Friday, September 3, 2021

And another day of cultural dominance, targeting POC, pledging to help women, temporary blocks, banning sites, hospitalized kids, checking a box for religious exemption, sexual pleasure is a gender equality issue, and calling women’s bodies ‘host bodies’ comes to a close:

“I am woman, hear me roar...I am invincible.” -- Helen Reddy / Ray Burton

Deaths

US: 664,935 (+2082)

World: 4,566,961 (+9877)

Cases

US: 40,703,674 (+190,656)

World: 220,616,345 (+660,010)

The new laws coming out of Texas—including the abortion ban and move to make homeless encampments illegal—is an endorsement of governance as a display of cultural dominance, rather than governance as a means to make anything work better for anyone. But SB 8 was not the only major piece of legislation that came out of the Texas legislature this year. On Wednesday, the Houston Chronicle helpfully rounded up other bills that have gone into effect or will soon. It is not pretty:…It could be worse, I suppose: They could have put a $10,000 bounty on the restaurant owners and history teachers, too. This is a strange list, but as a mission statement of what the conservative movement is and isn’t for in 2021, it is quite coherent.

Texans fear the dire consequences of new laws targeting people of color. The new abortion law along with laws concerning public education and proposed legislation restricting voting access are part of a slew of measures that will greatly impact the lives of people of color. Civil rights advocates and some lawmakers say people of color are powering the population growth in the state and the measures enacted by Republican lawmakers will have dire consequences. -- It’s always about racism. Always. The point is for conservative white males to remain in power. Even if they are a dying breed.

Bumble and Match pledge to help people affected by Texas abortion law. Bumble, which is based in the state capital of Austin and led by CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, said Wednesday that it has created a fund "supporting the reproductive rights of women and people across the gender spectrum who seek abortions in Texas." "Bumble is women-founded and women-led, and from day one we've stood up for the most vulnerable. We'll keep fighting against regressive laws like #SB8," it said on Twitter, referring to the state law that was signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in May and took effect this week. Match Group (MTCH) is also headquartered in Texas. The Dallas-based company owns Match.com and dating apps including Tinder, Plenty of Fish, OkCupid and Hinge. CEO Shar Dubey said she was creating a fund to ensure that employees and their dependents would be able to seek care outside of the state. "The company generally does not take political stands unless it is relevant to our business. But in this instance, I personally, as a woman in Texas, could not keep silent," Dubey said in an internal memo.

Texas judge hands narrow win to abortion providers fighting new 6-week ban. A Texas state judge on Friday temporarily blocked an anti-abortion group from enforcing Texas's new 6-week abortion ban against Planned Parenthood, handing a narrow legal victory to abortion rights advocates. The order from Judge Maya Guerra Gamble (D) halts Texas Right to Life and its associates from suing abortion providers and workers at Planned Parenthood clinics under Texas’s highly restrictive new abortion law, S.B. 8.

GoDaddy will no longer host a site set up by the Texas Right to Life to collect anonymous tips about when the state's new law banning almost all abortions was being violated. GoDaddy confirmed to NPR that that the digital tip line violated its prohibition on collecting personally identifiable information about someone without the person's consent. GoDaddy also bans sites that violate the privacy or confidentiality of another person.

It’s not just Texas – anti-abortion activists are targeting women’s rights in Europe. There has been an outpouring of support for Texas women from people in the UK and European Union, but it’s worth remembering that while the UK and Europe are an abortion utopia compared with some American states, abortion access is still not guaranteed.

Republicans are now calling women’s bodies “host bodies.”

Health officials "keeping a very close eye" on COVID-19 Mu variant. As the Delta variant of COVID-19 continues its deadly sweep across the U.S., officials say that they are keeping a "very close eye" on a new variant that may be able to bypass existing coronavirus antibodies…Fauci said the Mu variant, technically known as B.1.621, has mutations suggesting "it would evade certain antibodies," potentially including those from vaccines. "But there isn't a lot of clinical data to suggest that. It is mostly laboratory in vitro data," he added. "...We don't consider it an immediate threat right now."

Top federal health officials are urging the White House to reconsider its plan to begin rolling out coronavirus vaccine booster shots to Americans, saying that there's not enough data right now to support a blanket recommendation on boosters.

‘Loss of hope’: Idaho hospitals crushed by COVID-19 surge. The intensive care rooms at St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center are full, each a blinking jungle of tubes, wires and mechanical breathing machines. The patients nestled inside are a lot alike: All unvaccinated, mostly middle-aged or younger, reliant on life support and locked in a silent struggle against COVID-19.

More kids hospitalized with Covid-19 in states with lower vaccination rates, CDC report finds. The rate of hospitalization for unvaccinated teens was 10 times higher than for those that were vaccinated. Hospitalizations were highest among kids aged up to 4, and teens 12-17. One in four of the children who were hospitalized needed intensive care.

Fifteen staff members in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools District have died from COVID-19 in the past 10 days.

Hundreds of URI (University of Rhode Island) students have requested religious vaccine exemptions by checking a box. Unlike at other schools — including the Community College of Rhode Island and Providence College — URI students are not required to write a personal statement detailing their objections to the vaccine or the tenets of their faith…In the case of URI’s religious exemptions, which are not nearly as tricky to secure, Reynolds acknowledged that some students could be using the request form simply because they do not want to be vaccinated. — You think?

Anti-vax doctors and Trump loyalists going on controversial 'health and freedom' tour.

Fox News Ditches NYC Briefing to Save Viewers From Hearing About ‘Quote-Unquote Climate Change’. Fox News pulled out of Thursday morning’s New York briefing on the area’s deadly storms and floods after a Democratic congressman cited climate change as a factor in the devastation, with anchor Bill Hemmer grumbling that it had turned “political quite quickly.” -- Fox News will kill us all.

FBI Report Warned Boogaloo Bois Are Buying Amazon Ring Cams in Case They Need to Ambush Agents. Members of the “Boogaloo Boi” movement in northern Nevada have installed Amazon Ring camera systems in their homes in the hopes that the tech will allow them to ambush any federal agents who come along, according to an FBI memo obtained by the group Property of the People via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Not Yet Satisfied: These women are making sexual pleasure a gender equality priority. There are people, organisations and even governments fighting over whether you should access contraception or not; how many children you should have; whether you should be veiled or not; what your gender or sexual identity can be; how you should be treated if you earn your income from sex work; whether your attire or attitude makes you complicit in your sexual attack; or at what age you can be married off and at what price -- the latter, often in part, determined by whether or not you are still a virgin. Like inhabitants of a besieged territory, women -- and gender non-conforming people -- are often caught in the middle, ignored as their very bodies are being debated..."We have a long history of sexual pleasure being denied to women," says Eli Coleman, director of the Institute for Sexual and Gender Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School. "Pleasure is threatening," he says. "It challenges those who are in power. As long as the society keeps women as second-class citizens, then men are in control. So denying [women] reproductive health, contraception, safe abortions, and certainly altering their body -- taking away the sexual pleasure aspects of one's anatomy -- keeps them suppressed and patriarchy in power."..."There is this great fear that if we talk about sexual pleasure, people will become more irresponsible and society will have more problems," Coleman acknowledges. "But the evidence is completely to the contrary. This is fundamental to what we know about developing societies: if you educate your citizenry, you have a greater society. But somehow when it comes to sex, we want to deny people that fundamental education."

Some of England's players were reportedly racially abused by Hungary fans during the team's 4-0 World Cup qualifying win. - Fucking racists.

More than 100 Democrats back legislation lowering Medicare eligibility age to 60. Democrats are aiming to include the provisions of the bill in the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package focused on "human infrastructure." They also want that legislation to expand Medicare coverage to hearing, vision and dental care.

GM shutting down production at most of its plants in North America. General Motors will shut production at most of its North American plants for a week or two starting next week as the worsening chip shortage takes another bite out of its plans.

Apple delaying plan to scan phones for child sex abuse images. “Based on feedback from customers, advocacy groups, researchers and others, we have decided to take additional time over the coming months to collect input and make improvements before releasing these critically important child safety features.”

UEFA set to oppose FIFA over biennial World Cup. Proposals to hold the World Cup every two years, being pushed by governing body FIFA, are set to be opposed by UEFA and Europe's leading clubs, sources have told Reuters.

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

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