Monday, June 5, 2023

And another day of Supreme risks, cosigners, an officer’s first 45 words, climate change and home insurance, the 1st taxpayer-funded religious school, trans adults ‘blindsided’ in FL, and why everyone is having bad sex comes to a close:

“My former political party can’t be saved. It can’t be fixed. It’s on the authoritarian road it’s on, and it won’t get off of that road. Our ONLY job therefore is to defeat it. That’s all.” — Joe Walsh

“I don't know how more parents aren't climate activists.” — Dr Peter Kalmus

“Live in such a way that Republicans want to ban you.” — John Pavlovitz

Supreme Risk. Because these rights were established by the court, the court alone gets to decide whether to preserve, shrink or unmake them…To get a better sense of which rights may be at risk — in whole or in part — ProPublica scoured judicial opinions, academic articles and public remarks by sitting justices…We found dozens of rights that at least one sitting justice has questioned. Below, you can explore these rights and the objections levied against them. We include federal legislation that’s been introduced to protect a given right, as well as lawsuits active in lower courts that could become vehicles for the justices to revisit existing rights in the future. — Guess who hates most of these rights on this list.

Autism Advocates Are Dreading a Campaign Season of Insinuations About Ron DeSantis. Stereotypical ideas about autistic people are already showing up in the GOP primary, and advocates worry they’ll go mainstream…Within the community of autistic advocates and people who study autism, the development has led to a sort of dread about what lies ahead, particularly as Trump versus DeSantis becomes the major story in primary politics. Though it thus far only involves fringe characters — and, in fact, generated a certain amount of negative feedback even from those characters’ Trump-friendly followers — history suggests this kind of assertion tends to move from the margins to the mainstream…In a different context — such as if a political figure were to disclose an autism diagnosis — an open discussion of what we now know to be a very common neurological difference could provide a teaching moment for society, one that could highlight the challenges faced by many people on the spectrum as well as some of the workplace strengths many in that community feel they can bring, including deep focus and an ability to avoid groupthink. It could also, in theory, be a moment when raw numbers demonstrate that it’s a bad idea to make fun of autistic people: The latest CDC estimate is that one in 36 American children is on the spectrum, a vast population of folks with families and friends and loved ones, and one that’s geographically spread throughout the country, not just in blue states or red. But that’s not what’s happening here…Also concerning to advocates: The GOP in the Trump era has rewarded pols who shake off other social taboos against making fun of disabled people. Trump supporters are excited by the “idea that, like, The Man doesn’t want you to make fun of disabled people and so therefore you should,” says Zoe Gross of the Autism Self Advocacy Network. “To just have a disability [is to be] the butt of a joke or the target of insults. We need to be moving away from that, not towards that.”

Rep. George Santos’ lawyer asks to keep bond cosigners’ names sealed. Indicted Rep. George Santos’ attorney has filed a letter asking the judge overseeing the New York Republican’s case to keep the names of the people who put up his $500,000 bond sealed. -- Now why would he do that? Who is he trying to hide?

For Black drivers, a police officer's first 45 words are a portent of what's to come. Car stops that result in a search, handcuffing, or arrest are nearly three times more likely to begin with the police officer issuing a command, such as "Keep your hands on the wheel" or "Turn the car off.”…That kind of outcome was less likely when a police officer's first words provided a reason for the stop.

Permit-to-purchase: Oregon’s tough new gun law faces federal court test. A federal trial over Oregon’s voter-approved gun control measure opened Monday in Portland, marking a critical next step for one of the toughest gun control laws in the nation after months of being tied up in the courts. The trial, which is being held before a judge and not a jury, will determine whether the law violates the U.S. Constitution.

California officials: Florida picked up asylum-seekers on Texas border and flew them to Sacramento. The state of Florida picked up asylum-seekers on the Texas border Monday and took them by private jet to California’s capital city at taxpayer expense for the second time in four days, California officials said, prompting allegations that migrants were misled and catching shelters and aid workers by surprise...California Gov. Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, lashed out at DeSantis as a “small, pathetic man” and suggested the state could pursue kidnapping charges. -- Hmmm. Gov. Newsom was being kind there when speaking about DeSantis.

In gun law push, Tennessee governor’s office memo says NRA prefers to ‘round up mentally ill people’. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s administration accused the National Rifle Association of wanting to use involuntary commitment laws “to round up mentally ill people and deprive them of other liberties,” according to documents drafted by the Republican’s staffers as part of their initial attempt to pass a gun control proposal earlier this year.

To Fight Climate Change, We’ve Got to Quit Making So Much Plastic. A 75 percent reduction is needed to limit warming to 1.5 C, new report says. Indeed, plastics are made from fossil fuels and cause greenhouse gas emissions at every stage of their life cycle. The plastic industry’s global carbon footprint in 2020 was 1.3 billion metric tons—twice as big as Canada’s—and it’s expected to grow as fossil fuel companies seek to offset declining demand for oil and gas used in the power and transportation sectors.

How climate change is causing housing market chaos. Climate change is making it harder to build houses in Arizona or to insure them in California and Florida.

Allstate no longer offering new policies in California due to wildfires, other costs. The news comes after State Farm announced a similar move last month, saying it will no longer provide home insurance to new California customers because of wildfire risks and an increase in construction costs.

Oklahoma school board approves what would be the 1st taxpayer-funded religious school in US. A state school board in Oklahoma voted Monday to approve what would be the first publicly funded religious school in the nation, despite a warning from the state’s attorney general that the decision was unconstitutional.

Utah district bans Bible in elementary and middle schools ‘due to vulgarity or violence’. The Good Book is being treated like a bad book in Utah after a parent frustrated by efforts to ban materials from schools convinced a suburban district that some Bible verses were too vulgar or violent for younger children. And the Book of Mormon could be next.

Arkansas librarians sue to block new law that could jail them over explicit books. The Central Arkansas Library System argued in a filing in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas that Act 372 violates the First Amendment by making it a misdemeanor for libraries to give children access to materials that are “harmful to minors.” The term — which means any depiction of nudity or sexual conduct meant to appeal to a prurient interest that lacks serious artistic, medical or political value and which contemporary community standards would find inappropriate for minors — is too broad, the suit contends. For example, the law would prohibit 17-year-olds from viewing materials deemed too explicit for 7-year-olds.

Pride Night celebrations at the ballpark were largely uncontroversial — until now. For the better part of two decades, Pride Night celebrations in professional sports went off with a minimum of fanfare, as clubs eagerly showed off their embrace of the LGBTQ community...Somewhere along the line, the routine act of backing a generic LGBTQ celebration became not-so-routine anymore, with even stitching on practice jerseys becoming a hot-button topic...“This is not just a bump in the road,” Ziegler said of the backlash. “This is going to be a fight."

Texas bans gender-affirming care for minors after governor signs bill. Every major medical organization, including the American Medical Association, has opposed the bans and supported the medical care for youth when administered appropriately. -- But apparently Republicans know what’s best for everyone about every fucking thing. Um no. They are just fascists, spreading their hatred towards groups of people they don’t like, and disguising it as “protecting the children.” They are not the party of small government, so stop pretending that they are.

Transgender adults in Florida `blindsided’ that new law also limits their access to health care. Debate surrounding Florida’s new restrictions on gender-affirming care focused largely on transgender children. But a new law that Republican presidential candidate and Gov. Ron DeSantis signed last month also made it difficult – even impossible – for many transgender adults to get treatment. -- Never forget that DeSantis and most of the Republican party, as well as their supporters, are fascists.

Some trans people turn to crowdfunding to leave Florida after anti-LGBTQ+ laws. Dozens of transgender people in Florida have turned to crowdfunding appeals to help them leave the state after the passage of new legislation that targets the LGBTQ+ community, including a law that curtails access to gender-affirming care for adults and bans it for minors.

“Someone’s sexuality isn’t a choice. Your hatred of someone for their sexuality is.” — John Pavlovitz

Who receives food benefits? It may not be who you think. Work-requirement proponents say the problem is unemployment, but nearly 4 out of 5 of households in the SNAP program have at least one person working. For starters, most families who use SNAP — where the average monthly benefit comes in at about $230 per person — are already working, and poverty — not unemployment — is the major challenge they face.

Universal basic income of £1,600 a month to be trialled in two places in England. Thirty people will be paid a lump sum without conditions each month for two years and will be observed to understand the effects on their lives.

Why Everyone Is Having Bad Sex (Especially Young People). And when I say “bad sex,” I am referring to sex that is quite simply unpleasurable, unsatisfying, or even demoralizing. While older generations are up against many of the same barriers to sexual wellbeing (like purity culture and the enduring impact of inadequate sex education), young people have been uniquely inundated with toxic messaging surrounding sex that has actually disrupted our abilities to feel pleasure. Resource-sharing on platforms like TikTok and Instagram may have positioned young people to better parse their sexualities, but not necessarily closer to building affirming and pleasurable sex lives…Studies suggest young people are experiencing growing rates of anhedonia, or the reduced motivation and capacity to feel pleasure. The COVID-19 pandemic made things considerably worse across all populations…Research has shown that, in many ways, we’re not just going backwards from the sexual revolution of the 1960s; rather, we’re still enduring the backlash to it. Historian Dagmar Herzog, in her ever-relevant 2008 book Sex in Crisis, explores this very problem by tracing America’s sex anxiety to the legislative victories of conservative evangelicals…”There is much titillating talk about sex in America, yet there is very little talk about sex that is morally engaged and affirmative.” Over 15 years later, Herzog’s analysis rings truer every day, with a dizzying uptick in legislative efforts to police adolescent sexuality and gender identity, particularly in American schools, which continue to deprive young people of inclusive, medically accurate sex education. (Republican lawmakers are ramping up efforts to restrict comprehensive sex ed. According to a 2022 study by the Guttmacher Institute, adolescents were less likely to have received sex education on key topics like contraceptive methods in 2015-2019 than in 1995.) The lack of pleasure-forward public discourse on sexual wellness is dark, to put it mildly—where are we to learn about and explore and delight in our own pleasure, if it’s becoming increasingly criminalized?…When are we supposed to learn about intimate communication, which most sex therapists agree is the key to pleasurable sex? Certainly not in high school, or from Gossip Girl.

Mysterious species buried their dead and carved symbols 100,000 years before humans. Researchers have uncovered evidence that members of a mysterious archaic human species buried their dead and carved symbols on cave walls long before the earliest evidence of burials by modern humans. The brains belonging to the extinct species, known as Homo naledi, were around one-third the size of a modern human brain. The revelations could change the understanding of human evolution, because until now such behaviors only have been  associated with larger-brained Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

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

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