And another day of the GOP hobnobbing with extreme conspiracy theorists, the US’s low ranking in voter participation, TX’s water plan ignores climate change reality, FL’s right turn, and Affirmative Action for rich white kids comes to a close:
Deaths
US: 1,095,646
World: 6,595,657
Cases
US: 99,400,959
World: 635,979,113
Top GOP Secretary of State Candidates Hobnob with Extreme Conspiracy Theorists. It’s a reminder of how far gone the GOP is. If you want to see just how crazy the GOP has become, you need only watch the video recording of a conference on “election integrity” held in Florida on Saturday by a group of 2020 election denialists. In attendance, either virtually or in person, were the Republican candidates running for secretary of state—the guardians of election integrity—in the crucial swing states of Arizona, Nevada, and Michigan, respectively, Mark Finchem, Jim Marchant, and Kristina Karamo. Each has already demonstrated their own devotion to extremism by associating with QAnoners and championing Donald Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. But they further signaled their loyalty to the politics of paranoia and conspiracism by hobnobbing with conference participants who have promoted some of the looniest conspiracy theories.
Turnout in U.S. has soared in recent elections but by some measures still trails that of many other countries. Even if predictions of higher-than-usual turnout come to pass in the 2022 midterms, the U.S. likely will still trail many of its peers in voting-age population (VAP) turnout. The U.S. ranks 31st in VAP turnout in recent national elections in 50 countries.
Florida has made a right turn since 2020. These four factors explain the change. But now, Republicans and Democrats are on opposite trajectories. Republicans believe they are headed for their most successful election night in a generation, buoyed by DeSantis’ record-breaking fundraising and a surge of enthusiasm. Democrats, trailing in the polls and lagging in excitement, are hoping for an unexpected change of political winds or they could be left without a single statewide elected official in Florida for the first time since at least Reconstruction. Here are four factors driving the state’s right turn.
Democrats stall in voter registration as Republicans surge
Hispanic voters turning to the GOP and opening the door to winning Miami
The Republican money advantage
The short- and long-term effects of an extra congressional seat
Brazil’s Bolsonaro declines to concede, but OKs transition. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday stopped short of conceding the election to leftist rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, instead using his first public comments since his defeat two days ago to thank his supporters and encourage their protests, as long as they remain peaceful.
Supreme Court clears way for Graham testimony in Georgia. The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for Sen. Lindsey Graham’s testimony in a Georgia investigation of possible illegal interference in the 2020 election by then-President Donald Trump and his allies in the state. The court lifted a temporary hold on Graham’s appearance before a special grand jury, now scheduled for Nov. 17. But in an unsigned order, the justices noted that Graham still could raise objections to some questions.
Roberts delays handover of Trump tax returns to House panel. Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday put a temporary hold on the handover of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns to a congressional committee. Roberts’ order gives the Supreme Court time to weigh the legal issues in Trump’s emergency appeal to the high court, filed Monday.
Texas’ plan to provide water for a growing population virtually ignores climate change. “Surface water is one of, if not the most, susceptible [water] supplies to climate change.”…But adding surface water is the centerpiece of Texas’ long-term water plan. And the Texas Water Development Board, the state agency charged with managing the state’s future water supplies, does not attempt to account for the effects of climate change in its long-term planning. Instead, Texas’ water plan relies on past droughts to determine how much water will be available and needed in the future as the state’s population is forecast to increase by 11 million people in the next two decades…By 2070, demand for water in Texas is expected to increase 9% to 19.2 million acre-feet during a severe drought, up from 17.7 million acre-feet in 2020. An acre-foot is enough water to cover an acre of land with one foot of water. Meanwhile, the state’s water supply is expected to fall 18% over the same period, which would leave Texas between about 5 million and 7 million acre-feet short of water during a statewide drought of record, a time when water supplies are lowest and water demands are highest. That’s more water than Lake Livingston in East Texas, Amistad Reservoir in South Texas and Lake Travis in Austin can hold combined when full…The Dallas-Fort Worth region in particular is pinning its hopes on several new reservoirs — including the recently completed Bois d’Arc Lake in Fannin County, which is still “waiting on rain” to fill up. — Hope. It’s such a terrific plan.
The Supreme Court Is Set to Kill Affirmative Action. Just Not for Rich White Kids. Like most elite colleges, Harvard also gives explicit preferences to applicants known in the world of higher education as ALDCs, a group that includes recruited athletes as well as the children of faculty, donors, and alumni—the latter are called “legacies.” These students, approximately half of them legacies, represent about 30 percent of every Harvard class—about 43 percent of the college’s white students are ALDCs. Being a member of this rarified group improves one’s chances of getting in by an order of magnitude. The admit rate for typical applicants to Harvard’s classes of 2014-2019 averaged 5.5 percent, according to data produced in the SFFA’s case, but the college accepted nearly 34 percent of legacy applicants, 47 percent of faculty kids, and 86 percent of recruited athletes. Back in 2004, a team of Princeton researchers determined, based on data from three elite schools that offer admissions preferences to athletes, legacies, and underrepresented minority applicants, that being a legacy effectively gave applicants a boost equivalent to scoring 160 additional points on the SAT even though legacies tend to do slightly worse in college than non-legacies. (By comparison, Black applicants received the equivalent of a 230-point boost, Hispanics 180 points, and athletes 200. Asian applicants suffered the equivalent of a 50-point loss.)…If SFFA v. Harvard were about socioeconomic status rather than race there could be no doubt as to Harvard’s intent. Every experience valued by elite colleges is directly correlated with wealth. The experiences that allow a young man or woman to “distinguish” themself are not uniformly available—not by a long shot. About 90 percent of students from families in the top US income quartile participate in school-based extracurriculars, whereas only 65 percent of students from the lowest quartile do. Nearly one-third of the low-income students participate in neither sports nor club activities…It’s hard to imagine a child of even ordinary means having any of these experiences. All are available only to families with wealth and connections. Who else has the access to get—and can afford to take—an unpaid internship on a high-profile political race? What child of ordinary means can win a science Olympiad?…Maddeningly, but unsurprisingly, a team of researchers at Stanford found that the quality of an applicant’s essays has an even stronger correlation to reported household income than his or her SAT score. Surely professional editing is exacerbating this disparity. Yet no elite college has a policy against this sort of assistance, even though it’d be easy to imagine, as Princeton Review founder John Katzman has proposed, requiring that students write their essays while sitting for one of the standardized exams…Still, that’s not the worst of it. Elite colleges exacerbate hoarding by attaching value to distinguishing excellences. The message to parents is that they need to expose their children to elite extracurricular experiences to get them into elite colleges. This shapes the communities in which they live. Yet, paradoxically, almost everyone in the academy embraces the research (and often their own teaching experience) showing that the best predictors of well-being and achievement are characteristics like resilience, not academic or extracurricular brilliance. Extracurriculars aren’t a reflection of a person’s inner wealth or value, but a reflection of their opportunity…It’s a fantasy in part because elite colleges don’t value hard work—or at least not hard work as it’s understood and available to ordinary people. Instead, they value distinguishing excellences available only to the wealthy, and act as if weighing these experiences is the only conceivable mechanism by which to select capable students. It isn’t…And it will be largely Harvard’s fault. No admissions system will ever be without controversy, but it’s important to remember how much opportunity Harvard could have created by ending its most offensive practices, such as tips for ALDCs. It could have admitted more Asian-American applicants with high test scores and more socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Instead, the college acted as if the leg-up it has historically afforded to affluent students is sacred, and in doing so effectively pitted disadvantaged groups against one another. When the court ends affirmative action for low-income students of color, it will be the result of Harvard’s indignant commitment to affirmative action for wealthy white kids.
Strong RSV vaccine data lifts hopes after years of futility. New research shows vaccinating pregnant women helped protect their newborns from the common but scary respiratory virus called RSV that fills hospitals with wheezing babies each fall. The preliminary results buoy hope that after decades of failure and frustration, vaccines against RSV may finally be getting close.
Powerball prize soars to $1.2B after no winners found Monday. No one has hit all six numbers since Aug. 3, meaning there have now been 38 consecutive draws without a jackpot winner — a testament to how slim the odds are of winning the jackpot: 1 in 292.2 million.
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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