And another day of what the GOP agenda will be if they retake Congress, being furious, Cipollone to be interviewed, praying with SCOTUS, failing adolescent girls, soaring global hunger, and picking the healthiest embryo comes to a close:
“DeSantis is engaged in one of the most alarming assaults on free speech and academic freedom since the dark days of McCarthyism. His record reveals a pattern of authoritarianism and vindictiveness that would be extremely dangerous in the Oval Office.” — Max Boot
Deaths
US: 1,044,557
World: 6,366,784
Cases
US: 89,930,463
World: 557,510,874
If Republicans Retake Congress In November, Here’s What Their Agenda Will Look Like. Kneecapping the EPA, rolling back transgender rights, slashing social welfare programs—a little-read policy document spells out the House GOP’s extreme plans. A little-noticed budget document, the Blueprint to Save America, released in June by the Republican Study Committee, details the group’s priorities. Since nearly 75 percent of Republican House lawmakers are RSC members, these priorities are shared by a majority of the GOP caucus. The 122-page manifesto, containing a laundry list of longstanding conservative desires, calls for significantly reducing the size of America’s social safety net, drastically limiting abortion access nationwide, effectively throwing in the towel on combatting climate change, raising the age requirement to receive full Social Security benefits, cracking down on transgender rights, and making it easier for Americans to carry concealed weapons. — We have been warned. Vote all Republicans out of office.
‘Be absolutely furious’—Dems want more from Biden after Highland Park. “We’re not going to change the hearts and minds of Republicans,” Rivera added. “The fight is for independents and Democrats to get up and fight back and come out. And he is not meeting the moment. He has to meet the moment.”…The critique extends beyond guns. Democrats have criticzed Biden’s seeming lack of fire in responding to a series of crises, including the Supreme Court’s decision on abortion rights and escalating threats to democracy that grow with every primary win by Republican 2020 election deniers. Some believe he has not adjusted to the punishing tactics of the MAGA Republican Party…And while the White House has defended the president’s response, pointing Tuesday to several past speeches he’s given on guns and coming action to help protect access to abortions, others fear that Biden remains trapped in a prior age of political decorum and unquestioning fealty to institutions and has been slow to recognize both the existential threat felt by some of his supporters. — The existential threat is real. If Democrats do not show up to vote Republicans away, then the country will fall to fascism.
More than 220 shot and killed in U.S. gun violence over July 4 holiday weekend. Gun violence spiked over Fourth of July weekend, with shootings reported in nearly every U.S. state that killed a total of at least 220 people and wounded close to 570 others, according to the Gun Violence Archive. — As American as apple pie.
Cipollone reaches deal to give transcribed interview to January 6 committee Friday. Cipollone will be appearing under subpoena. A source familiar with his thinking says Cipollone intended to comply with the subpoena issued on June 29 for a July 6 interview, and it was extended until July 8. The interview will be on video, two of the sources told CNN.
States move to protect abortion from prosecutions elsewhere. Democratic governors in states where abortion will remain legal are looking for ways to protect any patients who travel there for the procedure — along with the providers who help them — from being prosecuted by their home states. -- The fact we’re having this conversation should scare the shit out of you. To not be able to freely travel to whichever of the 50 states you want to go to for whatever reason is some serious fascist shit.
SCOTUS Justices ‘Prayed With’ Her — Then Cited Her Bosses to End Roe. A right-wing evangelical activist was caught on tape bragging that she prayed with Supreme Court justices. The court’s majority cited a legal brief that her group filed while overturning Roe v. Wade. In other words: Sitting Supreme Court justices have prayed together with evangelical leaders whose bosses were bringing cases and arguments before the high court…“Praying with a group that filed an amicus brief with a court,” he says, “is a problem.” — Theocracy is here.
DOJ Investigating Texas’ Operation Lone Star for Alleged Civil Rights Violations. The Department of Justice is investigating alleged civil rights violations under Operation Lone Star, a multibillion-dollar border initiative announced last year by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, according to state records obtained by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune…An investigation by the Tribune, ProPublica and The Marshall Project found that in touting the operation’s accomplishments, state officials included arrests with no connection to the border and statewide drug seizures. The news organizations also revealed that trespassing cases represented the largest share of the operation’s arrests. DPS stopped counting some charges, including cockfighting, sexual assault and stalking, after the publications began asking questions about their connections to border security…In an internal email in May, DPS officials said that the DOJ was seeking to review whether Operation Lone Star violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin by institutions receiving federal funding.
Republican states are trying to use federal covid aid to cut taxes. In Florida and elsewhere, GOP leaders have sued to tap pandemic funds for tax cuts, defying the Biden administration. — There really are no good Republicans.
‘World is failing adolescent girls’ warns UNFPA chief, as report shows third of women in developing countries give birth in teen years. Nearly a third of all women in developing countries, start having children at the age of 19 or younger, and nearly half of first births to adolescents, are to children or girls aged 17 or under…Gender-based and income inequalities are highlighted as key in fuelling teen pregnancies by increasing child marriage rates, keeping girls out of school, restricting their career aspirations, and limiting healthcare and information on safe, consensual sex. Entrenching these inequalities are climate disasters, COVID-19 and conflict, which are all upending lives around the world, obliterating livelihoods and making it more difficult for girls to afford or even physically reach school and health services. This leaves tens of millions yet more vulnerable to child marriage and early pregnancy.
Global hunger toll soars by 150 million as Covid and Ukraine war make their mark. Tenth of world’s population now chronically undernourished, with spectre of widespread famine drawing ever closer, warns report. Globally, the number suffering from chronic undernourishment rose to as many as 828 million last year, a rise of about 46 million on the previous year, and three times that increase if measured since the world shut down due to Covid, a report has found. With the price of fuel, food staples and fertiliser soaring since the invasion of Ukraine, however, that total is expected to rise even further in the next year – a scenario that could see some of the world’s poorest fall into famine, the most extreme form of food deprivation.
Wisconsin Supreme Court rules in favor of Chrystul Kizer, allowing sex trafficking defense in homicide trial. The high court of Wisconsin upheld a lower court ruling Wednesday that allows Chrystul Kizer to argue self-defense to justify killing the man who she said sexually abused her when she was a minor.
Genetic Screening Now Lets Parents Pick the Healthiest Embryos. People using IVF can see which embryo is least likely to develop cancer and other diseases. But can protecting your child slip into playing God? Aurea doesn’t know it yet, but her birth was very special: She is the world’s first PGT-P baby, meaning she is statistically less likely than the rest of us to develop a genetic disease or disorder throughout her life. PGT-P stands for preimplantation genetic testing for polygenic disorders. It is conducted in conjunction with IVF and allows prospective parents to actively select which of their own embryos to take, based on the strength of its genes.
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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