Thursday, February 2, 2023

And another day of democracy still at risk, DeSantis’ trademark, forcing major abortion pill off the market, federal gun crime report, oil company record profits, spy balloons, eyedrops, and weight loss drugs comes to a close:

“A notable aspect of private health insurance is the absence of any reason for it to exist. It does not contain costs, expand coverage, or expedite care—it makes those all worse. Its sole function is to profit as a rent-seeking middleman between patients and providers.” — Max Kennerly 

Covid Deaths

US: 1,135,341

World: 6,767,354

Covid Cases

US: 104,393,464

World: 675,747,480

Election officials say democracy is still at risk in 2024: 'The gun is still loaded'. The November midterms gave election officials and pro-democracy advocates their first sigh of relief in years: The election system they’d spent years defending and shoring up operated almost seamlessly, and most of the election deniers who threatened to disrupt it were defeated. The respite, however, appears to have been brief, with the new year marked by violent, moneyed and high-profile election denialism:…Election experts, pro-democracy advocates and secretaries of state who defeated election deniers said in interviews that while democracy defenders have won a key battle, the existential threat to American democracy remains.

House GOP votes to oust Democrat Omar from major committee. The Republican-led House voted after raucous debate Thursday to oust Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from the chamber’s Foreign Affairs Committee, citing her anti-Israel comments, in a dramatic response to Democrats last session booting far-right GOP lawmakers over incendiary remarks.

Is Cruelty Ron DeSantis' Trademark? Violence, hate, bigotry, and cruelty are the four cardinal points of fascism. Compassion and concern for the greater good, for the poor and weak, for the victims of fate and accident have no place in the fascist world. Historians and political observers have been predicting that America would get our very own Mussolini ever since the days of Barry Goldwater.  And there’s been no shortage of candidates: bribe-taking Nixon; Central American fascist-loving Reagan; Gitmo torturing and war-lying Bush; and, of course, Trump. But with Ron DeSantis, we may finally be facing an all-American politician who has Mussolini’s guile, ruthlessness, and willingness to see people die to advance his political career, all while being smart and educated enough to avoid the easily satirized buffoonishness of Trump. Mussolini was a famously short man who strutted with his muscular chest pushed out and his chin jutted forward, just like DeSantis, who Trump says is musclebound, likes to do. Both men were socially awkward, craved power, lacked empathy, displayed casual cruelty, sucked up to the wealthiest men in the nation, and demonized opposition politicians — literally calling or implying their fellow citizens are “the enemy” (a favorite trick of Hitler and Orbán, as well) — to encourage their followers to support them or entertain the rhetoric of violence and threats of violence to achieve political ends…George Washington, in his Farewell Address, warned us of the possible rise of politicians like DeSantis who would suggest other Americans are enemies of the nation’s values, who would exaggerate policy differences in war-like terms, and who would ascribe the most evil of motives and intentions to simple political opponents…It’s been 225 years since George Washington uttered those words. And now we’re here.

Trump vows to 'stop' gender-affirming care for minors if re-elected president. Former President Donald Trump vowed in a video released Tuesday that, if he is re-elected, he will punish doctors who provide gender-affirming care to minors and push schools to “promote positive education about the nuclear family” and “the roles of mothers and fathers” as part of a wide-ranging set of policies to use federal power to target transgender people. — Republicans are so hateful. 

A Trump-appointed Texas judge could force a major abortion pill off the market. A case before a federal judge in Texas could dramatically alter abortion access in the United States – at least as much, some experts say, as the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision last year, which overturned decades of abortion-rights precedent…"That decision left the decision about abortion up to the states," Ma says, "but this would be one court in Texas deciding whether or not medication abortion could be allowed across this country, even in states that have protected abortion since the Dobbs decision."

Americans are broadly unsatisfied with the state of things in the US, poll finds. Among the lowest-rated issues was the state of the economy, which just a quarter of Americans said they were satisfied with. It had the largest year-over-year decline, dropping 8 percentage points. Satisfaction with gun laws dropped sharply this year, to a record low of 34%. Policies on abortion, efforts to control crime, quality of public education and efforts to combat poverty and homelessness also remained at or near low points. — Hmmm. Issues Republicans actively work toward making worse. Stop voting for Republicans.

First sweeping federal gun crime report in 20 years released. The most expansive federal report in over two decades on guns and crime shows a shrinking turnaround between the time a gun was purchased and when it was recovered from a crime scene, indicating firearms bought legally are more quickly being used in crimes around the country. It also documents a spike in the use of conversion devices that make a semiautomatic gun fire like a machine gun, along with the growing seizure of so-called ghost guns, privately made firearms that are hard to trace. -- But guns aren’t the problem. Fucking Republicans.

4 oil companies had total sales of $1 trillion last year. Global oil companies have rebounded since the pandemic to post their highest ever profits since people started using petroleum. Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon and Shell all reported record profits in 2022 — a year in which Russia's war on Ukraine collided with the post-pandemic economic recovery to drive oil prices to their highest levels in history. Together, the four companies saw $1 trillion in sales last year, a sum greater than the total economic output of Colombia, South Africa or Switzerland. — Yet they said they had no choice but to raise prices. They are fleecing us. 

Memphis police chief once led the aggressive ‘Red Dog’ anti-crime unit in Atlanta. As she rose through the ranks of the Atlanta Police Department, Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis spent nearly 18 months overseeing a hyper-aggressive street crime unit, named Red Dog, that was ultimately disbanded following a public backlash and a series of lawsuits. Now, in the wake of Tyre Nichols’ death, Davis faces questions over why she would launch a similar team in Memphis, Tennessee — called the Scorpion unit — shortly after she arrived to lead the city’s police force in 2021.

Family of double amputee killed by police call deadly police encounter a 'murder'. Lowe, a Black man who lost his legs last year and had not yet received prosthetics, stabbed a 46-year-old man on Jan. 26, police said, before officers used a stun gun and fatally shot him. Grainy cellphone video posted on social media appears to show Lowe, whose legs were amputated at the knees, leaving the wheelchair behind and scrambling along the sidewalk, followed by officers with guns drawn.

New Jersey councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour shot and killed, authorities say. A 30-year-old councilwoman in the borough of Sayreville, New Jersey, was found shot to death in her car on Wednesday, according to authorities. Eunice Dwumfour, a Republican councilwoman, was found by police with multiple gunshot wounds just after 7 p.m. Wednesday and was pronounced dead on scene.

Frustrated Texans endure winter storm with no power, heat. Across Texas, 430,000 customers lacked power Thursday, according to PowerOutage.us. But the failures were most widespread in Austin, where frustration mounted among more than 156,000 customers over 24 hours after their electricity went out, which for many also meant their heat. Power failures have affected about 30% of customers in the city of nearly a million at any given time since Wednesday. -- Texas is a shithole.

The coldest wind chills in decades will thrash New England as 8 deaths are now linked to an ice storm in the South. Dangerous wind chills as cold as 50 degrees Fahrenheit below zero are set to blast the Northeast as the number of deaths linked to an ice storm in the South rose to eight...“This is an epic, generational Arctic outbreak,” said the National Weather Service in Caribou, Maine. “The air mass descending on the area Friday into Friday night is the coldest air currently in the Northern Hemisphere.” Such extreme conditions can cause frostbite in as little as 10 minutes.

Pentagon: Chinese spy balloon spotted over Western US. The U.S. is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted over U.S. airspace for a couple days, but the Pentagon decided not to shoot it down due to risks of harm for people on the ground.

How Tennessee axed millions in HIV funds amid scrutiny from far-right provocateurs. Tennessee decided to scrap $8.3 million in federal grants to combat HIV after right-wing personalities targeted gender dysphoria treatment for minors in the state.

Sex, lies and video cams: Andrew Tate turned women into slaves, prosecutors say. The allegations facing Tate have put intense focus on a self-described misogynist who has built an online fanbase, particularly among young men, by promoting a lavish, hyper-macho image of driving fast cars and dating beautiful women.

Netflix’s Pamela Anderson Documentary Is a Wake-Up Call. Two of the latest entries in this genre center around Brooke Shields and Pamela Anderson, both women who, like Spears, were sexualized from a young age, both with and without their consent…These two court cases, taking place nearly 16 years apart, put the impossibility of being a woman into focus. Whether you’re a literal child or an adult, you can be commodified, stripped of your agency, and painted as part of the problem while the men around you are absolved of any wrongdoing—Shields lost the case, and Anderson gave up the fight.

Don't identify as human? North Dakota schools don't want you. A new bill would ban schools in the state from accommodating students who believe they are “any animal species other than human.” This section of the bill appears to be connected to an urban myth about litter boxes in U.S. schools that spread among conservative Republicans ahead of the November election. An NBC News report published in October found this myth — about schools providing accommodations, like litter boxes, for children who identify as cats — to be untrue.

CDC warns that a brand of eyedrops may be linked to drug-resistant bacterial infections. One person has died and at least three other people have permanent vision loss because of a bacterial infection possibly linked to a brand of over-the-counter eyedrops, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which urged consumers Wednesday to stop using EzriCare Artificial Tears while it investigates the outbreak.

As weight loss drugs soar in popularity, many who could benefit can't get them. Most health insurance companies won't cover the cost of Ozempic and Wegovy, leaving groups with the highest rates of obesity without access.

Yes, some car insurance companies have stopped covering Hyundai, Kia models due to thefts. At least two major insurance companies are not issuing new policies in some areas for certain Hyundai and Kia vehicles. Here’s what drivers need to know.

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

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