And another day of making it easier to bribe members of Congress, sparking a race war, ‘replacement theory’ bullshit, harassing TX librarians, student athlete mental health, helping old mice remember, wildfires, ads, and UFOs comes to a close:
“The Supreme Court used to have a semblance of honor, no longer, the court is as corrupt as any third world banana republic. They lied at their confirmations and now, they have backed Ted Cruz. Even Ted Cruz’s own kids don’t back Ted Cruz.” -- Titus
“This 6-3 SCOTUS ruling in FEC v. Ted Cruz is a trillion times more important than the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial because it basically lets politicians who are currently in office raise money to funnel bribes directly into their own pockets in exchange for favorable legislation.” -- Fifty Shades of Whey
Deaths
US: 1,027,285
World: 6,292,624
Cases
US: 84,473,447
World: 524,096,378
The Supreme Court just made it much easier to bribe a member of Congress. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority has been at war with campaign finance laws for more than a dozen years, stretching at least as far back as its decision in Citizens United v. FEC (2010). On Monday, the Court’s six Republican appointees escalated this war. The Court’s decision in FEC v. Ted Cruz for Senate is a boon to wealthy candidates. It strikes down an anti-bribery law that limited the amount of money candidates could raise after an election in order to repay loans they made to their own campaign…Indeed, now that this limit on loan repayments has been struck down, lawmakers with sufficiently creative accountants may be able to use such loans to give themselves a steady income stream from campaign donors…Because the 6-3 decision in Ted Cruz neutralizes the 2001 law, lawmakers may now potentially use a similar scheme in order to funnel legal bribes into their personal bank accounts.
A neo-Nazi idea to spark a race war inspired the Buffalo killings. This idea is called “accelerationism,” and violent white supremacists like the Buffalo shooter see it as their best chance to stop the so-called “Great Replacement”: the notion that the West’s white population is being “replaced” with nonwhites, a deliberate demographic shift often blamed on Jewish cabals. Accelerationists believe that race and ethnicity create inherent divisions within Western societies, which individual acts of violence can inflame. The idea is to “accelerate” the crackup of Western governments — and bring on a race war that culminates in white victory. In a 180-page document, the Buffalo shooter — who, per law enforcement, targeted Black people — directly credits his actions to accelerationist thinking. In a section titled “destabilization and accelerationism: tactics for victory,” he claims that “stability and comfort are the enemies of revolutionary change. Therefore we must destabilize and discomfort society wherever possible.” These passages are directly copied from writing by the 2019 Christchurch shooter in New Zealand, whose ideas previously influenced American mass shooters in Poway, California and El Paso, Texas. Militant neo-Nazi groups like Atomwaffen and The Base have built their ideology around accelerationism. Some scholars of the far right have even identified accelerationist thinking among the January 6 rioters. It is important not to overstate the influence of accelerationism in America. At present, it is an idea confined to a tiny fringe that has virtually no prospect of successfully toppling the US government or fomenting a race war. But the fact is that we are in a period of intense political polarization driven primarily by racial and cultural divides. And abhorrent extremist theories are increasingly finding purchase in mainstream spaces. Neo-Nazi killings may not be able to incite a race war, but they are horrific events — and they can intensify our divisions in ways that deepen America’s political crisis.
Tucker Carlson Tries, and Fails, to Distance Himself From Buffalo Shooter’s Manifesto. Tucker Carlson has long promoted the idea of the “great replacement,” a racist conspiracy theory holding that white people are being systematically replaced by immigrants. The theory was present throughout the 180-page manifesto of the teenager who killed 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket on Saturday, leading to renewed scrutiny of the mega-popular Fox News host. Carlson addressed that scrutiny on Monday night, essentially arguing that anyone espousing white supremacist views should be able to do so without fear of criticism. “Because a mentally ill teenager murdered strangers, you cannot be allowed to express your political views out loud,” he said. “That’s what they’re telling you. That’s what they’ve wanted to tell you for a long time, but Saturday’s massacre gives them a pretext and a justification.” There isn’t any significant contingent of people responding to the Buffalo shooting by saying Carlson or anyone else shouldn’t be able to express their views. Carlson is merely mad that his critics are expressing their views, which is that Carlson is a racist, and that the work he’s done to mainstream the “great replacement” theory and the fact that the shooter’s manifesto is filled with it may not be totally coincidental. Go ahead and have a look at some of the uncanny similarities between what the shooter wrote and what Carlson has pushed on his show:…The question he should probably be asking, and that Americans are plenty justified in asking themselves, is why the views of one of the influential figure in conservative media are so closely aligned with those of a mentally ill teenager who felt slaughtering 10 people at a supermarket was a righteous act. — The shooter wasn’t mentally ill. He knew what he was doing. Don’t let Republicans, or that maggot infested piece of shit Tucker Carlson, convince you otherwise.
The baseless "replacement" conspiracy began in white supremacist circles, but has since moved more mainstream on the political right, explicitly or implicitly. Here's a look at how that happened — and how former President Trump used it for political gain.
Republican Senate candidates promote ‘replacement’ theory. Several mainstream Republican Senate candidates are drawing on the “great replacement” conspiracy theory once confined to the far-right fringes of U.S. politics to court voters this campaign season, promoting the baseless notion that there is a plot to diminish the influence of white people in America. -- Fucking racist assholes. And if you support any of them, then you’re a fucking racist asshole, too.
Flashback: It’s Not Just Fox Pumping Out the Racist “Replacement” Conspiracy. Here Are 15 Republicans Fanning the Flames. The New York Times analyzed right-wing media—including Fox New shows like Tucker Carlson Tonight—and found “hundreds of examples of language, ideas, and ideologies that overlapped with the mass killer’s written statement.”…Below are some examples we found.
Far-right election denier Mastriano wins GOP race for governor in Pennsylvania. Mastriano, who promotes Trump's claims of a stolen 2020 election, will face state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination.
Pro-Trump ‘electors’ in Wisconsin hit with first-of-its-kind lawsuit. The first-of-its-kind litigation seeks to hold accountable a dozen named defendants who it accuses of perpetrating a fraudulent scheme to undermine democracy by attempting to bypass the will of Wisconsin voters — and to deter similar efforts in the future.
FDA clears COVID booster shot for healthy kids ages 5 to 11. U.S. regulators on Tuesday authorized a COVID-19 booster shot for healthy 5- to 11-year-olds, hoping an extra vaccine dose will enhance their protection as infections once again creep upward. Everyone 12 and older already was supposed to get one booster dose for the best protection against the newest coronavirus variants -- and some people, including those 50 and older, can choose a second booster.
Biden administration makes 8 more free Covid tests available to US households as it calls on Congress to pass additional funding.
Texas librarians face harassment as they navigate book bans. For those librarians working at schools and at public libraries, the pressure to keep some challenged books off the shelves is growing. And some Texas librarians say the insults and threats through social media and the added pressure from supervisors to remove books are taking a toll on the profession. “It’s the job I’ve always wanted my entire life,” Baker said. “But then it started getting to be a place where it was hostile.”
Jake Daniels: Why Blackpool player’s decision to come out as gay matters. It shouldn’t matter. But it does. When 17-year-old Jake Daniels publicly came out as a gay on Monday, phones pinged as the UK’s media raced to push out news alerts. This is a big story. In less than 24 hours, the young footballer has become a household name; written about on the front pages, discussed on morning television, mentioned countless times on social media, and praised by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson…The reaction to Daniels’ announcement has been positive. The world of football, its players, pundits and governing bodies at least, has united…Living life as your authentic self is not a privilege all enjoy, especially when living in the public eye, and so the reaction to Daniels’ announcement is significant because not only will it help the player himself, but it may also encourage others to also share their stories…Men’s professional football is still behind the women’s game – there were 40 openly gay, lesbian and bisexual players at the 2019 Women’s World Cup – and other sports. Daniels, who said he had known he was gay since the age of five or six, received support from his club and Stonewall before making his statement and he will need that to continue because being a trailblazer can be a heavy load to carry. He is a young man at the start of his career. A young man who, before Monday, few would have heard of.
Mental Health Is a Concern for Student Athletes After Recent Suicide Deaths. Mental health among student athletes has been thrust into the spotlight after at least five high-profile athletes died by suicide in recent months…“Everything is tied together – our academics and social lives and sports,” she says. “And sports culture has just trained us not to complain but to just work harder and do better.” As many student athletes attend school on scholarships that are reliant on academic success, they are not only pressured to be great at their sport, but to balance a full course load at the same time.
Wildfires are a growing risk for homeowners. Here are the states most in danger. Fires are getting more intense and more frequent due to climate change, which is drying out vegetation and making fires more likely to spark and burn longer. Notably, that's also increasing the likelihood of wildfires in areas known for temperate and humid climates. As a result, Florida now has the third-largest number of properties at risk for fire, after California and Texas, according to new data from the First Street Foundation. Today, 3.9 million properties in the state — or 4 in 10 — face some risk of wildfire, according to First Street. California has the most properties with some wildfire risk, at 4.6 million, while Texas has 4.5 million, according to First Street.
Coming soon to a streaming service near you: Ads. Ads were supposed to be on their way out, replaced by subscription money. Now Netflix, Disney, and everyone else is learning to live with them. Streaming TV viewers, meanwhile, will encounter unskippable ads that frequently repeat multiple times per show, and oftentimes seem randomly stitched into TV shows or movies without any rhyme or reason. They’re often way too loud — so much so that US lawmakers have proposed regulating them. All of this in a medium that was supposed to be more personalized and smarter than old-time TV. Instead, lots of it seems as dumb and scattershot as the spam in your inbox.
A substance found in young spinal fluid helps old mice remember. A team at Stanford University has reversed memory loss in elderly mice by flooding their brains with spinal fluid from younger animals.
Pentagon Reveals 400 UFO Sightings, Aims to Eliminate Stigma Around Reporting Mysterious Objects. Since the release of a Pentagon report on unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) last year, the number of reports by Navy Pilots of mysterious, odd aircraft sightings has grown to approximately 400, top Pentagon officials revealed at the first public hearing on UAP held in nearly 50 years...“UAPs are unexplained, it’s true, but they are real. They need to be investigated and the many threats they pose need to be mitigated.”...“Our main objective was to transition UAP efforts from an anecdotal or narrative based approach to a rigorous science and technology engineering focused study,” Bray said at the hearing. “The message is now clear, if you see something you need to report it.”
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
No comments:
Post a Comment