Wednesday, June 30, 2021

And another day of indictments, creations, enactments, respiratory symptoms, ad campaigns, raising alarms, overturned convictions, denied requests, self-identifying gender, and free feminine hygiene products for school students comes to a close:

“Today was not a great day for women.” -- Molly Jong-Fast

“We said ‘free Britney,’ not ‘free Cosby.’” -- Jennifer Taub

Deaths

US: 620,247 (+267)

World: 3,962,410 (+8622)

Cases

US: 34,540,833 (+13,340)

World: 182,960,885 (+282,269)

Grand jury indicts Trump Organization, CFO on tax crimes, led by New York AG, district attorney. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the New York Attorney General’s Office have obtained indictments against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg.

House votes to create select committee to investigate January 6 insurrection. The House voted 222-190 to formally create the select panel. Just two Republicans joined with Democrats to support its formation -- Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.

Seventeen states have enacted 28 new laws making it harder to vote. More than half of these new laws make it harder to vote absentee and by mail, after a record number of Americans voted by mail in November.

Common cold or Covid? Upper respiratory symptoms are growing more prevalent, docs say. Doctors say even fully vaccinated people need to pay attention to Covid-19 symptoms, such as headache and congestion. Doctors are beginning to notice Covid-19 cases that look more like a very bad cold, especially in areas of the country where the highly contagious delta variant is quickly spreading.

Tuskegee relatives promote COVID-19 vaccines in ad campaign. Tuskegee is the one-word answer some people give as a reason they’re avoiding COVID-19 vaccines. A new ad campaign launched Wednesday with relatives of men who unwittingly became part of the infamous experiment wants to change minds.

Department of Homeland Security raises alarms over potential for summer violence pegged to August conspiracy theory. Department of Homeland Security officials are warning that the same sort of rhetoric and false narratives that fueled the January 6 attack on the US Capitol could lead to more violence this summer by right-wing extremists...The August theory is essentially a recycled version of other false narratives pushed by Trump and his allies leading up to and after January 6, prompting familiar rhetoric from those who remain in denial about his 2020 election loss. But the concern is significant enough that DHS issued two warnings in the past week about the potential for violence this summer.

Bill Cosby released after assault conviction overturned by Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

EXPLAINER: Why Bill Cosby’s conviction was overturned. “It breaks new ground entirely,” said Oliver, who teaches at Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh. “It sets precedent not just for Pennsylvania but probably other states.” He said the ruling should drive home to prosecutors the risks of suggesting at news conferences, in press releases or verbally in private that they will not prosecute. “They should at least add three words — ‘at this time,’” he said. “If you add that qualifier, which wasn’t done in Cosby’s case, you should be good to go,” Oliver said...The trial judge deemed him a sexually violent predator who could still pose a danger to women given his wealth, power and fame, and ordered that he be on a lifetime sex offender registry and check in monthly with authorities. However, the decision negates that finding.

Judge Denies Britney Spears’ Request to Remove Father From Conservatorship.

Americans will be able to self-identify their gender on their passports.

Mexico's Maria Clemente Garcia will become the first of two trans women to sit in the lower house of Congress in September, and she has big plans to push for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community in Latin America's second-largest economy.

UNC board grants tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones amid outcry from Black faculty and students. The board of trustees at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill voted Wednesday to grant tenure to award-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones after facing backlash from Black students and faculty who said the board's initial failure to do so reflected a history of systemic racism at the school.

D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine introduced legislation in the D.C. Council to ensure that 16- and 17-year-olds accused of certain crimes start in the family court system instead of adult court.

Rhode Island state legislature passes bill making feminine hygiene products free for school students.

Starting Thursday, college athletes can profit from endorsements, social media and other sources of income.

Stop the Freakout Over Kids’ Screen Time. Most of the studies on the negative mental health effects of screen time rely on caregivers’ iffy recollections of how much time children spent in front of a screen. And studies using brain imaging, experts told me, are also dubious, because of the incredible complexity of the cognitive process.

Spanking does not appear to improve a child's positive behavior or social competence, a review of global studies finds. Physical punishment does not appear to improve a child's positive behavior or social competence over time, according to a review of 69 studies from the US, Canada, China, Colombia, Greece, Japan, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Donald Rumsfeld, former secretary of defense, dies at 88.

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

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

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

And another day of no support, the delta variant, state Republicans, CA banning travel to four states, security robots, record heat in PNW, racism in porn, a new weight loss tool, and a whole bunch more comes to a close:

“Many a time freedom has been rolled back—and always for the same sorry reason: fear.” — Molly Ivins 

Deaths

US: 619,980

World: 3,953,788

Cases

US: 34,527,493

Deaths: 182,578,616

House GOP leaders won’t support probe of Jan. 6 Capitol riot. House Republican leaders say they will oppose the creation of a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol — and have so far declined to say whether they will even participate in the probe.

What if the government got it wrong on masks again? The Delta variant is also taking off in the US -- and is surging in particular in places with low vaccination rates. So the question is whether the CDC will be forced to reassess its guidance.

Threat of delta variant looms large in unvaccinated South. That could be worrisome for many states, particularly in rural parts of the Southeast, where areas with low vaccine uptake remain vulnerable to delta and potential future variants like it. The country’s patchwork recovery, with uneven vaccination rates between states and sometimes even bigger discrepancies at the local level, could mean the U.S. is on the cusp of a new wave of infections — one punctuated by local surges that disproportionately affect rural communities and pockets of the country where vaccinations have lagged.

Study finds sign of long-lasting protection from COVID-19 vaccines.

As federal voting legislation falters, state Republicans push to exert new powers over elections. "This should be terrifying to anyone who cares about democracy.”

Arizona's Maricopa County to replace all voting machines after GOP audit.

While Kyrsten Sinema defends the filibuster, Arizona Republicans strip Democrats of power.

Toyota is the no. 1 donor to Republicans who objected to certifying the 2020 election results — by far. “We do not believe it is appropriate to judge members of Congress solely based on their votes on the electoral certification," a Toyota spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Axios. — Wow.

Madison Cawthorn, self-described 'big history buff,' keeps getting historical facts wrong.

California bans state-funded travel to five new states over anti-LGBTQ laws. The new travel restrictions target Arkansas, Florida, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia over what the attorney general's office called "dangerous" new laws that "directly work to ban transgender youth from playing sports, block access to life-saving care, or otherwise limit the rights of members of the LGBTQ+ community."

Security robots expand across U.S., with few tangible results. As more government agencies and private sector companies resort to robots to help fight crime, the verdict is out about how effective they are in actually reducing it.

Dangerous Heat Wave Is Literally Melting Critical Infrastructure in Pacific Northwest. Power cables are melting. School districts are closing. Asphalt is too hot to touch. The heat wave roasting the Pacific Northwest is putting infrastructure at risk, and temperatures are expected to continue to rise on Monday. The failures show the staggering toll the climate crisis is already taking—and they’re a stark warning for the future if we don’t shore up roads, buildings, and other infrastructure central to modern life.

All time records fall as heat wave builds in Pacific Northwest. Stores sold out of portable air conditioners and fans, hospitals canceled outdoor vaccination clinics, baseball teams canceled or moved up weekend games, and utilities braced for possible power outages, according to the Associated Press. Many cities have opened cooling centers. The forecast for the next week is for even hotter temperatures, and more all-time heat records are set to be hit, the National Weather Service tweeted about the Pacific Northwest — a region accustomed to mild weather where many don't have air conditioning.

As part of a civil lawsuit settlement, the New Jersey Department of Corrections will now make it customary for prisoners who are transgender to be assigned a jail stay that's in line with their gender identity.

How Porn's Racist Metadata Hurts Adult Performers of Color. Pornography aesthetics may have shifted since the ’70s, but the hurdles performers of color have had to endure onscreen and off haven’t actually changed much at all—and the data-driven conveniences of the digital age are partially to blame…The data that governs online porn is not neutral, and these platforms can no longer pretend it is. Instead, they must account for the ways racist categorization and tagging standards influence their internal datasets, as well as people’s interaction with the industry. Nonwhite content is popular on these sites, and performers of color should experience the recognition they deserve for creating it. The industry has come a long way since Johnny Keyes’ days, but not far enough.

Oregon Bill Would Require Colleges to Hire Staff to Help Students Find Food and Housing Aid. The Oregon Senate on Monday passed a bill that would require the state’s public colleges to hire “benefits navigators” — a measure that advocates said would be key in fighting food and housing insecurity on campus.

Clarence Thomas says federal laws against marijuana may no longer be necessary. "A prohibition on interstate use or cultivation of marijuana may no longer be necessary or proper to support the federal government's piecemeal approach," he wrote. His views came as the court declined to hear the appeal of a Colorado medical marijuana dispensary that was denied federal tax breaks that other businesses are allowed.

Researchers Made a Free Online Calculator for Dementia Risk. Though it’s based on scientific evidence, this calculator (and really any predictive algorithm) shouldn’t be interpreted as a sure thing. At best, it may provide a rough sense of general dementia risk, not a precise prediction, and it’s most accurate for the average person with no other hidden risk factors like family history or genetics.

New weight-loss tool prevents mouth from opening more than 2mm. A weight-loss tool that uses magnets to stop people from opening their mouths wide enough to eat solid food has been developed by scientists in order to tackle obesity. The device, developed by medical professionals from the University of Otago in New Zealand and scientists from Leeds in the UK, can be fitted by dentists and uses magnetic components with locking bolts. It has been criticised online, however, with people likening it to a medieval torture device.

For the first time, astronomers have evidence of gravitational waves that were created when black holes devoured dense neutron stars. The gravitational waves were created nearly a billion years ago but just reached Earth in January 2020.

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

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

Friday, June 25, 2021

And another day of balking, gutting, challenging, “crack[ing] their skulls,” a historic heat wave in the PNW, the rising sea in Florida, appreciating even more diversity on Sesame Street, UAPs, and Tucker Carlson tells the military what he really thinks comes to a close:

“Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.” -- Albert Einstein

Deaths

US: 619,152 (+467)

World: 3,925,171 (+9209)

Cases

US: 34,482,672 (+21,716)

World: 181,181,478 (+415,736)

Chauvin gets 22 1/2 years in prison for George Floyd’s death.

Key GOP senators balk at terms of Biden infrastructure bill. President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure deal was thrown in doubt Friday as Republican senators felt “blindsided” by his insistence that it must move in tandem with his bigger package, while the White House doubled down on the strategy and said it should have come as no surprise. -- Democrats never learn.

Eight Years Ago, the Supreme Court Gutted the Voting Rights Act. Widespread Voter Suppression Resulted. On June 25, 2013, Chief Justice John Roberts gutted a key section of the Voting Rights Act, ruling that states with a long history of voting discrimination no longer needed to get federal approval for changes to their election procedures. “Things have changed dramatically” since the law’s enactment in 1965, Roberts wrote in Shelby County v. Holder, implying that there was no reason to think those states would pass discriminatory voting restrictions in the future. But since that decision—which Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg compared to “throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet”—new voter suppression laws have proliferated across the country. Twenty-six states have enacted new restrictions on voting since the Shelby ruling...Roughly 40 percent of these states previously had to clear their voting changes with the federal government—meaning that new restrictions on voting enacted by states such as Arizona, Georgia, and Texas likely would have been blocked if not for the Shelby decision. 

Justice Department announces challenge to Georgia's restrictive voting law. The Justice Department announced Friday that it is suing the state of Georgia over its recently enacted voting restrictions.

Arizona House passes legislation that weakens secretary of state. In the key battleground state of Arizona, Republican legislators this week moved to weaken the authority of Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, by limiting her ability to defend election lawsuits.

Top US general rejected Trump suggestions military should 'crack skulls' during protests last year, new book claims. "That's how you're supposed to handle these people," Trump told his top law enforcement and military officials, according to Bender. "Crack their skulls!" Trump also told his team that he wanted the military to go in and "beat the f--k out" of the civil rights protesters, Bender writes. “Just shoot them," Trump said on multiple occasions inside the Oval Office, according to the excerpts. When Milley and then-Attorney General William Barr would push back, Trump toned it down, but only slightly, Bender adds.

The head of the WHO says the Covid-19 delta variant, first seen in India, is “the most transmissible of the variants identified so far,” and warns it is now spreading in at least 85 countries.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CNN Friday that the agency is tracking the Delta coronavirus variant, among others -- and warned that there is a small chance a fully vaccinated person could still get infected if they're exposed.

Historic heat wave blasts Northwest as wildfire risks soar. The Pacific Northwest sweltered Friday and braced for even hotter weather through the weekend as a historic heat wave hit Washington and Oregon, with temperatures in many areas expected to top out up to 30 degrees above normal.

‘The water is coming’: Florida Keys faces stark reality as seas rise. Officials prepare to elevate streets despite financial shortfalls, amid recognition that not every home can be saved.

Tucker Carlson calls Joint Chiefs chairman a "pig" and "stupid". Tucker Carlson calls Joint Chiefs chairman a "pig" and "stupid". The stark remarks came a day after Gen. Mark Milley offered a defense of reading about critical race theory in the military. Carlson has been a staunch critic of critical race theory, an area of academia that examines the intersection of race and law. -- Fuck Tucker Carlson. He’s an asshole.

"Sesame Street" combats anti-Asian attacks with "Proud of Your Eyes" video. “Your eyes tell the story of your family. They show where you came from, and how you came to be.”

Gay nightclub Pulse to become U.S. memorial after 2016 mass shooting.

UFO report: Government can't explain 143 of 144 mysterious flying objects, blames limited data.

In historic discovery, scientists find human ancestor that interbred with ancient humans.

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

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

Thursday, June 24, 2021

And another day of learning about the history of the police, a hidden legal system that targets the elderly, hundreds of unmarked graves in Canada, a high-rise collapse, Sesame Street adding more diversity, and Britney Spears is not allowed to remove her IUD comes to a close:

“When rights are considered privileges, only the privileged have rights.” -- Sarah Kendzior

Deaths

US: 618,685 (+391)

World: 3,915,962 (+8598)

Cases

US: 34,464,956 (+15,952)

World: 180,765,742 (+405,136)

The history of the US police. From slave patrols to the criminalisation of Black communities, racism has been a feature of US policing for centuries. Many considered The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act a step in the right direction. But the fact remains that in some parts of the US, the police kill Black people at six times the rate they kill white people. For this reason, many in the US believe that it is not possible to reform an institution whose very roots are racist and anti-Black: in the South, after all, the police force originated as a mechanism to capture and brutalise escaped enslaved people…Policing, therefore, became a way “to use state violence in order to advance racial capitalism or to protect racial capitalism from resistance and autonomy.” — Doubtful many Americans know this history.

There is a hidden system by which guardians can seize control of the lives of senior citizens—without the consent of the elders or their families—and reap a significant profit. -- This is bad. All legal. And all ripe for elder abuse. If you have an elder in your life, this is important for you to know.

Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's former private lawyer, has been suspended from practicing law by a court in New York. A New York state court has suspended Rudy Giuliani from practicing law after concluding that he made false statements alleging rampant fraud to try to overturn former President Donald Trump's loss in the 2020 election.

Hundreds of unmarked graves have been found near a former Catholic residential school for Indigenous children in western Canada, local media reported late on Wednesday, weeks after the discovery of the remains of hundreds of Indigenous schoolchildren sent shock waves through the country…Some 150,000 Native American, Metis and Inuit children were forcibly sent up until the 1990s in 139 of these residential schools across Canada, where they were isolated from their families, their language and their culture to assimilate them into Canadian society. Many were subjected to ill-treatment and sexual abuse, and more than 4,000 died in the schools, according to a commission of inquiry that concluded Canada had committed “cultural genocide” against its Indigenous communities.

99 missing, 10 hurt and 1 dead in high-rise collapse near Miami Beach, officials say.

Britney Spears Isn't Allowed to Remove Her IUD Under Conservatorship.

Britney Spears apologises to her fans for 'pretending like I've been OK'.

Sesame Street has introduced a family with two gay dads for the first time. On the episode, Nina introduces her brother and his husband, played by Chris Costa and Alex Weisman, as well as their daughter, played by Olivia Perez, to Elmo and his friends as they celebrate Family Day.

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

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

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

And another day of ‘indoctrination,’ hot weather, a decrease in life expectancy, SCOTUS sides with cheerleader, anti-crime plans, recall elections, Alan Turing, suicide, and Coke’s spectacular failure comes to a close:

"All of the things Trump tried to do in 2020 that he couldn't do are now on the table for future elections." — Ari Berman 

“So let me get this straight: the Republican Senate minority, which represents 41,549,808 fewer people than the Democratic Senate majority, can block the For the People Act — which is supported by 68% of Americans? That's what's truly radical here.” -- Robert Reich

“In light of today’s Supreme Court ruling, I’d like to take this opportunity to exercise my First Amendment right and tell the GOP to go fuck off.” -- David Leavitt

Deaths

US: 618,294 (+419)

World: 3,907,364 (+9973)

Cases

US: 34,449,004 (+14,201)

World: 180,360,606 (+447,691)

In his continued push against the “indoctrination” of students, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed legislation that will require public universities and colleges to survey students, faculty and staff about their beliefs and viewpoints to support “intellectual diversity.” — You read that correctly.

Pacific Northwest's hottest weather on record takes aim this weekend. The heat wave will affect a region where many people lack central air conditioning, raising the likelihood for public health impacts…The NWS is not mincing words about the severity of the heat event that is coming: "Triple digit heat arriving this weekend and persisting well into next week could rival some of the longest lasting and extreme heat waves in the recorded history of the Inland Northwest.”

U.S. life expectancy decreased by an 'alarming' amount during pandemic. “I naively thought the pandemic would not make a big difference in the gap because my thinking was that it’s a global pandemic, so every country is going to take a hit,” said Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University, who led the new study. “What I didn’t anticipate was how badly the U.S. would handle the pandemic.”...“These are numbers we aren’t at all used to seeing in this research; 0.1 years is something that normally gets attention in the field, so 3.9 years and 3.25 years and even 1.4 years is just horrible,” Woolf said. “We haven’t had a decrease of that magnitude since World War II.”

Michigan Republicans eviscerate Trump voter fraud claims in scathing report.

Judge rebukes GOP for downplaying US Capitol riot as he hands out first sentence in insurrection. A Trump supporter who spent 10 minutes inside the US Capitol during the January 6 insurrection was sentenced to probation Wednesday, avoiding jail, becoming the first rioter to learn their punishment in the riot investigation.

No evidence yet to suggest Covid vaccine booster is needed, CDC group says.

Saudis who participated in Khashoggi killing received paramilitary training in US: report. According to the Times, an Arkansas-based security company called Tier 1 Group provided training to some of the operatives, though the training was reportedly “defensive” and “devised to better protect Saudi leaders.” At the time, the unit was beginning a series of kidnappings, detentions and torture of Saudi citizens to crush dissent.

Supreme Court sides with high school cheerleader who cursed online. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a former high school cheerleader who argued that she could not be punished by her public school for posting a profanity-laced caption on Snapchat when she was off school grounds.

Biden targets law-breaking gun dealers in anti-crime plan. President Joe Biden announced new efforts Wednesday to stem a rising national tide of violent crime, declaring the federal government is “taking on the bad actors doing bad things to our communities.” But questions persist about how effective the efforts can be in what could be a turbulent summer.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom to face recall election. California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom will face a recall election, marking just the second time in state history that a special election will be held to recall a sitting governor.

History made as £50 note featuring gay war hero Alan Turing enters circulation. In dropping Wednesday (23 June), the release date coincides with what would have been Turing’s 109th birthday. With the £50 bill’s entry, it means all of the Bank’s printed banknotes are made of plastic for the first time – paper £50 notes will no longer be accepted at shops from October next year.

Coke's make-your-own label fail: The company's make-your-own label promotion lets customers write short messages on custom Coke bottles. Although Coca-Cola (CCEP)tried to block some slurs and trademarks, social media users were quick to discover that the company's restrictions were hardly comprehensive — and in some cases blocked inoffensive terms. For example, "Black Lives Matter," is blocked. But "White Lives Matter" isn't. Coke included a special rainbow label for pride month, but you can't write "Gay Pride" on the bottle. However, you can write "I hate gays." "Hitler" and "Nazi" are banned, but users can customize bottles with the phrases, "I am Hitler" or "I am a Nazi." -- What a spectacular fail.

Antivirus pioneer John McAfee found dead in Spanish prison. John McAfee, the creator of McAfee antivirus software, was found dead in his jail cell near Barcelona in an apparent suicide Wednesday, hours after a Spanish court approved his extradition to the United States to face tax charges punishable by decades in prison, authorities said.

Can ET see us? Study finds many stars with prime Earth view. Astronomers took a technique used to look for life on other planets and flipped it around — so instead of looking to see what’s out there, they tried to see what places could see us. There’s a lot.

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

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