And another day of considerations, securing backing, blue and red states moving farther apart, ‘firmly on track toward an unlivable world,’ not calling it retaliation, Musk takes stake in Twitter, handguns and homicide risks, road-rage, and ‘ravenous’ jumping worms comes to a close:
“Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you cannot help them, at least do not hurt them” -- Dalai Lama
Deaths
US: 1,008,679 (+481)
World: 6,179,143 (+2986)
Cases
US: 81,867,963 (+35,351)
World: 492,781,338 (+1,024,799)
Editorial: If you saved $365,000 every single day for 2000 years, you still would not have as much wealth as Elon Musk. Think very hard about that.
Moscow has repeatedly warned Finland and Sweden of 'serious military and political consequences' if they join NATO. Even so, they are considering it.
Jackson secures more bipartisan backing for Supreme Court nomination as 3 Republicans endorse her in procedural vote. The 53-47 vote included support from all 50 Democrats and Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah. Murkowski and Romney announced their support for Jackson as the procedural vote was taking place.
Poll: Americans really didn't like how Republicans treated Ketanji Brown Jackson. False, malicious attacks involving child porn don’t go over so well, it turns out…But don’t expect Cruz and Hawley to care much about the broader public reception. The intended audience for their malicious performances absolutely ate it up—and that’s likely all that matters to these senators.
Flurry of New Laws Move Blue and Red States Further Apart. The flurry of action, particularly in the West, is intensifying already marked differences between life in liberal- and conservative-led parts of the country. And it’s a sign of the consequences when state governments are controlled increasingly by single parties…“We’re further and further polarizing and fragmenting, so that blue states and red states are becoming not only a little different but radically different,” said Jon Michaels, a law professor who studies government at UCLA. Americans have been sorting into opposing partisan camps for at least a generation, choosing more and more to live among like-minded neighbors, while legislatures, through gerrymandering, are reinforcing their states’ political identities by solidifying one-party rule…Some Republican bills are bold at first glance but vaguely worded. Some appear designed largely to energize base voters. Many, however, send a strong cultural message. And divisions will widen further, said Peverill Squire, an expert on state legislatures at the University of Missouri, if the Supreme Court hands more power over to the states on issues like abortion and voting, as it did when it said in 2019 that partisan gerrymandering was beyond federal jurisdiction…“We may be heading into a future where you could have conservative states and progressive states deciding they are better off pushing their own visions of what government should be.”
UN warns Earth ‘firmly on track toward an unlivable world’. Temperatures on Earth will shoot past a key danger point unless greenhouse gas emissions fall faster than countries have committed, the world’s top body of climate scientists said Monday, warning of the consequences of inaction but also noting hopeful signs of progress.
‘It’s Now Or Never’: We Have 3 Years to Reverse Course, Major Climate Report Finds. If anything could motivate world leaders out of climate apathy, it's this latest IPCC warning. -- We’ll see if they get motivated.
No obituary for Earth: Scientists fight climate doom talk. It’s not the end of the world. It only seems that way. Climate change is going to get worse, but as gloomy as the latest scientific reports are, including today’s from the United Nations, scientist after scientist stresses that curbing global warming is not hopeless. The science says it is not game over for planet Earth or humanity. Action can prevent some of the worst if done soon, they say.
Magic no more? DeSantis questions Disney's special operating city in Florida. The Reedy Creek Improvement District, a special administrative zone that is the site of Walt Disney World, has decades of history in Florida. Imagine if Disney had to go through its local planning and zoning board to build a new castle. Or if it suddenly had to rely on Orange County, Florida, and other local jurisdictions to pick up its trash. Or if it could no longer sell its own bonds to build roads in its parks. That's what could happen if some Florida legislators get their way. — DeSantis is trying to spin it as not retaliation, but yet he clearly didn’t have a problem with the arrangement before Disney spoke out against his hateful Don’t Say Gay law.
The worst people on the planet are cheering the reelection of Hungary's authoritarian leader. Viktor Orbán has pioneered a form of “illiberal democracy” that the American right increasingly looks to for inspiration.
Suddenly, Tesla’s Elon Musk is Twitter’s biggest stakeholder. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has taken a 9% stake in Twitter to become its largest shareholder after raising questions about the social media platform’s dedication to free speech. The ultimate aim of Musk’s 73.5 million share purchase worth $2.9 billion, based on the closing price Friday, is not clear. Yet in recent weeks Musk, who has 80 million Twitter followers and posts there often, has questioned free speech on Twitter and whether the platform is undermining democracy…His Twitter stock purchase comes as Musk is locked into a bitter dispute with U.S. securities regulators over his ability to post on Twitter. Musk’s lawyer has contended in court motions that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is infringing on the Tesla CEO’s First Amendment rights…The SEC brought a securities fraud charge, alleging that Musk was manipulating the stock price with his posts. — Elon Musk represents much of what’s wrong in this world. Also, see editorial at the top of today’s post.
Study finds higher homicide risk in homes with handguns. Most U.S. gun owners say they own firearms to protect themselves and their loved ones, surveys show. But a study published Monday suggests people who live with handgun owners are shot to death at a higher rate than those who don’t have such weapons at home. “We found zero evidence of any kind of protective effects” from living in a home with a handgun...The study has several shortcomings. For example, the researchers said they could not determine which victims were killed by the handgun owners or with the in-home weapons. They couldn’t account for illegal guns and looked only at handguns, not rifles or other firearms. The dataset also was limited to registered voters in California who were 21 and older. It’s not clear that the findings are generalizable to the whole state, let alone to the rest of the country, the authors acknowledged.
Road-rage shootings see ‘worst year on record’ in 2021. More than 500 people in the U.S. were killed or wounded while driving last year. More than 500 people in the U.S. were killed or wounded in road-rage shootings in 2021, the "worst year on record" for gun violence on streets and highways, according to analysis released Monday by Everytown for Gun Safety.
With students in turmoil, US teachers train in mental health. Since the pandemic started, experts have warned of a mental health crisis facing American children. That is now playing out at schools in the form of increased childhood depression, anxiety, panic attacks, eating disorders, fights and thoughts of suicide at alarming levels, according to interviews with teachers, administrators, education officials and mental health experts.
Efforts to ban books jumped an 'unprecedented' four-fold in 2021, ALA report says. But the American Library Association said Monday that this year there have been more challenges to books than they have seen since they started tracking it in 2000…Additionally, the ALA cannot track what they call "silent censorship," when individuals take it upon themselves to make sure that books cannot be found in libraries — hiding them in drawers, tossing them out, or simply taking them off the shelves. This often leads to books being listed in library catalogues but never able to be found when looking for them.
THC and CBD exposure in womb linked to childhood obesity, higher blood sugar, study says. Pregnant women who were exposed to cannabis products that contained THC and CBD were more likely to have children with increased fat mass and blood sugar levels at age 5, a new pilot study found. "So some women may use it in pregnancy, thinking that it's a safe alternative to other medicines, even prescribed medications," Moore said. "Yet studies show connections between marijuana use during pregnancy and low-birth weight in babies and behavioral problems later in childhood, and there may be links to glucose and weight issues as well."
Woman dies after eating cannabis gummy sweet. A man has been charged with possession with intent to supply Class B synthetic cannabinoid, being concerned in the supply of a synthetic cannabinoid and possession with intent to supply a psychoactive substance. — So they could have done a better job writing that headline.
‘Ravenous’ jumping worms are spreading in US. ‘Only takes one to create a new invasion’. Invasive jumping worms are a type of earthworm, and they “devour organic matter more rapidly…stripping the forest of the layer critical for seedlings and wildflowers,” according to Cornell. It’s believed that the first Asian jumping earthworms were recorded in the late 19th century, and they can be found in the woods, parks, backyards and even compost piles…The worms are gray and brown and are identifiable by a white band that circles their tube-like body. — They also don’t need a mate to reproduce.
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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