And another day of ‘backward slides,’ court decisions, unprecedented national hunts, swing voters, unemployment numbers, warning signs for Ds, limiting what’s taught in TX schools, and a lifetime smoking ban for New Zealand’s youth comes to a close:
“I like Presidents who spend 324 days in office without writing a single life-endangering hate-tweet.” -- Robert Harrington
Deaths
US: 815,269 (+1365)
World: 5,302,601 (+7628
Cases
US: 50,535,791 (+113,381)
World: 268,739,309 (+628,048)
Biden calls on leaders to end ‘backward slide’ of democracy. President Joe Biden expressed alarm at a “backward slide” of democracy around the globe on Thursday, calling on fellow world leaders to work with him to bolster democratic institutions as his administration grows increasingly concerned about China’s and Russia’s push for global influence.
A federal appeals court has ruled against former President Donald Trump, demanding he turn over White House records to the congressional committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot. -- It sure seems like court decisions mean nothing these days. We’ll see what happens next.
Inside Trump's unprecedented nationwide hunt for "disloyal" Republicans. Donald Trump and his associates are systematically reshaping the Republican Party, working to install hand-picked loyalists across federal and state governments and destroy those he feels have been disloyal…He’s not just taking the standard steps of establishing a PAC, courting donors, and building a political operation; he’s also trying to purge his critics from all levels of the GOP and replace them with loyalists who could object to the certification of future elections…The bottom line: Trump's relentless messaging has forged an alternate reality for his followers: 58% of Republicans in an Axios/Ipsos poll last month said there was enough fraud to change the outcome of the 2020 election. Now he's harnessing that energy.
The midterms will be decided by swing voters ready to reward the GOP for trying to kill them. As was the case in Virginia, the next year’s midterms are going to be decided by swing voters who can’t or won’t figure out for themselves that Kevin McCarthy, the former president and the rest of the GOP are knowingly hurting their own supporters for the purpose of prolonging the pandemic in order to blame the damage done on the Democrats. Control of the Congress will be decided by voters ready to blame the people trying to save them instead of the people trying to kill them. There’s one thing that tests my faith in democracy more than anything else, though. All the above information? Widely available. Anyone who wants to know the truth can know. But what if voters don’t want to? What if it feels better to believe lies than to believe truth? In that case, democracy isn’t it own worst enemy on account of degenerates and fools getting to decide the republic’s business. It’s its own worse enemy because it rationalizes the feelings of degenerates and fools.
US unemployment claims drop to 184,000, lowest since 1969. The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits plunged last week to the lowest level in 52 years, more evidence that the U.S. job market is recovering from last year's coronavirus recession. — If this happened under a Republican administration, we’d never hear the end of it. Remember, unemployment was around 900,000 a week at the beginning of the year.
A new poll finds major warning signs for Biden and fellow Democrats. Americans don't feel the direct payments or expanded child tax credits doled out earlier this year helped them much, according to the latest NPR/Marist poll, and they don't see Democrats' signature legislation as addressing their top economic concern — inflation. Additionally, they're down on the job President Biden is doing, don't give him much credit for the direct payments or tax credits, and have soured on the direction of the country. — Obviously the Republican plan of doing nothing to help then blaming Democrats for all that is wrong is working.
Big Law Firms Promised to Punish Republicans Who Voted to Overthrow Democracy. Now They’re Donating to their Campaigns. The law firms said they’d halt donations to the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn Biden’s election. But less than a year later, they’re back to business as usual.
University of Florida researchers pressured to destroy COVID-19 data, told not to criticize DeSantis: report. The report stated that staff felt "external pressure to destroy" data and "barriers to accessing and analyzing" data in a timely manner. The document added that staff said there were "barriers to publication of scientific research which inhibited the ability of faculty to contribute scientific findings during a world-wide pandemic."
Republican bill that limits how race, slavery and history are taught in Texas schools becomes law. Under the new law, a “teacher may not be compelled to discuss a widely debated and currently controversial issue of public policy or social affairs.” The law doesn’t define what a controversial issue is. If a teacher does discuss these topics, they must “explore that topic objectively and in a manner free from political bias.” It also requires at least one teacher and one campus administrator at each school district to attend a civics training program that will teach educators how race and racism should be taught in Texas schools. — It’s clear that “controversial” means whatever Republicans are against at any moment.
A San Antonio-area school district is reviewing the contents of more than 400 books that were flagged in a Republican lawmaker’s investigation into the titles that schools keep in their libraries…“For us, this is not about politics or censorship, but rather about ensuring that parents choose what is appropriate for their minor children,” said North East ISD spokesperson Aubrey Chancellor on Monday. “Out of an abundance of caution, NEISD asked our staff to review books from the Krause list to ensure they did not have any obscene or vulgar material in them.” — And “obscene” and “vulgar” aren’t subjective terms at all. </sarcasm>
Canada bans conversion therapy, joining a handful of other nations. Several other countries, including Germany and Brazil — and 20 U.S. states — have banned the debunked practice. — Only 20 U.S. states. Ugh.
‘Killing the middle class’: millions in US brace for student loan payments after Covid pause. Student debt in America has become a crisis for millions of citizens that often feels like it will last for people’s whole lives.
Actor Jussie Smollett found guilty of falsely reporting a hate crime against him in 2019. Smollett was convicted on five of six charges, but jail time for the "Empire" actor is unlikely.
A Black couple had a White friend show their home and its appraisal rose by nearly half a million dollars. "What that appraisal did is what we were actually asking the appraisers to do, to not consider race, to not consider neighborhoods and or the lines that have been drawn and perpetuated by redlining.”
A viral image of a Black fetus is highlighting the need for diversity in medical illustrations. At first glance, the image looks like a standard drawing that could easily be found in the pages of a medical textbook or on the walls of a doctor's office. But what sets apart the illustration of a fetus in the womb that recently captured the attention of the internet is a simple, yet crucial, detail: its darker skin tone. The image, created by Nigerian medical student and illustrator Chidiebere Ibe, struck a chord with countless people on social media, many of whom said that they had never seen a Black fetus or a Black pregnant woman depicted before. It also brought attention to a larger issue at hand: A lack of diversity in medical illustrations.
California mother charged for telling child to hit opponent. A California woman was criminally charged Thursday for telling her daughter to “hit her” before the girl punched an opposing player in the head during a basketball game…The blow crumpled the 15-year-old victim “to the floor like a rag doll,” Spitzer said. The girl suffered a concussion, according to her family’s lawyer.
New Zealand’s plan to end smoking: A lifetime ban for youth. New Zealand’s government believes it has come up with a unique plan to end tobacco smoking — a lifetime ban for those aged 14 or younger. Under a new law the government announced Thursday and plans to pass next year, the minimum age to buy cigarettes would keep rising year after year. That means, in theory at least, 65 years after the law takes effect, shoppers could still buy cigarettes — but only if they could prove they were at least 80 years old.
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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