And another day of grand juries, shredding voting rights, election police, SCOTUS again bails on TX abortion law, felonies for medical professionals in AZ, ‘curriculum transperancy,’ an ex-Pope, superbugs, alcohol, the housing market, and changing M&Ms comes to a close:
“All Republicans have is ‘Fear, Fraud and Fascism.’" — Jaime Harrison
Deaths
US: 883,903 (+2927)
World: 5,593,256 (+9518)
Cases
US: 70,544,862 (+736,512)
World: 343,059,726 (+3,664,179)
Trump campaign officials, led by Rudy Giuliani, oversaw fake electors plot in 7 states. Trump and some of his top advisers publicly encouraged the "alternate electors" scheme in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada and New Mexico. But behind the scenes, Giuliani and Trump campaign officials actively choreographed the process.
Georgia prosecutor requests special grand jury in Trump election probe. Fulton County DA Fani Willis said some witnesses have refused to cooperate without subpoenas. A special grand jury would have the power to subpoena witnesses.
GOP States Are Shredding Voting Rights and Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema Are Now Complicit. The 48 Democrats who supported reforming the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation represented 34 million more Americans than the 52 senators (every Republican plus Manchin and Sinema) who upheld it.
Voting rights fight shifts back to statehouses as Senate Democrats fail to advance national protections. Just weeks from the first primaries of the 2022 midterm elections, the fight over voting rights is unfolding again at the state level -- with Republicans in several swing states proposing new measures that would make it harder to vote.
Why Texas election officials are rejecting hundreds of vote-by-mail applications. Several counties in Texas have reported rejecting hundreds of vote-by-mail applications in the past week because of confusion over new ID requirements created by a Republican-backed law that went into effect last month. The Texas law, known as Senate Bill 1, requires that people provide either a partial Social Security number or a driver's license number on their application for a mail-in ballot — and that number has to match the identification on their voter registration. The problem is this: A lot of people don't remember what form of ID they put on their registration. That's especially true if they registered to vote decades ago.
“African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans.” — Mitch McConnell (WTF? This is who Mitch McConnell is. His blatant racism aside, though, he is referring to the past election turnout, which of course is why the GOP is making it more difficult for POC to vote in the next election. Fucking racists.)
"In this country, American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate." -- Toni Morrison
Boebert asked Jewish visitors to Capitol if they were doing "reconnaissance". Boebert is said to have seen the group of visitors on Thursday, looked at them “head to toe” and asked if they were visiting the Capitol to do “reconnaissance,” one person who saw the interaction told the outlet. -- Fucking disgusting.
GOP gubernatorial candidate David Perdue calls for new election police unit in Georgia. Perdue's plan would create "an Election Law Enforcement Division in the State of Georgia" that would "be charged with enforcing election laws, investigating election crimes and fraud, and arresting those who commit these offenses," according to a release from his campaign. Perdue's plan also called for "election results to be independently audited before certification." — The GOP has decided they want their own Gestapo.
Jan. 6 committee requests interview with Ivanka Trump. The House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection is asking Ivanka Trump, daughter of former President Donald Trump, to voluntarily cooperate as lawmakers make their first public attempt to arrange an interview with a Trump family member.
DeSantis administration puts Florida health director on leave for encouraging vaccinations for his staff. Pino had written in a Jan. 4 email to his staff: “I have a hard time understanding how we can be in public health and not practice it,” WMFE, a public radio station in Orlando, reported. — This is crazy.
Supreme Court for third time allows Texas to bar abortions after six weeks. The U.S. Supreme Court has once again let the lower courts delay in addressing a Texas law that for four months has, for all practical purposes, made abortion in Texas illegal after six weeks of pregnancy, when many women do not yet know they are pregnant.
States with weaker gun laws have higher rates of firearm-related homicides and suicides, study finds. A new study published Thursday by a leading non-profit organization that focuses on gun violence prevention found that there is a direct correlation in states with weaker gun laws and higher rates of gun deaths, including homicides, suicides and accidental killings.
Pope Benedict failed to act against abusive priests when he was archbishop in the 1970s and 1980s in Germany, report finds. The archdiocese and the law firm said that top church officials had been informed of the results ahead of its publication. However, in a statement to NBC News, the Vatican said the report's "contents are presently unknown."
Tennessee-based adoption agency refuses to help couple because they're Jewish. A Knoxville couple is suing the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, saying a state-sponsored Christian-based adoption agency refused to help them because they are Jewish. It is the state’s first lawsuit to challenge a new law that allows religious adoption agencies to deny service to families whose religious or moral beliefs aren't in sync with the provider's. — Who could have ever seen that coming? Um…almost everyone! “Religious freedom” laws promote and encourage hatred towards others.
Arizona medical professionals who perform gender-affirming surgery or provide hormonal treatment to transgender or gender nonconforming minors would face felony charges and prison time under a proposed law from a northern Arizona legislator. Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, proposed Senate Bill 1045 to prohibit medical procedures that affirm the gender identity of children and teens who are transgender. The law would ban medical staff from doing gender affirming surgeries on transgender minors and prescribing testosterone to transgender men or estrogen to transgender women who are under 18. Health professionals would be guilty of a Class 4 felony, with a prison sentence one to three years. SB1045 would also prohibit a teacher, nurse, counselor or any other school staff from withholding information about a transgender student’s gender identity from the child’s parent…“It is dangerous,” Starzyk said. “It is deadly because if (children) don’t have the foundational information, if they have nobody they can turn and oftentimes is the only one they can turn to is the professional at school before, (the legislature) is laying the foundation for students suicides.” — Stop this shit, AZ.
NCAA adopts new policy for transgender athletes. The NCAA has adopted a sport-by-sport approach for transgender athletes, bringing the organization in line with the U.S. and International Olympic Committees.
They fought critical race theory. Now they’re focusing on ‘curriculum transparency.’ Conservative activists want schools to post lesson plans online, but free speech advocates warn such policies could lead to more censorship in K-12 schools. Lawmakers in at least 12 states have introduced legislation to require schools to post lists of all of their teaching materials online, including books, articles and videos. The governors of Arizona, Florida and Iowa, who have previously raised concerns about how teachers discuss racism’s impact on politics and society, called for curriculum transparency laws in speeches to their legislatures this month. -- Remember, the GOP goal is to abolish public education. They may just very well succeed because who would want to be a teacher under all this bullshit?
The CIA says that the mysterious symptoms known as Havana Syndrome are not the result of a sustained global campaign by a hostile power. In about two dozen cases, the agency cannot rule out foreign involvement, including many of the cases that originated at the U.S. Embassy in Havana beginning in 2016. Another group of cases is considered unresolved. But in hundreds of other cases of possible symptoms, the agency has found plausible alternative explanations, the sources said. The CIA declined to comment.
Antibiotic-resistant superbugs kill more people than AIDS or malaria: study. More than a million people worldwide die each year from infections linked to microbes resistant to antibiotics, a new study has found. Researchers describe the threat as "one of the greatest challenges facing humanity."
No amount of alcohol is good for the heart, new report says, but critics disagree on science. In a bold move, the World Health Federation released a policy brief Thursday saying that no amount of alcohol is good for the heart.
Something Has to Give in the Housing Market. Or Does It? Two years into the pandemic, rundown bungalows command bidding wars, buyers keep snatching up places they have never seen, and homebuilders can’t find enough cabinet doors for everyone who wants a new home. The median price for an American home is up nearly 20% in a year. The for-sale inventory is at a new low. And the hopeful buyers left on the sidelines have helped drive up rents instead...“It’s not a bubble, it really is about the fundamentals,” said Jenny Schuetz, a housing researcher at the Brookings Institution. “It really is about supply and demand — not enough houses, and huge numbers of people wanting homes.”
The M&Ms are different now. So far, 2022 has not been very different from recent years, in that every day America seems to wake to what I can only call immensely bad news…And oh yeah, did you hear, they’re getting rid of the go-go boots on the goddamn green M&M?…The changes to the M&M characters are mainly as follows, according to CBS: the red M&M, who is generally known for being a pain, will be nicer. The orange one “will embrace his true self, worries and all,” whatever that means, and is being angled toward Gen Z. (You know, because he’s anxious.) The brown M&M will have shorter heels, and the green M&M will be reduced to a pair of sneakers (still unclear if they are actually dating or not). Yellow and blue appear to be coming out of this move relatively unscathed, although it’s unclear what makes them so much better than the rest of the gang. According to Mars, which has faced accusations of human rights violations, these changes are meant to reflect a “more dynamic, progressive world.” It might seem that they have failed to see the progressiveness of their green M&M, their crown jewel, who for as long as the public can remember has been unafraid of her own sexuality. However, it is obvious, and maddening for reasons I can barely articulate, that Mars knows the extent of her power and yet chose to downgrade her just the same.
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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