And another day of warnings from Canada, memes, Covid being more dangerous than you think, 19 dead in a NYC fire, Tek Fog, factually false reviews, DeSantis aims to destroy public education, and Full House loses its dad comes to a close:
“Excising individual freedom should never impact another person’s individual freedom.” — Wendell Pierce
“They aren’t going to be doing the fighting themselves. We’ve already seen what happens when the going gets tough for Ted Cruz…These instigators will send others into battle.. and for what? the orange headed love child of Rupert Murdoch and David Duke?” -- Jim Acosta
“The GOP has now made defending our democracy a partisan issue.” — DeanObdeiallah
Deaths
US: 859,356 (+310)
World: 5,505,883 (+3217)
Cases
US: 61,263,030 (+309,002)
World: 307,890,832 (+1,852,910)
The American polity is cracked, and might collapse. Canada must prepare. The U.S. is becoming increasingly ungovernable, and some experts believe it could descend into civil war. What should Canada do then? By 2025, American democracy could collapse, causing extreme domestic political instability, including widespread civil violence. By 2030, if not sooner, the country could be governed by a right-wing dictatorship. We mustn’t dismiss these possibilities just because they seem ludicrous or too horrible to imagine. In 2014, the suggestion that Donald Trump would become president would also have struck nearly everyone as absurd. But today we live in a world where the absurd regularly becomes real and the horrible commonplace…Some diagnoses of America’s crisis that highlight “toxic polarization” imply the two sides are equally responsible for that crisis. They aren’t. While both wings of U.S. politics have fanned polarization’s flames, blame lies disproportionately on the political right…Now, adopting Mr. Limbaugh’s tried-and-true methods, demagogues on the right are pushing the radicalization process further than ever before. By weaponizing people’s fear and anger, Mr. Trump and a host of acolytes and wannabees such as Fox’s Tucker Carlson and Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene have captured the storied GOP and transformed it into a near-fascist personality cult that’s a perfect instrument for wrecking democracy. And it’s not inaccurate to use the F word. As conservative commentator David Frum argues, Trumpism increasingly resembles European fascism in its contempt for the rule of law and glorification of violence…The Trump cult presents itself as the only truly patriotic party able to defend U.S. values and history against traitorous Democrats beholden to cosmopolitan elites and minorities who neither understand nor support “true” American values. The Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. capitol must be understood in these terms. The people involved didn’t think they were attacking U.S. democracy – although they unquestionably were. Instead, they believed their “patriotic” actions were needed to save it…Democracy is an institution, but underpinning that institution is a vital set of beliefs and values. If a substantial enough fraction of a population no longer holds those beliefs and values, then democracy can’t survive. Probably the most important is recognition of the equality of the polity’s citizens in deciding its future; a close runner up is willingness to concede power to one’s political opponents, should those equal citizens decide that’s what they want. At the heart of the ideological narrative of U.S. right-wing demagogues, from Mr. Trump on down, is the implication that large segments of the country’s population – mainly the non-white, non-Christian, and educated urban ones – aren’t really equal citizens. They aren’t quite full Americans, or even real Americans…When the situation is framed in such a Manichean way, righteous ends justify any means. One of the two American parties is now devoted to victory at any cost…A U.S. civil-military expert and senior federal appointee I consulted noted that a re-elected president Trump could be totally unconstrained, nationally and internationally…The experts I consulted described a range of possible outcomes if Mr. Trump returns to power, none benign. They cited particular countries and political regimes to illustrate where he might take the U.S.: Viktor Orban’s Hungary, with its coercive legal apparatus of “illiberal democracy”; Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil, with its chronic social distemper and administrative dysfunction; or Vladimir Putin’s Russia, with its harsh one-man hyper-nationalist autocracy. All agreed that under a second Trump administration, liberalism will be marginalized and right-wing Christian groups super-empowered, while violence by vigilante, paramilitary groups will rise sharply…extremist right-wing ideologies generally don’t arise from explicit efforts to forge an authoritarian society, but from the radicalization of a society’s existing understandings of how it can stay safe and secure in the face of alleged threats. Hardline conceptions of security are “radicalized versions of familiar claims about threat, self-defence, punishment, war, and duty,” he writes. They are the foundation on which regimes organize campaigns of violent persecution and terror. People he calls “hardliners” believe the world contains many “dangerous enemies that frequently operate in and through purported ‘civilian’ groups.” Hardliners increasingly dominate Trumpist circles now…A terrible storm is coming from the south, and Canada is woefully unprepared. Over the past year we’ve turned our attention inward, distracted by the challenges of COVID-19, reconciliation, and the accelerating effects of climate change. But now we must focus on the urgent problem of what to do about the likely unravelling of democracy in the United States. — Now go read the rest of the article. Our Canadian friends are worried about us.
Texas GOP’s voting meme shows how Trump-style messaging wins internet’s attention. The Republican Party of Texas’ meme that linked COVID-19 test wait times with waiting in line to vote is the latest example of a growing — and successful — political social media strategy, experts say. A Twitter meme posted on Friday by the Republican Party of Texas that compared waiting in line for COVID-19 tests to waiting in line to vote quickly provoked anger from the left, giddiness from the right, and rose to one of the top trending posts on the platform that day. In other words, experts on propaganda and internet misinformation said, the meme did exactly what it was intended to do. “The goal is to further divide people, but divide them by making them feel they’re part of a group.” — The GOP fosters fear, hatred, and division.
"Sean thinks we should do this": Insiders reveal how Trump relied on Hannity, Ingraham, and other Fox News luminaries. Trump reportedly let hosts Hannity and Lou Dobbs join in Oval Office staff meetings by phone. Fox News hosts were more influential in the White House than previously known, often acting as shadow advisors to the president in private phone calls. “There were times the president would come down the next morning and say, ‘Well, Sean thinks we should do this,’ or, ‘Judge Jeanine thinks we should do this.’” — Yeah. You read that shot correctly.
Jim Jordan rejects Jan. 6 panel's request to cooperate in investigation. The committee had asked Jordan to provide information about his communication with former President Trump about the deadly insurrection. -- They are all going to get away with everything. No one in power will be held accountable for the events leading to January 6. Laws are for suckers.
PSA: COVID-19 isn’t “just a cold,” isn’t “a respiratory virus,” and “mild” doesn’t mean what you think it does. If you “aren’t scared of COVID”, this thread is for you. — No, it is not just a cold. Avoid this virus at all costs.
Stay home or work sick? Omicron poses a conundrum. As the raging omicron variant of COVID-19 infects workers across the nation, millions of those whose jobs don’t provide paid sick days are having to choose between their health and their paycheck…What’s more, Schneider noted that the share of workers with paid sick leave before the pandemic barely budged during the pandemic — 50% versus 51% respectively. He further noted many of the working poor surveyed don’t even have $400 in emergency funds, and families will now be even more financially strapped with the expiration of the child tax credit, which had put a few hundred dollars in families’ pockets every month.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tests positive for Covid.
In a confusing pandemic moment, experts share their own approaches. NBC News asked four public health experts about their personal behavior and risk calculus during this omicron surge.
19 dead, including 9 children, in NYC apartment fire. A malfunctioning space heater sparked a fire that filled a Bronx apartment building with thick smoke, killing 19 people including nine children Sunday in New York City’s deadliest fire in three decades.
Ron Desantis tonight says that liberal educators are “teaching kids to hate this country,” so he is pushing for a new law so parents can “inspect curriculum,” and sue schools if they catch teachers who “smuggle in” any “inappropriate content.” -- Yeah, that’s not scary at all. WTF? This is dangerous thinking coming from a prominent politician.
Chicago Public Schools cancels classes for fourth consecutive day. Classes in Chicago will be canceled again Monday, making it the fourth consecutive day students have been out of school as the standoff between the Chicago Teachers Union and City officials drags on amid a Covid-19 surge.
Tek Fog: An App With BJP Footprints for Cyber Troops to Automate Hate, Manipulate Trends. Through this process, The Wire was able to build upon these first shreds of evidence and uncover a vast operation pointing towards the existence of a group of public and private actors working together to subvert public discourse in the world's largest democracy by driving inauthentic trends and hijacking conversations across almost all major social media platforms...This feature is also used to amplify right-wing propaganda, exposing this content to a more diverse audience on the platform, making extremist narratives and political campaigns appear more popular than they actually are...Another alarming feature offered by the app is its ability to allow individual operatives to hijack 'inactive' WhatsApp accounts of private citizens and use their phone number to message their 'frequently contacted' or 'all contacts', using a technique resembling 'token theft'. App operators also use this feature to phish the personal information of targeted users to add to a cloud-based political database. The addition of private citizens into this database makes them available as potential targets in future harassment and trolling campaigns...Another important functionality present in the app screens was the ability for app operatives to delete or remap all existing accounts at a moment's notice. This feature theoretically allows them to destroy all incriminating evidence of their past activity.
Kazakhstan says 164 killed in last week’s protests. Kazakhstan authorities said Sunday that 164 people, including a 4-year-old girl, were killed in a week of protests that marked the worst unrest since the former Soviet republic gained independence 30 years ago.
The Golden Globes won't have celebrities, a host or even a telecast. Tonight's show is the first since a media report revealed ethical lapses and a stunning lack of diversity in the group that gives out the awards, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Drone carrying a defibrillator saves its first heart attack patient in Sweden. Everdrone plans to expand the service in Sweden later this year.
Tennessee bill would make leaving factually false reviews online a misdemeanor crime. The bill states an offense would be "Posting a review on the internet about a business that is factually false with the intent to defraud the public." Class B misdemeanors in Tennessee can lead to up to 6 months in jail and fines of up to $500.
Why was there less lightning during COVID lockdowns? Scientists believe that tiny particles in the atmosphere called aerosols contribute to lightning, and human activities such as burning fossil fuels release aerosols. A study published last year showed that since humans released fewer aerosols during lockdowns, the concentration of aerosols in the atmosphere decreased. Last month, researchers at the American Geophysical Union meeting in New Orleans presented findings showing that this drop in atmospheric aerosols coincided with a drop in lightning.
First Colombian with non-terminal illness dies legally by euthanasia. “We reached the goal for patients like me, who aren’t terminal but degenerative, to win this battle, a battle that opens the doors for the other patients who come after me and who right now want a dignified death,” Escobar, 60, said in a video message sent to media by Giraldo.
“Like with any good art form, if you can entertain people and make them think, it's an honor. It's just an honor to be a comedian.” -- Bob Saget
RIP Bob Saget. He was 65.
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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