Tuesday, July 26, 2022

And another day of the ‘most wide ranging investigation in its history,’ Mastriano, keeping MTG on GA ballot, a bill to enact SCOTUS term limits, ACA again under attack, the ISS, vanishing glaciers, climate disinformation, and dogs can see with their noses comes to a close:

“For the Republican establishment, there are no real limits or red lines. Bigotry, conspiracy, anti-democracy--all are to be overlooked in the service of victory for the Party. First overlooked. Then rationalized. Then justified. Ultimately...embraced.” — Bill Kristol

Deaths

US: 1,052,935 (+468)

World: 6,407,209 (+2372)

Cases

US: 92,494,018 (+154,093)

World: 577,023,105 (+1,143,257)

Merrick Garland calls Justice Department’s Jan. 6 probe the ‘most wide ranging investigation in its history’. “The indictment of a former president, and perhaps a candidate for president, would arguably tear the country apart,” Holt said. “Is that your concern as you make your decision down the road here, do you have to think about things like that?” Garland replied: “We intend to hold everyone, anyone who was criminally responsible for the events surrounding Jan. 6, for any attempt to interfere with the lawful transfer of power from one administration to another, accountable. That’s what we do. We don’t pay any attention to other issues with respect to that.” Holt followed up, asking whether, if Trump were to become a candidate for president again, “that would not change your schedule or how you move forward or don’t move forward?” Garland responded: “I’ll, say again, that we will hold accountable anyone who was criminally responsible for attempting to interfere with the transfer, legitimate, lawful transfer of power from one administration to the next.” -- You better not be blowing smoke, Garland.

GOP warms to far-right gubernatorial nominee in Pennsylvania. In one of America’s most politically divided states, the GOP’s embrace of a candidate who opposes abortion rights with no exceptions, spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and was outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection risks alienating moderate party members. But some Republicans say they’re duty bound to get behind their party’s nominee. — “Duty bound.” Famous last words. Fucking fascists. — No GOP contender for governor in the U.S. did more to subvert the 2020 presidential election than Mastriano — and no one may be better positioned to subvert the next one if he’s elected governor. He has rubbed elbows with QAnon conspiracy theorists, Trump’s most prominent election-denying allies and people arrested in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. His active account on Gab — a social media site popular with white supremacists and antisemites where he also spent $5,000 for advertising — prompted a condemnation by the national Republican Jewish Coalition. He has been one of Pennsylvania’s leading spreaders of Trump’s lies about fraud in the 2020 presidential election. His plan to overturn the election results — introduced as a resolution in the Legislature — drew a subpoena from the U.S. House committee investigating the insurrection…Then there’s Mastriano’s embrace of Christian nationalism, which scholars generally define as championing a fusion of American and Christian values, symbols and identity. Christian nationalism, they say, is often accompanied by a belief that God has destined America, like the biblical Israel, for a special role in history, and that it will receive divine blessing or judgment depending on its obedience…That — plus Mastriano’s talk of decertifying voting machines, opposing gay marriage and ridiculing climate change as “fake science” — hasn’t escaped Shapiro, whose campaign is running a TV ad calling Mastriano “extreme, and way too risky for Pennsylvania.” -- Mastriano is dangerous for PA, and dangerous for the American republic.

Georgia judge upholds decision to keep Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on ballot. A Georgia judge on Monday upheld Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s eligibility to run for reelection, handing another defeat to the activist groups that have tried to use the US Constitution’s ban against insurrectionists holding office to disqualify GOP candidates. -- Being an insurrectionist is not only a badge of honor for the Republican party, it’s also a prerequisite to being a member of the Republican party.

Democrats introduce bill to enact term limits for Supreme Court justices. The legislation, titled the Supreme Court Tenure Establishment and Retirement Modernization Act, would authorize the president to nominate Supreme Court justices every two years — in the first and third years after a presidential election. The justices who have been on the court the longest will be moved to senior status first. If confirmed by the Senate, those individuals would serve a maximum 18 years on the bench. After their tenures are complete, the Supreme Court justices would retire from active service and assume senior status. Justices on the bench at the time of the bill’s enactment would switch to senior status one by one as justices are confirmed to the bench in the first and third years after a presidential election. Under senior status, justices will still hold their office on the Supreme Court, which includes official duties and pay. If the number of justices dips below nine at some point — because of a vacancy, disability or disqualification — the justice who most recently attained senior status would serve as the ninth associate justice.

House passes bill for research on cognitive effects of coronavirus, 69 Republicans vote "no". The House passed a bill on Tuesday to create a grant program for research into the cognitive effects of COVID-19. The legislation, titled the Brycen Gray and Ben Price COVID-19 Cognitive Research Act, passed in a 350-69 vote, with all opposition coming from Republicans. Eight Republicans and four Democrats did not vote.

Appeals court upholds Texas block on school mask mandates. Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order that forbids school districts from imposing mask mandates on schools to prevent the spread of COVID-19 has been upheld by a divided federal appeals court panel.

Obamacare back in court as Texans challenge coverage for STDs and HIV care. A key piece of the Affordable Care Act is on trial Tuesday as a group of Texans challenge the law’s requirement that insurers cover preventive services — everything from STD screenings and HIV prevention drugs to depression checks and flu shots. The case before Judge Reed O’Connor — the author of several anti-Obamacare rulings — at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas is the latest conservative-led legal effort to undermine the 12-year-old law, and could determine whether insurance companies are allowed to deny coverage or charge sky-high copays for common preventive care going forward. This challenge, filed in March of 2020 by a group of Texas residents and employers and backed by former Trump officials, argues that the ACA’s preventive care mandates violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and that forcing people to pay for plans that cover STD screenings and HIV prevention drugs will “facilitate and encourage homosexual behavior, prostitution, sexual promiscuity, and intravenous drug use.” — Jesus fucking Christ. Republicans are relentless in their pursuit of fucking as many people over as they possible can, all in the name of religion. Healthcare is a right, assholes, not a privilege.

The International Space Station isn’t above global politics. Russia has announced that it will leave the International Space Station after 2024 and launch its own, new space station soon afterward. The move isn’t necessarily surprising, given how the ongoing war in Ukraine is shifting geopolitics. The Russian space program has been flirting with leaving the partnership for years. Still, the decision is a major blow to international collaboration in space.

Heat warnings issued as Pacific Northwest braces for soaring temperatures. Excessive heat warnings have been issued for parts of Oregon and Washington state, with temperatures potentially hitting the 90s in Seattle and as high as 110 degrees in eastern parts of Oregon and Washington. The expected high temperatures, which are uncommon for cities such as Portland and Seattle, have prompted local officials to urge residents to stay safe and take precautions.

Glaciers vanishing at record rate in Alps following heatwaves. Most of the world’s mountain glaciers — remnants of the last ice age — are retreating due to climate change. But those in the European Alps are especially vulnerable because they are smaller with relatively little ice cover. Meanwhile, temperatures in the Alps are warming at around 0.3C per decade — around twice as fast as the global average.

Climate disinformation leaves lasting mark as world heats. In 1998, as nations around the world agreed to cut carbon emissions through the Kyoto Protocol, America’s fossil fuel companies plotted their response, including an aggressive strategy to inject doubt into the public debate. “Victory,” according to the American Petroleum Institute’s memo, “will be achieved when average citizens ‘understand’ (recognize) uncertainties in climate science... Unless ‘climate change’ becomes a non-issue... there may be no moment when we can declare victory.” The memo, later leaked to The New York Times that year, went on to outline how fossil fuel companies could manipulate journalists and the broader public by muddying the evidence, by playing up “both sides” of the debate and by portraying those seeking to reduce emissions as “out of touch with reality.” Nearly 25 years later, the reality of a changing climate is now clear to most Americans, as heatwaves and wildfires, rising sea levels and extreme storms become more common. -- They fucked us all. And all for fucking money.

Police Are Using Newborn Genetic Screening to Search for Suspects, Threatening Privacy and Public Health. Nearly every baby born in the U.S. has blood drawn in the immediate hours after their birth, allowing the baby to be tested for a panel of potentially life-threatening inherited disorders. This is a vital public health program, enabling early treatment of newborns with genetic disorders; for them, it can be the difference between a healthy life and an early death. But recent news suggests that police are seeking access to these newborn blood samples in criminal investigations. Such use of this trove of genetic material — to hunt for evidence that could implicate a child’s relative in a crime — endangers public trust in this vital health program and threatens all Americans’ right to genetic privacy.

Japan minister says women ‘underestimated’. Japan’s minister for gender equality and children’s issues called the country’s record low births and plunging population a national crisis and blamed “indifference and ignorance” in the male-dominated Japanese parliament for the neglect.

‘Conclusive evidence’ repetitive head impacts can cause brain disease. New research claims to have found “conclusive evidence” that repetitive head impacts can cause degenerative brain disease, with leading sports organisations urged to acknowledge the analysis by world-leading experts.

Dogs can ‘see’ with their noses, study suggests. The discovery suggests smell and vision in dogs are integrated in some way, although it’s not known how dogs experience the two senses functioning together.

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

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

Monday, July 25, 2022

And another day of losing optimism about America’s future, term limits for SCOTUS justices, the abortion ban rooted in the “Great Replacement” theory, rushing to get sterilized, TX teacher shortages, and the 50th anniversary on exposing the Tuskegee Experiment comes to a close:

“Some of the Germans who voted for the Nazi Party in 1932 no doubt understood that this might be the last meaningful free election for some time, but most did not...No doubt the Russians who voted in 1990 did not think this would be the last free election in their country’s history, which (thus far) it has been. Any election can be the last, or at least the last in the lifetime of the person casting the vote.” -- Timothy Snyder

Deaths

US: 1,052,467 (+471)

World: 6,404,837 (+1706)

Cases

US: 92,339,925 (+145,033)

World: 575,879,848 (+734,947)

I used to be optimistic about America’s future. Not anymore. These are the kinds of human rights violations we would be protesting if they occurred in other countries. That they are happening in the United States is an ominous sign of what lies ahead, because other countries in recent years that have taken away abortion rights — Poland and Nicaragua — have also taken away political rights. We already live in a “backsliding” democracy, where voting rights are being restricted and freedom is under siege. The most severe threat comes from an increasingly authoritarian Republican Party whose maximum leader is an unindicted and unrepentant coup plotter. Despite the yeoman work of the Jan. 6 committee, former president Donald Trump remains the leading contender for the 2024 GOP nomination — and on the current trajectory he could defeat President Biden, whose unpopularity continues to plumb new depths. We need to be clear about what another Trump term would mean: It could be the death knell for our democracy...As political scientist Brian Klaas just wrote in the Atlantic, given that the GOP has become “authoritarian to its core,” there are two main ways to save America: Either reform the Republican Party or ensure that it never wields power again. But a MAGA-fied GOP is likely to gain control of at least one chamber of Congress in the fall and could win complete power in 2024. We seem to be sleepwalking to disaster. If we don’t wake up in time, we could lose our democracy. Just because we’ve avoided a breakdown in the past doesn’t mean we will stave it off in the future. -- This is from a former Republican. The current Republicans are fascists. Say it. Say the fucking word: fascists. They don’t believe in democracy. History has shown the horrors that await us if this current Republican Party gains power. Yes, it certainly can happen here. It’s currently in motion.

2 in 3 in US favor term limits for justices. The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds 67% of Americans support a proposal to set a specific number of years that justices serve instead of life terms, including 82% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans. Views are similar about a requirement that justices retire by a specific age…The court, which is now taking a summer break, will return to hearing cases in October with diminished confidence among Americans. Now 43% say they have hardly any confidence in the court, up from 27% three months ago.

How The Fight To Ban Abortion Is Rooted In The ‘Great Replacement’ Theory. The movement to end legal abortion has a long, racist history, and like the great replacement theory, it has roots in a similar fear that white people are going to be outnumbered by people believed to hold a lower standing in society. Those anxieties used to be centered primarily around various groups of European immigrants and newly emancipated slaves, but now they’re focused on non-white Americans who, as a group, are on track to numerically outpace non-Hispanic white Americans by 2045, according to U.S. Census projections. It’s been decades since the anti-abortion movement first gained traction — and the movement has changed in certain ways — but this fundamental fear has never left, as demonstrated by attacks on people of color, such as the shooter in Buffalo, New York, who expressed concern about the declining birth rates of white people. That’s because the anti-abortion movement, at its core, has always been about upholding white supremacy…These old fears have risen to the fore again in part because the country is experiencing a demographic change similar to what we saw at the turn of the last century. For instance, the U.S. birth rate has been declining, although this has more to do with women having greater access to contraception, education and career opportunities than it has to do with abortion rates. But immigration levels are also high, almost as high as they were at the turn of the 20th century, again spawning a fear that white Americans will be displaced in an increasingly multiracial nation…But logic is not the point in many of the mainstream racist arguments around restricting abortion access. “They tried to twist themselves into logical scientific explanations for all of these things. But they basically had to just make stuff up to justify what they wanted, which is for women — especially women of color — to not have any rights,” said Thompson, the historian. According to Nicola Beisel, a professor emerita at Northwestern University who studies cultural sociology, sex and gender, women’s ability to have children is treated as a resource instead of a matter of bodily autonomy or a right, which is why opposing abortion is part of the bigger conversation about who is having children. “If women’s reproductive capacity is a resource, the question is, who’s going to get to use it? And for whom?” This is why anti-abortion activists pressed until Roe was overturned, and they likely won’t stop there. It’s clear that the people who want to criminalize abortion also want to limit access to contraception, DiBranco said. “So it’s a part of a political project and a cultural project around controlling women’s autonomy, and in some cases, managing demographic change through that.”

Lawyers preparing for abortion prosecutions warn about health care, data privacy. While people consider deleting period tracking apps and worry about interstate travel restrictions, most pregnancy-related criminalizations start in a much simpler way: with a report from a health care provider.

Some people in the US are rushing to get sterilized after the Roe v. Wade ruling. Since the Supreme Court ruled that Americans no longer have a federal constitutional right to an abortion, several gynecologists tell CNN they've seen an increase in people requesting tubal ligation -- a surgical procedure more commonly known as having one's tubes tied. The decision to get sterilized can raise personal and ethical questions, and for some people, it's not an easy one. But women, non-binary and transgender people who have made up their minds not to have children say it's a choice they want to feel free to pursue without pushback...Sterilization is a common form of contraception among married couples, but only about 4% of women in their 20s get their tubes tied, the CDC says. Women who were young when they were sterilized reported higher rates of regret. Because of that, doctors sometimes turn down young people seeking sterilization. DeAndra Childress, 33, told CNN she has tried several times to get her tubes tied. But she said four different doctors refused to perform the procedure on the grounds that she may regret the decision later in life. "I was told I was too young, no kids, not married, may get married later, and I should wait til I have a husband," she said. "All methods to control my body. It infuriates me."

Coachella’s Parent Company Is Donating Major Cash to a Political Organization Pushing Anti-Abortion Agenda. Several days later, on June 29, according to a filing submitted to the IRS in July, the Anschutz Corporation — a massive holding company that famously owns the live music giant AEG Presents, the parent company of several major festivals, including Coachella — made a donation of $75,000 to RAGA. The money from Anschutz Corporation comes as RAGA gears up for election season with the aim of installing Attorneys General who will enforce and champion anti-abortion laws in key states where abortion rights remain in limbo, such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Ohio, and Florida…It is notable that the revenues will be used to support anti-choice efforts driven by ticket sales to concerts and festivals headlined by major artists who have been fiercely critical of conservative attacks on reproductive rights.

It’s not just COVID-19: Why Texas faces a teacher shortage. Texas schools have long had too few teachers. The pandemic made the situation worse — but issues like low pay, poor benefits and polarizing statewide politics all have an impact, too…To top it all off, Texas ranks as one of the worst states for teacher retirement. Retired Texas teachers have not received a cost-of-living raise since 2004, and it’s getting worse as inflation rises. The combined effect of all of the above is that educators are leaving the field in droves. Most of them are new, early-career teachers.

GOP lawmaker attended gay son's wedding 3 days after voting against same-sex marriage. The gay son of Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., got married on Friday. A few days earlier, his father voted against the Respect for Marriage Act.

Temperatures could hit triple digits in the Pacific Northwest; severe storms threaten the Northeast. While the heat will drop in some areas, the South and the Pacific Northwest will continue to see extreme temperatures above 90 for much of the week.

What happens if the world gets too hot for animals to survive? The last time climate was as warm as it will be in the next 50 to 100 years was 3 million years ago…There are temperature ceilings that humans and mammals (and many other animals) cannot survive, if breached. What those limits are, and what happens when they are crossed, will have profound implications for agriculture and biodiversity in a warming world…There is a real danger that in the near future, temperatures and corresponding humidity will increase to such a degree that wet-bulb levels extend beyond the range seen for at least 3 million years, or perhaps 15 million years…The bad news is, as previously mentioned, the 35 degree Celsius wet-bulb is an upper limit for mammals, not a lower survivability limit, meaning that in reality the limit may be reached sooner, with less global warming.

US to plant 1 billion trees as climate change kills forests. The Biden administration on Monday said the government will plant more than one billion trees across millions of acres of burned and dead woodlands in the U.S. West, as officials struggle to counter the increasing toll on the nation’s forests from wildfires, insects and other manifestations of climate change.

Myanmar junta's execution of four democracy activists condemned by UN. Sentenced to death in closed-door trials in January and April, the four men had been accused of helping insurgents to fight the army that seized power in a coup on February 1 last year, and unleashed a bloody crackdown which has resulted in multiple rights abuses.

Rents spike as big-pocketed investors buy mobile home parks. Residents, about half of whom are seniors or disabled people on fixed incomes, put up with the first two increases. They hoped the latest owner, Cook Properties, would address the bourbon-colored drinking water, sewage bubbling into their bathtubs and the pothole-filled roads...The plight of residents at Ridgeview is playing out nationwide as institutional investors, led by private equity firms and real estate investment trusts and sometimes funded by pension funds, swoop in to buy mobile home parks. Critics contend mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are fueling the problem by backing a growing number of investor loans.

AP exposes the Tuskegee Syphilis Study: The 50th Anniversary. Today, the effects of the study still linger — it is often blamed for the unwillingness of some African Americans to participate in medical research. In observance of the 50th anniversary of Heller’s groundbreaking investigation, the AP is republishing the original report and a recent interview with her and others on how the story came together.

RIP Paul Sorvino. He was 83.

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

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

Sunday, July 24, 2022

And another day of deepening the probe, Trump’s radical plan, ‘imposter Christianity,’ Catholic hospitals’ growth, CA gun law modeled after TX abortion law, banning same-sex marriage, monkeypox, child labor, fabricated Alzheimer’s research, and sentient AI comes to a close:

“Yesterday at TPUSA, Congresswoman MTG proudly referred to herself as a ‘Christian nationalist.’ The crowd cheered, as did Rep. Matt Gaetz. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with world history knows where this is going.” — Jose Pagliery

Deaths

US: 1,051,996

World: 6,403,131

Cases

US: 92,194,892

World: 575,144,901

Jan. 6 panel deepens probe to Trump Cabinet, awaits Thomas. The House Jan. 6 committee said Sunday it will interview more former Cabinet secretaries and is prepared to subpoena conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, who’s married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, as part of its investigation of the Capitol riot and Donald Trump’s role.

A radical plan for Trump’s second term. Former President Trump’s top allies are preparing to radically reshape the federal government if he is re-elected, purging potentially thousands of civil servants and filling career posts with loyalists to him and his "America First” ideology…The impact could go well beyond typical conservative targets such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Revenue Service. Trump allies are working on plans that would potentially strip layers at the Justice Department — including the FBI, and reaching into national security, intelligence, the State Department and the Pentagon, sources close to the former president say…Their work could accelerate controversial policy and enforcement changes, but also enable revenge tours against real or perceived enemies, and potentially insulate the president and allies from investigation or prosecution…These groups are operating on multiple fronts: shaping policies, identifying top lieutenants, curating an alternative labor force of unprecedented scale, and preparing for legal challenges and defenses that might go before Trump-friendly judges, all the way to a 6-3 Supreme Court…Even if Trump did not deploy Schedule F to this extent, the very fact that such power exists could create a significant chilling effect on government employees…Trump’s allies claim such pendulum swings will not happen because they will not have to fire anything close to 50,000 federal workers to achieve the result, as one source put it, of “behavior change.” Firing a smaller segment of “bad apples” among the career officials at each agency would have the desired chilling effect on others tempted to obstruct Trump’s orders…Throughout the Trump administration, Ginni Thomas had taken a strong interest in administration personnel. She complained to White House officials, including Trump himself, that Trump’s people were obstructing “MAGA” officials from being appointed to key roles in the administration. As Axios previously reported, Ginni Thomas had assembled detailed lists of disloyal government officials to oust — and trusted pro-Trump people to replace them…Sources close to the former president said that he will — as a matter of top priority — go after the national security apparatus, “clean house” in the intelligence community and the State Department, target the “woke generals” at the Defense Department, and remove the top layers of the Justice Department and FBI. — America will no longer be a democracy if Republicans take control of Congress in November. And if Trump is installed as President in 2024, then the great American experiment will come to an end.

An ‘imposter Christianity’ is threatening American democracy. This movement uses Christian language to cloak sexism and hostility to Black people and non-White immigrants in its quest to create a White Christian America.

How two Texas megadonors have turbocharged the state’s far-right shift. Gun owners allowed to carry handguns without permits or training. Parents of transgender children facing investigation by state officials. Women forced to drive hours out-of-state to access abortion. This is Texas now: While the Lone Star State has long been a bastion of Republican politics, new laws and policies have taken Texas further to the right in recent years than it has been in decades. Elected officials and political observers in the state say a major factor in the transformation can be traced back to West Texas. Two billionaire oil and fracking magnates from the region, Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, have quietly bankrolled some of Texas’ most far-right political candidates – helping reshape the state’s Republican Party in their worldview...Critics, and even some former associates, say that Dunn and Wilks demand loyalty from the candidates they back, punishing even deeply conservative legislators who cross them by bankrolling primary challengers. Kel Seliger, a longtime Republican state senator from Amarillo who has clashed with the billionaires, said their influence has made Austin feel a little like Moscow. “It is a Russian-style oligarchy, pure and simple,” Seliger said. “Really, really wealthy people who are willing to spend a lot of money to get policy made the way they want it – and they get it.”

Catholic hospitals’ growth impacts reproductive health care. Even as numerous Republican-governed states push for sweeping bans on abortion, there is a coinciding surge of concern in some Democratic-led states that options for reproductive health care are dwindling due to expansion of Catholic hospital networks. These are states such as Oregon, Washington, California, New York and Connecticut, where abortion will remain legal despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. Concerns in these blue states pertain to such services as contraception, sterilization and certain procedures for handling pregnancy emergencies. These services are widely available at secular hospitals but generally forbidden, along with abortion, at Catholic facilities under the Ethical and Religious Directives set by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Steve Bannon convicted of contempt for defying 1/6 subpoena. He faces up to two years in federal prison when he’s sentenced on Oct. 21. Each count carries a minimum sentence of 30 days in jail.

Newsom signs gun law modeled after Texas abortion ban, setting up Supreme Court fight. The new gun law, set to go into effect in January, will allow private people to sue anyone who imports, distributes, manufactures or sells illegal firearms in California, such as assault weapons, .50 BMG rifles and so-called ghost guns. The law requires a court to order $10,000 in damages for each weapon used in an alleged violation, along with attorneys fees. The bill was written so that if Texas' law is nulled, California's would similarly be invalidated.

Nearly one in three Americans say it may soon be necessary to take up arms against the government. Two-thirds of Republicans and independents say the government is “corrupt and rigged against everyday people like me,” according to the poll, compared to 51 percent of liberal voters. Twenty-eight percent of all voters, including 37 percent of gun owners, agreed “it may be necessary at some point soon for citizens to take up arms against the government,” a view held by around 35 percent of Republicans and around 35 percent of Independents. One in five Democrats concurred.

At Least 25 States Are One Supreme Court Decision Away From Banning Same-Sex Marriage. Now, the bill rests in the hands of the Senate, where it’s not yet clear if enough Republicans will support the bill and help it avoid a 60-vote filibuster. What would happen if it doesn’t pass? Currently, there are at least 32 states—Arizona, Louisiana, and Ohio among them—that have either constitutional amendments, state laws, or both that prohibit same-sex marriage. The Obergefell v. Hodges ruling rendered these defunct in 2015, but if the Supreme Court were to overturn that decision, same-sex marriage would be instantly banned in at least 25 of those states—putting thousands of couples at risk. Marriages, of course, are more than just white cakes and wedding rings. Everything from child custody to property rights can depend on whether a couple is married. In fact, a 2004 study from the US Government Accountability Office found that there are 1,138 statutes and provisions where marriage status is a factor in receiving benefits, rights, or privileges. Before the legalization of same-sex marriage, gay couples often would face discrimination and have their rights denied by various legal bodies…Meanwhile, several conservative politicians have hinted that they want to end marriage equality. — Marriage is not a state's rights issue. It’s a fundamental right as an American. That makes it a federal issue.

Average US gasoline price falls 32 cents to $4.54 per gallon. “Further drops at the pump are likely as the wholesale gasoline price cuts continue making their way to street level,” Lundberg said in a statement.

Monkeypox declared global health emergency by WHO as cases surge. The global monkeypox outbreak has been declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization (WHO) – the strongest call to action the agency can make. It is the seventh time such a declaration has been made since 2009, the most recent being for Covid-19, which was given the same label by the WHO in 2020, and follows a meeting of a committee of experts on Thursday.

U.S. identifies first cases of monkeypox in children. Cases of the viral disease monkeypox in the United States have been identified for the first time in children - a toddler in California and an infant who is not a U.S. resident, health authorities said on Friday.

Hyundai subsidiary has used child labor at Alabama factory. Underage workers, in some cases as young as 12, have recently worked at a metal stamping plant operated by SMART Alabama LLC…Reuters learned of underage workers at the Hyundai-owned supplier following the brief disappearance in February of a Guatemalan migrant child from her family's home in Alabama. The girl, who turns 14 this month, and her two brothers, aged 12 and 15, all worked at the plant earlier this year and weren't going to school, according to people familiar with their employment. Their father, Pedro Tzi, confirmed these people's account in an interview with Reuters.

Florida school board rejects new sex ed textbooks. The board of Florida's largest school district has rejected new sexual education textbooks that it approved three months ago. The 5-4 vote by the Miami-Dade County School Board on Wednesday leaves students without a sex ed curriculum…The textbooks cover pregnancy prevention, understanding sexuality and sexually transmitted infections, drugs and alcohol, and relationships, according to descriptions in the book…The controversy lands when conservatives around the country are pushing bills that would further marginalize members of the LGBTQ community.

A neuroscience image sleuth finds signs of fabrication in scores of Alzheimer’s articles, threatening a reigning theory of the disease. If Schrag’s doubts are correct, Lesné’s findings were an elaborate mirage…A 6-month investigation by Science provided strong support for Schrag’s suspicions and raised questions about Lesné’s research. A leading independent image analyst and several top Alzheimer’s researchers—including George Perry of the University of Texas, San Antonio, and John Forsayeth of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)—reviewed most of Schrag’s findings at Science’s request. They concurred with his overall conclusions, which cast doubt on hundreds of images, including more than 70 in Lesné’s papers. Some look like “shockingly blatant” examples of image tampering, says Donna Wilcock, an Alzheimer’s expert at the University of Kentucky. The authors “appeared to have composed figures by piecing together parts of photos from different experiments,” says Elisabeth Bik, a molecular biologist and well-known forensic image consultant. “The obtained experimental results might not have been the desired results, and that data might have been changed to … better fit a hypothesis.”…But he says he felt an urgent need to go public about work that might mislead the field and slow the race to save lives. “You can cheat to get a paper. You can cheat to get a degree. You can cheat to get a grant. You can’t cheat to cure a disease,” he says. “Biology doesn’t care.” — Jesus fucking Christ. It looks like 16 years of Alzheimer’s research has been deliberately falsified.

Over the last two decades, Alzheimer’s drugs have been notable mostly for having a 99% failure rate in human trials. It’s not unusual for drugs that are effective in vitro and in animal models to turn out to be less than successful when used in humans, but Alzheimer’s has a record that makes the batting average in other areas look like Hall of Fame material. And now we have a good idea of why. Because it looks like the original paper that established the amyloid plaque model as the foundation of Alzheimer’s research over the last 16 years might not just be wrong, but a deliberate fraud.

A wave of salmonella infections has been linked to small turtles, the CDC says. According to the report, at least 15 cases of salmonella were reported across 11 states, and could be traced to turtles with shells smaller than four inches. The outbreak has resulted in 5 hospitalizations thus far.

Google fires engineer who contended its AI technology was sentient. Google has fired the engineer who claimed an unreleased AI system had become sentient, the company confirmed, saying he violated employment and data security policies. Blake Lemoine, a software engineer for Google, claimed that a conversation technology called LaMDA had reached a level of consciousness after exchanging thousands of messages with it.

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

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

Thursday, July 21, 2022

And another day of pouring ‘gasoline on fire,’ launching criminal probes, resting its case, protecting contraception, supporting same-sex marriage, legalizing marijuana, a NY polio case, monarch butterflies, and it’s hot, hot, hot comes to a close:

““Restricting a citizen’s ability to travel freely throughout the United States is authoritarianism, it is fascism. We’re not talking about tax policy. We’re not talking about budget size. We’re talking about fundamental freedoms: the freedom to choose, to vote, freedom to marry, freedom to learn, freedom to teach, freedom to travel — these are foundational freedoms that are at stake. This is not a conservative view of a budget versus a progressive view of budget — we’re way beyond that.” — TX State Rep. James Talarico

“Without a livable planet, nothing else matters.” — Peter Kalmus

Deaths

US: 1,051,235

World: 6,398,234

Cases

US: 91,942,744

World: 572,508,191

Biden tests positive for COVID-19, has ‘very mild symptoms’. President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday and is isolating with “very mild symptoms,” the White House said, as new variants of the highly contagious virus challenge the nation’s efforts to get back to normal after two and a half years of pandemic.

Jan. 6 probe: Trump “poured gasoline on fire” at Capitol. With the Capitol siege raging, President Donald Trump poured “gasoline on the fire” by tweeting condemnation of Mike Pence’s refusal to go along with his plan to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory, former aides told the Jan. 6 investigating committee in a prime-time hearing Thursday night. Earlier, an irate Trump demanded to be taken to the Capitol after his supporters had stormed the building, well aware of the deadly attack, but then returned to the White House and did nothing to call off the violence, despite appeals from family and close advisers, witnesses testified.

“I don’t want to say the election is over.” -- Donald Trump

DHS watchdog has launched criminal probe into destruction of Jan. 6 Secret Service text messages, sources say. The Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General has launched a criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the destruction of Secret Service text messages that may have been relevant to inquiries about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. 

Trump ex-adviser Bannon rests case in trial, calling no witnesses. The defense in Steve Bannon's trial rested its case on Thursday without calling any witnesses and asked the judge to acquit Donald Trump's noted former presidential adviser on contempt of Congress charges for defying a subpoena by the committee investigating last year's attack on the U.S. Capitol. - Bannon is such trash.

Republicans Took a Woman’s Right to Choose. Now They’re Threatening Her Right to Travel. In Washington, Republicans say it’s ridiculous to accuse the GOP of trying to prevent women from traveling to access abortion care. In Texas, that project is already underway. The idea that these threats aren’t being made — that this isn’t happening — is just not credible on its face.”…”People need to understand how some of these extreme voices are taking over the Republican Party influencing policy. What seems fringe today is becoming mainstream in the Republican party tomorrow.”

“People are rightly suspicious if one justice leaves the court or dies and another justice takes his or her place and all of sudden the law changes on you.” – Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan

House OKs bill to protect contraception from Supreme Court. The House’s 228-195 roll call was largely along party lines and sent the measure to the Senate, where it seemed doomed. The bill is the latest example of Democrats latching onto their own version of culture war battles to appeal to female, progressive and minority voters by casting the court and Republicans as extremists intent on obliterating rights taken for granted for years. — 195 Republicans voted no. Vote Democrat all the way down the ballot.

GOP support for same-sex marriage bill reflects a shift among Republican voters. The move is a turning point for Republican lawmakers who have spent decades opposing the legalization of same-sex marriage and broader LGBTQ rights. It does, however, coincide with the country’s soaring support for marriage equality, which as of last year included a majority of Republican voters.

Senate Democrats roll out long-awaited bill to legalize marijuana. Senate Democrats on Thursday unveiled long-awaited legislation to end the federal prohibition of marijuana, but opposition from Republicans and some Democrats is expected to pose a challenge to passing the measure.

Supreme Court won’t let Biden implement immigration policy. The Supreme Court won’t allow the Biden administration to implement a policy that prioritizes deportation of people in the country illegally who pose the greatest public safety risk. The court’s order Thursday leaves the policy frozen nationwide for now. The vote was 5-4 with conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson in saying they would have allowed the Biden administration to put in place the guidance.

Mississippi Education Board Removes Ban On Guns in K-12 Schools, Citing State Law. Though the prohibitions are gone, a temporary policy still requires “each local school district (to) have a policy concerning weapons on school premises.” Districts will be able to make policies allowing teachers and administrators with permits to carry guns on campus.

It's so hot, roads are buckling, they're putting foil on a bridge and roofs are melting around the world. The heat-related events also speak to aging infrastructures worldwide, most of which -- roads, bridges, railroads, buildings -- are not prepared for the sweltering conditions as of late. So how hot has it been, exactly? Well...

A 17-minute flight? The super-rich who have ‘absolute disregard for the planet’. Private jets are responsible for around 4% of all aviation emissions, according to a 2016 study, with the airline industry keen to point out that flying in general comprises just a small fraction of the overall sources of planet-heating gases. However, private aircraft still emit more than 33m tons of greenhouse gases, more than the country of Denmark, and because they carry so few people they are five to 14 times more polluting than commercial planes, per passenger, and 50 times more polluting than trains, researchers have found.

New York reports 1st US polio case in nearly a decade. An unvaccinated young adult from New York recently contracted polio, the first U.S. case in nearly a decade, health officials said Thursday...It appears the patient had a vaccine-derived strain of the virus, perhaps from someone who got live vaccine — available in other countries, but not the U.S. — and spread it, officials said. The person is no longer deemed contagious, but investigators are trying to figure out how the infection occurred and whether other people were exposed to the virus. Most Americans are vaccinated against polio, but this should serve as a wake-up call to the unvaccinated, said Jennifer Nuzzo, a Brown University pandemic researcher.

Monarch butterflies added to the endangered species list. The new classification, announced Thursday, comes after monarch populations on the continent have dwindled in recent decades due to habitat loss and climate change.

Comic-Con returns in full force with costumes, crowds. The pop culture extravaganza that is Comic-Con International is back to its old extravagance. Stars, cosplayers and hordes of fans are filling the San Diego Convention Center in full force for the first time since 2019. Here’s a look at this year’s version of the four day festival.

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

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