And another day of abandoning pretenses, denying bids, trying to find new terms, the GOP Project 2025, hurricanes, flash floods, excessive heat, the ‘Stone Belt,’ a human embryo without using sperm or eggs, and a golden orb comes to a close:
“These are not cranks, this is the Republican policy establishment.” -- Ari Drennen
There’s Nothing Patriotic about Today’s Republicans. The GOP has abandoned even a pretense of caring for our country and supporting democracy at home and abroad. Now all they care about are bigots, billionaires, and bullies. There was a time in this country when most Americans — regardless of political affiliation — agreed on a basic set of principles:...The Democratic Party still supports all these ideals, sometimes to their detriment, like when they refuse to “fight dirty” by creating sketchy scandals like “her emails” and “Benghazi.” While these may give the party a short-term benefit, most Democrats realize the long-term harm to the nation isn’t worth the temporary gain. The post-Trump GOP, however, has rejected them all. Instead, it’s become the party of Putin, bin Salman, and Orbán, rejecting out of hand George Washington’s warning about partisanship replacing patriotism and, increasingly, rejecting the very idea of democracy in our republic.
Judge denies Mark Meadows' bid to move Georgia election case to federal court. A judge on Friday denied former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows' bid to move the Georgia criminal case against him to federal court, ruling that his alleged involvement in efforts to pressure state leaders to overturn the 2020 election results was not part of his official duties as a government official.
How a former Trump official’s conviction could echo in ex-president’s cases. The swift conviction of Donald Trump’s former trade adviser Peter Navarro for contempt of Congress sent two warnings to the multiple co-defendants in the ex-president’s approaching criminal trials. The first is that nobody, not even former White House big shots claiming to be empowered by presidential authority, is above the law. The second is that loyalty to Trump can be hazardous and often gets those who show it cross-wise with the law.
Republicans are trying to find a new term for ‘pro-life’ to stave off more electoral losses. “What intrigued me the most about the results was that ‘pro-choice’ and ‘pro-life’ means something different now, that people see being pro-life as being against all abortions ... at all levels,” Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said in an interview Thursday. -- Well Republican actions have shown the American people that Republicans are against all abortions. Reframing the wording as “pro-baby” will not change that fact.
Republican presidential Project 2025 plans to define trans people as ‘pornographic’. A Republican think tank’s proposal for LGBTQ+ rights if the GOP were to win the 2024 presidential election includes a section on how the next president could essentially erase trans people from public life...“The actions of liberal politicians in Washington have created a desperate need and unique opportunity for conservatives to start undoing the damage the Left has wrought,” the project’s ‘about’ section reads. Sections from its 180-day playbook – a list of actions taken in the first 180 days of Republican leadership – include completely stripping discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people from the law. Drennen noted in her tweet that the Heritage Foundation are not a fringe political think-tank, saying: “These are not cranks, this is the Republican policy establishment.” “They’ve put it quite vividly – declare trans content porn, imprison those who make it, put teachers who discuss it on the sex offender registry, and force companies that host it to close.” Drennen clarified in a separate tweet that the blueprint is not “actually about trans porn” but conflates “propagation of transgender ideology,” with pornography.
Vivek Ramaswamy says he'll deport children of undocumented immigrants born in the U.S. These children, however, are U.S. citizens, regardless of their parents' immigration status. The 14th Amendment states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
Ukraine is furious with Elon Musk for thwarting an attack on Russia's navy. The tech billionaire said Thursday that he had told his engineers not to turn on the Starlink satellite network over Crimea to prevent a planned attack on the Black Sea fleet last year.
Here's why Hurricane Lee is alarming even if it doesn’t make landfall. Hurricane Lee, the storm churning through the open Atlantic waters Friday, is expected to pass well north of Puerto Rico and several other Caribbean islands. But even if it doesn’t make landfall, its rapid intensification into Category 5 is enough reason for alarm, according to meteorologists and climate experts. It is the latest storm to accelerate at a breakneck pace partly because ocean temperatures have been unusually warm, giving hurricanes the energy they need to gain speed and power, according to experts.
Hong Kong paralyzed by flash flooding after heaviest rainfall since 1884. Record-breaking rainfall paralyzed much of Hong Kong on Friday, with flash flooding submerging metro stations and trapping drivers on roads, as authorities suspended schools and urged the public to seek safe shelter.
Fossil fuels being subsidised at rate of $13m a minute, says IMF. The IMF analysis found the total subsidies for oil, gas and coal in 2022 were $7tn (£5.5tn). That is equivalent to 7% of global GDP and almost double what the world spends on education. Countries have pledged to phase out subsidies for years to ensure the price of fossil fuels reflects their true environmental costs, but have achieved little to date. — $13m a minute.
Puerto Rico schools cancel classes as they grapple with unceasing, excessive heat. According to the National Weather Service in San Juan, Puerto Rico stands to endure temperatures that could feel as hot as 114 degrees Fahrenheit next week. In a recent survey of 2,500 Puerto Rican teachers, 83% said they lacked air conditioning in their classroom. Heat-related emergencies have been reported in about half of the public schools on the island, the survey also found.
LA Council approves motion to ban sale or rental of RVs for housing. The council voted 12-0 to approve a motion seeking to amend city law to add recreational vehicles to the list of vehicles that cannot be used for housing…The council approved the motion without discussion.
Ever heard of the Stone Belt? Texas is in it. And parents, especially those of young girls, need to beware. Texas is part of what doctors call the “Stone Belt,” which almost forms a line across the southernmost tips of the country – it stretches west from lower California to the southern tips of Arizona and New Mexico and includes all of Texas, the south, and the southeast. North and South Carolina are considered the eastern tip. “It’s real. It is real,” Stanasel said of the Stone Belt. “In these states where the temperature is higher, we definitely see more kidney stones.” While it’s difficult to pinpoint an exact cause for the increase in young people, Stanasel said experts speculate hydration and diet are key.
Scientists have grown an entity that closely resembles an early human embryo, without using sperm, eggs or a womb. The Weizmann Institute team say their "embryo model", made using stem cells, looks like a textbook example of a real 14-day-old embryo. It even released hormones that turned a pregnancy test positive in the lab. The ambition for embryo models is to provide an ethical way of understanding the earliest moments of our lives.
Tennis ball wasteland? Game grapples with a fuzzy yellow recycling problem. Because tennis balls are extremely hard to recycle and the industry has yet to develop a ball to make that easier, nearly all of the 330 million balls made worldwide each year eventually get chucked in the garbage, with most ending up in landfills, where they can take more than 400 years to decompose.
Scientists Stumped by ‘Golden Orb’ From Seafloor That's ‘Biological in Origin’. A team of researchers exploring the seafloor off Alaska last week recovered a peculiar brassy-yellow object at a depth of over 2 miles (3.2 kilometers). The researchers still don’t know what it is. “While we were able to collect the ‘golden orb’ and bring it onto the ship, we still are not able to identify it beyond the fact that it is biological in origin.”
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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