Sunday, March 26, 2023

And another day of hoping someday I’ll be less busy and be able to get back to paying closer attention to current events comes to a close:

“If anyone ever belonged in prison, TFG belongs in prison. If he is not held accountable our laws and our systems are worthless.” — John Pavlovitz

“Donald Trump could've picked any location and any date for his first 2024 rally. He picked Waco,Texas in the midst of the 30th anniversary of the FBI's siege of Waco for a reason. He's recruiting followers who will commit violence for him.” — Dean Obeidallah

Mass protests erupt after Netanyahu fires defense chief. Tens of thousands of Israelis poured into the streets of cities across the country on Sunday night in a spontaneous outburst of anger after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly fired his defense minister for challenging the Israeli leader’s judicial overhaul plan.

How Cigna Saves Millions by Having Its Doctors Reject Claims Without Reading Them. Internal documents and former company executives reveal how Cigna doctors reject patients’ claims without opening their files. “We literally click and submit,” one former company doctor said. Our health should never fucking be a commodity. Healthcare is a right, not a fucking privilege.

DeSantis’, other officials’ travel records would be secret under Florida bill. Citing an increase in public records requests for the governor’s travel schedule, Florida legislators are advancing a bill that would shield from the public any information about how and where Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials go. The bill would impose the first-ever public records exemption for the transportation records held by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the agency that handles the governor’s security. The exemption would take effect retroactively, prohibiting anyone from scrutinizing how DeSantis has used his state travel in the past and as he prepares for a likely campaign for the Republican nomination for president. — Power hungry DeFascist doesn’t want you to know where he’s going or who he’s talking with.

Don’t say “period”: How Florida Republicans are taking aim at basic sex education. A bill wants to restrict when students can discuss “human sexuality” at school. If passed, the law would require that teachers get approval for materials used in sexual health classes, which can only be taught in grades six through 12 under the law. It would also require that schools teach a specific definition of “sex” and “reproductive roles.”

Scientists Deliver “Final Warning” on Climate: Act Now or It’s Too Late. Monday’s final installment, called the synthesis report, is almost certain to be the last such assessment while the world still has a chance of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C above preindustrial levels, the threshold beyond which our damage to the climate will rapidly become irreversible.

Georgia law will ban most transgender care for kids under 18. It’s part of a nationwide effort by conservatives to restrict transgender athletes, gender-affirming care and drag shows. Governors in Mississippi, Utah and South Dakota have signed similar bills.

Idaho Republicans Call Free Tampons In Schools Too ‘Woke’ — And Block Them. The one-page House Bill 313, introduced on March 13, would have required that public and public charter schools provide students with free tampons, sanitary napkins and other menstrual products. Dissenting Republicans decried the bill as “woke” and overly generous…The cost of the products was calculated at about $3.50 per student for 85,825 female students. — Apparently, the number of decent and caring Republicans in the US is zero.

An Idaho College Censored Their Reproductive Health Care Art, But These Artists Won’t be Silenced. That’s what happened in Idaho when the Lewis-Clark State College Center for Arts and History removed six pieces of art depicting abortion and reproductive health care from an exhibition titled “Unconditional Care: Listening to People’s Health Needs.” The college based its decision on the state’s No Public Funds for Abortion Act (NPFAA), which prohibits the use of public funds for abortion, including in relation to speech that would “promote abortion” or “counsel in favor of abortion.”

Idaho governor signs legislation allowing execution by firing squad. Four other states — Mississippi, Utah, Oklahoma and South Carolina — have legalized firing squads, spurred on by the drug shortage. South Carolina’s law allowing them has been paused amid a court battle over its constitutionality.

Black children much more likely to be strip-searched in England and Wales than white peers. An official report accuses police of abusing their power to strip-search children, with black children much more likely than white children to be selected by officers for the ordeal…The youngest child strip-searched was eight, and about a quarter were 10-15, the report will say…The children commissioner’s study found police not following the rules in more than half of strip-searches, amounting to widespread non-compliance. In more than half of cases there was no appropriate adult present.. A small number of strip-searches of children took place in public view, the report says, and some were conducted with an officer present of a different gender to the child being stripped.

Bills call for Texas teachers to be trained to administer lifesaving overdose drugs to students. Texas is attempting to address the fentanyl crisis gripping schools by having staff learn how to administer lifesaving medication. Several bills call for educators and school staff at public, charter and private schools, as well as those at colleges and universities, to know how to reverse deadly opioid overdoses with Narcan and other overdose medications known as “opioid antagonists.”

Daunting recovery underway in tornado-devastated Mississippi. Help began pouring into one of the poorest regions of the U.S. after a deadly tornado tore a path of destruction for more than an hour across a long swath of Mississippi, even as furious new storms Sunday struck across the Deep South.

You were right — traffic noise is indeed pushing up your blood pressure. Most of us are familiar with road rage — aggressive driving that’s caused by stress or anger behind the wheel. But the honking of horns and revving of engines doesn’t just affect those in the vehicle — it can also raise the blood pressure of people living near the road.

Bing vs. Bard: The ultimate AI chatbot showdown. Welcome to the AI Thunderdome. Google's AI chatbot Bard is now available, which means it's time for Bard and Bing to dance.

Twitter says parts of its source code has leaked online. Some parts of Twitter’s source code — the fundamental computer code on which the social network runs — were leaked online, the social media company said in a legal filing on Sunday.

Utah became the first US state to pass a law seeking parental consent for social media for children and teenagers. Utah Governor Spencer Cox on Thursday signed two laws intended to restrict social media use by minors, becoming the first U.S. state to require parental permission for anyone under 18 to use such platforms as Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. The two bills, passed earlier this month by Utah's Republican-controlled legislature, are also meant to make it easier to sue social media companies for damages.

Utah’s social media for kids law could be coming to a state near you. Utah’s strict new social media laws have some scary implications for the whole country. Combined, the new laws call for social media platforms to verify all users’ ages. Those under 18 will have special rules for their online activity, including curfews; more privacy from advertisers but less from their parents or guardians; and the ability to sue platforms over certain harms, including addiction…But opponents of such laws say they will have unintended consequences for the free speech and privacy of people of all ages…So even if you don’t live in Utah, you should prepare yourself for the possibility that the state you do live in — or even the federal government — will pass something similar. That seems especially likely if Utah’s law survives the inevitable court challenges. There is also a chance that some of these platforms apply Utah’s rules to the entire country, as the borderless nature of the internet makes it difficult to set rules for just one state.

To help new students adapt, some colleges are eliminating grades. Called "un-grading," the idea is meant to ease the transition to higher education — especially for freshmen who are the first in their families to go to college or who weren't well prepared for college-level work in high school and need more time to master it. But advocates say the most important reason to adopt un-grading is that students have become so preoccupied with grades, they aren't actually learning.

US teens say they have new proof for 2,000-year-old mathematical theorem. Johnson and Jackson’s abstract adds that the book with the largest known collection of proofs for the theorem – Elisha Loomis’s The Pythagorean Proposition – “flatly states that ‘there are no trigonometric proofs because all the fundamental formulae of trigonometry are themselves based upon the truth of the Pythagorean theorem’.” But, the abstract counters, “that isn’t quite true”. The pair asserts: “We present a new proof of Pythagoras’s Theorem which is based on a fundamental result in trigonometry – the Law of Sines – and we show that the proof is independent of the Pythagorean trig identity sin2x+cos2x=1.” In short, they could prove the theorem using trigonometry and without resorting to circular reasoning.

Asteroid discovery suggests ingredients for life on Earth came from space. Scientists said on Tuesday they detected uracil and niacin in rocks obtained by the Japanese Space Agency's Hayabusa2 spacecraft from two sites on Ryugu in 2019. Uracil is one of the chemical building blocks for RNA, a molecule carrying directions for building and operating living organisms. Niacin, also called Vitamin B3 or nicotinic acid, is vital for their metabolism.

Planets on parade: 5 will be lined up in night sky this week. Keep an eye to the sky this week for a chance to see a planetary hangout. Five planets — Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus and Mars — will line up near the moon.

Chinese firm invents lockdown-inspired kissing machine for remote lovers. A Chinese start-up inspired by lockdown isolation has invented a long-distance kissing machine that transmits users' kiss data collected through motion sensors hidden in silicon lips, which simultaneously move when replaying kisses received.

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

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

Sunday, March 19, 2023

And another week where a bunch of stuff happened but I’ve been too busy to pay too much attention to (yet I still found a few things) comes to a close:

“We’re living in through a moral panic about what kids read and who reads to them entirely invented by guys who want to send your kids to work in a slaughterhouse.” — LOL GOP

DA leading Trump case says rhetoric won’t intimidate office. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is standing firm against Donald Trump’s increasingly hostile rhetoric, telling his staff that the office won’t be intimidated or deterred as it nears a decision on charging the former president.

The GOP Is Flirting With This Hungarian Autocrat’s Generous—And Exclusionary—Family Benefits. If Orbán’s policies sound similar to the Build-the-Wall, Don’t-Say-Gay brand of American conservatism, his penchant for bolstering the birth rate and rewarding large families appear to be yet another Hungarian-inspired social policy blueprint some Republicans are pining to adopt. The Hungarian government covers the cost of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) treatments, provides up to three years of paid maternity benefits, doles out discount coupons for minivans, and grants forgivable interest-free loans to young couples who plan to procreate…But the closer you look at his country’s eligibility requirements for family benefits, the more clearly you see the kind of babies Orbán wants to populate his boom: not just Hungarian nationals, but children from married, heterosexual, middle-income and up Hungarian nationals with stay-at-home moms…“The imperative in the US that I’ve gathered from the standpoint of some MAGA Republicans would be how to get family benefits to white people when Black people can’t qualify.”

Texas announces takeover of Houston's school district, sparking concerns from educators. Some experts are calling the move a major "blow" to Texas' largest public school district, marking a turning point in education policy that follows years of controversial decisions in the state, including legislation on race, parental rights and gender-affirming care.

English professor in Florida says university terminated his contract after a complaint over his racial justice unit. A former English professor at Florida’s Palm Beach Atlantic University says the school terminated his contract early after a complaint that he was “indoctrinating” students by teaching about racial justice.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs bill to create 'monument to the unborn' on Arkansas Capitol grounds. State Senate Bill 307, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Kim Hammer and Rep. Mary Bentley, allows for private funds "of gifts, grants, and donations from individuals and organizations" to pay for a monument to "unborn children aborted during the era of Roe v. Wade."

Silicon Valley Finally Figured Out People Don’t Like It. The country’s response to a Big Tech bank collapse reveals a harsh verdict. The region that once produced microprocessors, personal computers, internet search, and web browsers, kind of doesn’t really do that stuff as much as it used to, and people are noticing.

OpenAI releases GPT-4, claims its chatbot significantly smarter than previous versions. GPT-4, the latest model, can understand images as input, meaning it can look at a photo and give the user general information about the image…GPT-4 can now read, analyze or generate up to 25,000 words of text and is seemingly much smarter than its previous model. GPT-4 scored in the 90th percentile on the Uniform Bar Exam. Its previous model scored in the 10th, according to OpenAI.

How you (yes, you!) can actually use AI to make your work better. A third paper, from Princeton’s Edward Felten, Penn’s Manav Raj, and NYU’s Robert Seamans, tried to systematically estimate which jobs will be most exposed to, or affected by, the rise of large language models. They found that the single most affected occupation class is telemarketers — perhaps unsurprising, given that their entire job revolves around language. Every single other job in the top 10 is some form of college professor, from English to foreign languages to history. Lest the social scientists get too smug about their struggling humanities peers, sociology, psychology, and political science aren’t far behind. Once upon a time, people like academics, journalists, and computer programmers could take some satisfaction in our status as “knowledge workers,” or parts of the “creative class.” Our jobs might be threatened by low ad revenue or state budget cuts, and the compensation was somewhat lacking, but those jobs were literally high-minded. We weren’t doing stuff robots could do; we weren’t twisting bolts with wrenches like Charlie Chaplin on an assembly line…AI, I’m now persuaded, has the potential to pull off a labor market transition of similar magnitude. The Mollicks have convinced me that I am — we all are — sleeping on top of a volcano. I do not know when exactly it will erupt. But it will erupt, and I don’t feel remotely prepared for what’s coming.

Microsoft Stuffs AI Into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and More. Microsoft is enabling an AI ‘copilot’ in all 365 apps, though it's reminding users they should really check the AI’s work.

‘Ted Lasso’ Cast Sets White House Visit to Discuss the ‘Importance of Mental Health and Wellbeing’ With President Joe Biden. “‘Ted Lasso’ has inspired the world through its universal themes around optimism, kindness, and determination and the Lasso philosophy to ‘believe,'” reads Apple’s announcement of the meeting of the minds.

A Common Dry-Cleaning Chemical Might Be Causing Parkinson's, Scientists Say. In a paper out this week, scientists argue that a common industrial chemical is contributing to Parkinson’s disease. The chemical is called trichloroethylene, or TCE. And while some states have recently banned its use, TCE remains widely present throughout the U.S. TCE is a colorless organic solvent that’s been in use for a century in various industries. It’s most often deployed as a degreasing agent in commercial or manufacturing facilities, but it’s also used as an ingredient in common household cleaning products, refrigerants, and dry-cleaning, and was even an anesthetic up through the 1970s. People working in these industries are most at risk for exposure to TCE, as are people in surrounding communities, since the chemical can contaminate soil and groundwater.

People urged to take gonorrhoea tests as cases rise. Gonorrhoea cases in England have resurged since the easing of Covid restrictions, health officials are warning people who are sexually active. Condoms can stop the spread of this and other sexually transmitted infections.

Ticketmaster to refund some fees after The Cure’s Robert Smith says he was 'sickened' by prices. The Cure’s Robert Smith said Ticketmaster will refund some money to fans after the rocker ripped into the company for charging what he believed were excessively high fees.

How to explore a praise kink. Getting praise is obviously a pretty universally enjoyed experience. But for some, a compliment can result in a turn-on.

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

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

Sunday, March 12, 2023

And another day of a banking crisis, a man suing three women in TX over abortion, the privacy loophole in your doorbell, the UK culture war, reviving a ‘zombie’ virus, women allowed to swim topless in public in Germany, and vinyl outsells cds comes to a close:

US government moves to stop potential banking crisis. The U.S. government took extraordinary steps Sunday to stop a potential banking crisis after the historic failure of Silicon Valley Bank, assuring depositors at the failed financial institution that they would be able to access all of their money quickly.

Three Texas women are sued for wrongful death after allegedly helping friend obtain abortion medication. A Texas man is suing three women under the wrongful death statute, alleging that they assisted his ex-wife in terminating her pregnancy, the first such case brought since the state’s near-total ban on abortion last summer. -- And so it begins...

What's your current risk of getting long Covid? Estimates hover around 5%-10%. It's a question few people know how to answer, even after three pandemic years and more than 100 million Covid cases in the U.S.: When someone gets infected today, what is their risk of developing long Covid?

The privacy loophole in your doorbell. Police were investigating his neighbor. A judge gave officers access to all his security-camera footage, including inside his home. As networked home surveillance cameras become more popular, Larkin’s case, which has not previously been reported, illustrates a growing collision between the law and people’s own expectation of privacy for the devices they own — a loophole that concerns privacy advocates and Democratic lawmakers, but which the legal system hasn’t fully grappled with. Questions of who owns private home security footage, and who can get access to it, have become a bigger issue in the national debate over digital privacy. And when law enforcement gets involved, even the slim existing legal protections evaporate.

Children of same-sex parents see outcomes as good or better than heterosexual couples: study. Their results suggested that children, especially those around preschool ages, may have a better psychological adjustment when raised by LGBTQ couples than those raised by heterosexual couples. The study also found that children raised by same-sex or other LGBTQ parents may have better relationships with their parents than those raised by traditional heterosexual couples.

How a tweet by a star sports pundit became a battle in the culture war engulfing the U.K. What began as a tweet by a popular British soccer commentator comparing the language of the government’s new immigration plan to that of 1930s Germany has upended a leading sports program — once a politics-free haven of national unity — and erupted into a national argument over free speech. At the center of the brouhaha is Gary Lineker, a former English soccer captain turned TV personality who regularly appears in commercials for one of the U.K.’s largest potato chip brands. Last week, he responded to Interior Minister Suella Braverman's proposal to tackle what she called Britain’s “overwhelmed” asylum system.

Scientists have revived a ‘zombie’ virus that spent 48,500 years frozen in permafrost. While a pandemic unleashed by a disease from the distant past sounds like the plot of a sci-fi movie, scientists warn that the risks, though low, are underappreciated. Chemical and radioactive waste that dates back to the Cold War, which has the potential to harm wildlife and disrupt ecosystems, may also be released during thaws.

Women in Berlin can now swim topless in the city's public pools if they choose to. It's being hailed as a step forward for gender equality in the German capital. As well as being hailed as a step forward for gender equality in the German capital, the measure introduced this week is symptomatic of Germany’s love of Freikoerperkultur – literally translated as ‘free body culture’ – which has its roots in the late 19th century.

Scientists have managed to create mice with two biological fathers, which could lead to implications for same-sex reproduction in the future. While creating mice with two biological fathers was technically possible prior to the achievement, it involved a series of elaborate steps, including genetic engineering. After creating stem cells from eight-week-old male mice, scientists manipulated the genetic code of the cell to create a mature egg. After successful cultivation, the eggs were fertilised and implanted into a surrogate mouse, which eventually resulted in the birth of seven mouse pups.

Barcelona face corruption charges over payments to former referees' official. Barcelona face charges of corruption over payments the club made to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira - a former vice-president of Spain's referees' committee.

Vinyl Outsold CDs for the First Time Since 1987. Sales of physical music formats, like vinyl, CDs, and cassette tapes, saw a 4% increase from 2021 to 2022, but last year vinyl made up $1.2 billion of the $1.7 billion in physical media sales according to the report. In physical units, records outsold CDs 41.3 million to 33.4 million, respectively—RIAA says this is vinyl’s sixteenth consecutive year of growth.

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

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

Thursday, March 9, 2023

And another day where ‘It’s only getting worse,’ a secret group pushing anti-trans laws, creepy Pinterest, women are burned out, a judge uses a slavery law, more Americans skip college, and 171 trillion plastic pieces in the ocean comes to a close:

“If Fox viewers wanted facts, they wouldn't be Fox viewers.” — Tea Pain

Multiple dead in Jehovah’s Witness hall shooting in Germany. Shots were fired inside a building used by Jehovah’s Witnesses in the northern German city of Hamburg on Thursday evening, and several people were killed or wounded, police said.

More states are proposing bills targeting LGBTQ rights. ‘It’s only getting worse,’ advocate says. At least 385 bills targeting LGBTQ rights and queer life have been introduced around the country through March 7, according to data compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union. The number of bills has already surpassed last year’s total of 306, according to ACLU data shared with CNN. The proposed bills cover a wide range of policies, including some that seek to restrict transgender people from competing on sports teams or using bathrooms that align with their gender identity, but it appears youth and medical care is a growing legislative focus.

Inside the Secret Working Group That Helped Push Anti-Trans Laws Across the Country. Leaked emails give a glimpse of the religious-right networks behind transgender healthcare bans. The emails demonstrate close collaboration between groups working behind the scenes to push bills banning transgender health care, including ADF—which has defended state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people in Europe—and the ACPeds—which has opposed adoption by gay couples and supported conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth. In recent years, ADF has drafted legislation banning trans children from using school restrooms or playing on school sports teams that align with their gender identity. (Both groups are also staunchly anti-abortion; ADF, which drafted the Mississippi abortion ban at the heart of the case that overturned Roe v. Wade, is currently representing ACPeds in a closely-watched lawsuit to ban an abortion pill, mifepristone, nationally.)

Arkansas Senate OKs transgender bathroom bill that critics call extreme. A bill that would criminalize transgender people using restrooms that match their gender identity won initial approval in the Arkansas Legislature on Tuesday, introducing a restriction critics said would be the most extreme in the country.

Men on Pinterest are creating sex-themed image boards of little girls. The platform makes it easy. Clips Victoria uploaded of herself to Pinterest, such as one in which she cheerfully turns a cartwheel, have been compiled by at least 50 users into their own boards with titles like “young girls,” as well as “Sexy little girls,” “hot,” “delicious,” and “guilty pleasures.” Those boards are filled with dozens, hundreds and sometimes thousands of photos and videos of children...Aggregating individually innocuous images of minors into potentially sexually suggestive collections is a practice experts describe as awful, but in many cases, lawful, meaning platforms have no legal obligation to take action.

Missouri votes against banning children from carrying guns in public. Republican-led legislature rejects measure to prevent minors from carrying firearms in public without adult supervision.

The FCC could choose to act against Rupert Murdoch for Fox News’ election lies, but few expect it to. The media regulator was once more adversarial and had various rules it could enforce, but there’s little in the way of expectations it will act about how Fox News misled viewers about the 2020 election. -- In other words, Fox News will be able to continue lying to the American people. Stop watching that entertainment channel. It’s not news.

Medicaid coverage for new moms gaining support in GOP states. After years of refusing to expand Medicaid benefits for new moms, Republican officials in more than a half-dozen states are now reversing course and trumpeting that coverage as central to their conservative, anti-abortion agenda.

Poll: Many women burned out, feeling dread and struggling with finances. As the world celebrates International Women's Day on Wednesday, there's new cause for concern: More women are feeling dread, worry and burnout and are facing worsening financial pressures, even as inflation continues to ease, new polling shows.

Judge uses a slavery law to rule frozen embryos are property. Frozen human embryos can legally be considered property, or “chattel,” a Virginia judge has ruled, basing his decision in part on a 19th century law governing the treatment of slaves. The preliminary opinion by Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Richard Gardiner – delivered in a long-running dispute between a divorced husband and wife – is being criticized by some for wrongly and unnecessarily delving into a time in Virginia history when it was legally permissible to own human beings.

Jaded with education, more Americans are skipping college. What first looked like a pandemic blip has turned into a crisis. Nationwide, undergraduate college enrollment dropped 8% from 2019 to 2022, with declines even after returning to in-person classes, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse. The slide in the college-going rate since 2018 is the steepest on record, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists say the impact could be dire. At worst, it could signal a new generation with little faith in the value of a college degree. At minimum, it appears those who passed on college during the pandemic are opting out for good. Predictions that they would enroll after a year or two haven’t borne out. Fewer college graduates could worsen labor shortages in fields from health care to information technology. For those who forgo college, it usually means lower lifetime earnings — 75% less compared with those who get bachelor’s degrees, according to Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. And when the economy sours, those without degrees are more likely to lose jobs.

Oceans littered with 171 trillion plastic pieces. More than 171 trillion pieces of plastic are now estimated to be floating in the world's oceans, according to scientists. Plastic kills fish and sea animals and takes hundreds of years to break down into less harmless materials. The concentration of plastics in the oceans has increased from 16 trillion pieces in 2005, data suggests.

US safety regulators to investigate Tesla for steering wheels that can fall off. Federal safety regulators are investigating Tesla’s Model Y SUV after at least two instances in which owners said their steering wheels became detached while the vehicle was being driven.

NASA tracks a newly discovered asteroid that has a ‘small chance’ of hitting Earth in 2046. A newly discovered asteroid roughly the size of an Olympic swimming pool has a “small chance” of colliding with Earth in 23 years, with a potential impact on Valentine’s Day in 2046, according to NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office.

Robert Blake, dead at 89.

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

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

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

And another day of getting to “It is happening here,” DeSantis arguing for all of the US to be like FL, Tucker rewriting history, FL proposing 6-week abortion ban, sexual deepfake ads, and treating premature ejaculation comes to a close:

“We have gone from It Can't Happen Here, to It Will Happen Here, to It Is Happening Here. Now. Today. The GOP is clearly stating its end state goal of no more visible transgender people in the US. They are passing all the laws they need to do so.” — Brynn Tannehill

There's been some discussion of what it means to eradicate trans people, and if this is even genocide. I want people to understand what this means in practice, based purely on what's being proposed today by Republicans, and what it means for trans people. — This is the beginning of an important thread. Read it all.

Retribution, Eradication, and the Coming Storm. If you want a preview of what’s coming our way, take a look at the vocabulary of CPAC, including the former president’s promise of retribution, obliteration, and war. Attention, perhaps, should be paid…This is not, to put it mildly, normal political rhetoric, at least in the English language. But it gives a taste of the bleak storm to come. — Read what was said, and yes, we all should be paying attention.

DeSantis argues US should be like Florida ahead of 2024 bid. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis positioned himself as the architect of a new conservative vision for the nation during a State of the State address on Tuesday that championed his aggressive stances through the pandemic and culture wars as a blueprint for Republican leadership.

Florida School Board Member Speaks Out About Being Targeted by DeSantis. “If ‘woke’ means fostering critical thinking, if woke means creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for all students, then I wear it as a badge of honor.” — DeSantis is a fascist.

Tucker Carlson amplifies Jan. 6 lies with GOP-provided video. The undertaking by Fox News comes as Trump is again running for president, and executives at the highest levels of the cable news giant have admitted in unrelated court proceedings that it spread the former president’s false claims about the 2020 election despite dismissing Trump’s assertions privately. The effort dovetails with the work of Republicans on Capitol Hill, led by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy who turned over the security footage to Fox. The Republicans are trying to claw back the findings of the House Jan. 6 investigation, which painstakingly documented, with testimony and video evidence, how Trump rallied his supporters to head to the Capitol and “fight like hell” as Congress was certifying his loss to Democrat Joe Biden...At the same time, criticism poured in from Democrats — and some top Republicans, too — over the GOP’s attempt to amplify falsehoods about the attack that was seen around the world as Trump supporters laid siege to the seat of U.S. democracy. -- Tucker Carlson is a maggot infested shitball who’s trying to instigate a civil war in this country.

US Capitol Police chief rips into Tucker Carlson over ‘offensive’ use of January 6 footage. US Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger on Tuesday ripped into Fox News host Tucker Carlson over his commentary about footage from the January 6, 2021, insurrection that he aired Monday night, saying the host “cherry-picked” from the footage to present “offensive” and “misleading” conclusions about the attack.

Florida Republicans propose a 6-week abortion ban. The bill, SB 300, would ban abortion at six weeks of pregnancy,  before many people even know that they are pregnant. The bill features exceptions up until the 15th week of pregnancy for people who became pregnant due to rape or incest, though they must prove that they were a victim by providing a restraining order, police report, medical record or "other court order or documentation" — requirements that are often difficult to meet. -- Six weeks. Florida fascism rises.

Women sue Texas over abortion ban, say it risked their lives. Five women who said they were denied abortions even when pregnancy endangered their lives are suing Texas over its abortion ban, the latest legal fight against state restrictions since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. The lawsuit filed Monday in state court said the Texas law, one of the strictest in the country, is creating confusion among doctors, who are turning away some pregnant women experiencing health complications because they fear repercussions.

California will sever business ties with Walgreens after the pharmacy giant announced it would not distribute abortion pills in several states where abortion is legal, Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote Monday in a tweet. “California won’t be doing business with Walgreens — or any company that cowers to the extremists and puts women’s lives at risk," Newsom wrote. "We’re done.”

US judge strikes down Missouri gun law as unconstitutional. A Missouri law banning local police from enforcing federal gun laws is unconstitutional and void, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Brian Wimes ruled the 2021 law is preempted by the federal government under the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause.

Elon Musk Laughs at Twitter Worker Who Asked If He Still Had a Job. Musk demanded employee Haraldur Thorleifsson provide pictures to corroborate his work. During the exchange, Thorleifsson found out he had been laid off…Musk, meanwhile, apparently unsatisfied with laughing at a former employee, decided to trash talk Thorleifsson hours after their exchange. The Twitter CEO cast doubt on Thorleifsson’s disability—he suffers from a type of muscular dystrophy called dystrophinopathy—and said he couldn’t have been fired since he didn’t work…“The reality is that this guy (who is independently wealthy) did no actual work, claimed as his excuse that he had a disability that prevented him from typing, yet was simultaneously tweeting up a storm. Can’t say I have a lot of respect for that,” Musk tweeted. “But was he fired? No, you can’t be fired if you weren’t working in the first place! — Musk is the shit on your shoe after walking through vomit.

Huge numbers of young people say sexuality or gender identity is more fluid, study finds. LGBTQ+ people are the fastest growing group on Tinder, a study has found, with the majority of users saying their sexuality and gender identity has become more fluid in the past three years. -- And that scares the shit out of conservatives.

Hundreds of sexual deepfake ads using Emma Watson’s face ran on Facebook and Instagram in the last two days. In a Facebook ad, a woman with a face identical to actress Emma Watson’s face smiles coyly and bends down in front of the camera, appearing to initiate a sexual act. But the woman isn’t Watson, the “Harry Potter” star. The ad was part of a massive campaign this week for a deepfake app, which allows users to swap any face into any video of their choosing. Deepfakes are content where faces or sounds are switched out or manipulated. Commonly, deepfake creators make videos in which celebrities are made to look like they are willingly appearing in them, even though they are not.  Increasingly, the technology has been used to make nonconsensual pornography featuring the faces of celebrities, influencers or any person, including children. -- We are on the verge of never being able to believe any video we see.

Oklahoma voters say ‘no’ to recreational marijuana question. Oklahoma voters rejected a state question Tuesday to allow for the recreational use of marijuana, following a late blitz of opposition from faith leaders, law enforcement and prosecutors. Oklahoma would have become the 22nd state to legalize adult use of cannabis and join conservative states like Montana and Missouri that have approved similar proposals in recent years. Many conservative states have also rejected the idea, including Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota last year.

FDA: Two more eyedrop brands recalled due to risks. Pharmedica on Friday said it is recalling two lots of Purely Soothing 15% MSM Drops due to problems “that could result in blindness.” The over-the-counter drops are designed to treat eye irritation. The Phoenix-based company said consumers should immediately stop using the drops and return them to the place they were purchased. The recall affects nearly 2,900 bottles, according to the company. The drops were manufactured in Arizona.

Stress may lead to lower cognitive function, study finds. People with elevated stress levels are more likely to experience a decline in cognitive function, a new study found, affecting their capacity to remember, concentrate and learn new things.

Exercise could be as beneficial as drugs in treating premature ejaculation, study finds. Running and pelvic floor exercises could be an effective way to treat premature ejaculation, according to a comprehensive review of previous research.

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

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