Sunday, September 29, 2024

And another day of ‘one really violent day,’ extreme rhetoric, six days of horror, Covid in wastewater, a far right win in Austria, human feedback causes AI to deceive humans, and the HPV vaccine comes to a close:

“Anyone who thinks Trump doesn't dream about ruling over a violent fascist regime is kidding themselves.” — Jared Ryan Sears

“The last piece of shit who talked about immigrants like this was named Adolf.” — Palmer Report

“You have to be fundamentally broken as a human being to identify with, embrace, or celebrate Donald Trump.” — John Pavlovitz

Trump says his idea for stopping crime is to allow for “one really violent day”: “One rough hour, and I mean real rough...” — And don’t forget he’s already said he wants to give immunity to the police. He’s preparing to reign violence in this country, the likes we haven’t seen since the Civil War.

Trump Suggests Giving Cops ‘One Really Violent Day’ to Stop Crime. During yet another anti-migrant rant, the former president falsely claimed crime is up and so cops should be allowed to be “extraordinarily rough”

Six days of horror: America’s thirst for executions returns with a vengeance. Five executions. Five different states over six days of horror. This was the week in which America’s ailing death penalty bit back. Such a concentrated glut of judicial killing was last seen more than 20 years ago in the US...But there was nothing random or coincidental about the disdain for probable innocence that was on display this week. Nor about the racial animus, or the callous indifference to life animating supposedly “right-to-life” states...Where does this week’s orgy of death leave the US? Anyone hoping for answers from the current political moment are likely to be disappointed.

“I study dictators and this chills me. Given all his comments in the past about executing people & shooting looters and his admiration for leaders specialized in mass repression, it's not hard to imagine what "one really violent day" would mean.” — Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Trump, using extreme rhetoric, calls Harris 'mentally impaired' and says she should be 'prosecuted'. Trump has frequently gone after Harris in personal terms, often based on her race and gender. He has increasingly threatened to go after other political foes if he is elected. He has talked about jailing Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and discussed possibly carrying out election fraud prosecutions against election officials, donors and operatives. — The man is a danger to America.

How the CDC tests wastewater for Covid — and what it found in your state. The process doesn’t precisely count the numbers of cases, and readings can vary based on sewage flows at a particular location or the characteristics of a given variant at a point in time. But it provides an early warning about viral spread, CDC officials say. CNN is tracking these figures each week across the country and by state, and this page will update automatically as the agency releases new information.

Far right wins close Austria election, a boost for Putin. A far-right party founded by former Nazis appeared to have won Austria’s election Sunday, in a result that could reshape Europe’s political landscape and help tilt the balance of power between Russia and the West. Projections from ORF public television based on exit polls suggest that the pro-Russia, anti-immigration Freedom Party, or FPÖ, has finished first, with 29.1% of the vote. — It’s such bullshit that so few people support fascism, yet fascism “wins.” WTF? The FPÖ winning 29.1% of the vote means that 70.9% didn’t vote for them.

California governor vetoes bill to create first-in-nation AI safety measures. The measure, aimed at reducing potential risks created by AI, would have required companies to test their models and publicly disclose their safety protocols to prevent the models from being manipulated to, for example, wipe out the state’s electric grid or help build chemical weapons. Experts say those scenarios could be possible in the future as the industry continues to rapidly advance. It also would have provided whistleblower protections to workers.

Human Feedback Makes AI Better at Deceiving Humans, Study Shows. It’s the first time, the authors write, that research has empirically documented a phenomenon they call unintended sophistry, where a model trained with human feedback learns to produce responses that trick its human evaluators into believing the responses are accurate rather than learning to produce responses that are actually accurate.

HPV vaccine study finds zero cases of cervical cancer among women vaccinated before age 14. A historic new study out of Scotland shows the real-world impact of vaccines against the human papillomavirus: The country has detected no cases of cervical cancer in women born between 1988-1996 who were fully vaccinated against HPV between the ages of 12 and 13.

RIP John Ashton. He was 76.

RIP Kris Kritofferson. He was 88.

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

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

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

And another day of confessions of a (former) Christian Nationalist, indictments, GOP racism, Trump promising doom that never comes, hurricanes, pregnancy-related crimes, pain differences, and ‘spookfish’ comes to a close:

“It’s a shocking thing to realize people love their hatred more than they care about their own actual lives.” — Fran Lebowitz

Confessions of a (Former) Christian Nationalist. In my third conversion, I realized that when religion is placed at the service of a political party, it corrupts both. To claim that one political figure uniquely represents God’s will for the body politic is a form of anti-Christian idolatry. To elevate one set of spiritual beliefs above another and do it by force of law removes a nonnegotiable tenet of evangelical faith—free will. We are born again when we choose to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, not when we’re forced to do so. Because it is immoral, I believe Christian nationalism is inevitably doomed. But in the meantime, the pain, suffering, and injury it will inflict will be enormous—just consider women facing difficult pregnancies, trans children seeking care, librarians attacked for certain books. “We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theater, and in the press—in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality, which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess.” This may sound familiar—maybe some overheated Republican talking points. In fact, it’s what Adolf Hitler promised the German people in 1933. — Read the rest for how we got here.

New York Mayor Eric Adams expected to face federal charges. The Adams administration was already reeling from a series of high-level resignations amid at least four federal probes.

Harris outlines $100 billion manufacturing plan, vowing pragmatism over ideology. Harris proposed an “America Forward” agenda that calls for tax credits to boost investment and create industrial jobs, along with investments in artificial intelligence, science and energy development, as well as supporting American-made products. "This plan will cost approximately $100 billion and will be paid for by a portion of the proceeds of international tax reform, which seeks to prevent a global race to the bottom and to discourage inversions, outsourcing, or international tax strategies designed by corporations to avoid paying their fair share to the United States," the Harris campaign said in a fact sheet. — Wow, a plan. Not a concept of a plan.

Trump is at 48 percent. How could this be possible but for widespread racism? Maybe Trump’s 48 percent don’t excuse his racism so much as get the message. They are inside a Republican Party that is 82 percent white. Most of those white Republicans are in small towns and rural areas...The 48 percent backing Trump try to move away from his racism by talking about the need for a better economy. But Trump’s main economic plan is to impose tariffs that will drive up prices. He has no plan to improve health care or provide more affordable housing. It was less than 30 years ago when Bob Dole, the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, stared down racism in the GOP. “If there’s anyone who has mistakenly attached themselves to our party in the belief that we are not open to citizens of every race and religion…,” Dole said at the 1996 convention, “the exits, which are clearly marked, are for you to walk out of as I stand this ground without compromise.” Where are those Republicans now?

GOP congressman tweets racist rant about Haitian immigrants. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., called Haiti the "nastiest country in the western hemisphere" in a post on social media Wednesday, saying migrants from the Caribbean country, the majority of whom are in the U.S. legally, should "get their ass out of our country." Higgins' rant on X — which was deleted hours later — came in response to an Associated Press story about a Haitian nonprofit group that filed a citizen criminal charge against former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance for their repeated baseless claims about migrants in Springfield, Ohio, including Trump's assertion at the presidential debate they were "eating the dogs" and "eating the cats." — Racism. It’s all Republicans have to offer.

Apocalypse delayed: Trump keeps promising a doom that never comes. Trump predicted that if Biden won, the economy would crash, crime would soar and Christmas would be canceled. None of that happened, but he's reusing those claims anyway. “If he’s [Biden] elected, the stock market will crash,” Trump said in October 2020 during his only debate with Biden. “If he gets in, you will have a depression the likes of which you’ve never seen." The depression never happened. Stocks rose during Biden’s presidency. But Trump recently predicted that a Harris victory would lead to “a massive [stock] market downturn” and “a 1929-style depression.”...In fact, crime has fallen, and Biden signed legislation increasing police funding...The suburbs still stand, as does the Second Amendment, backed by a conservative majority on the Supreme Court...Trump did, in fact, lose and did not flee the country. This year, as Trump faces off against Biden's vice president, he has reprised some of the same grim predictions for the future if he does not win. While Biden was a “Trojan horse for socialism,” Trump’s campaign said in a news release last month that “Kamala Harris is a Trojan horse for nation-destroying spending, communist price controls and open borders.”...Throughout his 2024 campaign, he has portrayed the election as an existential clash for the future of the country, using his first campaign rally last year to call the election “the final battle," invoking the Book of Revelation's portrayal of Armageddon and saying Harris would “destroy” America, “just like she destroyed San Francisco, just like she destroyed California.” And reprising his false prophecy from 2020, Trump has been telling supporters that this election, too, is a sure thing and that the only way he can lose is if it is rigged.

Why a scandal consuming a Trump protégé could harm the ex-president in North Carolina. An already fiercely fought presidential contest in the critical swing state was thrown into greater turmoil Thursday by a stunning CNN investigation revealing a porn-site scandal surrounding Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson. Lt. Gov. Robinson, whose politics and personality are extreme even by the standards of Trump’s MAGA movement, referred to himself as a “black NAZI!” on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago and expressed support for reinstating slavery, CNN’s KFile reported. Many of the remarks were lewd and gratuitously sexual in nature.

A huge Hurricane Helene is expected to hit Florida as a major storm and strike far inland. An enormous Hurricane Helene swamped parts of Mexico on Wednesday as it churned on a path forecasters said would take it to Florida as a potentially catastrophic storm with a surge that could swallow entire homes, a chilling warning that sent residents scrambling for higher ground, closed schools, and led to states of emergency throughout the Southeast.

More women are charged with pregnancy-related crimes since Roe’s end, study finds. It became more common for authorities to charge women with crimes related to their pregnancies after the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, a new study found — even if they’re almost never accused of violating abortion bans...“It’s an environment where pregnancy loss is potentially criminally suspect.”

U.S. ranks last in health care compared with nine other high-income countries, report finds. The health system in the U.S. is failing, a startling new report finds. The U.S. ranks as the worst performer among 10 developed nations in critical areas of health care, including preventing deaths, access (mainly because of high cost) and guaranteeing quality treatment for everyone, regardless of gender, income or geographic location...Based on the new findings, people in the U.S. die the youngest and experience the most avoidable deaths, even though the country spends nearly twice as much — about 18% of gross domestic product — on health care than any other nation ranked.

Pain is ‘dramatically’ different in men and women. Women, in other words, are more sensitive to pain than men. They report feeling it more in just about every way: more intensely, more often, for a longer time. They grapple with more headaches, more painful gut conditions, more pain in their backs and pelvises and bones and, research suggests, virtually every other part of their bodies. Of the hundreds of millions of chronic pain patients around the world, they comprise roughly 70 percent.

A Rare, Deadly Mosquito Virus Has Emerged in New York. EEE only rarely interacts with humans, since we’re not its natural host and the mosquitoes that typically spread it live in freshwater swamps. But when the virus does invade our bodies, it can trigger a severe brain infection that kills up to a third of victims, so its arrival anywhere is concerning.

New Zealand scientists discover new 'spookfish' living deep in the Pacific. Scientists said Tuesday they had discovered a new species of ghost shark that lives exclusively in the waters off Australia and New Zealand...Ghost sharks, also known as chimaeras, are a group of cartilaginous fish closely related to sharks and rays. The newly discovered species has several distinctive features, including a long and narrow snout, broad pectoral fins, scale-free skin, and beak-like teeth. They are largely confined to the ocean floor up to 2,600 meters (8,530 feet) deep, feeding off crustaceans such as shrimp and molluscs.

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

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

Sunday, September 8, 2024

And another day of threats, influencers, interference, praises, ‘zero’ weeks, cooling solutions for classrooms, trillionaires, syphilis, a party of one, and volcanoes on the moon comes to a close:

“Fascism is not an ideology; it’s a process for taking and holding power.” — Madeleine Albright

Trump threatens to jail adversaries in escalating rhetoric ahead of pivotal debate. “WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again,” Trump wrote late Saturday, sowing doubt once more about the integrity of the election, even though cheating is incredibly rare. “Please beware,” he went on, “that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.” — He must be relegated to the dustbin of history.

Right-wing influencers were duped to work for covert Russian influence operation, US says. An indictment filed Wednesday alleges a media company linked to six conservative influencers — including well-known personalities Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson — was secretly funded by Russian state media employees to churn out English-language videos that were “often consistent” with the Kremlin’s “interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition” to Russian interests, like its war in Ukraine. In addition to marking the third straight presidential election in which U.S. authorities have unveiled politically charged details about Russia’s attempted interference in U.S. politics, an indictment indicates how Moscow may be attempting to capitalize on the skyrocketing popularity of right-wing podcasters, livestreamers and other content creators who have found successful careers on social media in the years since Trump was in office.

Trump says he had ‘every right’ to interfere in election. Former President Trump in an interview broadcast late Sunday argued he had “every right” to interfere with the 2020 election while repeating his claim the criminal election interference cases against him are politically motivated. — He is the most vile person on the planet, embodying all the worst traits of humanity.

Ginni Thomas Privately Praised Group Working Against Supreme Court Reform: “Thank You So, So, So Much”. Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, privately heaped praise on a major religious-rights group for fighting efforts to reform the nation’s highest court — efforts sparked, in large part, by her husband’s ethical lapses...On the same call, Shackelford attacked Justice Elena Kagan as “treasonous” and “disloyal” after she endorsed an enforcement mechanism for the court’s newly adopted ethics code in a recent public appearance. He said that such an ethics code would “destroy the independence of the judiciary.” — Republicans believe they are above the law and that they should be allowed to do whatever they want. They are all a danger to democracy.

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson says he wants abortion to be illegal at ‘zero’ weeks, in new audio released by Democrats. A Democratic group has released new audio of North Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is running for governor, saying that he wants to get abortion restrictions down to “zero” weeks.

The world just endured the hottest summer on record. The summer of 2024 was the hottest on record, according to the European Union’s climate monitor, extending an alarming run of temperature records that has put the planet firmly on course to notch its hottest year in human history.

School districts race to invest in cooling solutions as classrooms and playgrounds heat up. Scores of U.S. schoolyards like hers are carpeted in heat-absorbing asphalt, with no shade even for play areas. The buildings were often made with wall and roofing materials that radiated heat into indoor spaces. Kids are also more vulnerable to heat illness than adults. Their bodies have a harder time self-regulating in extreme heat in part because they sweat less, so they can become dehydrated faster. Climate change is heightening the risks. School closures related to heat are becoming more frequent, according to a report by the Center for Climate Integrity and the firm Resilient Analytics. There is also accumulating data on temperature inequality and the effects of heat. Low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, which describes Aguilar’s, can be as much as 7 F (3.9 C) hotter than richer and whiter neighborhoods, leaving students and educators to swelter in a warming world. Extreme temperatures also affect learning, performance and concentration. Yet there are well-known ways to cool down schools and neighborhoods.

Top 10 people most likely to reach trillionaire status. According to a new report from Informa Connect Academy, which predicts trillionaire status based on average annual growth rate in wealth, Tesla CEO Elon Musk will likely be the first trillionaire. Musk is currently the world’s richest person, with $251 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Connect Academy forecasts Musk will become a trillionaire sometime in 2027, assuming that his wealth continues to grow at an annual average rate of 110%.

Syphilis is at its highest levels since the 1950s. Here’s how experts are trying to fix that. Syphilis, a sexually transmitted infection, was nearly eliminated in the U.S. at the beginning of the 21st century but has made a dramatic comeback. In 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 200,000 syphilis cases — the highest counts since 1950. Congenital syphilis has similarly increased tenfold over the past decade, the CDC says, even though 90% of cases are fully preventable.

Party of one: Restaurants are catering to a growing number of solo diners. In the U.S., solo dining reservations have risen 29% over the last two years, according to OpenTable, the restaurant reservation site. They’re up 18% this year in Germany and 14% in the United Kingdom...OpenTable CEO Debby Soo thinks remote work is one reason for the increase, with diners seeking respites from their home offices. But she thinks there are deeper reasons, too. “I think there’s a broader movement of self-love and self-care and really… enjoying your own company,” Soo said.

The moon had active volcanoes into the dinosaur age, study finds. Volcanoes were still erupting on the moon during Earth’s dinosaur age, new research suggests, much more recently than previously believed. Three tiny glass beads that were collected from the surface of the moon in 2020 by a Chinese probe indicate that there was lunar volcanic activity as recently as 120 million years ago, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science.

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

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

Sunday, September 1, 2024

And another day of planting seeds, MAGA coming for professors, the GOP propping up liberal third-party candidates, Moms for Liberty embracing Trump, Israeli protests, the AfD winning in Germany, taking on Ableist language, and modern parenting comes to a close:

“There is no way for a conservative to accomplish our vision of society unless we’re willing to strike at the heart of the beast. That’s the universities.” — JD Vance

Democrats grow concerned Republicans are planting seeds with legal suits to overturn a Trump defeat. All these claims look different on the surface. But the Harris campaign says there’s a pattern tying them together: Trump and his Republican allies want to sow confusion about the outcome should he lose. Democrats have submitted legal filings in at least one case that convey their misgivings about what they contend is the true purpose of the GOP litigation.

‘Dangerous and un-American’: new recording of JD Vance’s dark vision of women and immigration. Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, said that professional women “choose a path to misery” when they prioritize careers over having children in a September 2021 podcast interview in which he also claimed men in America were “suppressed” in their masculinity. The Ohio senator and vice-presidential candidate said of women like his classmates at Yale Law School that “pursuing racial or gender equity is like the value system that gives their life meaning … [but] they all find that that value system leads to misery”. Vance also sideswiped the Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a one-time Somali refugee, claiming she had shown “ingratitude” to America, and that she “would be living in a craphole” had she not moved to the US...Vance also talked about institutions like universities and the media as components of a “broken elite system”, and portrayed their inhabitants as enemies whom conservatives would need to reckon with. “There is no way for a conservative to accomplish our vision of society unless we’re willing to strike at the heart of the beast. That’s the universities.” — MAGA will, indeed, be coming for university and college professors. History is once again repeating itself.

GOP network props up liberal third-party candidates in key states, hoping to siphon off Harris votes. Across the country, a network of Republican political operatives, lawyers and their allies is trying to shape November’s election in ways that favor former President Donald Trump. Their goal is to prop up third-party candidates such as West who offer liberal voters an alternative that could siphon away support from Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee...Trump has offered praise for West, calling him “one of my favorite candidates.” Another is Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Trump favors both for the same reason. “I like her very much. You know why? She takes 100% from them. He takes 100%.” — A vote for a third-party candidate is a vote for Trump.

Moms for Liberty fully embraces Trump and widens role in national politics as election nears. The weekend’s gathering, drawing parent activists from across the country, has showcased how Moms for Liberty has moved toward fully embracing Trump and his political messaging as November’s election draws nearer. The group is officially a nonpartisan nonprofit that says it’s open to anyone who wants parents to have a greater say in their children’s education, yet there was little pretense about which side of the nation’s political divide it has chosen. A painting that was prominently displayed on an easel next to the security station attendees had to pass through before being allowed into the conference area showed Vice President Kamala Harris kneeling over a bald eagle carcass, a communist symbol on her jacket and her mouth dripping with blood.

Israelis erupt in protest to demand a cease-fire after 6 more hostages die in Gaza. Tens of thousands of grieving and angry Israelis surged into the streets Sunday night after six more hostages were found dead in Gaza, chanting “Now! Now!” as they demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reach a cease-fire with Hamas to bring the remaining captives home.

A German far-right party wins its first state election and is very close in a second. A far-right party won a state election for the first time in post-World War II Germany in the country’s east on Sunday, and looked set to finish a very close second to mainstream conservatives in a second vote...The far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, won 32.8% of the vote in Thuringia — well ahead of the center-right Christian Democratic Union, the main national opposition party, with 23.6%... — The far-right cancer is a worldwide scourge on the planet.

GOP Sen. Tom Cotton says Republicans are 'open' to Trump’s IVF plan but that it should be ‘fiscally evaluated’. On Sunday, moderator Kristen Welker pressed Cotton about his support for Trump's plan, pointing out he voted this year against the Right to IVF Act, which would have mandated IVF coverage in federal health care plans, the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid plans.

Black students are still kicked out of school at higher rates despite reforms. “We need to end mass incarceration and mass criminalization, and that begins in the school,” said Monifa Bandele, a policy leader with the Movement for Black Lives. “Data shows that with each expulsion or suspension, students are more likely to end up in the criminal justice system.” In addition to being disciplined at higher rates, Black students receive more severe punishments than their white peers for similar or even the same behavior, said Linda Morris, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Two States Where the GOP Is Taking on Ableist Language. Nevada is one of 16 states, including Colorado and Mississippi, that still officially use the word “insane” to refer to people with mental illness in their constitution. Washington was the first state to remove the word from its constitution via a ballot measure, in 1988. Ableist language in government also remains an issue at the national level, with a Senate bill being introduced this year to try and get a slur for people with intellectual disabilities out of the US Code. Nevada is not the only state where voters will decide whether to remove ableist language in November. A similar measure in North Dakota—like Nevada’s, introduced by a GOP legislator with unanimous bipartisan support—would update names such as “state hospital for the insane” with language like “for the care of individuals with mental illness.”

Modern parenting is so stressful that the U.S issued a health advisory. Parents say it's overdue. On Wednesday, the U.S. surgeon general issued a public health advisory about the impact of modern stresses on parents' mental health. Considering that previous surgeon general advisories have included the risks of gun violence, and smoking, the public is paying attention. In addition to the traditional challenges of parenting — like protecting children from harm and worrying about finances — there are new stressors that previous generations didn't have to consider, said Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. These include social media, the youth mental health crisis, and increased financial strain as the cost of some necessities, like child care, have boomed, he said.

Young girls are using anti-aging products they see on social media. The harm is more than skin deep. Scarlett’s experience has become common, experts say, as preteen girls around the country throng beauty stores to buy high-end skin care products, a trend captured in viral videos with the hashtag #SephoraKids. Girls as young as 8 are turning up at dermatologists’ offices with rashes, chemical burns and other allergic reactions to products not intended for children’s sensitive skin.

Simple blood test could predict a person’s heart disease risk 30 years out, study finds. Ridker and his team found that in addition to LDL cholesterol, two other markers — a type of fat in the blood called lipoprotein (a), or Lp(a), and an indicator of inflammation — are important predictors of a person's risk of heart attack, stroke and coronary heart disease.

These monkeys use names to communicate with each other, study finds. 

Marmosets can communicate with one another by name and know when they are being addressed, joining a very short list of species exhibiting such behavior, and a first for non-human primates, a new study has found. The monkeys use specific calls, known as “phee-calls,” to call each other, which scientists say is a “high cognitive” behavior pattern only previously observed in humans, dolphins and elephants.

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

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

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

And another day of full on fascism, renewed charges, TN Republicans blackmail Memphis, abusing the pardon power, rising heat-related deaths, the rising sea, cell phones, HPV, HS football deaths, microplastics in your brain, and Star Wars comes to a close:

“The idea is all people are equal.” -- George Lucas

Trump Goes Full Fascist in Truth Social Posting Spree. Usually the best indicator of Donald Trump’s mental state at any given time is the tone and frequency of his social media posts. On Wednesday — in the aftermath of a new election-interference indictment from Special Counsel Jack Smith — the former president seemingly spent the morning scrolling through his Truth Social comments and “re-truthing” all manner of conspiratorial, sexist, and fascist content. Trump posted dozens of memes and comments from accounts promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory, false claims about the 2020 election, sexist attacks against Kamala Harris, and the use of authoritarian tactics against his political enemies...Trump boosted several posts and comments calling for prominent Democrats to be imprisoned.  One such post featured the image of former President Barack Obama with the caption “All roads lead to Obama. Retruth if you want public military tribunals.” Another post on the former president’s feed shows Harris, Hillary Clinton, President Joe Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, and Hunter Biden in orange prison jumpsuits. The image text reads “How to actually ‘fix the system.’” Trump has publicly indicated that if reelected, he would use his office to exact revenge on  Biden and other prominent political figures. Last year, after being charged with offenses related to his mishandling of classified documents, Trump vowed to appoint a “real special prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden. And the entire Biden crime family.”...A senior Trump campaign official tells Rolling Stone that they are consistently relieved, for the sake of their 2024 campaign, that the former president’s main social-media home is now Truth Social, if only because it limits the public reach and media attention that these kinds of posts receive, as Trump is trying to appeal to moderate and swing voters in the final months of the election. — So share this wide so those moderates and swing voters know what Trump is promoting and what he plans to do if put back in the White House. Vote Blue, and relegate this motherfucker to the dustbin of history.

Trump shares social media posts with QAnon phrases and calls for jailing lawmakers, special counsel. Trump reposted a doctored image that was made to look like President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in orange prison jumpsuits, among other political figures, and a lewd post about Harris and Clinton that referenced a sex act. One post seemed to suggest former President Barack Obama should be tried in a military court. Trump has long talked about seeking retribution against perceived enemies if he wins a second term. — It’s very important we all see what Trump is doing, and then understand what he will do if put back in office.

Donald Trump said he will fire America’s leading Generals and replace them with MAGA Generals. This is what fascism looks like.

Trump’s January 6 Charges Have Been Renewed—Despite His “Absolute Immunity”. Trump is still charged with conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, obstructing an official proceeding, and conspiring to deprive people of their civil rights. The charges relate to Trump’s bid to retain power after his 2020 election defeat. But the new 36-page indictment drops a section that detailed Trump’s efforts to pressure the Justice Department to support his false claims of election fraud. It also no longer cites an unnamed official—who was easily identified as Jeffrey Clark, a former Trump loyalist in the Justice Department—among unindicted co-conspirators who assisted with Trump’s plot. The superseding indictment also still includes allegations that Trump attempted to pressure then–Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to carry out his ceremonial role in certifying the electoral vote count. That section remains even though Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the court’s immunity ruling that Trump’s interactions with Pence were official conduct for which “Trump is at least presumptively immune from prosecution.” Roberts, with little specificity, said the government would have to rebut “that presumption of immunity.”

More than 200 former Bush, McCain and Romney staffers endorse Harris. "Of course, we have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz. That’s to be expected," they wrote. "The alternative, however, is simply untenable.”

Tennessee Republicans tell Memphis to abandon gun reform or risk funding cuts. Republican leaders in the Tennessee House and Senate warned Memphis officials on Monday that if the city puts gun reform on the ballot this November, the state will withhold the city’s sales tax revenue. — a.k.a. Blackmail. Republicans only want their way of life to be followed, and they are doing their damndest to impose that life on those who want to live differently.

Trump abused the pardon power and promises to do so again. First, Trump may be the only candidate in American presidential history to be running on the promise of amnesty for criminals. He has floated pardoning the over 1,400 rioters who wound up criminally charged for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Trump has called them “Great Patriots.” A fundraiser at Trump’s New Jersey golf club is scheduled for next week to pay their legal fees. Second, Trump is the first former president to face criminal charges and a criminal conviction himself — and thus the first to raise the specter of a presidential self-pardon that would evade and obstruct the rule of law. In June, the Supreme Court condoned criminal self-dealing for presidents by manufacturing immunity for crimes committed using official executive power. Coupled with pardons for co-conspirators willing to carry out a president’s criminal orders, that ruling virtually invites an unaccountable criminal network into the Oval Office — again, largely thanks to Trump. Third, Trump stands out among presidents for the numbers of pardons and commutations he gave to some pretty reprehensible people — including friends, politically connected allies, corrupt politicians and people whose silence unmistakably benefits him.

Trump’s businesses are raking in millions of dollars from Republican political campaigns – including his own. Between his three presidential campaigns, Trump and associated political groups have funneled more than $28 million in campaign donations to his businesses – helping convert the enthusiasm of his political supporters into personal profit.

Judge in Texas orders pause on Biden program that offers legal status to spouses of US citizens. A federal judge in Texas on Monday paused a Biden administration policy that would give spouses of U.S. citizens legal status without having to first leave the country, dealing at least a temporary setback to one of the biggest presidential actions to ease a path to citizenship in years. The administrative stay issued by U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker comes just days after 16 states, led by Republican attorneys general, challenged the program that could benefit an estimated 500,000 immigrants in the country, plus about 50,000 of their children. The states accused the administration of bypassing Congress for “blatant political purposes.”

Heat-related deaths spiked 117% in the US since 1999. Using data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers found the annual number of deaths varied from year to year before 2016, with spikes in 2006 and 2011. But after 2016, the study found a steady increase. On average, heat-related deaths decreased by 1.4% from 1999 to 2016, then increased by 16.8% each year from 2016 to 2023. The authors say heat-related deaths are probably undercounted.

The worldwide catastrophe of rising seas especially imperils Pacific paradises, Guterres says. Sea levels are rising faster in the western tropical Pacific because of where the melting ice from western Antarctica heads, warmer waters and ocean currents, UN officials said...Guterres is amping up his rhetoric on what he calls “climate chaos” and urged richer nations to step up efforts to reduce carbon emissions, end fossil fuel use and help poorer nations. Yet countries’ energy plans show them producing double the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than the amount that would limit warming to internationally agreed upon levels, a 2023 UN report found.

Canada imposes a 100% tariff on imports of Chinese-made electric vehicles, matching the US. Canada announced Monday it is launching a 100% tariff on imports of Chinese-made electric vehicles, matching U.S. tariffs imposed over what Western governments say are China’s subsidies that give its industry an unfair advantage.

Schools are competing with cell phones. Here’s how they think they could win. In some ways, it’s as if students “just care less and less about what people think, but also somehow care more,” said Isabella, 14. Some teens, she said, no longer care about appearing disengaged, while others are so afraid of ridicule they keep to themselves. She blames social media and the lingering isolation of the post-COVID era. Educators say their tried and true lesson plans are no longer enough to keep students engaged at a time of struggling mental health, shortened attention spans, reduced attendance and worsening academic performance. At the crux of these challenges? Addiction to cell phones. Now, adults are trying new strategies to reverse the malaise.

Some types of HPV may affect men's fertility, new study suggests. A new study from Argentinian researchers has found that the strains of HPV considered high risk because of their links to cancer were not only more common than low-risk strains in a small study population of men, they also appeared to pose a greater threat to sperm quality. The study, published Friday in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, found that high-risk HPV appears to suppress key components of the immune system in the male genital tract. This could hamper the body’s ability to clear HPV, a process that typically takes about six months to a year after infection, while raising the risk of other infections that may also compromise male fertility...The CDC recommends routine HPV vaccination for all boys and girls at 11 or 12 years old — children can receive it at as young as age 9 — and for those through age 26 who were not previously fully vaccinated. Experts consider the vaccine exceptionally safe.

Alabama high school football player dies of brain injury sustained during game. Tellier's death is the latest in a string of deaths involving high school football players. A West Texas high school player also died from a head injury in 2022, while a student died during football practice in Florida in 2021 and a 15-year-old boy died after collapsing during practice in Georgia the same year.

A West Virginia boy died after a collision during football practice. It’s the third student football player death this month. Their deaths highlight the risks of the America’s most popular sport as the country enters Labor Day weekend and football season. — Stop playing and watching football.

Nearly .05% of Your Brain Is Likely Microplastic, Brain Samples Reveal. In a new paper, scientists report that brain samples taken from cadavers had an average of 0.48% of their weight made up of microplastics, meaning pieces of plastic that are smaller than 5 millimeters. The study has yet to undergo peer review; it’s hosted online as a preprint on the National Library of Medicine website...The researchers noted that the rise in microplastics over time aligns with a global increase in the rates of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia conditions. “I don’t know how much more plastic our brain can stuff in without it causing some problems,” Campen said.

A stark social divide: Adults without a college degree more likely to have no close friends, survey finds. Nearly all U.S. adults used to have close friends. In 1990, the share of the population that said they didn’t was low and roughly the same no matter one’s education level: just 2% for people with college degrees and 3% for those without. But a recent survey suggests that share has risen overall, particularly among those who did not graduate college — creating a kind of class divide in people’s level of social engagement and connection. Nearly a quarter of U.S. adults with a high school diploma or lower education level said they had no close friends. The number was even higher for Black adults in that group: 35%. Just 10% of those with a college degree said the same.

People Who Are More Flexible Tend to Live Longer, Study Finds. After accounting for other factors like body mass index or age, less flexible men were nearly twice as likely to die than highly flexible men, while less flexible women were almost five times as likely to die than highly flexible women...This type of research can only show a correlation between being flexible and a longer lifespan, not a direct cause-and-effect relationship. But plenty of other studies have found that exercise in general can extend and improve the quality of our later years of life.

Police officers are starting to use AI chatbots to write crime reports. Will they hold up in court? Oklahoma City’s police department is one of a handful to experiment with AI chatbots to produce the first drafts of incident reports. Police officers who’ve tried it are enthused about the time-saving technology, while some prosecutors, police watchdogs and legal scholars have concerns about how it could alter a fundamental document in the criminal justice system that plays a role in who gets prosecuted or imprisoned.

Can the Best of Star Wars Survive the Worst of Its Fans? But like most popular culture, the Star Wars fandom, especially online, has become inundated with loud, conservative, and in some cases, incredibly racist voices. While Disney has never said these voices are directly impacting what shows get made, the vocal minority of Star Wars devotees keep limiting what they’ll accept as true Star Wars. These fans say they’re fighting for Star Wars’ future. But if their endless fantasy world can’t accept any stories that they don’t recognize — some of the self-professed biggest fans in all the worlds could be closing themselves off to any future at all. What is crystal (kyber?) clear is that before Star Wars can have another successful show, the loudest voices online need to realize the Star Wars they want to return to never existed in the first place. Will the real Star Wars please stand up? -- The Star Wars universe deserves better than these racist and misogynistic “fans.” Click the link and see what George Lucas has to say.

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

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