.


Friday, October 25, 2024

Friday, October 25, 2024

And another day of surrendering in advance, an open letter, illegal mail-in ballot date, Musk a national security threat, apologies for Native Americans forced to attend boarding schools, denials for dollars, and the Plastic’s Industry wish list for a second Trump Administration comes to a close:

“We fought a war bc Nazism is evil. So when someone repeats Nazi slogans & admires Hitler, you don't give his defenders airtime, you warn the country every fucking day & night that should they elect him, they'll get something between authoritarian hell & genocide.” — Cliff Schecter


“It's the same perfect storm that brought Hitler to power: Capture the courts and business elites. Institutions submit to self-censorship. The Nazis turned Germany into a dictatorship in just six months.” — Andrea Chalupa


“Three of the worst oligarchs backing Trump - Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and David Sacks - are products of South African apartheid. This isn’t a coincidence.” — Tony Annett


“Here's the thing about protesting Bezos's WaPo decision: 1. Canceling your WaPo subscription could impact writers--not Bezos. 2. Canceling your Prime subscription could impact Amazon workers--not Bezos. 3. Electing Dems could raise taxes on the wealthy. That impacts Bezos.” — Joel Mendelson


The Washington Post Bends the Knee to Trump. Yet it is a submission nonetheless: One week before the mortals finish voting and might elect an authoritarian, one whose former chief of staff calls him a fascist, the Washington Post has decided that silence is the best way to guide its readers. Silence, after all, will not offend the authoritarian should he win. Silence, after all, is more than Trump can reasonably expect from the Post. Democracy may die in darkness, as the Post’s motto goes, but silence is apparently a good hedge.


Bezos made decision to kill Harris endorsement, reports Washington Post. Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of The Washington Post, personally made the decision to kill an endorsement of Vice President Harris for president that the newspaper’s editorial board had drafted, the outlet reported Friday.


“It would be different if the LA Times and Washington Post had established the policy months ago and didn’t endorse anyone,But both of them had in other races and only decided not to AFTER THEIR EDITORIAL BOARDS HAD DECIDED TO ENDORSE KAMALA HARRIS.” — Jon Cryer


Former White House chief of staff John Kelly says Trump praised Hitler while in office. “Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure,” Kelly said. — Trump is a fascist. He’s running on a fascist platform. If you support him, then you, too, are a fascist.


13 former Trump administration officials sign open letter backing up John Kelly's criticism of Trump. “We applaud General Kelly for highlighting in stark details the danger of a second Trump term. Like General Kelly, we did not take the decision to come forward lightly,” the letter said. “We are all lifelong Republicans who served our country. However, there are moments in history where it becomes necessary to put country over party. This is one of those moments.”


When you read this do you think ‘Gee, threats & surveillance make me feel all warm & fuzzy. What a great guy!’? If you answered yes, then congratulations, you’re a fascist too.”


Appeals court deems Mississippi mail-in ballot deadline illegal. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ opinion sends the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) challenge back to a lower court to determine whether the Mississippi statute should be immediately blocked or whether it’s too close to the election to do so.


Far-right congressman suggests N.C. Legislature should consider handing electors to Trump on Election Day. The newly elected chairman of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, Rep. Andy Harris, suggested that North Carolina’s Republican-controlled state Legislature should consider awarding the state’s electors to Donald Trump before all votes are counted, according to a video of his remarks posted on social media on Friday.


Any other CEO would have been fired for what Elon Musk just said. Part of the deal with being CEO is that you get a big paycheck in exchange for being the public face of a company. For most people, at most companies, that means, at minimum, trying not to make an ass of yourself in public.Tweeting a Holocaust joke, for example, might very well get you booted. Punching  down at marginalized communities? Also a bad look. But the same rules don’t apply if you’re the richest person on the planet, running companies stacked with cronies. ICYMI: On Monday, Elon Musk invoked the names of two German Nazis in a tweet while simultaneously disparaging modern pronoun conventions — attempting, as he so often does, to make a joke...The point is: Any other CEO of a major company could expect to be shown the door after airing any one these ideas. Or at least that was the case as recently as 2018, when more CEOs were forced out for “ethical lapses” than poor financial performance, according to a PwC study.


With Putin Calls, It’s More Clear Than Ever That Elon Musk Is a National Security Threat. What do the world’s richest man and a brutal authoritarian have to discuss? Quite a bit as it turns out. They’ve chatted about business, personal issues, and the state of the world. Musk is an important government contractor with a security clearance and hands in a lot of different companies.


Biden apologizes for forced Native American boarding school policy that caused abuse and deaths of children. The investigation uncovered generations of trauma. It identified the deaths of at least 973 Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children who attended the boarding schools. During his remarks, Biden acknowledged that "the real number is likely to be much, much higher." “The federal Indian boarding school policy, the pain it has caused, will always be a significant mark of shame, a blot on American history,” Biden said. In total, the probe identified 417 institutions across 37 states or then-territories that were operational between 1819 and at least 1969. — This is the America MAGA wants to return to.


“Not Medically Necessary”: Inside the Company Helping America’s Biggest Health Insurers Deny Coverage for Care. Every day, patients across America crack open envelopes with bad news. Yet another health insurer has decided not to pay for a treatment that their doctor has recommended. Sometimes it’s a no for an MRI for a high school wrestler with a strained back. Sometimes for a cancer procedure that will help a grandmother with a throat tumor. Sometimes for a heart scan for a truck driver feeling short of breath. But the insurance companies don’t always make these decisions. Instead, they often outsource medical reviews to a largely hidden industry that makes money by turning down doctors’ requests for payments, known as prior authorizations. Call it the denials for dollars business.


The Plastics Industry’s Wish List for a Second Trump Administration. Critics call it the plastics industry’s Project 2025. Tucked into a federal recycling bill is a litany of regulatory rollbacks and other industry-friendly provisions that federal agencies under Donald Trump could adopt without congressional approval.


Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.


Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.


Monday, October 21, 2024

Monday, October 21, 2024

And another day of being honest, Republicans wanting election misinformation, selfies and voting, DeSantis threatens television stations, Trump’s plans will end Social Security, and Kroger implementing facial recognition in their stores comes to a close:

“Trump's proposed economic and tax policies, which largely benefit the rich, would drain the Social Security Trust Fund in just six years. He's going to take a lifetime of earned benefits away from working people and gift them to the wealthy. It's reverse Robin Hood.” — Robert Reich


“How in the fuck are we going to deprogram 20% of America's population?” — Mayo


Let’s Be Honest, Trump’s Running As a Fascist. The agenda Trump is presenting in these interviews and rallies—political violence, suspension of the Constitution, suspension of civil liberties, unchecked presidential power, censorship of the media, imprisonment of opposition leaders, execution of people for nonviolent crimes, and legal immunity for the president and his thugs—isn’t just close to fascism. It is fascism.


How Republicans pushed social media companies to stop fighting election misinformation. The shift took place against the backdrop of a yearslong intimidation campaign led by Republican attorneys general and state and federal lawmakers aimed at forcing social media companies to platform falsehoods and hate speech and thwarting those working to study or limit the spread of that destabilizing content. Those efforts coincided with the rise of a vocal cadre of elite Silicon Valley reactionaries, an increasingly ideological group that bristles at notions of corporate social responsibility. The people involved are among the world’s wealthiest and most influential, with the power to shape the products and services used by billions. And they are growing more politically assertive — warning government leaders to back off or face millions of dollars in campaign contributions to their opponents and laying down political manifestos that serve as litmus tests for startup founders who need funding.


Musk’s $1 million swing-state voter lottery falls into legal gray area, experts say. Elon Musk’s daily $1 million lottery for registered swing state voters who sign his super PAC’s petition falls into a legal gray area and could potentially violate election law.” — Musk is trash. Don’t buy a Tesla. And if you already have, get rid of it. The man’s a menace to society.


Selfies and Voting, What Could Go Wrong? A Lot This Election Year. Sharing a ballot selfie on social might seem like a bit of fun, but that picture might actually be illegal where you live.


Florida official says DeSantis’s office ordered him to threaten TV stations over abortion ads. John Wilson, general counsel for the Florida Department of Health, wrote in a sworn affidavit that officials from Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) office pushed him to threaten television stations with criminal prosecutions if they did not take down ads in support of a Florida abortion rights measure. Wilson, who resigned from his position on Oct. 10, wrote in the affidavit that he received prewritten letters directing him to send the threatening letters under his name on behalf of the Florida Department of Health.


Ron DeSantis Is Deploying “Asshole Politics” to Stop Florida’s Abortion Referendum. That’s because Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is using the power of his administration to threaten the initiative. He’s appointed people to the Financial Impact Estimating Conference—a panel responsible for gauging potential costs of ballot measures—that required the amendment be accompanied by language stating, without evidence, that access to abortion may cost taxpayer dollars. State law enforcement has also been sent to question Floridians who signed the petition for Amendment 4 to appear on the ballot. He’s enlisted a state agency to create a misleading website about abortions in Florida. Local news channels playing an advertisement supporting Amendment 4 have also been threatened with prosecution over the alleged violation of Florida’s sanitary nuisance law, which is generally used to combat health risks like the improper disposal of human waste or dead animals. Later, on Oct. 21, the Miami Herald reported that the marching orders to threaten the media outlets with legal action came from top DeSantis deputies. — Yes, DeSantis is an asshole. Which is actually an insult to assholes.


Trump has promised to protect Social Security. His proposals could lead to benefit cuts in 6 years. Trump’s platform would drain critical tax revenue from Social Security’s trust funds, leading them to run out of money by 2031 – three years earlier than currently projected, according to a new analysis from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan government watchdog. That would force a roughly 30% cut in benefits unless Congress acts.


Kroger’s Plan to Use Facial Recognition Raises Concerns About Surge Pricing. News leaked over the summer that grocery giant Kroger was partnering with Microsoft to use electronic shelf labels, shortened in the grocery industry as ESLs, as part of an AI push to institute dynamic pricing at its grocery stores. The plan also includes so-called Enhanced Display for Grocery Environment (EDGE) shelf displays that would reportedly include cameras to capture customer information, including images of faces to better tailor ads...Tlaib is worried that ESLs will allow Kroger’s stores to “use customer data to build personalized profiles of each customer” in such a way that it will be able to “determine the maximum price of goods customers are willing to pay.”


RIP Paul Di’Anno. He was 66.


Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.


Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.


Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

And another day of ‘resorting to crimes,’ confirming justices, the math that contradicts fear, school-entry vaccinations falling, breast cancer in young women rising, young people not using condoms, and glasses that instantly give personal information for each stranger you look at comes to a close:

“The Republican Party is the most dangerous organization in human history.” — Noam Chomsky 


Prosecutors lay out new evidence in Trump election case, accuse him of having ‘resorted to crimes’. Donald Trump laid the groundwork to try to overturn the 2020 election even before he lost, knowingly pushed false claims of voter fraud and “resorted to crimes” in his failed bid to cling to power, according to a newly unsealed court filing from prosecutors that offers new evidence from the landmark criminal case against the former president. The filing from special counsel Jack Smith’s team offers the most comprehensive view to date of what prosecutors intend to prove if the case charging Trump with conspiring to overturn the election reaches trial. Though a months-long congressional investigation and the indictment itself have chronicled in stark detail Trump’s efforts to undo the election, the filing cites previously unknown accounts offered by Trump’s closest aides to paint a portrait of an “increasingly desperate” president who while losing his grip on the White House “used deceit to target every stage of the electoral process.”


Republicans expect to confirm even more Supreme Court justices if Trump wins. During Donald Trump’s White House tenure, Republicans assembled the most conservative Supreme Court in a century. Now, they’re excited about the prospect of building on those efforts by confirming even more conservative justices, as well as lower-court judges, if he wins another four years. — Which is yet another reason to vote for Harris.


Louisiana's new abortion pill law may delay lifesaving care for women, doctors say. Starting Tuesday in Louisiana, the two drugs used in medication abortion — mifepristone and misoprostol — will be reclassified as controlled substances in the state, making it a crime punishable by up to five years in prison to possess the drugs without a prescription.


Trump says crime is out of control. The numbers tell a different story. But several years of national data tell the opposite story: Crime is falling in cities and towns across the United States. NBC News recently spent a day with Detroit police, who say Trump’s characterization is false. — Yeah. He’s lying to try and scare you so you’ll vote for his fascism. Don’t fall for his shit.


US school-entry vaccination rates fall as exemptions keep rising. The share of kids exempted from vaccine requirements rose to 3.3%, up from 3% the year before. Meanwhile, 92.7% of kindergartners got their required shots, which is a little lower than the previous two years. Before the COVID-19 pandemic the vaccination rate was 95%, the coverage level that makes it unlikely that a single infection will spark a disease cluster or outbreak. The changes may seem slight but are significant, translating to about 80,000 kids not getting vaccinated, health officials say.


Breast cancer rising among younger women and Asian Americans, report finds. The reason why more women younger than 50 are getting breast cancer is not clear, but Reid said it’s likely due to modifiable risk factors such as environmental exposures in food, air or water, rising rates of obesity and sedentary lifestyles — the same risk factors thought to be causing higher rates of colorectal cancer in younger people.


Condoms aren’t a fact of life for young Americans. They’re an afterthought. “Part of what we have to talk about is that there is something enticing about having condomless sex,” Acosta Ardilla said. “And we have to, as people who are working in public health, plan for the fact that people will choose to have condomless sex.”...Not every state mandates sex education. Some states emphasize abstinence. Less than half of states require information on contraception.


This Facial Recognition Experiment With Meta’s Smart Glasses Is a Terrifying Vision of the Future. The tool allows anyone wearing smart glasses to instantly get info on strangers, including their home address and phone number...“To use it, you just put the glasses on, then as you walk by people, the glasses will detect when somebody’s face is in frame. This photo is used to analyze them, and after a few seconds, their personal information pops up on your phone,”  Nguyen explains in the Instagram video.


Pete Rose, baseball’s banned hits leader, has died at 83.


RIP John Amos. He was 84.


Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.


Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.


Sunday, September 29, 2024

Sunday, September 29, 2024

And another day of ‘one really violent day,’ extreme rhetoric, six days of horror, Covid in wastewater, a far right win in Austria, human feedback causes AI to deceive humans, and the HPV vaccine comes to a close:

“Anyone who thinks Trump doesn't dream about ruling over a violent fascist regime is kidding themselves.” — Jared Ryan Sears


“The last piece of shit who talked about immigrants like this was named Adolf.” — Palmer Report


“You have to be fundamentally broken as a human being to identify with, embrace, or celebrate Donald Trump.” — John Pavlovitz


Trump says his idea for stopping crime is to allow for “one really violent day”: “One rough hour, and I mean real rough...”And don’t forget he’s already said he wants to give immunity to the police. He’s preparing to reign violence in this country, the likes we haven’t seen since the Civil War.


Trump Suggests Giving Cops ‘One Really Violent Day’ to Stop Crime. During yet another anti-migrant rant, the former president falsely claimed crime is up and so cops should be allowed to be “extraordinarily rough”


Six days of horror: America’s thirst for executions returns with a vengeance. Five executions. Five different states over six days of horror. This was the week in which America’s ailing death penalty bit back. Such a concentrated glut of judicial killing was last seen more than 20 years ago in the US...But there was nothing random or coincidental about the disdain for probable innocence that was on display this week. Nor about the racial animus, or the callous indifference to life animating supposedly “right-to-life” states...Where does this week’s orgy of death leave the US? Anyone hoping for answers from the current political moment are likely to be disappointed.


“I study dictators and this chills me. Given all his comments in the past about executing people & shooting looters and his admiration for leaders specialized in mass repression, it's not hard to imagine what "one really violent day" would mean.” — Ruth Ben-Ghiat


Trump, using extreme rhetoric, calls Harris 'mentally impaired' and says she should be 'prosecuted'. Trump has frequently gone after Harris in personal terms, often based on her race and gender. He has increasingly threatened to go after other political foes if he is elected. He has talked about jailing Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and discussed possibly carrying out election fraud prosecutions against election officials, donors and operatives. — The man is a danger to America.


How the CDC tests wastewater for Covid — and what it found in your state. The process doesn’t precisely count the numbers of cases, and readings can vary based on sewage flows at a particular location or the characteristics of a given variant at a point in time. But it provides an early warning about viral spread, CDC officials say. CNN is tracking these figures each week across the country and by state, and this page will update automatically as the agency releases new information.


Far right wins close Austria election, a boost for Putin. A far-right party founded by former Nazis appeared to have won Austria’s election Sunday, in a result that could reshape Europe’s political landscape and help tilt the balance of power between Russia and the West. Projections from ORF public television based on exit polls suggest that the pro-Russia, anti-immigration Freedom Party, or FPÖ, has finished first, with 29.1% of the vote. — It’s such bullshit that so few people support fascism, yet fascism “wins.” WTF? The FPÖ winning 29.1% of the vote means that 70.9% didn’t vote for them.


California governor vetoes bill to create first-in-nation AI safety measures. The measure, aimed at reducing potential risks created by AI, would have required companies to test their models and publicly disclose their safety protocols to prevent the models from being manipulated to, for example, wipe out the state’s electric grid or help build chemical weapons. Experts say those scenarios could be possible in the future as the industry continues to rapidly advance. It also would have provided whistleblower protections to workers.


Human Feedback Makes AI Better at Deceiving Humans, Study Shows. It’s the first time, the authors write, that research has empirically documented a phenomenon they call unintended sophistry, where a model trained with human feedback learns to produce responses that trick its human evaluators into believing the responses are accurate rather than learning to produce responses that are actually accurate.


HPV vaccine study finds zero cases of cervical cancer among women vaccinated before age 14. A historic new study out of Scotland shows the real-world impact of vaccines against the human papillomavirus: The country has detected no cases of cervical cancer in women born between 1988-1996 who were fully vaccinated against HPV between the ages of 12 and 13.


RIP John Ashton. He was 76.


RIP Kris Kritofferson. He was 88.


Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.


Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.


Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

And another day of confessions of a (former) Christian Nationalist, indictments, GOP racism, Trump promising doom that never comes, hurricanes, pregnancy-related crimes, pain differences, and ‘spookfish’ comes to a close:

“It’s a shocking thing to realize people love their hatred more than they care about their own actual lives.” — Fran Lebowitz


Confessions of a (Former) Christian Nationalist. In my third conversion, I realized that when religion is placed at the service of a political party, it corrupts both. To claim that one political figure uniquely represents God’s will for the body politic is a form of anti-Christian idolatry. To elevate one set of spiritual beliefs above another and do it by force of law removes a nonnegotiable tenet of evangelical faith—free will. We are born again when we choose to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, not when we’re forced to do so. Because it is immoral, I believe Christian nationalism is inevitably doomed. But in the meantime, the pain, suffering, and injury it will inflict will be enormous—just consider women facing difficult pregnancies, trans children seeking care, librarians attacked for certain books. “We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theater, and in the press—in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality, which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess.” This may sound familiar—maybe some overheated Republican talking points. In fact, it’s what Adolf Hitler promised the German people in 1933. — Read the rest for how we got here.


New York Mayor Eric Adams expected to face federal charges. The Adams administration was already reeling from a series of high-level resignations amid at least four federal probes.


Harris outlines $100 billion manufacturing plan, vowing pragmatism over ideology. Harris proposed an “America Forward” agenda that calls for tax credits to boost investment and create industrial jobs, along with investments in artificial intelligence, science and energy development, as well as supporting American-made products. "This plan will cost approximately $100 billion and will be paid for by a portion of the proceeds of international tax reform, which seeks to prevent a global race to the bottom and to discourage inversions, outsourcing, or international tax strategies designed by corporations to avoid paying their fair share to the United States," the Harris campaign said in a fact sheet. — Wow, a plan. Not a concept of a plan.


Trump is at 48 percent. How could this be possible but for widespread racism? Maybe Trump’s 48 percent don’t excuse his racism so much as get the message. They are inside a Republican Party that is 82 percent white. Most of those white Republicans are in small towns and rural areas...The 48 percent backing Trump try to move away from his racism by talking about the need for a better economy. But Trump’s main economic plan is to impose tariffs that will drive up prices. He has no plan to improve health care or provide more affordable housing. It was less than 30 years ago when Bob Dole, the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, stared down racism in the GOP. “If there’s anyone who has mistakenly attached themselves to our party in the belief that we are not open to citizens of every race and religion…,” Dole said at the 1996 convention, “the exits, which are clearly marked, are for you to walk out of as I stand this ground without compromise.” Where are those Republicans now?


GOP congressman tweets racist rant about Haitian immigrants. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., called Haiti the "nastiest country in the western hemisphere" in a post on social media Wednesday, saying migrants from the Caribbean country, the majority of whom are in the U.S. legally, should "get their ass out of our country." Higgins' rant on X — which was deleted hours later — came in response to an Associated Press story about a Haitian nonprofit group that filed a citizen criminal charge against former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance for their repeated baseless claims about migrants in Springfield, Ohio, including Trump's assertion at the presidential debate they were "eating the dogs" and "eating the cats." — Racism. It’s all Republicans have to offer.


Apocalypse delayed: Trump keeps promising a doom that never comes. Trump predicted that if Biden won, the economy would crash, crime would soar and Christmas would be canceled. None of that happened, but he's reusing those claims anyway. “If he’s [Biden] elected, the stock market will crash,” Trump said in October 2020 during his only debate with Biden. “If he gets in, you will have a depression the likes of which you’ve never seen." The depression never happened. Stocks rose during Biden’s presidency. But Trump recently predicted that a Harris victory would lead to “a massive [stock] market downturn” and “a 1929-style depression.”...In fact, crime has fallen, and Biden signed legislation increasing police funding...The suburbs still stand, as does the Second Amendment, backed by a conservative majority on the Supreme Court...Trump did, in fact, lose and did not flee the country. This year, as Trump faces off against Biden's vice president, he has reprised some of the same grim predictions for the future if he does not win. While Biden was a “Trojan horse for socialism,” Trump’s campaign said in a news release last month that “Kamala Harris is a Trojan horse for nation-destroying spending, communist price controls and open borders.”...Throughout his 2024 campaign, he has portrayed the election as an existential clash for the future of the country, using his first campaign rally last year to call the election “the final battle," invoking the Book of Revelation's portrayal of Armageddon and saying Harris would “destroy” America, “just like she destroyed San Francisco, just like she destroyed California.” And reprising his false prophecy from 2020, Trump has been telling supporters that this election, too, is a sure thing and that the only way he can lose is if it is rigged.


Why a scandal consuming a Trump protégé could harm the ex-president in North Carolina. An already fiercely fought presidential contest in the critical swing state was thrown into greater turmoil Thursday by a stunning CNN investigation revealing a porn-site scandal surrounding Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson. Lt. Gov. Robinson, whose politics and personality are extreme even by the standards of Trump’s MAGA movement, referred to himself as a “black NAZI!” on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago and expressed support for reinstating slavery, CNN’s KFile reported. Many of the remarks were lewd and gratuitously sexual in nature.


A huge Hurricane Helene is expected to hit Florida as a major storm and strike far inland. An enormous Hurricane Helene swamped parts of Mexico on Wednesday as it churned on a path forecasters said would take it to Florida as a potentially catastrophic storm with a surge that could swallow entire homes, a chilling warning that sent residents scrambling for higher ground, closed schools, and led to states of emergency throughout the Southeast.


More women are charged with pregnancy-related crimes since Roe’s end, study finds. It became more common for authorities to charge women with crimes related to their pregnancies after the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, a new study found — even if they’re almost never accused of violating abortion bans...“It’s an environment where pregnancy loss is potentially criminally suspect.”


U.S. ranks last in health care compared with nine other high-income countries, report finds. The health system in the U.S. is failing, a startling new report finds. The U.S. ranks as the worst performer among 10 developed nations in critical areas of health care, including preventing deaths, access (mainly because of high cost) and guaranteeing quality treatment for everyone, regardless of gender, income or geographic location...Based on the new findings, people in the U.S. die the youngest and experience the most avoidable deaths, even though the country spends nearly twice as much — about 18% of gross domestic product — on health care than any other nation ranked.


Pain is ‘dramatically’ different in men and women. Women, in other words, are more sensitive to pain than men. They report feeling it more in just about every way: more intensely, more often, for a longer time. They grapple with more headaches, more painful gut conditions, more pain in their backs and pelvises and bones and, research suggests, virtually every other part of their bodies. Of the hundreds of millions of chronic pain patients around the world, they comprise roughly 70 percent.


A Rare, Deadly Mosquito Virus Has Emerged in New York. EEE only rarely interacts with humans, since we’re not its natural host and the mosquitoes that typically spread it live in freshwater swamps. But when the virus does invade our bodies, it can trigger a severe brain infection that kills up to a third of victims, so its arrival anywhere is concerning.


New Zealand scientists discover new 'spookfish' living deep in the Pacific. Scientists said Tuesday they had discovered a new species of ghost shark that lives exclusively in the waters off Australia and New Zealand...Ghost sharks, also known as chimaeras, are a group of cartilaginous fish closely related to sharks and rays. The newly discovered species has several distinctive features, including a long and narrow snout, broad pectoral fins, scale-free skin, and beak-like teeth. They are largely confined to the ocean floor up to 2,600 meters (8,530 feet) deep, feeding off crustaceans such as shrimp and molluscs.


Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.


Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.