And another day of the end of an era, threatening judges, FL Rs targeting black voters with restrictions, abortion opponents not wanting you to read news about abortion, Rs escalate IRS rhetoric, kickbacks, droughts, and youth mental health comes to a close:
“The GOP doesn’t want to defund the FBI. They want an FBI that will work as their personal stormtroopers with no obligation toward the public and not even the pretense of seeking justice.” -- Sarah Kendzior
Deaths
US: 1,064,207 (+1120)
World: 6,462,388 (+3098)
Cases
US: 95,065,403 (+195,467)
World: 597,886,573 (+952,561)
Cheney’s defeat end of an era for GOP; Trump’s party now. “I will be doing whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office,” Cheney told NBC’s “Today” show early Wednesday. Pressed, she said that running for president “is something I’m thinking about and I’ll make a decision in the coming months.” Whether she runs or not, her belief that Trump poses a danger to democracy is a conviction that runs deep in her family. But it’s a view that has no home in today’s GOP. -- We should stop calling it the GOP or the Republican Party. That party is dead. It has transformed into the Trump Party, a party that embraces fascism, authoritarianism, and theocracy. They must be defeated at all levels of government.
Trump supporters’ threats to judge spur democracy concerns. Hundreds of federal judges face the same task every day: review an affidavit submitted by federal agents and approve requests for a search warrant. But for U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, the fallout from his decision to approve a search warrant has been far from routine. He has faced a storm of death threats since his signature earlier this month cleared the way for the FBI to search former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate as part of a probe into whether he inappropriately removed sensitive materials from the White House. Reinhart’s home address was posted on right-wing sites, along with antisemitic slurs. The South Florida synagogue he attends canceled its Friday night Shabbat services in the wake of the uproar...The threats against Reinhart are part of a broader attack on law enforcement, particularly the FBI, by Trump and his allies in the aftermath of the search. But experts warn that the focus on a judge, coming amid an uptick in threats to the judiciary in general, is dangerous for the rule of law in the U.S. and the country’s viability as a democracy. -- The Trump Party is determined to destroy democracy.
Trump considering releasing surveillance footage of FBI Mar-a-Lago search. Others in Trump's orbit have warned of the potential risks to the former President if he does release the tapes. A second person close to Trump cautioned that releasing the footage could backfire by providing people with a visual understanding of the sheer volume of materials that federal agents seized from his oceanfront residence, including classified materials.
U.S. midterms bring few changes from social media companies. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are generally staying the course from the 2020 voting season, which was marred by conspiracies and culminated in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Video app TikTok, which has soared in popularity since the last election cycle while also cementing its place as a problem spot for misinformation, announced Wednesday it is launching an election center that will help people find voting locations and candidate information. The center will show up in the feeds of users who search election-related hashtags. TikTok is also partnering with voting advocacy groups to provide specialized voting information for college students, people who are deaf, military members living overseas and those with past criminal convictions.
Florida Republicans targeted Black voters, justice department says in filing. Florida Republicans intentionally targeted Black voters when they enacted new voting restrictions last year, the justice department said in a court filing on Wednesday…The justice department’s allegation of racial discrimination is significant because the agency carefully chooses when to get involved in voting dispute litigations filed by private plaintiffs, and the department’s voice carries significant credibility in court. After going largely quiet under Donald Trump, the justice department’s voting section has filed challenges to voting laws in Georgia, Texas and Arizona, in addition to filing several briefs in other voting disputes.
Abortion Opponents Don’t Want You to Read News About Abortion. This is one of those times when we can’t be silent. Model legislation championed by the National Right to Life Committee, which calls itself “the nation’s oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization,” would make it a felony to publish information, “knowing that the information will be used, or is reasonably likely to be used” to induce or obtain an abortion.” If such a provision ever became law, it could devastate the ability of Mother Jones reporters to cover abortion for readers like you. A bill to this effect has already been introduced in South Carolina, and the NRLC is urging state legislators elsewhere to pick it up as a “roadmap for the right-to-life movement.” Adopted, it could even expose journalists to criminal prosecution for publishing information about abortion...The model legislation is sweeping, by design. The version under consideration in South Carolina allows authorities to go after a vast array of possible sources a pregnant woman might consult about abortion. The list of actions that may be seen as “aiding and abetting” abortion includes hosting a website, communication by telephone or providing access to a website. The language in question is so broad, says David Loy, the legal director for the free speech advocacy group First Amendment Coalition, that he worries that news organizations themselves could be targeted—with penalties up to 25 years in prison...While the draft South Carolina bill states that it does not limit conduct protected by the First Amendment, if the bill passes, the mere fact of the law’s existence could violate the constitution because of its potentially enormous chilling effect on protected speech, Loy said. Even if you suspect that you are sharing information that’s protected by the First Amendment, “would you take a chance on that in court?” Loy asked. “It’s not simply a risk of financial liability for the organization,” he explained. “It’s a risk of imprisonment if you guess wrong about what a South Carolina court might do or what a South Carolina prosecutor might decide.” You can see why we want to speak out. -- Fascism is alive in America. It is happening now.
WVa governor: Voters shouldn’t decide abortion access issue. West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice scoffed Monday at a suggestion by Democratic lawmakers to let voters decide whether abortion should continue to be allowed in the state. The Republican governor said the state’s abortion law falls under the scrutiny of the Legislature and the attorney general…On Friday, top Democrats asked Justice and leading GOP lawmakers to bring the Legislature back to consider a resolution to allow voters to consider a constitutional amendment for “reproductive freedom.” Justice wanted no part of that. — He’s afraid of what happened in Kansas happening in West Virginia. The Trump Party knows the American people are not for banning abortion.
Judge reinstates North Carolina’s 20-week abortion ban. Abortions in North Carolina are no longer legal after 20 weeks of pregnancy, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, eroding protections in one of the South’s few remaining safe havens for reproductive freedom. U.S. District Judge William Osteen reinstated an unenforced 20-week abortion ban, with exceptions for urgent medical emergencies, after he said the June U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade erased the legal foundation for his 2019 ruling that placed an injunction on the 1973 state law. His decision defies the recommendations of all named parties in the 2019 case, including doctors, district attorneys and the attorney general’s office, who earlier this month filed briefs requesting he let the injunction stand.
Monkeypox vaccine not 'a silver bullet', WHO says, as breakthrough cases emerge. As demand for monkeypox vaccines increases, the World Health Organization has begun to receive preliminary reports on the efficacy of the shots, which suggests there are breakthrough cases occurring, officials say.
Monkeypox case reported in man whose ‘primary risk factor’ was close, nonsexual contact at a crowded outdoor event. The event he attended in the UK was not a rave and was not attended specifically or mostly by persons identifying as gay or bisexual, according to the researchers. While many attendees wore tank tops and shorts, he wore pants and a short-sleeve top. He did not notice anyone with skin lesions or who seemed ill, and he attended a few other similar events over the next four days. -- Fucking great.
Republicans escalate IRS rhetoric as senator warns Americans not to apply for new jobs. It is unusual for a U.S. senator to publicly warn Americans not to apply for a job and threaten to eliminate it. But that's what Senate Republican campaign chair Rick Scott, R-Fla., did this week, publishing an open letter encouraging job seekers not to pursue new IRS positions, vowing that Republicans, who hope to take control of Congress next year, will quickly "defund" those jobs. Scott claimed the Biden administration will use the Democrats' newly enacted Inflation Reduction Act to create "an IRS super-police force" to "audit and investigate" ordinary Americans. "The IRS is making it very clear that you not only need to be ready to audit and investigate your fellow hardworking Americans, your neighbors and friends, you need to be ready and, to use the IRS’s words, willing, to kill them," he wrote, referencing a job posting for the agency's Criminal Investigation division, which has been mischaracterized. Scott's depiction of a new force of IRS agents targeting average Americans lacks basis in the text of the new law and has been dismissed by Democrats as a fabrication. It was debunked — indirectly — by formal guidance Wednesday by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to the IRS. -- Trumpers live and rule by instigating fear into their supporters.
Suspended Florida prosecutor sues Governor Ron DeSantis to get his job back. The state attorney from Tampa, Andrew Warren, was ousted earlier this month by DeSantis. The Republican governor said he acted because of statements Warren had signed pledging not to prosecute people for violating abortion restrictions or a law prohibiting gender-affirming care for minors. Warren filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, saying that the Governor violated his First Amendment right to freedom of speech. Although he spoke in favor of abortion rights and gender-affirming medical care, Warren had not taken any action on those issues and his office had no cases pending. Warren was twice elected as state attorney and Warren says DeSantis violated his right to freedom of speech and by his actions overturned an election. -- DeSantis believes he, and only he, has absolute power. He is a danger to democracy.
Boston Children's Hospital warns employees over far-right online harassment campaign. Boston Children’s Hospital has warned employees about mounting threats and is coordinating with law enforcement after far-right activists on social media began targeting the hospital with false claims about its treatment of young transgender people. It’s the most recent in a series of attempts to target hospitals for their work with trans youth, adding to an ongoing wave of anti-LGBTQ sentiment that has hit libraries, schools and even a trans-inclusive Los Angeles spa. — Trumpers always need some group of people to hate.
How new Colorado River cuts will impact states, residents. Arizona and Nevada residents won’t face bans on watering their lawns or washing their cars despite more Colorado River water shortages. But U.S. officials announced Tuesday there will be less water available next year for them from the river that serves 40 million people in the West and Mexico and a farm industry worth billions of dollars. Observers warn that a reckoning is still coming for the growing region because the water crisis is expected to generate future cuts.
American farmers are killing their own crops and selling cows because of extreme drought. Nearly three quarters of US farmers say this year’s drought is hurting their harvest – with significant crop and income loss, according to a new survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation, an insurance company and lobbying group that represents agricultural interests.
Scientists warn of dire effects as Mediterranean heats up. While vacationers might enjoy the Mediterranean Sea’s summer warmth, climate scientists are warning of dire consequences for its marine life as it burns up in a series of severe heat waves.
A police dog bit an unarmed Texas woman for 62 seconds. A federal judge dismissed her excessive force lawsuit. Olivia Sligh said a mental health crisis prompted the encounter with authorities in Conroe, Texas, in 2018. The encounter was recorded in body camera video that showed the dog, Thor, repeatedly biting Olivia Sligh, 29, as his handler appeared to shout release commands that were not obeyed. In an interview this week, Sligh said the incident left her with more than a dozen scars, herniated discs and questions about how officers responded to a 911 call from her boyfriend, who reported that she was suicidal and had cut herself after a change in medication. “What they should have done is treated me like a mentally ill person, and not like I just shot somebody,” she said. “That’s how I feel I got treated.”
Video Shows Dr. Oz Saying He Has Two Houses. He Actually Has 10. Oz’s wife, Lisa, also owns a mansion in Maine with her family and a pool house next to Oz’s New Jersey mansion. While Oz does rent out some of these properties—at times sharing them with questionable tenants—he is not renting them from others. He owns them, legally and legitimately, and they make up a sizable portion of his assets, which total at least $100 million. — Yeah, Oz is just like the everyday common man.
Plácido Domingo linked to criminal ring in Argentina, prosecutors say. Prosecutors in Argentina have linked disgraced opera star Plácido Domingo to a criminal group in Buenos Aires that was a front for sexual trafficking, including of minors, as well as other crimes.
Two Pennsylvania judges who orchestrated a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks were ordered to pay more than $200 million to hundreds who fell victim to their crimes…Mark Ciavarella and another judge, Michael Conahan, shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments from the builder and co-owner of two for-profit lockups. Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, pushed a zero-tolerance policy that guaranteed large numbers of kids would be sent to PA Child Care and its sister facility, Western PA Child Care.
India frees 11 men convicted of gang-raping pregnant Muslim woman. Eleven Hindu men jailed for life for the gang-rape of a pregnant Muslim woman during Hindu-Muslim riots in 2002 have been freed on remission, officials said on Tuesday, drawing condemnation from the victim's widower, lawyers and politicians.
Youth mental health is in crisis. Are schools doing enough? Student mental health reached crisis levels last year, and the pressure on schools to figure out solutions has never been greater. Districts across the country are using federal pandemic money to hire more mental health specialists, rolling out new coping tools and expanding curriculum that prioritizes emotional health. Still, some parents don’t believe schools should be involved in mental health at all. So-called social-emotional learning, or SEL, has become the latest political flashpoint, with conservatives saying schools use it to promote progressive ideas about race, gender and sexuality, or that a focus on well-being takes attention from academics. -- Trumpers are literally sick in their heads. They all need to see mental health specialists.
Keller school officials order 41 books — including the Bible and an Anne Frank adaptation — off of library shelves. Ahead of the first day of school, the Keller Independent School District is removing all books that were challenged last year within the school district, including the Bible, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison and a graphic novel adaptation of Anne Frank’s “The Diary of Young Girl.” “Attached is a list of all books that were challenged last year. By the end of today, I need all books pulled from the library and classrooms. Please collect these books and store them in a location. (book room, office, etc.),” Jennifer Price, executive director of Keller ISD’s curriculum and instruction, wrote in an email sent to principals, obtained by The Texas Tribune...The direction to remove all 41 books surprised some local residents because a school district committee made up of members of the public met last year and recommended that some of the books now being removed — including Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” and “Anne Frank’s Diary” — remain in student libraries. But since that committee met and recommended keeping some challenged books, three new conservative school board members, all recipients of a Christian political action committee’s donations, were elected to the district’s seven-member board of trustees. And according to the school district, all 41 challenged books are now to be reviewed again by campus staff and librarians to see if they meet a new board policy approved last week, according to Bryce Nieman, the Keller ISD spokesperson. -- Fucking Christians shoving their bullshit down everyone’s throat.
FDA finalizes rule that should usher in cheaper hearing aids. Instead of getting a prescription, visiting a hearing health professional and having a custom fitting, people with mild to moderate hearing loss will be able to buy hearing aids directly from a store or online…If hearing loss were officially considered a disability by the government, it would be the largest disability class in the country. About 1 in 8 people in the US ages 12 and older has hearing loss in both ears, and the rate increases significantly with age. About a quarter of people 65 to 74 have hearing loss, and that goes up to 50% around age 75. -- Not considered a disability? WTAF?
Scientists Aim to Bring the Tasmanian Tiger Back From Extinction. Scientists in Australia and the US have launched an ambitious multimillion-dollar project to bring back the thylacine, a marsupial that died out in the 1930s, and reintroduce it to its native Tasmania. The thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger, is the second undertaking by Colossal, a Texas-based biotechnology “de-extinction” company that last year announced it planned to use genetic engineering techniques to re-create the woolly mammoth and return it to the Arctic tundra...The scientists aim to reverse this by taking stem cells from a living species with similar DNA, the fat-tailed dunnart, and turning them into “thylacine” cells—or the closest approximation possible—using gene editing expertise developed by George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and Colossal’s co-founder. New marsupial-specific assisted reproductive technologies will be needed to use the stem cells to make an embryo, which would be transferred into either an artificial womb or a dunnart surrogate to gestate. -- Their goal is to do this within 10 years.
Giant sharks once roamed the seas, feasting on huge meals. Today’s sharks have nothing on their ancient cousins. A giant shark that roamed the oceans millions of years ago could have devoured a creature the size of a killer whale in just five bites, new research suggests.
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
