Wednesday, July 6, 2022

And another day of what the GOP agenda will be if they retake Congress, being furious, Cipollone to be interviewed, praying with SCOTUS, failing adolescent girls, soaring global hunger, and picking the healthiest embryo comes to a close:

“DeSantis is engaged in one of the most alarming assaults on free speech and academic freedom since the dark days of McCarthyism. His record reveals a pattern of authoritarianism and vindictiveness that would be extremely dangerous in the Oval Office.” — Max Boot

Deaths

US: 1,044,557

World: 6,366,784

Cases

US: 89,930,463

World: 557,510,874

If Republicans Retake Congress In November, Here’s What Their Agenda Will Look Like. Kneecapping the EPA, rolling back transgender rights, slashing social welfare programs—a little-read policy document spells out the House GOP’s extreme plans. A little-noticed budget document, the Blueprint to Save America, released in June by the Republican Study Committee, details the group’s priorities. Since nearly 75 percent of Republican House lawmakers are RSC members, these priorities are shared by a majority of the GOP caucus. The 122-page manifesto, containing a laundry list of longstanding conservative desires, calls for significantly reducing the size of America’s social safety net, drastically limiting abortion access nationwide, effectively throwing in the towel on combatting climate change, raising the age requirement to receive full Social Security benefits, cracking down on transgender rights, and making it easier for Americans to carry concealed weapons. — We have been warned. Vote all Republicans out of office.

‘Be absolutely furious’—Dems want more from Biden after Highland Park. “We’re not going to change the hearts and minds of Republicans,” Rivera added. “The fight is for independents and Democrats to get up and fight back and come out. And he is not meeting the moment. He has to meet the moment.”…The critique extends beyond guns. Democrats have criticzed Biden’s seeming lack of fire in responding to a series of crises, including the Supreme Court’s decision on abortion rights and escalating threats to democracy that grow with every primary win by Republican 2020 election deniers. Some believe he has not adjusted to the punishing tactics of the MAGA Republican Party…And while the White House has defended the president’s response, pointing Tuesday to several past speeches he’s given on guns and coming action to help protect access to abortions, others fear that Biden remains trapped in a prior age of political decorum and unquestioning fealty to institutions and has been slow to recognize both the existential threat felt by some of his supporters. — The existential threat is real. If Democrats do not show up to vote Republicans away, then the country will fall to fascism.

More than 220 shot and killed in U.S. gun violence over July 4 holiday weekend. Gun violence spiked over Fourth of July weekend, with shootings reported in nearly every U.S. state that killed a total of at least 220 people and wounded close to 570 others, according to the Gun Violence Archive. — As American as apple pie.

Cipollone reaches deal to give transcribed interview to January 6 committee Friday. Cipollone will be appearing under subpoena. A source familiar with his thinking says Cipollone intended to comply with the subpoena issued on June 29 for a July 6 interview, and it was extended until July 8. The interview will be on video, two of the sources told CNN.

States move to protect abortion from prosecutions elsewhere. Democratic governors in states where abortion will remain legal are looking for ways to protect any patients who travel there for the procedure — along with the providers who help them — from being prosecuted by their home states. -- The fact we’re having this conversation should scare the shit out of you. To not be able to freely travel to whichever of the 50 states you want to go to for whatever reason is some serious fascist shit.

SCOTUS Justices ‘Prayed With’ Her — Then Cited Her Bosses to End Roe. A right-wing evangelical activist was caught on tape bragging that she prayed with Supreme Court justices. The court’s majority cited a legal brief that her group filed while overturning Roe v. Wade. In other words: Sitting Supreme Court justices have prayed together with evangelical leaders whose bosses were bringing cases and arguments before the high court…“Praying with a group that filed an amicus brief with a court,” he says, “is a problem.” — Theocracy is here. 

DOJ Investigating Texas’ Operation Lone Star for Alleged Civil Rights Violations. The Department of Justice is investigating alleged civil rights violations under Operation Lone Star, a multibillion-dollar border initiative announced last year by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, according to state records obtained by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune…An investigation by the Tribune, ProPublica and The Marshall Project found that in touting the operation’s accomplishments, state officials included arrests with no connection to the border and statewide drug seizures. The news organizations also revealed that trespassing cases represented the largest share of the operation’s arrests. DPS stopped counting some charges, including cockfighting, sexual assault and stalking, after the publications began asking questions about their connections to border security…In an internal email in May, DPS officials said that the DOJ was seeking to review whether Operation Lone Star violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin by institutions receiving federal funding.

Republican states are trying to use federal covid aid to cut taxes. In Florida and elsewhere, GOP leaders have sued to tap pandemic funds for tax cuts, defying the Biden administration. — There really are no good Republicans.

‘World is failing adolescent girls’ warns UNFPA chief, as report shows third of women in developing countries give birth in teen years. Nearly a third of all women in developing countries, start having children at the age of 19 or younger, and nearly half of first births to adolescents, are to children or girls aged 17 or under…Gender-based and income inequalities are highlighted as key in fuelling teen pregnancies by increasing child marriage rates, keeping girls out of school, restricting their career aspirations, and limiting healthcare and information on safe, consensual sex. Entrenching these inequalities are climate disasters, COVID-19 and conflict, which are all upending lives around the world, obliterating livelihoods and making it more difficult for girls to afford or even physically reach school and health services. This leaves tens of millions yet more vulnerable to child marriage and early pregnancy.

Global hunger toll soars by 150 million as Covid and Ukraine war make their mark. Tenth of world’s population now chronically undernourished, with spectre of widespread famine drawing ever closer, warns report. Globally, the number suffering from chronic undernourishment rose to as many as 828 million last year, a rise of about 46 million on the previous year, and three times that increase if measured since the world shut down due to Covid, a report has found. With the price of fuel, food staples and fertiliser soaring since the invasion of Ukraine, however, that total is expected to rise even further in the next year – a scenario that could see some of the world’s poorest fall into famine, the most extreme form of food deprivation.

Wisconsin Supreme Court rules in favor of Chrystul Kizer, allowing sex trafficking defense in homicide trial. The high court of Wisconsin upheld a lower court ruling Wednesday that allows Chrystul Kizer to argue self-defense to justify killing the man who she said sexually abused her when she was a minor.

Genetic Screening Now Lets Parents Pick the Healthiest Embryos. People using IVF can see which embryo is least likely to develop cancer and other diseases. But can protecting your child slip into playing God? Aurea doesn’t know it yet, but her birth was very special: She is the world’s first PGT-P baby, meaning she is statistically less likely than the rest of us to develop a genetic disease or disorder throughout her life. PGT-P stands for preimplantation genetic testing for polygenic disorders. It is conducted in conjunction with IVF and allows prospective parents to actively select which of their own embryos to take, based on the strength of its genes.

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

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

Monday, July 4, 2022

And another day of mass shootings, the Republican roadmap for eradicating reproductive rights, spreading election misinformation, more turning up with evidence, police video killing another black man, losing control of monkeypox, and droughts comes to a close:

“Let's not forget this hard truth: America was formed by 55 white men. Many of whom owned black slaves. And they did not grant women any rights. America at its birth only granted liberty and rights to white men. This is our context 246 years later.” — Sophia A. Nelson

“America is about someone's right to owning a gun without any safety checks in place being more important than anyone else's right to life.” -- Geraldine

Deaths

US: 1,043,372

World: 6,362,437

Cases

US: 89,567,321

World: 555,233,865

6 dead, 30 hurt in shooting at Chicago-area July 4 parade. A gunman on a rooftop opened fire on an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago on Monday, killing at least six people, wounding at least 30 and sending hundreds of marchers, parents with strollers and children on bicycles fleeing in terror, police said.

Police find man suspected in shooting at Chicago-area parade. Highland Park’s police chief said the 22-year-old man identified as a person of interest in the shooting that killed at least six people, wounded at least 30 and sent hundreds of people fleeing from an Independence Day parade in suburban Chicago on Monday has been taken into custody. — He wasn’t shot 60 times? Tell me he’s white without telling me he’s white. 

This Is the Republican Roadmap for Eradicating Reproductive Rights. Below is a non-exhaustive list.

• Rep. Mike Kelly’s (R-Pa.) Heartbeat Protection Act would create a federal ban on abortions after a heartbeat is detected.

• Rep. Jody Hice’s (R-Ga.) Sanctity of Human Life bill would “declare” human life as beginning when sperm fertilizes an egg, and that as such, those fertilized eggs would have constitutional rights.

• Rep. Alexander Mooney (R-WV) Life at Conception Act would provide 14th Amendment protections—namely, the right to life—to any fertilized egg.

• Rep. Mike Johnson’s (R-La.)’s Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act would make it a federal crime to transport a minor across state lines for an abortion without parental consent.

• Rep. Debbie Lasko’s (R-Ariz.) Dismemberment Abortion Ban Act would prohibit most second-trimester abortions across the country. 

These bills have widespread Republican support. Each has at least a dozen cosponsors. Mooney’s bill has more than 160. A conservative House Republican caucus—the Republican Study Committee, of which roughly 75 percent of House Republican are members—also supports this entire slate of legislation…But these anti-abortion bills do indicate GOP intentions. Essentially, they form a roadmap showing how the party may try to govern the next time they have the power—in both the White House and in Congress—to do so. The bills “tell us where they are going.” — Republicans must never have control of both Congress and the White House again.

Allies of former President Trump have been furiously traveling the country, spreading election fraud misinformation. NPR tracked 4 prominent figures in the movement — at hundreds of events, often alongside elected officials and candidates…These local gatherings may reach fewer people than viral internet posts, but they seem to effectively spur action by regular people, who are motivated by their almost evangelical intimacy…"You can see the complexion of local politics shifting as a result. They have decentralized post-January 6th and are really trying to effect change at the lowest-possible level."…The scale of their movements paints a portrait of an election denial movement that has evolved into a nationwide force, beyond just swing states — and despite the Jan. 6 Committee's investigation and efforts by voting officials at every level to combat disinformation. NPR's investigation is the first such effort to document the scope of these influencers. "It's an existential threat to American democracy," said Franita Tolson, an elections expert at the University of Southern California. "If the numbers get big enough, it's unclear whether we will survive it."

Philip Gunn’s connection to the Southern Baptist Convention sexual abuse scandal. When Langworthy confessed to the abuse in 2011, Gunn was set to become one of Mississippi’s most powerful political leaders as speaker of the House. But that same year, Gunn had become ensnared in the church scandal. Gunn was publicly accused of trying to cover up Langworthy’s abuse before his confession and indictment. Amy Smith, the Texas church staffer who first disclosed details of Langworthy’s earlier abuse to the blogger, told Mississippi reporters in 2011 that she heard from Gunn three months before Langworthy publicly admitted to the abuse and four months before he was indicted. — Gunn is the MS House Speaker who says a 12-year-old girl raped and impregnated by her father must carry that child too term. MAGAs are not only pro-rape, they are pro-child-rape.

Jan. 6 panel: More turning up with evidence against Trump. More witnesses are coming forward with new details on the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot following former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s devastating testimony last week against former President Donald Trump, says a member of a House committee investigating the insurrection.

Dear Republicans: We Tried Your Way and It Does Not Work. Their "Reaganism" sales pitch was effective, and we’ve now had 42 years of the so-called Reagan Revolution: It’s time to say out loud that it hasn’t worked…The bottom line is that we — as a nation, voluntarily or involuntarily — have now had the full Republican experience. And now that we know what it is, we’re no longer listening to the Republican politicians who are continuing to try to sell us this bullshit. We don’t want to hear Republicans sermonizing about deficits (that they themselves caused). Or welfare (that they damaged and then exploited). Or even whatever they’re calling “faith” these days, be it the death penalty, forcing raped women to give birth at the barrel of a gun, or burning books. We’re over it, Republicans. A new America is being birthed from the ashes of the Reagan Revolution and you can’t stop it much longer.

‘Everyone was beaten’: Ukrainians held captive by Russia recover from physical, emotional scars. In many ways, however, Mykhaylo said he was lucky compared to some of the other prisoners, both civilians and service members, who suffered far worse punishments.

Footage Shows Ohio Cops Unleashing Hail of Gunfire on Unarmed Man. But at a press conference Sunday, Akron Police Chief Steve Mylett confirmed that the fleeing suspect was, in fact, unarmed—police say they found a handgun and loaded magazine, alongside a gold ring, on Walker’s driver’s seat. The video compilation released by the department includes 13 video segments from body-worn cameras. The footage shows several officers yelling and chasing Walker on foot; they continue to fire repeatedly after Walker is on the ground.

Ohio city Akron imposes curfew after protests over police killing of Black man. The Ohio city of Akron declared a state of emergency on Monday, setting a curfew and canceling Independence Day fireworks, after protests over the police killing of an unarmed Black man turned unruly on Sunday night.

Advocates warn US at risk of losing control on monkeypox. Infectious disease experts and public health advocates are warning that the Biden administration has been too slow to respond to the monkeypox outbreak and that the U.S. is at risk of losing control of the disease. The response to monkeypox is mirroring the worst parts of the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, they say, with severely limited testing and a sluggish rollout of vaccines leading to a virus that’s spreading undetected.

Spain and Portugal suffering driest climate for 1,200 years, research shows. The researchers found that winters featuring “extremely large” Azores highs have increased dramatically from one winter in 10 before 1850 to one in four since 1980. These extremes also push the wet weather northwards, making downpours in the northern UK and Scandinavia more likely. The scientists said the more frequent large Azores highs could only have been caused by the climate crisis, caused by humanity’s carbon emissions.

Italy declares state of emergency for drought-stricken north. Italy on Monday declared a state of emergency for areas surrounding the river Po, which accounts for roughly a third of the country's agricultural production and is suffering its worst drought for 70 years. The government decree will allow authorities to cut through red tape and take action immediately if they think it necessary, such as to impose water rationing for homes and businesses.

“Happy birthday America. Try to fuck this coming year up less, ok?” — Thomas Lecaque

And it’s already off to a shitty start. 

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

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

Saturday, July 2, 2022

And another day of possible election ‘chaos,’ a nightmare scenario, FL training for public school teachers embraces religion, myths about abortion and mental health, TX AG would back sodomy law, Covid ‘brain fog,’ and the climate crises comes to a close:

“The way I see it, it’s pretty straightforward:

“1. My former political party no longer believes in and now openly opposes democracy.

“2. Most Americans still believe in & support democracy.

“3. If most Americans vote in November, my former political party will lose.

“Easy, right?”

— Joe Walsh

“America: where middle schoolers are too young to learn about slavery, but old enough to deliver a pregnancy.” — Jess Piper

Deaths

US: 1,043,308

World: 6,360,788

Cases

US: 89,522,328

World: 554,031,239

The Supreme Court case voting rights experts say could bring 'chaos' to elections. That argument is often referred to as the independent state legislature doctrine, a legal theory that says only state legislators have the authority to set rules for federal elections. Some conservatives have advanced that position in recent years, pointing to a provision in the U.S. Constitution that says the manner of federal elections “shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.”...While the Supreme Court could take a wide range of actions in the North Carolina case, experts and voting rights advocates say a full-throated endorsement of the independent state legislature theory by a court that has a 6-3 conservative majority could roll back limits on partisan gerrymandering, unwind voter-implemented changes like ranked-choice voting and gut voter protections against discrimination found in state constitutions and more. Such a ruling would put state election codes and congressional redistricting plans entirely in the hands of partisan state legislatures, many of which have been repeatedly criticized by state courts and others for aggressively gerrymandering and enacting restrictive voting laws.

The Nightmare Scenario SCOTUS is Plotting For the 2024 Election Takeover. Sound far fetched? Six Republicans on the Supreme Court just announced that one of the first cases they’ll decide next year could include whether that very scenario is constitutional or not. And it almost certainly is…While the main issue being debated in Moore v Harper, scheduled for a hearing this October, is a gerrymander that conflicts with North Carolina’s constitution, the issue at the core of the debate is what’s called the “Independent State Legislature Doctrine.” It literally gives state legislatures the power to pre-rig or simply hand elections to the candidate of their choice…That doctrine — the basis of John Eastman and Donald Trump’s effort to get states to submit multiple slates of electors — asserts that a plain reading of Article II and the 12th Amendment of the Constitution says that each state’s legislature has final say in which candidate gets their states’ Electoral College vote, governors and the will of the voters be damned. Fully twenty-one years before Trump tried the same trick, David Barstow and Somini Sengupta wrote for the New York Times on November 28, 2000 that Jeb and George W. Bush were discussing it:…This scenario isn’t just plausible: it’s probable.  GOP-controlled states are already changing their state laws to allow for it, and Republican strategists are gaming out which states have Republican legislatures willing to override the votes of their people to win the White House for the Republican candidate…Trump’s January 6th effort failed because every contested state had laws on the books requiring all of their Electoral College votes to go to whichever candidate won the popular vote in the state. That will not be the case in 2024.

“I get the sense that a lot of people, including a lot of elected Democrats, don't understand what the Court is getting ready to do next term. Blessing the independent state legislature doctrine will very quickly lead to full-on autocracy.” — Ned Resnikoff

In trainings, Florida tells teachers that religion belongs in public life. New civics training for Florida public school teachers comes with a dose of Christian dogma, some teachers say, and they worry that it also sanitizes history and promotes inaccuracies. Included in the training is the statement that it is a “misconception” that “the Founders desired strict separation of church and state.” -- Pay fucking attention, people. They are striving for Christian theocracy.

“Yeah, if you think a kid can handle a pregnancy from a rape but not a rainbow sticker, you should stop pretending your concerns are about kids.” — LOLGOP

Myths about abortion and women's mental health are widespread, experts say. A large, long-term study, called The Turnaway Study, followed the mental health of nearly 1,000 women in 21 states who wanted and received an abortion and women who wanted but were denied an abortion between 2008 and 2010. The women were interviewed every six months over the next five years. At the end of that time, 99% of the women who had an abortion believed they had made the right decision -- in fact relief was the prominent emotion, one analysis noted. Women who received an abortion had similar or lower levels of depression and anxiety than women denied an abortion and were no more likely to experience post-traumatic stress than women who carried their baby to term, according to study results...After five years, the study found women denied an abortion were more likely to "live in poverty and much more likely to suffer economic hardship, including more bankruptcies, debt and challenges meeting basic living needs," Briggs said. Women who were turned away were also more likely to be tethered to a violent and abusive partner, and to have chronic health conditions, Briggs said. "They also lowered their aspirations (for the future), and they were less likely to achieve them," she added.

The marshal of the Supreme Court is asking Maryland officials to direct law enforcement to enforce the state's laws prohibiting picketing outside the homes of Supreme Court justices.

Texas AG says he would back law banning sodomy if Supreme Court reconsiders landmark case. Paxton said during a Friday interview with NewsNation he would defend the law banning sodomy because the Supreme Court in the past has “stepped into issues that I don’t think there was any constitutional provision dealing with.”

Texas board of education strikes down proposal to call slavery "involuntary relocation". Throughout the summer, the board will consider several curriculum updates to comply with lawmakers’ requirements to keep subjects that make students uncomfortable out of schools.

For now, wary US treads water with transformed COVID-19. The fast-changing coronavirus has kicked off summer in the U.S. with lots of infections but relatively few deaths compared to its prior incarnations. COVID-19 is still killing hundreds of Americans each day, but is not nearly as dangerous as it was last fall and winter.

The Secrets of Covid ‘Brain Fog’ Are Starting to Lift. Scientists are getting closer to understanding the neurology behind the memory problems and cognitive fuzziness that an infection can trigger.

With hospitalizations up, France weighs return to masks. Tourism is booming again in France — and so is COVID-19. French officials have “invited” or “recommended” people to go back to using face masks but stopped short of renewing restrictions that would scare visitors away or revive antigovernment protests.

How the climate crisis is forever changing our national parks. The consequences of the climate crisis -- more wildfires, devastating drought, sea level rise, flooding, ecological disease -- are plaguing the country's national parks...Scientists and officials say it signals a dramatic change unfolding at the nation’s most prized parks. And unless the planet slashes fossil fuel emissions, scientists believe the climate crisis could drastically alter the landscapes, cultural sites and ecosystems in the parks, potentially making them inaccessible for humans and uninhabitable for other species.

'We are in extreme crisis.' Italian parmesan producers fear for future amid drought. And that is a big problem for the millions of people who rely on the Po for their livelihoods. Salination from the Adriatic Sea has started turning its fresh water into unusable poison for crops. Recent samples show salt water more than 20 kilometers (12 miles) inland, and as the river drops lower, the sea will continue to fill the void.

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

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

Friday, July 1, 2022

 And another day of the minority Christian Right winning, Americans taking up arms against the Government, a 10-year old girl in OH needed an abortion, more subpoenas, more racism, more monkeypox, and widespread torture by police in Mexico comes to a close:

“Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.” -- Aldous Huxley

Deaths

US: 1,043,281 (+603)

World: 6,359,949 (+2085)

Cases

US: 89,507,083 (+147,003)

World: 553,566,290 (+980,115)

Takeaways from the blockbuster victories conservatives secured at the Supreme Court. Here's a look at what the court accomplished this term, and what its decisions mean for the future:

• Ending a constitutional right to an abortion

• Raising the legal bar for states and localities defending gun safety laws

• A climate change case that weakens executive branch agency power

• Weakening the walls between church and state

• Complicating the path for blocking immigration policies in court

• Making it more difficult to hold government officials accountable for unconstitutional conduct

The Christian Right is winning in court while losing in public opinion. There's an influential minority of Americans who envision the United States as a Christian nation. Lately, this group has been making significant progress in its mission. Recent rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court reversing Roe v. Wade and protecting prayer in schools are chief among these victories. These legal wins for the Christian Right, though, are happening at a time when a growing majority of Americans are strongly opposed to their views…More and more white evangelical Christians are now talking about the U.S. as a Christian nation in ways that verge on or outright embrace Christian nationalism — the idea that the U.S. is a Christian nation and its laws should be rooted in the Bible.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority is a threat to the world. And there is no appetite among Republicans to tackle climate change. The court’s right-wing majority is therefore playing an important role in asserting a conservative political agenda to thwart any change a Democratic Congress and President could enact. That’s hard for foreigners to understand when it comes to an issue as urgent as climate change. But it ensures that any efforts to commit the United States to the global climate fight will inevitably lead to years of political battles in Washington. And it is yet another example of how the country’s polarization is threatening its global leadership role.

A quarter of Americans open to taking up arms against government, poll says. The survey indicates that distrust in government varies among party lines. While 56% of participants said they “generally trust elections to be conducted fairly and counted accurately”, Republicans, Democrats and independents were dramatically split on this point. Nearly 80% of Democrats voiced overall trust in elections, but that number dipped to 51% among independents and a mere 33% of Republicans. Per the poll, 49% of Americans concurred that they “more and more feel like a stranger in my own country”. Again, this number reflected sharp political divisions: the sentiment was held by 69% of self-described “strong Republicans”, 65% of self-described “very conservative” persons, and 38% of “strong Democrats”…Meanwhile, those polled voiced negative sentiments about persons from opposing political parties. Seventy-three per cent of self-described Republican voters agreed that “Democrats are generally bullies who want to impose their political beliefs on those who disagree,” and “an almost identical percentage of Democrats (74%) express that view of Republicans”. — We are two countries occupying the same geographical area. Eventually, something will break.

As Ohio restricts abortions, 10-year-old girl travels to Indiana for procedure. On Monday three days after the Supreme Court issued its groundbreaking decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, took a call from a colleague, a child abuse doctor in Ohio. Hours after the Supreme Court action, the Buckeye state had outlawed any abortion after six weeks. Now this doctor had a 10-year-old patient in the office who was six weeks and three days pregnant. — This roll back of healthcare for girls and women will have devastating consequences. 

Maternal poverty levels are higher in trigger law states. Data shows that women in most trigger law states are less likely to have health insurance and more likely to be below the poverty line. On average, nearly 1 of every 4 women who gave birth between 2015 and 2020 in 13 states with pending state-level abortion laws post-Roe v. Wade are below the poverty line, compared to 1 in 5 women in states where abortion is legal, according to an NBC News analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

Google says it will delete location history for visits to abortion clinics, medical sites. The tech giant didn’t say how it would respond to potential requests from law enforcement but said it would “oppose demands that are overly broad or otherwise legally objectionable.”

Arizona state senators subpoenaed by DOJ in Capitol riot probe. State Senate President Karen Fann and state Sen. Kelly Townsend each received what appeared to be matching subpoenas from the FBI last week.

Trump social media firm subpoenaed by feds, stock regulators. Donald Trump’s social media company and some of its employees received subpoenas from both a federal grand jury and securities regulators, according to a public disclosure Friday, possibly delaying or even killing a deal promising a cash infusion needed to take on Twitter.

The Supreme Court gave states more power over tribal land. Tribes say that undermines their autonomy. The decision affects how crimes are prosecuted on reservations. It upends nearly 200 years of precedents recognizing the right of tribal nations to self-govern.

Covid infecting one in 30 in the UK, says ONS. People can be infected even if they've had Covid before, but jabs are helping to protect against serious illness.

McConnell issues major warning to Democrats: GOP will walk away from China competition bill if they push party-line economic plan. “Let me be perfectly clear: there will be no bipartisan USICA as long as Democrats are pursuing a partisan reconciliation bill,” McConnell tweeted, referring to the China competes bill acronym that stands for the United States Innovation and Competition Act. McConnell’s threat comes as Democrats are pursuing a bill that would include capping the price of prescription drugs – as well as potentially energy and climate provisions – through the budget process known as reconciliation, which allows them to pass legislation along straight party lines. -- McConnell had damaged America more than any other person in the last 10 years.

Virginia lawsuits indicate pattern of schools ignoring reported sexual assaults. A pair of lawsuits that for years has plagued Virginia’s largest school system with allegations that it ignored students’ accusations of sex assaults are back in front of federal judges.

Texas education officials proposed changing "slavery" to "involuntary relocation" when teaching second graders. "While the proposed standards clearly described enslaved peoples in colonial times, the draft description 'involuntary relocation' for African peoples who were sold into slavery did not paint a clear or full picture," Hardy said. "As a result, the SBOE voted unanimously to send the language back to be reworked. This board is committed to the truth, which includes accurate descriptions of historical events."

Wis. school board members dismissed book about Japanese American incarceration as being ‘unbalanced,’ parents say. Parents are pushing back after a committee whose members sit on a Wisconsin school board did not move forward with approving a book about Japanese American incarceration during World War II for a sophomore English literature class. Muskego-Norway School Board members said including the book would require “balance” with perspective from the U.S. government, according to two parents in the district…“What she said to me was that we actually need an ‘American’ perspective,’” said Zielke, who said she pointed out that those who were incarcerated were, in fact, Americans, before the conversation grew increasingly heated. “She clarified and said that she felt that we needed the perspective of the American government and why Japanese internment happened. And so then again, we had raised voices at this point. I told her specifically, I said, ‘The other side is racism.’”

As Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' law takes effect, schools roll out LGBTQ restrictions. Some school officials have been accused of warning teachers not to wear rainbow articles of clothing and to remove pictures of their same-sex spouses from their desks. -- Republicans are such shitty human beings.

Monkeypox cases triple in Europe, WHO says, Africa concerned. The World Health Organization’s Europe chief warned Friday that monkeypox cases in the region have tripled in the last two weeks and urged countries to do more to ensure the previously rare disease does not become entrenched on the continent. And African health authorities said they are treating the expanding monkeypox outbreak as an emergency, calling on rich countries to share limited supplies of vaccines to avoid equity problems seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. WHO Europe chief Dr. Hans Kluge said in a statement that increased efforts were needed despite the U.N. health agency’s decision last week that the escalating outbreak did not yet warrant being declared a global health emergency.

Torture is a widespread practice in Mexico, say activists, victims. Human rights attorneys and groups in Mexico and abroad are denouncing what they see as widespread use of torture at the hands of law enforcement, noting that official figures don't come close to the actual number of cases…"It is difficult, it is a reality that is still very painful for our country to know that the agents of the law, or those who are in charge of complying with it, commit crimes. That is, they pick up people or disappear people to torture them and produce evidence."

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

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