And another day of Graham confirming it, video footage, Ginny emails, predicting the US may ‘cease to be a democracy,’ hinting at future election chaos, a hotbed of racism and hatred, seizing rainbow toys, ‘forever chemicals,’ and automated tech vehicle crashes comes to a close:
“There is nothing new or original in the Handmaid’s Tale. This is the thing about … dystopian fiction: [It’s] like, ‘Let us take these examples of things that happen to marginalized communities and make them happen to white people too so you realize that this is real’.” – Thomas Lecaque
“Ron DeSantis spent the past year banning books, stigmatizing gay people, declaring war on private companies, presiding over tens of thousands of Covid deaths, and dismissing concerns over climate change as “left wing stuff” and therefore… won the endorsement of Elon Musk.” -- Alfons Lopez Tena
“Elon Musk is just another entitled, self-absorbed rich guy who really is only interested in protecting the interests of the billionaire class.” — Jemele Hill
Deaths
US: 1,037,664 (+1181)
World: 6,336,592 (+2360)
Cases
US: 87,759,180 (+209,617)
World: 542,503,603 (+728,941)
Top takeaways from last night's big primaries. It’s becoming more common than not for Republicans who support false election fraud theories to win GOP primaries. In many places, it is now the establishment GOP position.
QAnon and Election Deniers Had a Great Primary Night. A string of election-denying conspiracy theorists, some with close ties to QAnon, won their elections Tuesday night, pushing the Republican Party further into the arms of former President Donald Trump—and putting the 2024 elections at even greater risk of sabotage.
Lindsey Graham says it. Republicans aim to put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block. — Vote all Republicans out of office. It’s the only way to be certain America will have a future.
Video footage showing Republican Representative Barry Loudermilk giving a tour of the U.S. Capitol building to a man who participated in the January 6 riot, the previous day, drew the ire of the congressional panel investigating the attack. The video shows the man in question, who was not named, taking pictures of tunnels and security checkpoints the day before the attack while participating in a guided tour by Republican Representative Barry Loudermilk.
January 6 committee has emails between Ginni Thomas and John Eastman. The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack is in possession of email correspondence between conservative attorney John Eastman and Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, a conservative activist who's the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, a source familiar with the committee's investigation told CNN. The source who spoke with CNN would not provide details on the emails' contents or say if they were direct messages between the two or part of a larger group correspondence. The Washington Post first reported on the emails. A separate source said the emails were part of a tranche of messages provided to the committee after a federal judge ruled that Eastman's correspondence was pertinent to the committee's work investigating former President Donald Trump and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in the months leading up to January 6.
Half of Americans now predict U.S. may 'cease to be a democracy' someday. A new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows that most Democrats (55%) and Republicans (53%) now believe it is “likely” that America will “cease to be a democracy in the future” — a stunning expression of bipartisan despair about the direction of the country. Half of all Americans (49%) express the same sentiment when independents and those who do not declare any political affiliation are factored in, while just a quarter (25%) consider the end of U.S. democracy unlikely and another quarter (25%) say they’re unsure. At the same time, however, a large number of Americans seem indifferent to the high-profile hearings by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — an effort to get to the bottom of one of the most dramatic assaults on the democratic process in U.S. history...So while the data indicates that many Americans seem to be losing faith in the future of U.S. democracy, relatively few seem interested in reckoning with a real-life attempt to undermine it. That raises a disturbing question: Have Americans simply given up on democracy? The poll doesn’t go quite that far. But it does suggest that Americans have largely given up on each other...This explains why 43% of Republicans continue to say that “left-wing protesters trying to make Trump look bad” deserve “the most blame” for Jan. 6, versus just 7% who blame Trump himself, 10% for “Trump supporters who gathered at the Capitol” and 12% for “right-wing groups like the Proud Boys” — even though there is zero evidence that liberals were involved...A majority of Republicans (52%) also say it’s likely that “there will be a civil war in the United States in [their] lifetime”; half of independents (50%) and a plurality of Democrats (46%) agree. In each group, fewer than 4 in 10 say another civil war is unlikely. -- It’s not a good time to be an American. The future looks bleak.
Court document in Proud Boys case laid out plan to occupy Capitol buildings on Jan. 6. “The goal is to ensure there is an entry point for the masses to rush the building," states the nine-page document, titled “1776 Returns."
County’s refusal to certify the vote hints at election chaos. The conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines that erupted during the 2020 presidential contest flared this week in a remote New Mexico county in what could be just a preview of the kind of chaos election experts fear is coming in the fall midterms and in 2024. The governing commission in Otero County refused to certify the local results of the state’s June 7 primary because of the equipment, in what was seen as another instance of how the falsehoods spread by former President Donald Trump and his allies have infected elections and threaten the democratic process.
“This is how democracy dies. The first coup attempt used violence to disrupt the electoral count. The next insurrection will come when conspiracy theorists occupy clerk and supervisor of elections offices, then refuse to certify results.” -- Ron Filipkowski
US abortions rise: 1 in 5 pregnancies terminated in 2020. The number of women obtaining abortions illustrates a need and “underscores just how devastating a Supreme Court decision is going to be for access to an absolutely vital service,” said Sara Rosenbaum, a George Washington University health law and policy professor.
Fauci tests positive for Covid-19. Fauci, 81, has mild symptoms and has been boosted twice, the institute said in a statement.
FDA advisers move COVID-19 shots closer for kids under 5. They are the last remaining group in the U.S. to get vaccinated and many parents have been anxious to protect their little children. If all the regulatory steps are cleared, shots should be available next week.
Grocery stores are a hotbed of racism and hate crimes, data shows. According to an NBC News analysis of FBI hate crime data from the last 10 years, more than 160 hate crimes were recorded at grocery stores in 2020, 65% more than in 2019 and four times as many as in 2010...Experts who follow hate crime trends gave several reasons for their rise in 2020, from the pandemic to the presidential election. But they also noted the special role that grocery stores played, serving as one of the few places that year where people could gather in public, as restaurants, schools and businesses were closed...Levin said that hate crimes tend to increase during years with elections. And with the midterm elections six months away, he said more hate crimes and assaults could be on the way. “What we're concerned about is the second half of the year,” Levin said. “We can see this consistently because the stereotypes that label people [as] legitimate targets for aggression tend to increase as the elections come closer.” -- God damn fucking racists.
The Fed delivers biggest interest rate hike in decades to combat surging inflation. The Federal Reserve escalated its battle against inflation Wednesday, announcing the largest interest rate hike in 28 years as the central bank struggles to regain control over soaring consumer prices. The Fed raised its benchmark interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point — the biggest hike since 1994. That follows a quarter-point increase in March and a half-point jump in May.
Biden seeks to counter ‘legislative attacks’ on LGBTQ rights. President Joe Biden issued an executive order Wednesday to stymie what what his administration calls discriminatory legislative attacks on the LGBTQ community by Republican-controlled states, declaring before a signing ceremony packed with activists, “pride is back at the White House.”
Saudi Arabia seizes rainbow toys in crackdown against 'homosexual colours'. Authorities in Saudi Arabia have seized a number of rainbow-coloured bows, skirts, hats and pencil cases in a reported crackdown against 'homosexual colours [that target] the younger generation'. — So many fucking hateful people in the world.
Despite push, states slow to make Juneteenth a paid holiday. Although almost every state recognizes Juneteenth in some fashion, many have been slow to do more than issue a proclamation or resolution, even as some continue to commemorate the Confederacy. Lawmakers in Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and other states failed to advance proposals this year that would have closed state offices and given most of their public employees paid time off for the June 19 holiday. That trend infuriates Black leaders and community organizers who view making Juneteenth a paid holiday the bare minimum state officials can do to help honor an often overlooked and ignored piece of American history. -- Bunch of fucking racists.
US prison workers produce $11 billion worth of goods and services for "little to no pay at all". Despite producing nearly $11 billion worth of goods and services each year, incarcerated workers in the U.S. earn an average of just between 13 cents and 52 cents per hour across the country, according to a new report. A new American Civil Liberties Union report published Wednesday said that wages are low, and that in most cases the government takes up to 80 percent of the pay for room and board, court costs, restitution and other fees, including the construction and maintenance of prisons.
Hong Kong: New school books claim territory was not a British colony. The new textbooks - which have yet to printed, and are pending final approval by Chinese authorities, local media say - also reflect Beijing's characterisation of the mass pro-democracy protests in 2019 as a security threat.
Scientists race to create wheat that can withstand global warming. Scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Sonora are focused on developing wheat varieties which can better cope with drought, rising temperatures and excessive rainfall. In other words, wheat that can thrive under the extreme and unpredictable weather conditions farmers are experiencing globally due to the rapidly warming planet.
EPA: ‘Forever chemicals’ pose risk even at very low levels. The Environmental Protection Agency is warning that two nonstick and stain-resistant compounds found in drinking water pose health risks even at levels below the government’s ability to detect them. The two compounds, known as PFOA and PFOS, have been voluntarily phased out by U.S. manufacturers, but there are a limited number of ongoing uses and the chemicals remain in the environment because they do not degrade over time. The compounds are part of a larger cluster of “forever chemicals” known as PFAS that have been used in consumer products and industry since the 1940s…Legislation passed by the House would set a national drinking water standard for PFAS and direct the EPA to develop discharge limits for a range of industries suspected of releasing PFAS into the water. The bill has stalled in the Senate.
Trans kids’ treatment can start younger, new guidelines say. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health said hormones could be started at age 14, two years earlier than the group’s previous advice, and some surgeries done at age 15 or 17, a year or so earlier than previous guidance. The group acknowledged potential risks but said it is unethical and harmful to withhold early treatment.
Men, women split on equity gains since Title IX, poll shows. Some of the widest divisions are, perhaps unsurprisingly, between men and women: 61% of men say the country has made a great deal or a lot of progress toward gender equality, while 37% of women said the same, according to the poll. Women were more likely to point to only some progress — 50% held that view — while 13% said the country has made just a little or no progress...Along with men, Republicans are also more likely to see a great deal or a lot of progress, with 65% holding that view. Among Democrats, 39% said the same. Among women, those 50 and older are more likely than their younger peers to see a great deal or a lot of progress in specific facets of life, such as in leadership, employment and education opportunities.
‘It’s such a horrible thing’: devastating film examines sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts. In Leave No Trace, survivors speak about what they endured under the Boy Scouts of America, leading to the biggest sexual abuse settlement in history.
CDC issues new guidance on monkeypox symptoms as U.S. cases balloon. The U.S. has reported 72 cases of monkeypox across 18 states in the last month, making it the country's largest monkeypox outbreak ever. That total has grown significantly since the beginning of June, when just 19 cases were confirmed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidance Tuesday about how to identify monkeypox during this outbreak, based on the symptoms doctors have observed so far.
WHO looking into reports of monkeypox virus found in semen. In recent days, scientists say they have detected viral DNA in the semen of a handful of monkeypox patients in Italy and Germany, including a lab-tested sample that suggested the virus found in the semen of a single patient was capable of infecting another person and replicating.
New kidney transplant approach could eliminate need for lifelong immune drugs. The technique — called a dual immune/solid organ transplant — involves a stem cell transplant that trains the immune system not to reject a subsequent kidney donation. The protocol used at Stanford isn’t new, but its success is.
US report: nearly 400 crashes of automated tech vehicles. Automakers reported nearly 400 crashes of vehicles with partially automated driver-assist systems, including 273 involving Teslas, according to statistics released Wednesday by U.S. safety regulators.
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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