And another day of moving boxes, long Covid’s lasting impact, ‘muzzling’ doctors about abortion stories, mandatory reporting punishes poor families, sitting for deposition, Alex Jones to pay $1B, and why the GOP is no longer a legitimate political party comes to a close:
“It is not political to arrest Donald Trump. It is political not to arrest Donald Trump.” -- Jason Overstreet
Deaths
US: 1,089,385 (+914)
World: 6,565,764 (+1991)
Cases
US: 98,727,136 (+118,705)
World: 628,345,850 (+668,255)
Why the GOP is No Longer a Legitimate Political Party. The GOP is no longer a normal political party with a single governing philosophy: instead, it’s become a coalition of interest groups, each seeking its own ends…As a result, other than Senator Rick Scott’s proposals for ending Social Security and Medicare within 5 years and more calls for tax cuts, Republican politicians in state and federal office have been reduced to simply opposing everything Democrats do or want to do…With Trump in crisis and not on the ballot this year, the democracy-hating autocrats in the group are offering everybody else a simple formula for holding onto their wealth, fame, and power: rig elections.
Trump employee tells FBI that Trump directed boxes to be moved at Mar-a-Lago after subpoena served. A Trump employee has told the FBI about being directed by the former President to move boxes out of a basement storage room to his residence at Mar-a-Lago after Donald Trump’s legal team received a subpoena for any classified documents at the Florida estate, according to a source familiar with the witness’ description. The FBI also has surveillance footage showing a staffer moving boxes out of the storage room.
Large study provides powerful evidence of long covid’s lasting impact. A new long-covid study based on the experiences of nearly 100,000 participants provides powerful evidence that many people do not fully recover months after being infected with the coronavirus…Jill Pell, a professor of public health at the University of Glasgow who led the research, emphasized that the study revealed the wide-ranging impact of long covid on people’s lives. “There are lots of different impacts going beyond health to quality of life, employment, schooling and the ability to look after yourself,” she said…The range of reported symptoms and inability to provide a prognosis for patients have perplexed long-covid researchers, even as the breadth of the challenge has become clearer. Between 7 million and 23 million Americans — including 1 million who can no longer work — are suffering from the long-term effects of infection with the virus, according to government estimates. Those numbers are expected to rise as covid becomes an endemic disease…The study found that the risk of long covid was greater among women, older people and those who live in economically disadvantaged communities. People who already suffered from physical and mental health problems, such as respiratory disease and depression, were also more prone to long covid. “Crucially, this study also identified a sub-cohort of 11 percent who deteriorated over time. This is something seen often in patient groups but has not been discussed enough in the public conversation.”
FDA authorizes updated Covid-19 booster shots for children as young as 5. The boosters target the original coronavirus strain and Omicron subvariants.
‘Heartbreaking’ stories go untold, doctors say, as employers ‘muzzle’ them in wake of abortion ruling. These two doctors, and six others interviewed by CNN, say their employers – major public and private medical centers in five states – have asked them to not speak publicly about abortion, or have instructed them that if they do speak publicly about abortion, they can do so only as private citizens and cannot mention where they work. Even when they are permitted to speak about abortion as private citizens, these doctors say, their employers have made it clear that they would prefer the doctors not talk at all, and so they have hesitated to speak up. “If [they] don’t speak up, who is going to provide the evidence about the effect [abortion bans are] having on patients?” -- All of this is bad. These stories need to be told. As with everything, it’s all about money, and certainly not about what’s best for people and communities.
Social Security payments set for big increase. What to know. Tens of millions of older Americans are about to get what may be the biggest raise of their lifetimes. On Thursday, the U.S. government is set to announce how big a percentage increase Social Security beneficiaries will see in monthly payments this upcoming year. It’s virtually certain to be the largest in four decades. It’s all part of an annual ritual where Washington adjusts Social Security benefits to keep up with inflation, or at least with one narrow measure of it. -- And don’t forget Rick Scott and the MAGA Republicans have said they plan to get rid of Social Security within 5 years if they gain control of Congress. Vote Blue. Always vote Blue for the foreseeable future.
Mandatory reporting was supposed to stop severe child abuse. It punishes poor families instead. While the unintended and costly consequences are clear, there’s no proof that the reforms have prevented the most serious abuse cases…Instead, data and child welfare experts suggest the changes may have done the opposite…In the five years after the reforms took effect, the state’s child abuse hotline was inundated with more than 1 million reports of child maltreatment, state data shows. More than 800,000 of these calls were related not to abuse or serious neglect, but to lower-level neglect allegations often stemming from poverty, most of which were later dismissed as invalid by caseworkers…In other words, reforms enacted in response to a major sex abuse scandal led to thousands more investigations, but no increase in the number of children identified as likely victims. Child welfare experts say these findings cast doubt on the effectiveness of the primary tool that states rely on to protect children: mandatory child abuse reporting…Some legal experts and child welfare reform activists argue these laws have created a vast family surveillance apparatus, turning educators, health care workers, therapists and social services providers into the eyes and ears of a system that has the power to take children from their parents…The stream of reports generated by mandatory reporting is so vast, and so unevenly applied, public health and social work researchers estimate that more than half of all Black children nationally will have been the subject of a child protective services investigation by the time they turn 18 — nearly double the rate of white children.
Judge: Trump must sit for deposition in defamation lawsuit. Former President Donald Trump will have to answer questions under oath next week in a defamation lawsuit lodged by a writer who says he raped her in the mid-1990s, a judge ruled Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan rejected a request by Trump’s lawyers that the planned testimony be delayed. The deposition is now scheduled for Oct. 19. -- We’ll see.
Alex Jones ordered to pay $965 million for Sandy Hook lies. The $956 million verdict is the second big judgment against the Infowars host for spreading the myth that the massacre never happened, and that the grieving families seen in news coverage were actors hired as part of a plot to take away people’s guns...It is unclear how much of the verdicts Jones can afford to pay...“He’s been walking in the shadow of death to try to profit on the backs of people who have just been devastated,” Koskoff said. “That is not a business model that should be sustainable in the United States.” -- Alex Jones is a maggot infested shitball.
Lake Mead water crisis is exposing volcanic rock from eruptions 12 million years ago. Lake Mead’s falling water level has exposed several shocking things in recent months – previously sunken boats, old war ships and human remains. Now scientists are reporting a new discovery on Lake Mead’s dry bed: rocks laced with volcanic ash that rained down on southern Nevada during explosive eruptions roughly 12 million years ago. The record-low water levels are exposing sedimentary rocks that haven’t been seen since the 1930s when the Hoover Dam was built and Lake Mead filled. Among these rocks, researchers with the University of Nevada in Las Vegas found ash deposits from volcanoes in Idaho, Wyoming and California.
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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