And another day of FB pushing propaganda, ending America’s longest war, investigations, get vaxxed or get terminated, hate crimes, the TX abortion ban, hurricanes, wildfires, leaded gas, enough sleep, and mandating playing video games for only three hours a week comes to a close:
“How come ‘how are you going to pay for it’ is never asked about endless war?” — Robert Reich
Deaths
US: 656,393 (+1704)
World: 4,523,766 (+8887)
Cases
US: 39,946,708 (+281,193)
World: 217,901,675 (+698,022)
Why Facebook Won’t Stop Pushing Propaganda. Facebook is pushing regular users down the path to radicalization. In 2016, two-thirds of all users joining extremist groups were doing so because Facebook suggested it…But experts have long warned that group pages, invisible to users not in them and subject to even less regulation or fact-checking than the News Feed, are where many users are sucked into hateful and conspiratorial content. (This is the pathway through which many suburban moms, as Mother Jones’ Kiera Butler has chillingly documented, have become QAnon fanatics.)…Let that sink in: Two-thirds of all users joining extremist groups were doing so because Facebook suggested it. A similar pattern has been found on YouTube, whose recommended videos can lead a user from random memes to Nazi propaganda in just a few clicks.
Last troops exit Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war. The United States completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan late Monday, ending America’s longest war and closing a chapter in military history likely to be remembered for colossal failures, unfulfilled promises and a frantic final exit that cost the lives of more than 180 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members, some barely older than the war.
Blinken says under 200 Americans in Afghanistan. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says fewer than 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan who want to leave and the U.S. will continue to try to get them out.
The Education Department's civil rights enforcement arm announced Monday it has launched investigations in five states to determine whether statewide policies prohibiting school mask mandates is discriminatory against students with disabilities.
As districts insist on vaccines, some teachers push back. Some of the biggest school systems in the U.S. are taking a hard line with teachers and staff members who are not yet vaccinated against COVID-19: Get a jab or lose your job.
Unvaccinated employees at Duke will face termination. Faculty members terminated for not complying with the vaccine requirement "would not be eligible for rehire with Duke in the future," the university noted.
Immunocompromised teachers speak out about lack of remote teaching options. She turned her camera around to show the rows of desks in her classroom, set up for 30 students. Richard said her largest class period will have 41 students. Twice a week, Richard said she’ll have 234 students and three days a week she’ll have 210 students rotating in and out of her classroom. The sheer number of different students she’ll be in contact with is cause for concern, not only because she said it’ll be nearly impossible for students to maintain three-feet of distance from each other, but because she is one of a number of her colleagues who are immunocompromised and have a doctor’s note saying she should not teach in person.
McDonald's, others consider closing indoor seating amid Delta surge in U.S. “We have a much deeper sense of what actions make a difference for the safety of our restaurant teams and crew.”
Hate crime reports in US surge to the highest level in 12 years, FBI says. More than 10,000 people reported to law enforcement last year that they were the victim of a hate crime because of their race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, religion or disability -- a number that has been on the rise in recent years, according to FBI's annual hate crime statistics report.
Abortion will effectively be banned in Texas if ‘sue thy neighbor’ law is allowed to take effect. SB8 effectively puts a $10,000 “bounty” on the head of abortion providers and anyone else who helps a woman obtain an abortion past roughly six weeks’ gestation, by allowing private citizens to sue those who “aid and abet” women in exercising this constitutional right…”The law is really unprecedented in the sense that it bans abortion, but then has no government criminal penalties to enforce the law.”…”It authorizes anyone in the country to file a lawsuit against any abortion provider, or anyone who helps someone get an abortion, and seek a penalty of that person of at least $10,000 per abortion.” — And Texas inches closer to a more dystopian nightmare than it already currently is.
Supreme Court asked to block Texas' six-week abortion ban. A group of abortion rights advocates and providers filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court on Monday asking the justices to block implementation of a new Texas law that bans procedures as early as six weeks of pregnancy.
Hurricane Ida traps Louisianans, shatters the power grid. More than 1 million homes and businesses in Louisiana and Mississippi — including all of New Orleans — were left without power as Ida, one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to hit the U.S. mainland, pushed through on Sunday.
Wildfire evacuees fill Lake Tahoe roads in rush to flee. A popular vacation haven normally filled with tens of thousands of summer tourists was clogged with fleeing vehicles Monday after the entire resort city of South Lake Tahoe was ordered to leave as a ferocious wildfire raced toward Lake Tahoe, a sparkling gem on the California-Nevada border.
Unintentional shootings by kids rose 31% during pandemic, new data shows.
GOP’s Larry Elder looks for shock win in California recall. California’s next governor could be a Black conservative who would erase state vaccine and mask mandates, is critical of gun control, disputes the notion of systemic racism in America and opposes the minimum wage because he says it tramples the free market. The rapid ascent of Republican Larry Elder in the Sept. 14 recall election that could remove Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom is a striking turn in a state regarded as a Democratic fortress and national showcase for liberal policies on climate change, immigration and health care. -- Maybe see today’s first story?
UN hails end of poisonous leaded gas use in cars worldwide. Leaded gasoline has finally reached the end of the road, the U.N. environment office said Monday, after the last country in the world halted the sale of the highly toxic fuel.
Three hours a week: Play time's over for China's young video gamers. China has forbidden under-18s from playing video games for more than three hours a week, a stringent social intervention that it said was needed to pull the plug on a growing addiction to what it once described as "spiritual opium"…The restrictions, which apply to any devices including phones, are a body blow to a global gaming industry that caters to tens of millions of young players in the world's most lucrative market. They limit under-18s to playing for one hour a day - 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. - on only Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, according to the Xinhua state news agency. They can also play for an hour, at the same time, on public holidays.
Birds of prey face global decline from habitat loss, poisons. A new analysis of data from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and BirdLife International found that 30% of 557 raptor species worldwide are considered near threatened, vulnerable or endangered or critically endangered. Eighteen species are critically endangered, including the Philippine eagle, the hooded vulture and the Annobon scops owl, the researchers found.
Find your sleep 'sweet spot' to protect your brain as you age, study suggests. How long older adults sleep could affect their brain health, according to a study published Monday in the journal JAMA Neurology. Disrupted sleep is common in late life, the study authors wrote, and associated with changes in cognitive function -- the mental capacity for learning, thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, decision-making, remembering and paying attention.
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
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