And another day of Ginni’s emails, Orbán mentoring the GOP, God on their side, estrogen may play a protective role, monkeypox continues to spread, Rick Scott’s plan will decimate seniors in FL, erasing motherhood, Musk vilifies Democrats, and teen ‘sextortion’ comes to a close:
“The calls of politicizing the court are coming from inside Clarence Thomas‘s house.” -- Molly Jong-Fast
Deaths
US: 1,028,741 (+404)
World: 6,298,817 (+1764)
Cases
US: 84,935,262 (+136,222)
World: 526,446,054 (+581,686)
Ginni Thomas’ emails deepen her involvement in 2020 election. Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and a conservative political activist, urged Republican lawmakers in Arizona after the 2020 presidential election to choose their own slate of electors, arguing that results giving Joe Biden a victory in the state were marred by fraud...In the days after The Associated Press and other news organizations called the presidential election for Biden, Thomas emailed two lawmakers in Arizona to urge them to choose “a clean slate of Electors” and “stand strong in the face of political and media pressure.” The AP obtained the emails under the state’s open records law. Thomas also had written to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in the weeks following the election encouraging him to work to overturn Biden’s victory and keep Trump in office, according to text messages first reported by the Post and CBS News. -- Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas needs to be removed from his position. He is compromised. How can we be okay with the wife of a Supreme Court Justice actively fighting to overthrow a legitimate presidential election? This is just more proof that January 6 was indeed an attempted coup. If we allow this to stand, then we have given up the country to fascists.
“Can we please get lectured again about how the institutions of our democracy shouldn’t be ‘bullied’?” — Dan Rather
“If there was justice, Clarence Thomas would not be a Justice.” — Barbara Malmet
Viktor Orbán tells CPAC the path to power is to ‘have your own media’. The Hungarian leader, Viktor Orbán, has told a conference of US conservatives that the path to power required having their own media outlets, calling for shows like Tucker Carlson’s to be broadcast “24/7”. Orbán, recently elected to a fourth term, laid out a 12-point blueprint to achieving and consolidating power to a special meeting of the US Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), under the slogan of “God, Homeland, Family”, held in Budapest. -- Yes, the CPAC conference is being held in Hungary. Yes, the GOP are trying to implement in the US what Orbán has accomplished in Hungary. The Republican Party has fully embraced fascism. It must be defeated and destroyed. This is not a drill.
Stefanik's echo of 'great replacement' rhetoric offers clues to her national ambitions — and her changing district. A racist shooting in Buffalo, New York, has increased scrutiny on Republicans, particularly Stefanik, who have echoed the kind of white nationalist theory embraced by the suspect.
Right-wing attorney John Eastman revealed in a late-night court filing that he was in touch directly with then-President Donald Trump about plans to overturn the 2020 election, which included receiving Trump's handwritten notes. The House Select Committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection is still seeking documents from Eastman. In a court filing, Eastman described two of them as "hand-written notes from former President Trump about information that he thought might be useful for the anticipated litigation." Eastman also said he was in touch with "six conduits" of Trump about what the former President wanted as the lawyer took part in the effort to plot court cases challenging the election. Three of the people worked for Trump's 2020 campaign, and three were the President's immediate staff, Eastman said.
Doug Mastriano really believes Trump's lies about 2020. He also might be Pennyslvania's next governor. Doug Mastriano’s primary win was bigger than anyone expected, says Philadelphia reporter Andrew Seidman. Now some Democrats regret their wish for a matchup with him. Doug Mastriano, Republicans’ gubernatorial candidate, is extreme even by modern GOP standards. The first-term state senator championed efforts to overturn President Joe Biden’s win in Pennsylvania in 2020 and has been subpoenaed by the House January 6 investigating committee for his participation in the events that led up the insurrection that day. He’ll face Democrat Josh Shapiro, the state’s current attorney general, in the general election.
Florida appeals court reinstates DeSantis congressional map. A new congressional map drawn by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ staff that could diminish the state’s Black representation in Washington was reinstated by an appeals court Friday, a week after a lower court judge said the map was unconstitutional. The 1st District Court of appeals ruled Judge Layne Smith erred when he ordered a replacement map be used for the 2022 election. The latest order means the governor’s map is reinstated pending the outcome of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the map.
Oklahoma Just Took Abortion Bans to a New Extreme. On Thursday, the Oklahoma House passed a bill banning nearly all abortions in the state. Like a recent ban passed in Texas, which barred abortion after six weeks, the law will be enforced through private civil action. And Oklahoma’s bill takes things even further by banning abortion beginning at fertilization. It will take effect immediately upon being signed by Republican Governor Kevin Stitt.
Religious backers of abortion rights say God’s on their side. The loudest voices in the abortion debate are often characterized along a starkly religious divide, the faithful versus not. But the reality is much more nuanced, both at this abortion clinic and in the nation that surrounds it. The clinic’s staff of 11 — most of them Black, deeply faithful Christian women — have no trouble at all reconciling their work with their religion. And as the U.S. Supreme Court appears poised to dismantle the constitutional right to an abortion, they draw on their faith that they will somehow continue…The white evangelical worldview that abortion is murder has consumed the conversation, flattening the understanding of how religion and views on abortion truly intersect, she said. Before Roe v. Wade, faith leaders in many places led efforts to help pregnant women access underground abortions, because they considered it a calling to show compassion and mercy to the most vulnerable. Now, Black Protestants have some of the most liberal views on access to abortion: Nearly 70% believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to the Public Religion Research Institute. White evangelicals are the other extreme, with only 24% believing abortion should be allowed in most or all cases…The idea of the state restricting what a person can do with their own body is in direct conflict with that, she said, and it is reminiscent of being under someone else’s control -- of slavery. — Which shows the abortion issue is based on racism. Everything wrong with this country is based on racism. And the Republican Party has embraced it, expresses it, and promotes it.
New clue about why Covid is deadlier for men: Estrogen may play a protective role. Women who received hormone replacement therapy after getting Covid had a 78 percent lower overall mortality rate than women who didn't take estrogen, a study found.
African scientists baffled by monkeypox cases in Europe, US. Cases of the smallpox-related disease have previously been seen only among people with links to central and West Africa. But in the past week, Britain, Spain, Portugal, Italy, U.S., Sweden and Canada all reported infections, mostly in young men who hadn’t previously traveled to Africa. There are about 80 confirmed cases worldwide and 50 more suspected ones, the World Health Organization said. France, Germany, Belgium and Australia reported their first cases Friday.
Florida seniors at risk of losing Social Security, Medicare under Scott’s harmful plan. Scott has proposed that, should the Republican Party regain the majority in Congress, all federal laws should be reauthorized every five years. That includes Social Security and Medicare. For either program to continue, Congress would have to vote to re-enact both — an outcome that would be far from guaranteed. And even if Social Security and Medicare were reauthorized, opponents of these programs would have an opportunity to cut earned benefits every five years. Fiscal conservatives have long been skeptical of federal programs that help society’s most vulnerable, but Scott’s proposal goes beyond skepticism to outright recklessness…Seniors should be wary of politicians who claim to support Social Security and Medicare, but also advocate policies that would undermine both programs. Scott’s is the boldest and most egregious to date. But for years his party has promoted privatizing both programs, raising eligibility ages, and other benefit cuts — preferably by special committees behind closed doors.
A lesbian mom raised her son for two years. An Oklahoma judge erased that in 15 minutes. Kris Williams was removed from her son’s birth certificate in a case experts say could test the boundaries of marriage equality. Williams and Wilson are legally married and decided to have W. together, according to Williams, with Wilson carrying the baby. But within 15 minutes of the hearing starting, Oklahoma County District Court Judge Lynne McGuire declared that because Williams had not adopted her son, she was not his legal parent. McGuire ordered that Williams be struck from W.’s birth certificate. In her place would go the couple’s sperm donor, who was now petitioning for custody…Williams’ case represents a nightmare scenario for many LGBTQ+ parents, who still lack the same rights granted to their heterosexual peers through marriage…Though parental laws vary from state-to-state, legal experts say Williams’ battle to maintain custody of her son could be a test case for Oklahoma and the nation seven years after the Supreme Court granted marriage equality nationwide.
LGBTQ event at Florida church ignites public anger and protest threats. The Youth Pride Conference is geared toward students between the ages of 12 and 18. The event is being organized by GLSEN, a nonprofit focused on making schools more inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer youths, and it's being hosted by the Naples United Church of Christ.
Tesla brand threatened by Musk harassment claim, criticism of Democrats. Musk on Thursday denied a report by Business Insider that he sexually harassed a flight attendant on a private jet in 2016, calling the person who made the claim a liar. The previous day, the Tesla chief executive, in the midst of a contentious effort to buy Twitter Inc (TWTR.N), said he would now vote Republican instead of Democrat and called the Democrats a "party of division and hate." — Don’t fall for the cult of Musk. He’s not really much different than Trump.
Over the past 7 months, 180 previously healthy children in the U.S. have had unexplained hepatitis. In an average year, up to 2,000 children are hospitalized with hepatitis, Dr. Jay Butler, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s deputy director for infectious diseases, said during a media briefing Friday. In up to half of those cases, he said, a cause is never identified.
A 17-year-old boy died by suicide hours after being scammed. The FBI says it’s part of a troubling increase in ‘sextortion’ cases. Law enforcement calls the scam “sextortion,” and investigators have seen an explosion in complaints from victims leading the FBI to ramp up a campaign to warn parents from coast to coast. The bureau says there were over 18,000 sextortion-related complaints in 2021, with losses in excess of $13 million. The FBI says the use of child pornography by criminals to lure suspects also constitutes a serious crime...One challenge for the FBI: many victims of sextortion do not report the incidents to law enforcement...Medical experts say there’s a key reason why young males are especially vulnerable to sextortion-related scams. “Teen brains are still developing,” said Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent medicine at Mass General in Boston. “So when something catastrophic happens, like a personal picture is released to people online, it’s hard for them to look past that moment and understand that in the big scheme of things they’ll be able to get through this.” Hadland said there are steps parents can take to help safeguard their kids from online harm...Hadland said it’s also critical that parents specifically warn teens of scams like sextortion, without shaming them.
Scientists discover an ancient forest inside a giant sinkhole in China. At 630 feet deep, the sinkhole would hide the Washington Monument and then some. The bottom of the pit holds an ancient forest spanning nearly three football fields in length, with trees towering over 100 feet high. And according to the Chinese government, it is one of 30 enormous sinkholes in the county.
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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