Tuesday, July 20, 2021

And another day of talks, urgings, suggestions, arrests, unaffordable rent, emergencies, a Paralympian, bikini bottoms, wildfire surges, abortions in AR, identity-based tags, free HIV prevention pills, and Bezos being clueless comes to a close:

“If anybody is lying here, Senator, it is you.” — Dr. Fauci to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)

“Listen, I’m all for space exploration and it must have been an amazing view. But maybe – and I’m just spitballing here – if Amazon and other companies paid their fair share in taxes, we could lift all kids — if not into space — at least out of poverty. Sincerely, Earthlings.” -- Adam Schiff

Deaths

US: 625,363 (+380)

World: 4,133,318 (+20,526)

Cases

US: 35,081,719 (+63,119)

World: 192,228,286 (+515,319)

The White House has held talks with Fox News over its Covid-19 coverage. News of the discussions comes as one of the network's stars, Sean Hannity, urged his audience to "please take Covid seriously" on Monday night.

Fauci blasts Rand Paul's Wuhan lab funding claim: 'You do not know what you're talking about'. "I want to say that officially," Fauci added. — Senator Rand Paul is an asshole. I want to say that officially.

McConnell urges Americans: ‘Get vaccinated’ as cases spike. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell implored unvaccinated Americans Tuesday to take the COVID-19 shot, issuing a stark and grave warning of a repeat of last year’s rising caseloads and shutdowns if people refuse to protect themselves from the coronavirus.

New study suggests Johnson & Johnson less effective against coronavirus variants. The results, published by bioRxiv but not yet peer reviewed or published in a journal, suggest that the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna could better protect against the delta and lambda strains than the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Tom Barrack, a longtime friend of former President Trump who chaired Trump's inaugural committee, was arrested on charges he acted as an agent of a foreign government, using his closeness to the Trump White House to advance the interests of the UAE.

For minimum wage workers, rent is now unaffordable in every county in America. There is now not a single state or county in the US where a minimum wage worker on a 40-hour week can afford a two-bedroom home at the fair market rent, according to a report published by the National Low Income Housing Coalition this week. In 93 percent of US counties, such full-time minimum wage workers can’t afford a one-bedroom apartment, either.

This deaf-blind Paralympian was told to navigate Tokyo alone. So she quit Team USA. Becca Meyers is a six-time Paralympic medalist with three golds from the 2016 Rio Games. She was expected to compete for up to four medals in Tokyo. Instead she's not going. After the 26-year-old deaf-blind swimmer was told she couldn't bring her mother and personal care assistant (PCA) Maria Meyers to help her navigate Tokyo and the Olympic facilities, Meyers informed Team USA that she was quitting the team. She told the Washington Post in a story published Monday that she made the decision in part to effect change.

Norway women's beach handball team fined for not wearing bikini bottoms. International Handball rules allow shorts for men but bikini bottoms for women. Norway’s women's team decided to wear shorts anyway, knowing they'd be punished.

Canada’s BC declares state of emergency as wildfires surge. The state of emergency will last for at least 14 days and can be extended, the BC government said in a statement. Forty evacuation orders affecting approximately 5,724 people are currently in place, while 69 evacuation alerts – under which residents are told to be ready to leave their homes at a moment’s notice – affecting more than 32,000 people have also been issued.

Jeff Bezos Thanks Amazon Workers and Customers for Making Him So Rich He Can Go to Space. Perhaps the most striking thing about Bezos’ efforts is how low the bar has been set that a joyride that lasted shorter than a bathroom break at Amazon can be seen as an international news event. It’s easy to be cynical about all of this, but in fairness, no one could put it more cynically than Jeff Bezos…“I also want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all of this,” he said.

Ocasio-Cortez chides Bezos after space launch: 'Amazon workers did pay for this'. "Yes, Amazon workers did pay for this," she said. "With lower wages, union busting, a frenzied and inhumane workplace, and delivery drivers not having health insurance during a pandemic."

A federal judge has blocked an Arkansas law banning nearly all abortions in the state while she hears a challenge to its constitutionality. The law was set to take effect July 28.

NFL player Cole Beasley said Tuesday he'll get vaccinated against COVID-19 if he receives a profit from the shot.

Twitch Streamers Say The New Identity-Based Tags Have Made The Platform Better. In May, Twitch added more than 350 tags encompassing race, gender, disabilities, and mental illnesses. Detractors worried using the tags — such as "Black," "transgender," and "autistic" — would just lead to harassment. And why does the race, gender, orientation, or other identifier of a streamer matter? But streamers told BuzzFeed News that using these tags has improved their experience on Twitch, and that these identifiers actually matter a great deal.

Nursing homes can deadname transgender seniors, court rules. The Third District Court of Appeal overturned the part of the law barring employees of long-term care facilities from willfully and repeatedly using anything other than residents’ preferred names and pronouns. In doing so, the law banned employees from using the incorrect pronouns for trans residents, also known as misgendering them, or using their legal name, also known as deadnaming them. That ban violates employees’ rights to free speech, the court ruled Friday.

PrEP, the HIV prevention pill, must now be totally free under almost all insurance plans. In a move that is expected to prove transformative to the national HIV-prevention effort, the federal government has announced that almost all health insurers must cover the HIV prevention pill, known as PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, with no cost sharing — including for the drug itself and, crucially, for clinic visits and lab tests.

This butterfly was the first to go extinct in the US because of humans. As the first North American insect to go extinct due to humans, a blue butterfly has become an icon for insect conservation -- and what happens when humans destroy habitats without thought for the creatures living in them.

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

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