Friday, May 7, 2021

And another day of fresh coronavirus waves, deaths higher than official figures, a CDC warning, secretly obtaining records, turning down millions of dollars, the ‘Purity of the ballot box,’ and your vaccination status to determine compatibility with others comes to a close:

“This is not complicated. If you can’t afford to pay your employees a living wage, you do not have a viable business model.” -- Robert Reich

Deaths

US: 594,911 (+905)

World: 3,283,727 (+14,387)

Cases

US: 33,418,826 (+49,634)

World: 157,530,729 (+849,205)

Beyond India, a growing number of Asian countries are being ravaged by fresh coronavirus waves.

A new study estimates that the number of people who have died of COVID-19 in the U.S. is more than 900,000, a number 57% higher than official figures.

CDC warns virus can spread more than six feet under certain conditions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned in a document published Friday of "repeatedly documented" instances of coronavirus spreading through the air to people more than 6 feet away under certain conditions.

Indian Covid variant is ‘of concern’, says Public Health England.

The bodies of New York City coronavirus victims are still being stored in refrigerated trailers converted into makeshift morgues during the height of the pandemic one year ago, according to the medical examiner's office.

A shot at love: Your vaccination status is the latest Covid-era compatibility test. Vaccination status has become a new type of compatibility test for dating app users seeking a match, and with roughly 250 million doses of the vaccines administered in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some are beginning to feel pangs of optimism that future first dates will no longer take place virtually as video chats.

Washington Post says US secretly obtained reporters’ records. The Trump Justice Department secretly seized the phone records of three Washington Post reporters who covered the federal investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, the newspaper said Friday.

Texas GOP’s voting restriction bill passes key House vote. Texas Republican lawmakers advanced a sweeping elections bill early Friday following hours of discussion that would put America’s biggest red state closer to imposing a raft of new voting restrictions in the face of growing warning from corporations.

“‘Purity of the ballot box’ was a term drafted specifically to disenfranchise Black voters following the Civil War. This justification was used again during the Jim Crow Era. And today, this lie was resurrected in the txlege to justify SB7.” — Rafael Anchia

Republican governors, again, turn down millions of dollars that would aid their own constituents. South Carolina will now pay for the privilege of punishing its people twice over. For the past decade, the state has deprived nearly 200,000 residents of health insurance by refusing to accept federal funds to expand Medicaid. Now, it will also turn down federal unemployment insurance as part of an effort to force people back to work.

4 ex-cops indicted on US civil rights charges in Floyd death.

While majorities of both Democrats and Republicans say it is at least somewhat important to provide safe and sanitary conditions to asylum-seekers once they arrive in the U.S., fully 91% of Democrats say this, compared with 61% of Republicans.

Gay country star TJ Osborne 'hurt' after Republicans block move to honour his brave coming out.

California's population dropped for the first time in the state's recorded history.

Walmart buys MeMD to provide virtual healthcare nationwide. Walmart is determined to counter Amazon Care with a similarly powerful option. The retailer has acquired telehealth provider MeMD to offer virtual healthcare across the US, including urgent and behavioral care on top of the usual primary services. The new offering will serve as a complement to Walmart Health's in-person help.

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

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

Thursday, May 6, 2021

And another day of sweeping election bills, the ‘worst of the worst,’ allowing college athletes to make endorsement money, shootings, hostages, law suits, cicadas, ‘Foxitis,’ and hot tub streaming on Twitch all comes to a close:

“Life is a zoo in the jungle.” -- Peter De Vries

Deaths

US: 594,006 (+858)

World: 3,269,340 (+14,070)

Cases

US: 33,369,192 (+47,948)

World: 156,681,524 (+861,278)

DeSantis signs sweeping election bill that will restrict access to the ballot box. DeSantis signed the legislation live on Fox News, shutting out local media who had planned to cover the ceremony. Florida Republicans passed the measure on near party-line votes over the objection of civil rights groups, and over the opposition of all 67 of the state’s county supervisors of elections.

FBI still after 'worst of the worst' in Capitol riot as new arrests come at steady pace. More than 440 people have been charged with taking part in the Capitol siege, coming from all but six states, with the most coming from Texas, Pennsylvania and Florida.

Montana will soon stop paying federal pandemic unemployment benefits to its residents, opting instead to provide $1,200 return-to-work bonuses.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has signed a bill into law allowing college athletes in the state to make endorsement money starting on July 1. The new law also allows schools to take up to 75% of an athlete’s endorsement income and redistribute to other athletes. — Can’t make this shit up. 

Texas lawmakers approve bill allowing people to carry handguns without license.  The Texas Senate has voted to advance a bill that will allow people to carry handguns in the state without a license, setting up the state to be the largest in the country to allow permitless carry.

Sheriff: Girl shoots 3 at Idaho school; teacher disarms her.

Police at hostage situation in Minnesota bank.

Should Fox News have to pay for its shameful election coverage? A court will decide. Those will be key questions in the $2.7-billion defamation suit brought by Smartmatic against not just Giuliani and Powell, but also Fox News and several of its hosts. (Dominion has also filed a $1.6-billion defamation suit.)

Alleged US Capitol rioter Anthony Antonio was hooked on Fox News and developed "Foxitis," his lawyer said Thursday in a virtual hearing interrupted multiple times by another defendant's profane outbursts.

Trillions of cicadas are about to swarm 15 US states.

45,000 apply for 12 spots to shoot Grand Canyon bison.

Twitch get into a lather about people streaming from hot tubs, but is it a battle they can win?

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

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

Wednesday, May 5, 2021

And another day of choosing truth over power, vaccines taking on the variants, McConnell’s pledge, oversight boards, firing squads, the Republican war against trans kids, and the lowest US birth rate in over a century comes to a close:

“So let me get this straight: The Republican Party is up in arms about "cancel culture," but they're ousting one of their most prominent female leaders for telling the truth about a presidential election?” — Robert Reich

“Despite McCarthy’s spin...Cheney’s real crime is that she has embarrassed the guys: her courage highlights their cowardice, and her insistence on telling the truth underscores their intellectual and moral corruption.” — Charlie Sykes

“I don’t understand the Republicans.” -- President Joe Biden

Deaths

US: 593,148 (+739)

World: 3,255,270 (+14,246)

Cases

US: 33,321,244 (+46,585)

World: 155,820,246 (+847,198)

Liz Cheney chooses truth over power -- a lonely path in Trump's GOP.

Covid vaccines can take on new coronavirus variants, studies show. A batch of new studies published Wednesday show how well coronavirus vaccines work against worrying new variants -- and one indicates booster doses can help them work even better.

US backs waiving intellectual property rules on vaccines. The Biden administration on Wednesday joined calls for more sharing of the technology behind COVID-19 vaccines to help speed the end of the pandemic, a shift that puts the U.S. alongside many in the developing world who want rich countries to do more to get doses to the needy.

Tucker Carlson thinks he’s untouchable. He’s a danger to every person on the planet.

“One hundred percent of my focus is on stopping this new administration.” -- Mitch McConnell

Editorial: Which is the same thing he said during the Obama administration. It’s his sole focus to obstruct anything put forward by Democrats. McConnell has damaged this country more than anyone else in the last ten years or so.

Biden dismisses McConnell’s pledge to focus ‘on stopping this new administration’. President Joe Biden responded on Wednesday to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s comment that “100%” of his focus is “on stopping this new administration,” asserting that he had heard such threats from the Kentucky Republican before and worked through them.

Despite business warnings, GOP moves ahead with voting bills.

Republicans’ Pessimistic Views On The Economy Have Little To Do With The Economy. Yet, despite these optimistic economic indicators, most Republicans say the economy is getting worse. On the one hand, this is to be expected, as political scientists have found that how we think about the economy is increasingly rooted in how we identify politically rather than in actual economic conditions...These shifts are particularly striking for Republicans when considering the actual state of the economy. Even after a prolonged period of growth in GDP, household income, employment and the stock market during Barack Obama’s presidency, about 70 percent of Republicans consistently thought the economy was getting worse in 2016 — nearly the same share who are now pessimistic about the economy’s trajectory under Biden. (By contrast, fewer than half of Republicans said the economy was getting worse at the height of the coronavirus recession, when the U.S. economy was in its worst shape since the Great Depression.) And this disconnect underscores a key point that political scientists John Sides, Lynn Vavreck, and I have repeatedly made about the 2016 election: Despite a media narrative that attributed Trump’s political rise to widespread economic dissatisfaction and anxiety, it was partisan and race-based opposition to Obama’s presidency that drove public opinion about the economy. — So, racism.

Facebook’s oversight board has upheld its decision to ban Trump from its platforms. But it says Facebook should not have banned him indefinitely — and that it must decide to either let him come back, or block him permanently.

“Nearly six months since a senior GOP official told the Post, ‘What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time?’ So far: insurrection, 147 in Congress opposing democracy, voter suppression, and potentially purging a GOP leader for not keeping Trump's lie going.” — Michael Calderone 

2 older Asian women stabbed in broad daylight while waiting for bus in downtown SF. — WTF?

About half of UT student tour guides on strike over "The Eyes of Texas" controversy: report.

South Carolina House adds firing squad to execution methods. The South Carolina House voted Wednesday to add a firing squad to the state’s execution methods amid a lack of lethal-injection drugs — a measure meant to jump-start executions in a state that once had one of the busiest death chambers in the nation.

The Republican War Against Trans Kids. Chase Strangio, who has won a series of landmark court cases in his role as ACLU deputy director for transgender justice, explains why states across the country are suddenly targeting the freedom of trans youth with a wave of new laws.

Inside the Christian Right's Final Efforts to Stop Canada's Ban on Conversion. Therapy. Since last year, dozens of people from Christian groups have come together regularly like this to pray and strategize against proposed laws that would criminalize conversion therapy practices.  Bill C-6 defines conversion therapy as a practice designed to change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual, to change a person’s gender identity or gender expression to cisgender, or to repress or reduce “non-heterosexual attraction” or sexual behaviour or non-cisgender gender expression...Conversion therapy amounts to torture, according to international health experts and can lead to depression, PTSD, and suicide.

Doctors investigate mystery brain disease in Canada. Doctors in Canada have been coming across patients showing symptoms similar to that of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare fatal condition that attacks the brain. But when they took a closer look, what they found left them stumped. Most patients began experiencing symptoms recently, from 2018 on, though one is believed to have had them as early as 2013. Dr Marrero says the symptoms are wide ranging and can vary among patients.

US birth rate falls to lowest point in more than a century. The rate dropped for moms of every major race and ethnicity, and in nearly age group, falling to the lowest point since federal health officials started tracking it more than a century ago.

Woman from Mali gives birth to 9 babies in Morocco. A Malian woman has given birth to nine babies at once — after expecting seven, according to Mali’s Minister of Health and the Moroccan clinic where the nonuplets were born. It appeared to be the first time on record that a woman had given birth to nine surviving babies at once.

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

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

Tuesday, May 4, 2021

And another day of vaccine information, Cheney and McCarthy not sharing love, The Big Lie, secret memos, speaking out, condemnations, ripping off employees, and all the queer Star Wars icons you’ve probably never heard of comes to a close:

“A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.” -- Steve Martin

Deaths

US: 592,409 (+895)

World: 3,241,024 (+14,149)

Cases

US: 33,274,659 (+44,098)

World: 154,973,048 (+794,804)

The federal government plans to shift the way vaccine doses are allocated among states, allowing some governors to turn down doses they don't need or want, as President Joe Biden pushes to get at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to 70 percent of adults by July 4.

FDA preparing to authorize Pfizer Covid vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds as early as next week.

All Alberta students move to online learning starting Friday, premier says. All kindergarten to Grade 12 students in Alberta will move to at-home learning starting on Friday and continuing until after the long weekend, and all workplaces in the province with COVID-19 outbreaks will be closed.

Oregon State University will require COVID-19 vaccinations for on-campus students and employees.

Cheney sees cratering support in House GOP as McCarthy says she isn’t ‘carrying out the message’. -- In other words, she won’t promote The Big Lie.

Whose ‘Big Lie’? Trump’s proclamation a new GOP litmus test. Donald Trump and his supporters are intensifying efforts to shame — and potentially remove — members of their party who are seen as disloyal to the former president and his false claims that last year’s election was stolen from him.

Secret William Barr memo saying not to charge Trump must be released, judge says. A federal judge this week rejected the Justice Department's attempts to keep secret a departmental opinion to not charge former President Donald Trump with obstruction at the end of the Mueller investigation, calling the administration's lawyers "disingenuous."

70% of U.S. social media users never or rarely post or share about political, social issues. When asked about five potential reasons for why they do not post about these topics, the top two reasons users cite are concerns that the things they post or share will be used against them and not wanting to be attacked for their views.

Businesses speak out as Texas Republicans push voting restrictions. Business groups and voting rights organizations are attempting to apply public pressure on Texas Republicans as lawmakers gear up to finalize bills that would make it harder to vote in parts of the Lone Star State and criminalize some of the actions of election workers.

UN condemns violent repression of Colombia protests after at least 18 die.

US report: Taliban will likely curtail Afghan women’s rights. U.S. intelligence agencies are warning that any gains in women’s rights in Afghanistan made in the last two decades will be at risk after U.S. troops withdraw later this year.

How companies rip off poor employees — and get away with it. Already battered by long shifts and high infection rates, essential workers struggling through the pandemic face another hazard of hard times: employers who steal their wages. When a recession hits, U.S. companies are more likely to stiff their lowest-wage workers, research shows. Some businesses pay less than the minimum wage, make employees work off the clock, or refuse to pay overtime rates. In the most egregious cases, bosses don’t pay their employees at all.

Black man enslaved by white restaurant owner should be awarded more than $500K, court rules. John Christopher Smith, who has intellectual disabilities, was forced to work at a South Carolina restaurant for over 100 hours a week without pay for five years. Bobby Paul Edwards, who is white, pleaded guilty in June 2018 to one count of forced labor for using "violence and other coercive means" to make John Christopher Smith work at his restaurant for more than 100 hours a week without pay, the U.S. Department of Justice previously said in a press release. -- It’s much worse than what is stated here. Bobby Paul Edwards is a fucking asshole who should suffer greatly. What a disgusting excuse for a human being.

Undoing 4 years of 'damage': LGBTQ advocates on Biden's first 100 days. “Just because it's better doesn't make it good.”

Parents outraged after high school elects lesbian couple as prom king and queen. The winning couple says the backlash from adults doesn’t represent how their peers feel. Some parents made statements at a school meeting disparaging the teens and the school. -- Some parents need to shut the fuck up.

All the queer Star Wars icons you’ve probably never heard of. The road to more meaningful LGBT+ representation has been a long one for Star Wars, but in recent years, the hit sci-fi series has upped its game. Star Wars has expanded to more than just movies. There are Star Wars novels, comic books, video games and TV series that discuss the expanded universe at length. Within the expanded universe, Star Wars has highlighted characters of various sexualities and gender identities, creating new opportunities for LGBT+ fans to see themselves represented within the series.

60% of School Apps Are Sharing Your Kids' Data With Third Parties.

Pentagon tracking out-of-control Chinese rocket that could reenter Earth's atmosphere.

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

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

Monday, May 3, 2021

And another day of vaccine approvals, suspensions, herd immunity, ‘vaccinated-only’ sections, lines that cannot be crossed, dangerous passenger behavior, a global police sting, harassment, and gladiators comes to a close:

“Some people drink from the fountain of knowledge, others just gargle.” -- Robert Anthony

Deaths

US: 591,514 (+452)

World: 3,226,875 (+10,661)

Cases

US: 33,230,561 (+50,120)

World: 154,178,244 (+ 696,631)

FDA to authorize Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine for 12-to-15-year-olds by early next week, official says. Pfizer said at the end of March that a clinical trial involving 2,260 12-to-15-year-olds showed its efficacy is 100% and it is well tolerated. The vaccine is currently authorized in the US for emergency use in people 16 and older.

DeSantis suspends all of Florida's remaining COVID-19 restrictions, calling it "the evidence-based thing to do".

Not reaching herd immunity by the fall could have dire consequences, medical expert says.

'Vaccinated-only' sections can be seated at full capacity at churches, sporting events in Washington.

Cheney: What Trump did 'is a line that cannot be crossed'. "We can't embrace the notion the election is stolen. It's a poison in the bloodstream of our democracy," Cheney said, speaking behind closed doors at a conference in Sea Island, Georgia. "We can't whitewash what happened on January 6 or perpetuate Trump's big lie. It is a threat to democracy. What he did on January 6 is a line that cannot be crossed."

“The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.” -- Liz Cheney

Biden raises refugee cap to 62,500 after facing criticism for keeping Trump-era levels in place.

FAA warns of spike in unruly, dangerous passenger behavior. In a typical year, the transportation agency sees 100 to 150 formal cases of bad passenger behavior. But since the start of this year, the agency said, the number of reported cases has jumped to 1,300, an even more remarkable number since the number of passengers remains below pre-pandemic levels.

Dark web child abuse image site with 400,000 members taken down in global police sting. The three main suspects are accused of founding and maintaining the site, as well as giving members advice on how to avoid arrest, German police said.

Idaho intern reported rape, faced ‘overwhelming’ harassment. The harassment began soon after a report by a 19-year-old intern, who alleged an Idaho lawmaker raped her, became public.

Italy unveiled plans for a new hi-tech floor for the Colosseum to give visitors a sense of what it was like where gladiators stood 2,000 years ago.

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

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

Sunday, May 2, 2021

And another day of crusading against what is just and right, forging vaccine cards, opponents of anti-racism education win big in TX, banning ‘deplatforming’ by tech companies, and the worst chlorine shortage in history comes to a close: 

“The deficit is political tool used by Republicans to block laws that benefit the American people.” — Robert Reich

“Aren’t you embarrassed?” -- Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah)

Deaths

US: 591,062 (+1007) (2 days)

World: 3,216,214 (+22,561) (2 days)

Cases

US: 33,180,441 (76,467) (2 days)

World: 153,481,613 (+1,479,248) (2 days)

Republicans are crusading against 'woke'. Republicans, looking to dent President Joe Biden and win back Congress next year in part by rousing a voting base animated by culture war issues, have increasingly settled on a single word to describe what it is they stand against: "woke." -- It’s better to be ‘woke’ than continue to promote and support racism and inequality. By railing against ‘wokeness,’ the GOP are showing their true colors.

Sen. Mitt Romney booed at Utah GOP convention. -- When Romney gets booed, you know Republicans have embraced the extreme elements of their party.

Bid to censure Romney for Trump impeachment votes fails.

Vegas hitting jackpot as pandemic-weary visitors crowd back.

Pro-Trump web forums are abuzz with directions to forge Covid vaccine cards. Some states put templates online, spurring pro-Trump and anti-vaccination forums to start spreading tips for how to create fake cards. -- Because of course they are.

By turning care work into infrastructure, Biden is doing something unprecedented: He’s taking women’s economic plight seriously.

Police fired 24 shots at a handcuffed man. Why didn't they turn on their body cameras? The case of Ariane McCree illustrates the patchwork nature of police body camera policies around the country.

In bitterly divided election in Southlake, Texas, opponents of anti-racism education win big. Hernandez and other candidates running in support of new diversity and inclusion programs said they were not particularly surprised by the outcome in a historically conservative city where about two-thirds of voters backed President Donald Trump last year, but they were dismayed by the margin of their defeat.

In nod to Trump, Florida is set to ban 'deplatforming' by tech companies. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube could be fined for banning political candidates under a bill passed by Florida's Legislature. Critics say it's unconstitutional. — So Republicans are okay with some companies being prohibited from choosing who may use their service while other companies are permitted to choose who NOT to provide services to. 

Army report confirms Vanessa Guillén was sexually harassed before her death. A report on last year’s slaying of Spc. Vanessa Guillén confirmed that she was being sexually harassed before her death at Fort Hood, Texas, but not by the man suspected of killing her, according to Army documents released Friday. Army investigators found that Guillén was “sexually harassed by a superior noncommissioned officer in her unit,” though the person was not named in the report.

Grammys change award nomination process after The Weeknd called it "corrupt". — It sounds like he wasn’t wrong.

The worst chlorine shortage the country has ever seen is set to rock this summer’s pool season. The chlorine shortage is widespread and it will likely worsen — driving chlorine prices even higher — as homeowners start to prep swimming pools for the season. CNBC spoke to pool industry insiders in multiple states — including Florida, Michigan, Nevada and Texas — about the tight supplies, which are expected to blindside pool owners, who are largely unaware of the problem.

The new malaria vaccine is a total game changer. Vaccination has worked wonders to drive down deaths from infectious disease. A few hundred years ago, less than 60 percent of children saw their fifth birthday. Now, 95 percent do. Vaccines — against smallpox, measles, polio, diphtheria, and more — have driven that progress. But one of childhood’s biggest killers — malaria — has eluded effective vaccination. That, at long last, looks to be changing. — Science. It matters.

Apple’s app store goes on trial in threat to ‘walled garden’. On Monday, Apple faces one of its most serious legal threats in recent years: A trial that threatens to upend its iron control over its app store, which brings in billions of dollars each year while feeding more than 1.6 billion iPhones, iPads, and other devices.

Manchester United fans mount protest against US owners as Premier League match against Liverpool postponed.

South Africa announced it plans to end its multimillion-dollar captive lion industry and said it won’t oppose the international ban on the rhinoceros horn and elephant ivory trade.

For the first time, scientists have been able to precisely map the flight path of an asteroid that landed on Earth and trace it back to its point of origin. The boulder-size fragment's journey to our planet began 22 million years ago, research says.

RIP Olympia Dukakis. She was 89.

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

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