Wednesday, November 23, 2022

And another day of mass shootings, Right-wing influencers and media doubling down, Ukrainians without power, measles being an ‘imminent threat,’ cholera in Haiti, GA reinstating abortion ban, and taking billionaires at their word comes to a close:

“Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.” -- Aldous Huxley

Deaths

US: 1,104,229 (+874)

World: 6,631,217 (+2039)

Cases

US: 100,382,913 (+103,215)

World: 644,488,978 (+581,254)

Walmart manager opens fire in break room, killing 6. A Walmart manager opened fire on fellow employees in the break room of a Virginia store, killing six people in the country’s second high-profile mass shooting in four days, police and witnesses said Wednesday. The gunman, who apparently shot himself, was dead when officers found him, police said. There was no clear motive for the shooting, which also left at least six people wounded, including one critically.

Right-wing influencers and media double down on anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in the wake of the Colorado shooting. Tucker Carlson was among the conservative media figures who continued attacking LGBTQ people in the wake of the Club Q shooting.

Georgia high court reinstates ban on abortions after 6 weeks. The Georgia Supreme Court on Wednesday reinstated the state’s ban on abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy, abruptly ending access to later abortions that had resumed days earlier. In a one-page order, the justices put a lower court ruling overturning the ban on hold while they consider an appeal. Doctors who had resumed providing abortions after six weeks had to immediately stop.

Lisa Murkowski Just Beat an All-Out MAGA Attack. But Murkowski’s win should still come as a huge relief for Americans who care about preserving democracy—she’s the only surviving Republican senator in this general election who voted to impeach Trump…Then there’s Murkowski, nearly the opposite in every way. She’s part of a political dynasty, holding a Senate seat vacated by her father. She’s anti-Trump, pro-choice, and has refused to join MAGA anti-CRT, trans-bashing, culture war rhetoric. According to Govtrack, she’s not only the most liberal Republican in the Senate but to the left of Manchin and Sinema. In addition to voting to impeach Trump, she voted against Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation, and in June was one of few Republicans to genuinely back some gun control measures. In many ways, she’s emblematic of a state that has traditionally refused to fall neatly within party lines: over half of Alaska’s voters are registered independents…Besides having a sub-par record on labor rights, she’s an unabashed supporter of heavy resource extraction, mainly in the forms of fossil fuels and mining—including throwing her support behind oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. So she’s not exactly good. But she’s less bad.

GOP operative pardoned by Trump convicted of funneling Russian money to Trump campaign. Jesse Benton, a former top aide to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), and former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), was convicted Thursday of helping a Russian citizen illegally funnel a political donation to former President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. — This story broke 6 days ago. Does anyone give a shit about this collusion?

Stop taking billionaires at their word. Why do we keep believing things that are too good to be true? Somehow, somewhere along the way, the American public was duped into believing that these things could be true despite being, well, not…Did anyone really think that a billionaire could be benevolent? Did anyone think Horizon was the future? Did people think Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover was going to proceed in any normal way? Probably. We lie to ourselves all the time. In a world in which liberal arts colleges and humanitarian studies are increasingly demonized as “wokeism factories,” it’s the technologists who are made to seem like the rational ones. Those who criticize them end up seeming naive, or ignorant, or afraid of progress, so much so that sometimes, we end up believing it ourselves instead of believing our own eyes.

Most Ukrainians left without power after new Russian strikes. Russia unleashed a new missile onslaught on Ukraine’s battered energy grid Wednesday, robbing cities of power and some of water and public transport, too, compounding the hardship of winter for millions. The aerial mauling of power supplies also took nuclear plants and internet links offline and spilled blackouts into neighbor Moldova.

Brazil election body rejects Bolsonaro’s push to void votes. The head of Brazil’s electoral authority on Wednesday rejected the request from President Jair Bolsonaro and his political party to annul ballots cast on most electronic voting machines, which would have overturned the Oct. 30 election.

WHO, CDC: A record 40 million kids miss measles vaccine dose. In a report issued Wednesday, the WHO and the CDC said millions of children were now susceptible to measles, among the world’s most contagious diseases. In 2021, officials said there were about 9 million measles infections and 128,000 deaths worldwide. The WHO and CDC said continued drops in vaccination, weak disease surveillance and delayed response plans due to COVID-19, in addition to ongoing outbreaks in more than 20 countries, mean that “measles is an imminent threat in every region of the world.”

UN: Children in Haiti hit by cholera as malnutrition rises. A cholera outbreak sweeping through Haiti is claiming a growing number of children amid a surge in malnutrition, UNICEF announced Wednesday. The deadly combination means that about 40% of cholera cases in the impoverished country of more than 11 million inhabitants now involve children, with 9 out of 10 cases reported in areas where people are starving, according to the United Nations agency.

German soccer team players cover mouths in team photo protest ahead of World Cup match in Qatar. The squad declared on Twitter that "human rights are non-negotiable” before playing Japan. "Denying us the armband is the same as denying us a voice."

Spain's Gavi becomes youngest World Cup scorer since Pele. Spain midfielder Gavi's goal in his team's 7-0 thrashing of Costa Rica on Wednesday made him the youngest World Cup scorer since Brazil great Pele in 1958.

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

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