And another day of a ‘slow-motion insurrection,’ Maxwell convicted, record Covid numbers, the CDC on defense, partisan school boards, content moderators, the 737 Max, America running on bad jobs, and something for white people tired of being called racist comes to a close:
“Voter fraud is a story concocted by the GOP over decades to justify passing laws that make it harder for the people they think are against them to vote. In Trump’s hands, it became the big lie. But it’s just that, a lie. The Senate must protect our right to vote.” — Joyce Alene
“Anyone can spot a lie, unless he is in need of that lie.” — Clarence Darrow
Deaths
US: 844,272 (+4843 over two days)
World: 5,438,616 (+16,049 over two days)
Cases
US: 54,656,866 (+919,177 over two days)
World: 284,908,076 (+3,084,933 over two day)
‘Slow-motion insurrection’: How GOP seizes election power. In battleground states and beyond, Republicans are taking hold of the once-overlooked machinery of elections. While the effort is incomplete and uneven, outside experts on democracy and Democrats are sounding alarms, warning that the United States is witnessing a “slow-motion insurrection” with a better chance of success than Trump’s failed power grab last year. They point to a mounting list of evidence: Several candidates who deny Trump’s loss are running for offices that could have a key role in the election of the next president in 2024. In Michigan, the Republican Party is restocking members of obscure local boards that could block approval of an election. In Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, the GOP-controlled legislatures are backing open-ended “reviews” of the 2020 election, modeled on a deeply flawed look-back in Arizona. The efforts are poised to fuel disinformation and anger about the 2020 results for years to come...“It’s not clear that the Republican Party is willing to accept defeat anymore,” said Steven Levitsky, a Harvard political scientist and co-author of the book “How Democracies Die.” “The party itself has become an anti-democratic force.”...This time, experts argue, is different: Never in the country’s modern history has a major party sought to turn the administration of elections into an explicitly partisan act. -- We may have witnessed our last fair and free election.
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” -- Abraham Lincoln
Ghislaine Maxwell convicted in Epstein sex abuse case. The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted Wednesday of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by the American millionaire Jeffrey Epstein...Jurors deliberated for five full days before finding Maxwell guilty of five of six counts.
“Ghislaine Maxwell is sentenced (as she should be), but Alan Dershowitz (in his soiled undies), Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and countless other powerful men are free to reminisce about the times they pawed one of Ghislaine's prey. That is not justice for those trafficked girls.” -- Mrs. Betty Bowers
'We must adapt': CDC defends new isolation guidance amid omicron surge. The new guidance, which shortens the recommended isolation time from 10 days to 5 days for people without symptoms, has come under criticism from some health experts. But the new CDC guidance, which shortens the recommended isolation time from 10 days to five days for people without symptoms, has come under harsh criticism from some health experts who say it was not based on "science" and could cause still infectious asymptomatic people to transmit the virus to others. "I don't think there's any big change in science that justifies a change in guidance," said Lawrence Gostin, director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law. The guidance "has much more to do with societal function than to do with science." He and other health experts have argued that people without symptoms should also be required to get a confirmed negative test to leave isolation. The current guidance only asks asymptomatic people to wear a mask for an additional five days after isolation, leaving it up to the public to assess their own Covid risk. -- The new guidance is what they thought Americans would tolerate. How pathetic.
The US hit a seven-day average of 254,496 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University data -- blowing past the country's previous record of about 251,989 daily cases, reported on January 11.
New COVID-19 cases in US soar to highest levels on record. More than a year after the vaccine was rolled out, new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. have soared to their highest level on record at over 265,000 per day on average, a surge driven largely by the highly contagious omicron variant. -- And the unvaccinated. Let’s not leave them out.
France recorded more than 208,000 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, setting a new daily case record, Health Minister Olivier Véran says. By that tally, "every second, two French people" have tested positive, Véran says.
Immunocompromised at higher risk of COVID breakthrough infection: Study. A new study suggests immunocompromised people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 are more likely to have breakthrough infections than people without weakened immune systems. The highest breakthrough case rate was seen among organ transplant patients.
Oregon State University will require COVID-19 booster shots. Oregon State University will require COVID-19 booster shots for students and staff when they become eligible during the upcoming winter term.
Universities overhaul spring semester plans as omicron surges. Some universities have announced a delayed start for the spring semesters, while others are opting to start the semester with remote learning.
NFL, players union agrees to cut COVID-19 isolation time to 5 days. The new rule will apply to both vaccinated and unvaccinated players, but vaccinated players can "test out" of quarantine before the five days pass.
For White People Tired of Being Called “Racist”. You may be tired of being called racist, white friends. The rest of us are tired of you partnering with racists and expecting us to be OK with it and to be silent about it. I’m not OK with it and I’m not going to be silent about it.
Republicans eye new front in education wars: Making school board races partisan. Republicans across America are pressing local jurisdictions and state lawmakers to make typically sleepy school board races into politicized, partisan elections in an attempt to gain more statewide control and swing them to victory in the 2022 midterms. Tennessee lawmakers in October approved a measure that allows school board candidates to list their party affiliation on the ballot. Arizona and Missouri legislators are weighing similar proposals. And GOP lawmakers in Florida will push a measure in an upcoming legislative session that would pave the way for partisan school board races statewide, potentially creating new primary elections that could further inflame the debate about how to teach kids. The issue is about to spread to other states.
The nearly 17 feet of snow in California's Sierra Nevada is crushing records. It's still not enough.
Indonesia is lifting a ban on Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft three years after one crashed shortly after taking off from a Jakarta airport, killing all 189 people on board. Governments grounded the planes after a total of 346 people died in two crashes.
TikTok content moderator alleges in lawsuit that job gave her PTSD. Candie Frazier said she developed post-traumatic stress disorder “as a result of constant and unmitigated exposure to highly toxic and extremely disturbing images at the workplace.” The suit said she is exposed to posts that include “child sexual abuse, rape, torture, bestiality, beheadings, suicide, and murder.” She is also subjected to conspiracy theories, distortions of historical facts and political disinformation, the suit said.
America runs on bad jobs. Nearly two years into the outbreak in the United States, the conversation has shifted to a labor shortage -- businesses just can't find enough workers. Meanwhile, lawmakers and economists are trying to figure out what's still keeping people on the sidelines. It's a complicated puzzle that includes pieces like child care and early retirement, but one lesson from the pandemic is that workers have had it with bad jobs.
Family Surveillance by Algorithm: The Rapidly Spreading Tools Few Have Heard Of. Child welfare agencies across the country are turning to predictive analytics, but few families know they are subject to them.
“We are not shown healthy examples of men. Can you think of any? Especially in the context of romance movies and books.”
RIP Harry Reid. He was 82.
RIP John Madden. He was 85.
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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