And another day of battling multiple outbreaks, limiting abortion, prohibiting abortion, narrowing the gender pay gap, the plastics crisis, farmers fighting bird flu, nastier pollen seasons, and the US Senate voting to make daylight saving time permanent comes to a close:
"We will treat you the way people are supposed to be treated – as people, decently." — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
Deaths
US: 992,302 (+491 over two day)
World: 6,073,733 (+7688 over two days)
Cases
US: 81,244,936 (+70,359 over two days)
World: 462,012,958 (+3,490,682 over two days)
China battles multiple outbreaks, driven by stealth omicron. China banned most people from leaving a coronavirus-hit northeastern province and mobilized military reservists Monday as the fast-spreading “stealth omicron” variant fuels the country’s biggest outbreak since the start of the pandemic two years ago. — We may be done with Covid, but COVID’s not done with us.
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff tests positive for Covid-19. Emhoff's positive test is the first known case of Covid-19 among the first or second families since President Joe Biden and Harris took office in January 2021.
Can states limit abortion and gender-affirming treatments outside their borders? Conservative lawmakers across the U.S. have unleashed a wave of state legislation attempting to restrict access to abortions and to gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth by allowing lawsuits to be filed against anyone who helps them. But now there's a new twist in what appears to be a broader Republican strategy: Representatives in multiple states are pushing bills that would attempt to limit what residents can and can't do even beyond state lines…At their core, Vladeck says, such bills are legal experiments intended to slowly erode constitutional protections. "What's ominous and scary about them is that if they work even a little, even the fact that they're part of public discourse, they've done a ton of damage to our constitutional system." — Republicans love to have big government run your life. Don’t fall for their “personal freedom” and “small government” bullshit mantra. They aim to control what you do—and it’s only what they approve. Fuck them. And fuck you if you support Republicans.
Tennessee lawmakers introduce Texas-styled abortion bill. The Tennessee version introduced Tuesday would ban all abortions rather than allowing a patient to have a six-week window. But similar to the Texas model, it still would make legal challenges difficult because the government would not be the enforcer. -- Republicans are hell-bent on making America a country of vigilantes. Soon there won’t be any Constitutional rights. Again: fuck you if you support Republicans, and fuck you if you think abortion should be illegal.
Biden moving to narrow gender pay gap for federal workers. The White House is marking Equal Pay Day by taking new steps aimed at ending the gender pay gap for federal workers and contractors. President Joe Biden on Tuesday is signing an executive order that encourages the government to consider banning federal contractors from seeking information about job applicants’ prior salary history. And a new Labor Department directive is aimed at strengthening federal contractors’ obligations to audit payrolls to help guard against pay disparities based on gender, race or ethnicity.
Mississippi governor signs law limiting discussion of race in schools. The short title of Senate Bill 2113 says it would prohibit “critical race theory.” But the main text of the legislation does not mention or define the theory, and many supporters of the bill also have said they cannot define it. The new law says no school, community college or university could teach that any “sex, race, ethnicity, religion or national origin is inherently superior or inferior.”
The Plastics Industry Says It Has a Clever Solution to the Plastics Crisis. Those systems, in theory, created a destination for plastics aside from landfills, assuaging consumer guilt about using polluting—and practically indestructible—products. But as the bottom fell out of the international market, an inconvenient truth was highlighted: Most plastics are impervious to traditional recycling…In response to the crisis, the plastics industry is pushing investments in so-called chemical recycling, hoping to give plastics a new, guilt-free life cycle…Of the billions of tons of plastic ever made, Geyer and two colleagues estimated in 2017 that only about 9 percent has been recycled. The rest has been incinerated or, more often, just dumped—at best into landfills, at worst into trash piles that can leak into rivers and streams…Not everyone agrees. Many environmentalists argue that chemical recycling simply provides political cover for the continued production of plastics and the fossil fuels it takes to make them. Consumers shouldn’t be fooled by a solution to plastics that, well, involves plastics. — 9%. We’ve been suckered. And it looks like they’re trying to play us as suckers again.
Disabled people facing ‘impossible choices to survive’ in cost of living crisis. Disabled people will face “impossible choices in order to survive” amid a perfect storm of soaring energy prices, increasing fuel and food costs and cuts to government support, charities have warned. As the UK steadies itself for a rise in energy bills next month at the same time as state benefits are cut in real terms, leading disability and poverty charities including Scope, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), Leonard Cheshire, and the MS Society have said that disabled people and their families will be put under severe financial pressure. They warn that disabled people could be pushed to use food banks and unwashed soiled clothes in order to prioritise keeping lifesaving medical equipment such as ventilators running, as well as other vital goods. Disabled people typically have higher energy needs than the wider public, while being more likely to be in poverty.
India court upholds ban on hijab in schools and colleges. An Indian court Tuesday upheld a ban on wearing hijab in class in the southern state of Karnataka, saying the Muslim headscarf is not an essential religious practice of Islam in a ruling that is likely to further deepen religious tensions in the country. -- Why can’t we just let people be themselves? Why do so many feel this uncontrollable need to oppress others?
Chicken, turkey farmers struggle to keep birds safe from flu. Nearly 7 million chickens and turkeys in 13 states have been killed this year due to avian influenza, prompting officials and farmers to acknowledge that, despite their best efforts, stopping the disease from infecting poultry is incredibly difficult.
The Big Sneeze: Climate change to make pollen season nastier. As the world warms, allergy season will start weeks earlier and end many days later — and it’ll be worse while it lasts, with pollen levels that could as much as triple in some places, according to a new study Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.
Dolly Parton turns down Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination. Dolly Parton has announced she is pulling out of this year's nominations for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, saying she hasn't "earned that right."
Senate approves bill to make daylight saving time permanent. The Senate unanimously approved a measure Tuesday that would make daylight saving time permanent across the United States next year. The bipartisan bill, named the Sunshine Protection Act, would ensure Americans would no longer have to change their clocks twice a year. But the bill still needs approval from the House, and the signature of President Joe Biden, to become law.
“AMERICA: ‘We want universal healthcare, a higher minimum wage, child care, and green energy.’
“CONGRESS: ‘Well, now you don't have to reset your clocks, so let's call it even.’ “
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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