And another day of settling lawsuits, Year Zero, ‘vice reformer,’ targeting DEI in Higher Ed, audio tapes in OK, SCOTUS ponders religious tolerance, child care, ‘TruthGPT,’ Twitter removes trans language, HPV, and Netflix ends DVDs comes to a close:
“I fear we've still only scratched the surface on how ugly this is all going to get.” — Justin Baragona
Fox pays $787 million for its 2020 election lies. While Fox may have been able to avoid a decision on those thornier First Amendment questions at play in the case by settling, it’s still on the hook not just financially but potentially reputationally. That still might not stop the most-watched network in cable news from continuing its editorial strategy of obscuring truths that could alienate its mostly right-wing audience.
You Have to Think of Trump’s Election as Year Zero. Because Republican voters say they don’t want any part of a Republican party that looks anything like it did before 2016. I’ve sat through hundreds of focus groups with GOP voters over the last four years and one thing is perfectly clear: The Republican party has been irretrievably altered and, as one GOP voter put it succinctly, “We’re never going back.”…If you forged your political identity pre-Trump, then you belong to a GOP establishment now loathed by a majority of Republican primary voters. — If you are still a Republican, then you have embraced fascism.
Senate Democrats eye a hearing on Clarence Thomas as Republicans shrug off gift revelations. Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, a Democrat, called Thomas' conduct "outrageous." But most Republicans say they're not troubled by the conservative justice's ethics controversy. -- Because Republicans have no ethics. For them it’s do anything to gain and keep power, laws and ethics be damned.
Why anti-abortion groups are citing the ideas of a 19th-century 'vice reformer'. A federal case challenging access to a common abortion pill is reviving discussions about a 150-year-old anti-obscenity law. In 1873, what's known as the Comstock Act banned multiple items related to sex and reproductive health that many people see as quite ordinary today. Until recently, that law had been largely forgotten or ignored. But it's being cited in the federal case out of Texas that could curb access to the widely used abortion pill mifepristone.
Texas woman charged with murder after allegedly punching pregnant hospital worker in stomach, causing loss of pregnancy. “An ultrasound was performed and it was determined that the unborn child no longer had a pulse,” according to the sheriff’s statement.
GOP states targeting diversity, equity efforts in higher ed. Republican lawmakers in at least a dozen states have proposed more than 30 bills this year targeting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education…Many of the proposals root in one of a half-dozen conservative or libertarian organizations offering recommendations for limiting consideration of diversity, equity and inclusion in employment decisions, training and student admissions. Some measures mirror the model bills nearly exactly. Others copy key definitions or phrases while adapting the concepts to their particular states…The bills are an outgrowth of recent Republican attempts to limit critical race theory, a viewpoint that racism is historically systemic in the nation’s institutions and continues today to maintain the dominance of white people in society…The American Association of University Professors, which has about 45,000 members nationwide, said the bills mischaracterize DEI initiatives. "They’re dog whistling that DEI initiatives are something sinister and subversive that people should be afraid of, and that’s not true at all.” — Republicans aren’t interested in the truth. They promote a callback to a whites-only world with white males dominating all things political and educational. Supporting Republicans means you support racism.
Oklahoma county leaders caught on audio talking about killing reporters and complaining they can no longer lynch Black people. The governor of Oklahoma has called for the resignations of the sheriff and other top officials in a rural county after they were recorded talking about "beating, killing and burying" a father/son team of local reporters — and lamenting that they could no longer hang Black people with a “damned rope.”
Oklahoma sheriff says recording of killing talk was illegal. An Oklahoma sheriff’s office says a newspaper’s audio recording in which the sheriff and other county officials are reportedly heard discussing killing two journalists and hanging Black people was illegal and predicted felony charges will be filed.
Oklahoma sheriff, 2 staffers recorded discussing lynching Black people are suspended from sheriff's association. Christin Jones, of the Kilpatrick Townsend law firm, which represents the newspaper, insisted the recording had not been tampered with and that reporter Bruce Willingham, whose family has owned the newspaper for 40 years, did not break the law in making it. “It is an accurate recording and does not violate the Oklahoma Security of Communications Act,” Jones said via email. “The full audio is planned to be released on Thursday.” The entire recording has already been turned over to the FBI and the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office, the law firm said earlier.
In two recent cases, homeowners have been charged with shooting people on their property. Here’s what the law says. Supporters of the laws, including the National Rifle Association, say they give people the right to protect themselves, no matter where they are. Critics say the laws encourage violence and allow for legal racial bias...While it’s hard to say for sure without seeing video or witness statements, simply ringing a door is not enough grounds to prove a threat, he said. “You can’t just shoot someone who shows up on your porch and rings the doorbell,” Jamison said. “That’s what doorbells are for.”
Multiple people charged with burning objects with the ‘intent to intimidate’ on day of 2017 White nationalist march in Charlottesville. A grand jury in Virginia has indicted three individuals for allegedly burning an object with the “intent to intimidate” on the night of a 2017 White nationalist demonstration at the University of Virginia, in which scores of people marched through the Charlottesville campus carrying flaming tiki torches and chanting White nationalist slogans.
Iran tries to reimpose strict dress codes for women and girls that many disregarded during the Mahsa Amini protests. The moves came as the government tries to reassert control after months of the sometimes violent nationwide demonstrations posed the biggest challenge to the clerical establishment since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. -- Religion. An excuse to repress women.
Supreme Court case tests religious tolerance on Sunday work. The Supreme Court on Tuesday wrestled with the case of a Christian mail carrier who refused to work on Sundays when he was required to deliver Amazon packages. -- Religion. An excuse to abuse kids, oppress women, kill others, and not work on Sundays.
Biden signs executive order to improve access to child care. President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Tuesday that contains more than 50 directives to increase access to child care and improve the work life of caregivers. But the directives would be funded out of existing commitments, possibly including last year’s laws financing infrastructure projects and building computer chip plants. That likely means their impact would be limited and possess more of a symbolic weight about what’s possible.
Republicans object to replacing Feinstein on Judiciary panel. Republicans blocked a Democratic request to temporarily replace California Sen. Dianne Feinstein on the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, leaving Democrats with few options for moving some of President Joe Biden’s stalled judicial nominees.
2 teens accused of fatally beating their Spanish teacher over a bad grade plead guilty. In a police interview, Willard Miller described the frustrations he had with the way Nohema Graber, 66, taught Spanish and over how the grade in her class was lowering his GPA at Fairfield High School. Prosecutors say the evidence shows both Miller and Goodale struck Graber with a bat.
FTC warns that AI technology like ChatGPT could ‘turbocharge’ fraud. In a Congressional hearing on Tuesday focused on the Federal Trade Commission’s work to protect American consumers from fraud and other deceptive practices, FTC chair Lina Khan and fellow commissioners warned House representatives of the potential for modern AI technologies, like ChatGPT, to be used to “turbocharge” fraud. The warning was issued in response to an inquiry over how the Commission was working to protect Americans from unfair practices related to technological advances. Khan replied by agreeing that AI presented new risks for the FTC to manage, despite the other advantages it may present.
CBC ‘pausing’ Twitter after ‘government-funded media’ label. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation paused its use of Twitter on Monday after the social media platform owned by Elon Musk stamped CBC’s account with a label the public broadcaster says is intended to undermine its credibility. Twitter labelled CBC/Radio-Canada “government-funded media” — the same label that prompted National Public Radio in the U.S. to similarly quit Twitter last Wednesday. -- Another brilliant Musk move as he continues to make Twitter less and less useful.
Twitter quietly changes its hateful conduct policy to remove standing protections for its transgender users. The social media platform had prohibited the targeted misgendering or deadnaming of transgender people since 2018. Some online noticed this month that the sentence had been plucked from Twitter’s section on slurs and tropes, while all other descriptions of policy violations remained intact. -- Elon Musk is an asshole. And that’s an insult to assholes. He’s such a fucking waste of flesh.
Elon Musk says he’ll create ‘TruthGPT’ to counter AI ‘bias’. Billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk is again sounding warning bells on the dangers of artificial intelligence to humanity — and claiming that a popular chatbot has a liberal bias that he plans to counter with his own AI creation. Musk told Fox News host Tucker Carlson in a segment aired Monday night that he plans to create an alternative to the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT that he is calling “TruthGPT,” which will be a “maximum truth-seeking AI that tries to understand the nature of the universe.” The idea, Musk said, is that an AI that wants to understand humanity is less likely to destroy it. -- That isn’t true for Musk himself. He claims to be a good guy that’s trying to help humanity. He’s not. He’s a spoiled, rich, far-right racist that hates democracy. He couldn’t give one shit, much less two, about any of you. And if you put the word “truth” in your product, then it probably isn’t truthful at all. (Kind of like that “fair and balanced” bullshit Fox News has trumpeted over the years.)
HPV can cause numerous kinds of cancer, yet many people don't realize it. A majority of Americans are unaware that HPV, the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S., can cause a number of major cancers, a new study found. Researchers were surprised over one finding in particular: a decline in awareness that HPV, human papillomavirus, is linked to cervical cancer. Nearly all sexually active women and men become infected with HPV at some point, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to CDC estimates, currently more than 42 million Americans carry at least one strain of HPV. About 13 million people are infected each year.
A 13-year-old died in Ohio after participating in a Benadryl TikTok ‘challenge’. Overdosing on Benadryl can result in “serious heart problems, seizures, coma, or even death,” the US Food and Drug Administration said in a 2020 warning to the public about the deadly “Benadryl Challenge” on TikTok.
Swimming pools vs. wild swimming – a germs expert on which is worse. But along with the joys of outdoor swimming come some dangers. Not only are wild swimmers more at risk from tides, currents and swells, there can also be nasty bugs and bacteria lurking in the water. And with untreated sewage regularly flowing into seas, rivers and lakes in my home country of the UK, it can be hard to find a safe spot for a paddle. Of course, swimming in a pool comes with its own set of risks. Urinary tract infections, ear infections and tummy bugs are the most common illnesses caught here. Dirty pools can also cause your eyes to sting and harbor all sorts of bacteria and germs – including urine, faeces and sweat. In many ways, swimming pools are like a big bath filled with lots of strangers…When you add it all up, even with the possibility of people peeing and pooping in the pool, a managed swimming pool will always be a safer environment for a swim.
Some content creators are going viral, thanks to ChatGPT. While the AI-driven tool has raised concerns across various industries, some creators say it has helped them get more innovative with their content.
Netflix announces 'broad rollout' of password-sharing crackdown in U.S. In its latest earnings release, the streaming giant said its paid-sharing plan — designed to eliminate unpaid account sharing — would be unveiled in the second quarter of the year.
Netflix to Shutter Legacy DVD-By-Mail Business. The iconic red envelopes will be disappearing from mailboxes in September. — And so it becomes even more difficult to get those movie and tv titles that are rarely, if ever, found on streaming services. So much quality work that will never be seen by new audiences.
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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