Tuesday, July 12, 2022

And another day of democracy hanging on by a thread, infamous Oval Office meetings, plans to falsely claim victory, Covid hospitalizations double, Uvalde surveillance video, climate harm, brain-eating amoebas, and more stunning WEBB images comes to a close:

"President Trump is a 76-year-old man. He is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices." -- Rep. Liz Cheney

Deaths

US: 1,046,613 (+381)

World: 6,376,711 (+2143)

Cases

US: 90,683,223 (+191,263)

World: 562,846,844 (+1,270,098)

January 6 testimony tells chilling tale of democracy hanging by a thread. There was the tale of an Oval Office meeting that almost ended in fisticuffs. There was testimony from a former true believer in the “big lie” who joined the rampage at the Capitol. There were predictions that if Trump runs again, no one will be safe. It was a chilling reminder that in a nation that has the genocide of Indigenous Americans, slavery, civil war and relentless gun violence in its cultural DNA, bloodshed is never far from the surface. Since white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have been ascendent.

Jan. 6 takeaways: ‘Screaming’ and a Trump tweet never sent. A presidential tweet that some saw as a “call to arms.” An “unhinged” meeting in the White House. Violent extremists planning to storm the Capitol as President Donald Trump pushed lies about election fraud. At its seventh hearing, the House Jan. 6 panel on Tuesday showed further evidence that Trump was told, repeatedly, that his claims of fraud were false — but that he continued to push them anyway. And at the same time, he turned to the widest possible audience on Twitter, calling his supporters, some of them violent, to Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, to not only protest but “be wild” as Congress certified President Joe Biden’s victory.

Cheney: Trump attempted to contact Jan. 6 witness. Abruptly raising the question of witness tampering, the Jan. 6 committee revealed Tuesday that Donald Trump had attempted to contact a person who was talking to the panel about its investigation of the former president and the 2021 attack on the Capitol. “We will take any effort to influence witness testimony very seriously,” said Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.

What we know about the infamous Oval Office meeting held by Trump's inner circle in December 2020. A heated Oval Office meeting convened by then-President Donald Trump on December 18, 2020 -- in which lawyer Sidney Powell and her client, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, floated outrageous suggestions about overturning the election -- was a central focus of Tuesday's hearing held by the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot. Sources previously described the session as one that began as an impromptu gathering but devolved and eventually broke out into screaming matches at certain points as some of Trump's aides pushed back on Powell and Flynn. -- Powell and Flynn are crazy.

Leaked Audio: Before Election Day, Bannon Said Trump Planned to Falsely Claim Victory. On the evening of October 31, 2020, Steve Bannon told a group of associates that President Donald Trump had a plan to declare victory on election night—even if he was losing...The nearly hour-long audio obtained by Mother Jones is new evidence that Trump’s late-night diatribe—which came a few hours later than Bannon had anticipated—followed a preexisting plan to lie to Americans about the election results in a bid to hold onto power. The new recording stands out for the striking candor and detail with which Bannon described a scheme to use lies to subvert democracy. Bannon also predicted that Trump’s false declaration of victory would lead to widespread political violence, along with “crazy” efforts by Trump to stay in office. Bannon and his associates laughed about those scenarios at various points in the recording.

U.S. Justice Dept launches task force to protect women's reproductive rights. The task force, which will be chaired by Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, will monitor and evaluate state legislation and enforcement actions that threaten to "infringe on federal legal protections" related to reproductive healthcare, the department said. 

DNC ads warn voters that GOP wants nationwide abortion ban. The Democratic National Committee is launching a digital ad campaign to energize its voters after last month’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, warning that Republicans’ ultimate goal is to outlaw abortion nationwide...The DNC says it also plans to launch a separate, six-figure television ad campaign encouraging activism to defend abortion rights later this week across a dozen media markets in battleground areas.

Stop cheering for a fetus's right to ride in an HOV lane. It's understandable, given how disheartening the last weeks have been for those of us who believe women have a fundamental right to bodily autonomy, to want to cheer for the moments that clarify just how dystopian anti-abortion laws really are. But as satisfying as this gotcha moment might be, establishing a fertilized egg, embryo or fetus as a separate person imbued with the same rights as you or I is a step down a dangerous path. It is absurd to be sure. But it's also incredibly perilous for women's rights and for a reality-based society more broadly...When a child dies unexpectedly and inexplicably, the state routinely investigates. And if a parent did something that led to the child's death, they might be charged with murder or criminal neglect. Do we trust that states that have already criminalized women for having a miscarriage or using drugs while pregnant won't prosecute pregnant women who miscarry if they do something that research suggests could pose risk to a fetus -- for example, smoking, being under- or overweight, drinking several cups of coffee, eating deli meats, ordering a steak medium rare, sitting in a hot tub or cleaning the cat's litter box? If a fertilized egg is deemed a person, America's mortality rate will immediately become the highest in the world -- suddenly, a majority of Americans will die before they are ever born...Personhood and other laws that imbue a fertilized egg with the same rights and liberties as a born person would extend these ridiculous and dangerous policies far and wide -- and could go further still. None of that seems worth a free ride in the HOV lane.

'Handmaid's Tale' author has a message about Roe v. Wade. Margaret Atwood, author of the dystopian novel "The Handmaid's Tale," has shared her thoughts on the dissolution of Roe v. Wade with four small words and a coffee cup. The writer posted a photo on Instagram of herself sitting in a chair, holding a mug with the phrase, "I told you so."

Covid hospitalizations double since May, driven by BA.5. Nationwide, hospitalizations have doubled since May, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a media briefing Tuesday. An NBC News analysis found that Covid-related hospitalizations are up in all but four states, with the biggest recent jumps in the South. The increase is driven by BA.5 and another closely related subvariant, BA.4, Walenksy said. BA.5 accounted for 65% of new cases for the week ending July 9, according to the CDC. BA.4 accounted for 16.3%.

White House urges caution on COVID variants, pushes boosters. The Biden administration is calling on people to exercise renewed caution about COVID-19, emphasizing the importance of getting booster shots for those who are eligible and wearing masks indoors as two new highly transmissible variants are spreading rapidly across the country.

New video show officers inside Uvalde school retreated immediately after taking gunfire. Newly published surveillance video recorded inside Robb Elementary in Uvlade, Texas, during the May 24 attack, shows officers approaching the classroom where Salvador Ramos killed 21 people, but then retreating down the hallway and taking cover the moment gunfire is heard. -- Even the good guys with guns are afraid, and rightly so, of an AR-15. They should be banned.

Rich nations caused climate harm to poorer ones, study says. For decades, environmental activists along with some government officials and scientists have argued that rich countries should pay the most to address climate change, and even pay poor countries reparations, because industrialized nations have historically emitted the most greenhouse gases. A new study by two Dartmouth scientists aims to calculate just how much economic impact larger emitters have caused other nations. Published Tuesday in the journal Climatic Change, the study says the figures could be used in courtrooms and in international climate negotiations about payments from rich nations that burn more coal, oil and gas, to poor countries damaged by emissions. For example, the data shows that the top carbon emitter over time, the United States, has caused more than $1.9 trillion in climate damage to other countries from 1990 to 2014, including $310 billion in damage to Brazil, $257 billion in damage to India, $124 billion to Indonesia, $104 billion to Venezuela and $74 billion to Nigeria. But at the same time, the United States’ own carbon pollution has benefited the U.S. by more than $183 billion. “Do all countries look to the United States for restitution? Maybe,” said study co-author Justin Mankin, a Dartmouth College climate scientist. “The U.S. has caused a huge amount of economic harm by its emissions, and that’s something that we have the data to show.”

Twitter sues to force Musk to complete his $44B acquisition. Twitter’s lawsuit opens with a sharply-worded accusation: “Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests.” -- I’d prefer that he did not purchase Twitter. And let’s be real: do you really want someone who doesn’t want to buy your company to be forced into buying your company? Seems like a recipe for disaster.

‘Don’t fall ill’: Sri Lanka doctors warn of drug shortage. Don’t fall ill or get into accidents: That’s the advice doctors in Sri Lanka are giving patients as the country’s economic crisis leaves its health care system short of drugs and other vital supplies. The South Asian island nation lacks the money to pay for basic imports like fuel and food, and medicine is also running out. Such troubles threaten to undo its huge gains in public health in recent decades.

Sri Lankan president flees the country amid economic crisis. The president of Sri Lanka fled the country early Wednesday, days after protesters stormed his home and office and the official residence of his prime minister amid a three-month economic crisis that triggered severe shortages of food and fuel.

Brain-eating amoeba that infected a swimmer in Iowa is increasingly found in northern states. The disease the amoeba causes, known as primary amebic meningoencephalitis, or PAM, is usually deadly. Only four people have survived PAM out of 154 cases recorded in the U.S. since 1962, according to the CDC...In other words, warmer weather both creates better conditions for the bacteria in northern waters, and prompts more people to swim more often in lakes, streams and ponds where the amoeba can be found.

First batch of James Webb Space Telescope images and data released by NASA. Among the newly released images are breathtaking views of a distant galaxy group called Stephan's Quintet that was discovered in 1877, a stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula that plays host to many stars that are several times larger than the sun, and the Southern Ring Nebula, a huge expanding shell of gas around a dying star. -- And they are simply gorgeous.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.