And another day of election fallout, expanding Medicaid, Twitter’s survival, ‘forever chemicals,’ ‘toxic culture’ in the NFL, why atheists are stereotyped as immoral, listeria, meditation, and sleep deprivation comes to a close:
“Republicans have suddenly stopped tweeting hourly about inflation, the border, crime, and the definition of ‘woman.’It's almost as if they never really cared about those things . . .” — Mrs. Betty Bowers
Deaths
US: 1,099,856
World: 6,611,644
Cases
US: 99,859,908
World: 639,313,342
Future of American democracy loomed large in voters’ minds. This week’s ballot had an unspoken candidate — American democracy. Two years of relentless attacks on democratic traditions by former President Donald Trump and his allies left the country’s future in doubt, and voters responded. Many of the candidates who supported the lie that Trump won the 2020 election lost races that could have put them in position to influence future elections. But the conditions that threatened democracy’s demise remain, and Americans view them from very different perspectives, depending on their politics.
A Democracy Crisis Was Averted. But Gerrymandering Could Still Save the GOP. Moreover, newly drawn GOP maps in states like Wisconsin continued to increase the GOP’s state-level advantage. Democrat Tony Evers won the governor’s race by nearly 3.5 points—practically a landslide by Wisconsin standards—but Republicans are projected to win a two-thirds supermajority in the state Senate and come just short of similar margins in the state assembly, which would’ve allowed them to override Evers’ vetoes, because of the rigged maps they passed in 2021. Contrast that with Michigan, where a nonpartisan citizens commission created by voters through a ballot referendum drew new state legislative districts after the 2020 census, creating significantly fairer and more competitive maps that allowed Democrats to retake both chambers of the legislature and control state politics for the first time since 1984.
Voters approve Medicaid expansion and a minimum wage increase in these states. Voters in several states have approved progressive measures that could not get through a Democratic-led Congress or Republican-dominated statehouses. More low-income South Dakota residents will have access to Medicaid, and Arizona residents with medical debt will get more protections. Minimum wage workers in Nebraska will get a boost in pay...It’s the seventh successful effort to expand Medicaid in Republican-led states, which began with the approval of Maine voters in 2017. Ballot initiatives have also passed in Missouri, Oklahoma, Idaho, Nebraska and Utah in recent years. — And never forget that Republican politicians want to end Medicaid. They do not represent their constituents. Stop voting for Republicans.
US judge in Texas strikes down Biden loan-forgiveness plan. A U.S. judge in Texas on Thursday blocked President Joe Biden’s plan to provide millions of borrowers with up to $20,000 apiece in federal student-loan forgiveness — a program that was already on hold as a federal appeals court in St. Louis considers a separate lawsuit by six states challenging it. District Court Judge Mark Pittman, an appointee of former President Donald Trump based in Fort Worth, said the program usurped Congress’ power to make laws.
Taliban ban women from parks and gyms in Afghanistan. A spokesman from the Ministry of Virtue and Vice said the ban was being introduced because people were ignoring gender segregation orders and that women were not wearing the required hijab, or head covering.
Musk warns Twitter’s survival is at stake as staff quits. Elon Musk warned Twitter employees Thursday to brace for “difficult times ahead” that might end with the collapse of the social media platform if they can’t find new ways of making money. -- His entire plan was to destroy Twitter. It looks like he may succeed.
Elon Musk’s Twitter faces its ‘Titanic’ moment as executives and advertisers flee while trolls run rampant. The world is watching the world’s richest man single-handedly destroy one of the world’s most powerful and important communication platforms, just weeks after acquiring it for $44 billion. And of course, the world is watching the dramatic spectacle unfold on — where else? — Twitter.
Report: Tweets with racial slurs soar since Musk takeover. Instances of racial slurs have soared on Twitter since Elon Musk purchased the influential platform, despite assurances from the platform that it had reduced hateful activity, a digital civil rights group reported Thursday.
California AG announces lawsuit against "forever chemical" manufacturers. In a press conference Thursday, Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) announced the lawsuit, which names 3M and DuPont. Bonta alleges the two companies concealed health hazards associated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from the public and continued producing them for public use. PFAS are currently detectable within the bloodstream of 98 percent of Californians, according to data collected by California officials.
Washington Commanders, Dan Snyder and NFL sued by D.C. attorney general, accused of lying about 'toxic culture'. The defendants are accused of “colluding” to keep “a toxic culture of sexual harassment” secret from the public, AG Karl Racine said.
The Sinner in the Mirror: Why Atheists Are Stereotyped as Immoral. God-believers base their morality on extremely shaky foundations and then project their own moral depravity onto atheists.
Deadly listeria outbreak in 6 states linked to deli meat and cheese. Most of the people identified in the outbreak so far are of Eastern European descent or speak Russian, the CDC said, adding that the agency is still investigating reasons for why the outbreak appears to be disproportionately affecting this population.
Meditation works as well as a popular drug to reduce anxiety, study finds. For the first time, scientists compared patients who took an intensive eight-week mindfulness meditation program to patients who took escitalopram, the generic name of the widely-prescribed and well-studied anxiety drug Lexapro. They found that both interventions worked equally well in reducing debilitating anxiety symptoms.
Sleep deprivation affects nearly half of American adults, study finds. The analysis also found over 30% of adults reported an hour of sleep debt -— when you sleep less than your body needs — while nearly 1 in 10 adults had a sleep debt of two hours or more. Adults over 18 need at least 7 hours of solid sleep at night to be healthy, according to the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. Sleep debt, along with irregular sleep duration, has been linked to an increased risk of obesity, heart disease, dementia and mood disorders such as anxiety and depression...In addition, nearly half of the adults in the study reported social jet lag – a bad fit between the sleep timing preferred by a person’s inner biological clock and the one dictated by society. “The timing of your sleep on workdays is the societal and work constraints, but the timing of your sleep on free days is what your body clock really wants you to do.”
Section of destroyed shuttle Challenger found on ocean floor. A large section of the destroyed space shuttle Challenger has been found buried in sand at the bottom of the Atlantic, more than three decades after the tragedy that killed a schoolteacher and six others.
RIP Dan McCafferty. He was 76.
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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