Thursday, September 16, 2021

And another day of Covid surges, new daily highs, requiring proof of vaccination, childhood obesity, falling poverty rates, FB emails, banning flags, and students fighting against book bans comes to a close: 

“Never forget: They feign shock to avoid accountability.” — Sarah Kendzior 

Deaths

US: 688,486 (+3463)

World: 4,683,977 (+10,496)

Cases

US: 42,634,054 (+154,274)

World: 227,926,370 (+573,613)

Idaho declares statewide hospital resource crisis amid Covid surge. Idaho hospitals are so overwhelmed with the surge in coronavirus cases that doctors and nurses have to contact dozens of regional hospitals across the West in hopes of finding places to transfer individual critical patients.

Alaska has new daily high in coronavirus infections. Alaska is reporting its highest number of new coronavirus cases a day after the state’s largest hospital announced it had entered crisis protocol and started rationing care because of a flood of COVID-19 cases.

King County (Seattle, WA) will start requiring proof of vaccination for indoor dining and certain events on Oct. 25. People who are unvaccinated will need to show a negative COVID-19 test taken within the last 72 hours if they want to dine indoors in King County.

Study: Childhood obesity in U.S. accelerated during pandemic. The pandemic appears to be worsening the nation’s longstanding obesity epidemic, and obesity can put people at risk for more severe illness after coronavirus infection.

The poverty rate in the United States fell last year, even amid impact of the global pandemic, due to government aid including stimulus payments and unemployment insurance. — Well, Republicans won’t like that. 

This week the Wall Street Journal released a series of scathing articles about Facebook, citing leaked internal documents that detail in remarkably frank terms how the company is not only well aware of its platforms' negative effects on users but also how it has repeatedly failed to address them. There's a lot to unpack from the Journal's investigation. But one thing that stands out is just how blatantly Facebook's problems are documented, using the kind of simple, observational prose not often found in internal communications at multinational corporations. Here are some of the more jaw-dropping moments from the Journal's series.

Not just Texas: Europe grapples with abortion laws and limits. Some countries have a near or total ban, and activists who are calling for more restrictive laws, or to keep existing ones, say the Texas ruling offers inspiration. Some campaigners in these places want to emulate the decision in Texas — while some want to go much further.

2 moms pull out guns during argument at Hazelwood elementary school. -- Because that’s appropriate.

Teacher bans American flag from classroom as it ‘stands for violence and intolerance’.

Oregon Board of Education calls on Newberg school board to reverse course on Pride, Black Lives Matter symbol ban. The Oregon Board of Education is calling on the Newberg school board to not only reverse course on its effort to ban Pride and Black Lives Matter symbols in schools, but to actively encourage students and educators to display flags, placards and other symbols that affirm students’ identities. -- This is related to the previous story.

Students fight back against a book ban that has a Pennsylvania community divided. Last October, the all-White school board unanimously banned a list of educational resources that included a children's book about Rosa Parks, Malala Yousafzai's autobiography and CNN's Sesame Street town hall on racism...The fact that all the banned materials are by or about people of color is just a coincidence, according to Jane Johnson, the school board president. "Concerns were based on the content of the resources, not the author or topic...," she said in a statement. -- Mmm hmmm.

Poll Finds Most Americans Would Swap Democracy For $100 Best Buy Gift Card. -- This is from The Onion. But it certainly feels like most Americans would.

RIP Joel Rapp. Thank you for all the laughs (Gilligan’s Island, Green Acres, McHale’s Navy). He was 87. 

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

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